How green and smart a city is can be decided by certain parameters. These parameters are modern urban planning, environmental initiatives, infrastructure with advanced technology, and the accessibility of IoT-controlled resources for people living and working in the city.
Smart cities for a green future use technology to enhance efficiency and enrich growth while keeping environmental well-being under consideration. These cities are already developing globally, and they are inevitable to attain a convenient, economical, and more sustainable future.
In other words, Smart green cities are collaborative hubs connecting industry, government, researchers, and community to create sustainable urban environments by using objective problem-solving. These cities foster the preservation of the natural world besides social inclusiveness, economic development, and wellness.
Migrants significantly contribute to the economies of cities. But, the rising populations pose issues of congestion, resource distribution, and high pressure on waste management infrastructure, education, and healthcare. By the year 2050, it is projected that 70% of the world’s population will inhabit cities which makes the theory of Sustainable Cities an efficient approach to the rising population.
What does a Future Green City mean?
The goal of a future green city or sustainable city is to address the economic, social, and environmental impacts on a city using in-depth urban management planning. The corresponding planning must cover steps that help decrease air pollution and CO2 emissions and preserve the natural environment by improving air quality.
There are certain effective ways through which cities can become sustainable. These include a city with solar-powered buildings, more cyclists than cars, and green spaces like rooftop gardens. Smart green cities consider these approaches to establish an ideal ecosystem.
A future green city’s design needs a multi-disciplinary approach. The reason is every city’s nature varies based on their sizes, scale, population density, and other parameters. In this regard, the key dimensions to be focused on are the use of economic structures, encouragement of economic growth, mitigation of poverty, protection of the environment, and provision of social services.
Significance of building smart cities for a green future:
With the increasing population in the cities, we encounter challenges from several forces. The force that influences people the most is climatic change. This can be remarkably perceived with rising temperatures each year, decreasing greenery, deteriorating air quality, constrained resources due to the increasing number of vehicles on the road, etc.
The most common purpose behind developing sustainable cities include the desire to live in a safer, quieter, cleaner, accessible, and healthier environment. This kind of ideal city would encounter reduced noise and air pollution, robust harmony in the community, economical public transportation systems to reduce the usage of cars, and first-class sanitation and sewer systems to prioritise healthcare. A sustainable city examines the city’s infrastructure and ecosystem comprehensively.
Ways in which smart cities help people fulfil sustainability goals
Smart cities can diminish the requirement for manual work in several areas besides trash. Using the collected data, they can enhance processes and concentrate manual work where it’s required the most.
Apart from enhancing sustainability using resources and labour, smart cities can offer real-time data to ensure safety and decent quality of life for people. For example, an emergency response system can inform you about accidents or bad weather. Another example is the use of imaging and sensors that can inform you when something in an infrastructure requires maintenance.
How to establish a smart city for a green future?
In order to achieve the dream of establishing a successful smart city for a green future, several aspects must be taken into account and worked upon with utmost diligence. These may include,
Reformed Economics
Finance departments must implement a strategy to make a powerful case for the investments done for sustainability.
Networking
The officials of the administration department need to travel to various cities and discuss their procedures to implement some cutting-edge techniques.
Reducing air pollution
Encouraging cycling and walking not only helps decrease air pollution but also saves resources and ensures good health.
Prepare the room for nature
Sufficient areas must be allocated to create natural and semi-natural spaces. The purpose is to enhance the air quality, biodiversity, and well-being and control pollution.
Digital Solutions
The contemporary developments in the areas of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), robots, digital twins, and smart grids and meters are facilitating the development of smart, sustainable cities globally. The following section discusses the briefs of some of these solutions.
Robotics: Smart cities can utilise robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in cities to provide the delivery of services in domains like healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, surveillance, construction, etc.
AI: AI allows huge data sets to be computationally analysed to demonstrate patterns. These patterns can be used to improve municipal decision-making, leading to more data-driven insights to take valuable actions.
Smart grids: These refer to electricity supply networks that utilise digital communication technology to discover and react to local changes in electricity consumption. Implementing smart grids in smart green cities can significantly assist in optimising energy usage.
Conclusion
If cities around the globe share their opinions, goals, and aspirations, then it becomes easier to resolve the challenges impeding them from becoming smart green cities. To reach closer to a green future, Smart Cities will be inevitable to manage the environmental, social, and economic effects of urbanisation.
The most sought-after dream of establishing a smart city towards a green future can only be possible with the help of experienced industry professionals with an expansive knowledge of emerging technologies and their utility to create sustainable products. If you’re someone who hopes to contribute to this dream of achieving sustainability for future generations, comprehensive courses on Emerging Technologies from Eduonix can be the best way to kickstart your journey!
