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City Thinking: What it Means to be a Smart City
What makes a city smart?
Having access to real-time data and information technology is important, but not enough. Being a ‘Smart City’ is about how technology is used – can it improve infrastructure? Can it raise the quality of life for citizens?
The best smart cities are future-focused and make decisions beyond what works today.
Bristol, for example, has earned its place as one of the world’s ‘smartest cities’ precisely for this reason. Thinking innovatively about the city set-up has helped attract bright and interested people and businesses – creating a pool of talent for any prospective employers. It is ambitious in its thinking and goals: it aims to attract partners to deliver up to £1 billion of low carbon energy infrastructure investment over the next ten years – and is open to partnerships.
The city is set up to be a hub for engineering and technological innovation – and is itself an example of best practice in city design. Sensors have been placed at key locations throughout the city and in participants’
GPS devices, allowing data to be collected and then used to inform strategic decisions on energy, traffic and pollution. As a result, the city has attracted and developed expertise in smart energy, data and mobility. One example is TMSUK UK – a Japanese robotics company that chose Bristol as its UK home. The organisation is a leading figure in the nascent robotics industry, working to design innovative machines that will benefit people’s lives.
However, Bristol is far from the UK’s only smart city. Glasgow, for example, is pioneering smart grid technologies to monitor pollution, while Manchester’s city council has invested over £16 million in CityVerve, with the project including community wellness initiatives, air quality monitoring, a cycling safety scheme, and a talkative bus system.
What’s more, smart cities development can be an active part of developing sustainable infrastructure. Carbon neutrality is a genuine aim for many cities; Bristol and Manchester are among the cities that have set the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 – with smart technology playing a key role.
Becoming a successful smart city is not simply about installing a 30 gigabit per second fibre broadband network or other new technologies – it’s done by creating an environment where technology and entrepreneurship can be united in a way that benefits citizens.
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