Are We Ready for Smart Cities?

A smart city is a developed urban area using ‘digital technology to enhance performance and well-being, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens.’ These smart cities will greatly increase the efficiency of the infrastructures and services the local governments provide to its citizens – with less cost as well.

Smart cities will not only benefit the inhabitants, bringing maximized life quality with interconnection through technology, but also lessen our dependence on natural resources. Natural resources have been declining at a rapid rate – smart cities will lessen the burden on the earth, allowing us to be independent of fossil fuels. To build these smart cities, we need to use smart technologies

Smart cities run on the premise of sustainability, using natural and technological resources to efficiently and optimally operate a city. An article by Neil Cameron, General Manager of Johnson Controls and Building Efficiency says that ‘as the global urbanization trend picks up, smart cities are emerging’. He went on to speculate that in South Africa, smart cities aren’t a far-off dream, but a reality that could be seen in the next ‘three to five years’.

Cameron continues by stating that before we build smart cities, we need to build the smart buildings that will one day encompass them.   Here is the short article that will get you thinking about construction innovation in a different light. http://goo.gl/I0cMFq