When the concept of ‘smart cities’ properly emerged back in the 1990s, the image that many had of the city of the future was most likely to be something akin to a futuristic panorama of gleaming skyscrapers, where billboards automatically change as you walk by to reflect the products you’ll be most interested in buying, while robotic transport and delivery vehicles zip by.

While these technological innovations have become a reality and are beginning to be adopted in some locations, many of the cities classified as ‘smart’ today are actually ones we’re already familiar with as they’ve existed for decades or even centuries. They’ve now just been underpinned by complex networks that gather and share data both to ease an individual’s journey through a city and to help tackle many of the pressing issues facing us today – namely the climate crisis and wellbeing.

Take Shanghai, for instance: around a 1,000 years old, the ‘Smart Shanghai – People-Oriented Smart City plan’ has developed digital infrastructure, e-government services and a City Brain – AI that uses data to solve transport, security, construction and urban planning issues.

However, as technology has advanced, proposals have emerged to build new smart cities or districts from scratch: in countries where large amounts of space remains undeveloped you’re not hamstrung by trying to embed new technology among old infrastructure or buildings, or challenged with trying to impose new ways of doing things on old habits. While there is an environmental impact to consider here, starting afresh could provide an opportunity to use the best performing materials, integrate the most energy efficient technology and incorporate low carbon forms of public transport from the outset, rather trying to retrofit them into an existing city.

Egypt’s almost complete New Administrative Capital (pictured) to the east of Cairo will  become home to almost seven million people and house the country’s financial services industry and main government departments in a cleaner, less congested environment than Cairo, thanks to its traffic management and smart parking systems which will monitor and adjust flows through a smart infrastructure system.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, there are currently multiple new cities and districts in the planning stages, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia probably leading the race with the announcement and launch of several projects that will be built in the next decade, each aiming to be a base for more than two million people. The objective of these cities is to redefine the way people live, commute and work.

The developers of Hudson Yards in New York – the largest private real estate development in US history, created a microgrid – a self-sufficient energy system independent from the main grid. Related Companies and Oxford Properties are supplying heat and power at Eastern Rail Yards from one energy source, known as a cogeneration plant, which is 50 to 70 per cent more efficient than single-generation facilities. If the power fails, the system has breakers that will open to isolate Hudson Yards from the rest of the grid, delivering power directly to the buildings. It can also manage fluctuating energy demands: diverting energy to residential buildings in the morning and evening, office buildings when usage peaks in the afternoon, and evening, and retail and cultural facilities over busy weekends.

Some of these smart buildings, cities and districts may well look more akin to the visions of the future outlined above. But whether it’s ‘old’ smart city or a ‘new’ one, utilising technological innovation in a sympathetic, measured way to address historic problems associated with the urban environment will put cities in a good position to face the future. 

Further information

Contact Eri Mitsostergiou or Swapnil Pillai

Six innovations in smart city technology