By: David Jenkins
When we read about smart cities, very often it is about a greenfields development where all the infrastructure is to be created from scratch.
To cite some examples, Saudi Arabia is developing Neom, which includes the 170 kilometre linear city – called the Line – with no cars, streets or carbon emissions.
Indonesia and Egypt are both building new capital cities, while in the developed world Microsoft founder Bill Gates is backing a planned smart city outside Phoenix, Arizona, with 80,000 homes.
It may not be intentional, but the impression which is often left from these reports is that to be smart, urban infrastructure projects must be new, and almost the stuff of science fiction.
The reality, however, is very different and many of the world’s oldest and most established cities are also investing in smart city projects as they transform for the 21st century.
Europe has been a leader in the smart city movement, and yet it is home to some of the oldest and most historically significant cities on the planet.
The features which make new cities smart equally apply to established ones. Digital technology is enhancing and redefining urban amenity, and cities are becoming increasingly connected with common goals to be more sustainable.
Berlin, for example, was recently ranked as Europe’s leading smart city by Juniper Research, largely because of the effectiveness and widespread takeup of an innovative Mobility as a Service app. Also in the top five was Rome, one of the oldest cities in the world.
The Juniper report shows how digital infrastructure which is well conceived and people centric can be implemented in any urban environment, while sensitively implemented retrofitting can deliver smart outcomes while retaining the cultural and historical significance.
Some features and technologies might be common, but it is also a reminder that there’s no one template for a smart city, and that each one needs to individually adapt to its physical environment and its community.
The UK has among the world’s oldest housing stock and some of Europe’s most important heritage buildings, but rather than being spoiled by retrofitting some of these buildings will see their utility significantly extended.
According to a report commissioned this year by the UK National Trust, Historic England and property organisations, retrofitting historical buildings – from Georgian townhouses to mills and factories that were at the heart of the industrial revolution – could generate GBP35 billion of economic output a year, create more than 100,000 jobs and help achieve net zero goals.
Meanwhile, ploughing headlong into building new greenfield technologies and buildings may create some risk.
These are big bets to make, and it is possible that a building or a piece of infrastructure which seems state of the art today might no longer be fit for purpose in ten years or so.
All of this points to the need for a long term approach to smart city infrastructure, and an understanding that the transformation journey needs to begin with a clear and agreed destination as the focus.
What must be avoided is overcommitting to infrastructure which may seem state of the art when new, but which will rapidly deteriorate in utility as the world changes.
For many of these projects financial sustainability is also critical. Africa, for example, has a large number of smart city zones under development such as Kenya’s Technopolis and Hope City in Ghana.
With many of these nations battling debt crises, it should be asked if these grand plans will deliver the desired benefits to developing African economies.
Smart is not just about technology and new buildings, the smart approach is configure our urban environments so we can enjoy economic growth in a world of fiscal constraint.
This is not to say that we shouldn’t be bold and innovative, but a mindset which takes a holistic view of these issues also factors in a broad range of stakeholders and influences, such as governance, investment priorities, demographics, accessibility and amenity.
This will help us create cities which are not only smart, but sustainable over the long term.
