Sistema y Gestión de Telecomunicaciones

Smart Cities - A Roadmap for Development

Abstract

Musa S

Ever since the industrial revolution, humans have been urbanizing at an exponential rate. There are 100s of thousands of new dwellings are being built every day. As of 2015, there is about 52% of the world population living in cities. Every week, there are at least a million new people moving into cities, worldwide. By 2050, the United Nations (UN) is expecting that 6 billion people will be living in cities; furthermore, cities consume about 70% of the global energy use; as a result, the strain on resources and the magnitude of challenges that cities face is phenomenal. It is imperative to develop solutions that improve the liveability of cities while vividly reducing resource consumption. There is a need for a city-wide smart, secure, and resilient transformation. Technological transformation is one option that governments can rely on to mitigate many of the risks and challenges they are facing. Local governments in general and the Chief Information Officers (CIO) in particular, have many objectives to achieve successful electronic government, such as studying the community, engaging the residents, allowing access to high-speed Internet, and adopting an open government philosophy. In short, government officials must develop a road map for building smart cities, in order to leverage and integrate technologies to create real economic opportunities and save lives.