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Smart Cities:
How smart are our cities anyway?
Dan Chupek
Every city wants to present itself as a smart city.
Understandable because the word is reminiscent of
innovative technology, progress and sustainability.
Yet some realism is in place. Our cities are in fact not
nearly as smart as we want.
The concept of smart cities is very promising. New
technology, digital applications and Internet-
connecteddevices transformthewaywe liveand travel.
Billions of sensors continuously collect data about our
homes, roads and hospitals. With this information
we can prevent all kinds of urban problems. Traffic
congestion, pollution and waste of energy, therefore
belong in the city of the future to the past. This all
sounds wonderful, but how feasible is this utopia?
Definition of Smart City
We put this question to John Stokoe, smart city expert at Dassault Systèmes.
Stokoe shares the enthusiasm, but also thinks we should be realistic
about smart cities. According to him, the term is often incorrectly used.
"There are misunderstandings
about the definition of a smart
city," he begins. "The cities in the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom
and the Scandinavian countries I
have studied, all are going more or
less into the same direction. They
choose a small part of the city and
create a smart hub out of that.
"With smart they mean usually
that they put sensors to measure
activity," the expert explains.
"For example at traffic lights and
along roads to prevent traffic jams
and other traffic suffering. Or in
buildings, so no energy is wasted if
no one is in a room. Also installing
many cities security cameras to
observe and monitor problem areas
e.g. for crime or fires at an early
stage. That's all very clever. But this
makes a city in my eyes not really
smart."
28 l New-Tech Magazine Europe