December 20178 In MY ViewBy 2050, two-thirds of humanity will live in urban areas. Smart City solutions will help all of us realize the potential and limit the downsides. Smart City solutions will need to address the four areas of sustainability, security, community, and efficiency. Speaking to a crowd of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden on his first U.S. visit, Pope Francis said, "Big cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world: in the diversity of its cultures, traditions and historical experiences. ... Big cities bring together all the different ways which we human beings have discovered to express the meaning of life, wherever we may be." Demographics back the Pontiff's concerns. Today, 54 per cent of the world's population lives in urban areas. By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people will be added to this number, bringing the proportion to 66 per cent. (United Nations July 2014). Building, organizing and providing infrastructures and services for the urbanized humanity will not be an easy task. Given that up to 90 percent of these new additions will be concentrated in emerging Asia and Africa, driving the right plans and solutions, both greenfield and brownfield, will be one of the key challenges facing all of us in the 21st Century. Technology has been seen to be a key part of the solution. In 2016, Gartner expects 1.6 billion devices to be connected up to larger smart city infrastructures. Correspondingly, the global smart city technology market is forecasted to be worth more than $27.5 billion annually by 2023 (Navigant Research 2014). This investment will only go up with the number of urban areas. THE 4 HORSEMEN OF SMART CITY SOLUTIONS- EFFICIENCY, SECURITY, SUSTAINABILITY, COMMUNITYEfficiency, security, sustainability, community Regardless of where a city is on the maturity cycle, there are four areas that all solutions need to address before it can be viable--security, sustainability, efficiency, (of services & infrastructures) and community (feedback and engagement). Joe Keen PoonBY JOE KEEN POON, GROUP CTO & MD (SMART CITY SOLUTIONS), SURBANA JURONG
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