From villages to cities, from cities to smart cities. Our current needs are completely different from what they used to be during times when the first cities were being created. Cities cover around 2% of Earth, yet over 50% of population lives in the cities. Water, supply of food, clean air, excessive population and misused cities’ energy are one of the most important factors that will be driving the future of the places we will live in. What could the cities of tomorrow look like?
How the cities were being created
If we took a step back to the beginner of Ubaid Period around 5300 BCE, the needs of human were mainly to farm and protect themselves from barbarians. Farming required a lot of skills in order to be successful at it. The food produced needed to be collected and prepared to be eaten. It needed also to be stored to ensure long term supply. Buildings needed to be built and maintained. Additional stock needed to be promoted and sold. Farmer needed to be also a warrior to fight off the barbarians. A lot of skills like for a man, would you agree?
Villages allowed people to have a better protection against the barbarians but it was also a place where the required skills by farmers could be provided by the people close by, not just the family members, but professional carpeteners, potters, millers, thatchers, shepards and so on. It was an environment destined for growth.
As the villages grew, they required a supply of food, water and services for an increasing number of people. It gave a birth to cities, which had everything you needed to have that good life you dreamt about. However, nobody anticipated how quickly they could grow. How can you plan city architecture for 4k people if you didn’t know they would grow to 2.2 million over 70 years like Chicago did between 1840 and 1910. London grew from 1 million to 6.8 million in around 100 years from 1800. What used to work for a few, doesn’t need to work for millions. The environment and the energy crisis were inevitable. A lot of our problems stem from our lifestyles.
The most advanced new cities in the world
As cities cannot evolve easily, pilot cities are being created in South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. They require billions of dollars to be built and the private sector is heavily involved in building them from the ground up.
One of the most advanced smart city in the world is Songdo, South Korea. The main goals of Songdo, as probably any other smart city, are to have a better environment, improved quality of life and to reduce CO2 levels, which are higher today that they’ve been over past 2.5 million years. The location is also well chosen, close to the Incheon International Airport, you can reach over 1.5 billion people within 3 hours from the airport.
King Abullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia, will be another smart city that will be fully connected. The $100 billion investment will have minimized commute time and great energy utilization. There is so little water in Saudi Arabia that water management is one the key points to have a sustainable city.
Similarly, Tianjin Eco-City in China, is another example of a new eco friendly city that is being built from scratch. Tianjin is aiming to provide 12m2 of green space per person.
How Smart Cities will be managed?
Green and hyperconnected cities are the future of our accommodation. The smart cities will not look very differently to what we know them today, but they will be managed in a completely different way. Data sensors will be continually collecting information on the city’s flows of energy, water and traffic for ongoing optimisation. The better we understand our cities, the more effective way of managing them we will have.
One of the challenges with the current cities is food supply. It is usually being produced outside of the city and is being constantly supplied to stores inside the cities. Petrol and the time is wasted and the food easily go bad during transport further contributing to the problem. Vertical Farming is a new concept that would allow the food to be produced in high buildings using the sun’s energy inside the cities so the constant supply of fresh food would be easily available to the area it’s covering.
Solar roofs connected to batteries will provide us with electricity supply and storage. Excess of energy you will be able to resell to your neighbours. However, as the world becomes more independent of fossil fuels our electricity needs will increase and power plants would still be required. They will run on liquified natural gas(LNG) rather than standard fossil fuels, as it has the lowest levels of CO2 emissions, even 45% less than burning coal. This is exactly what Songdo did to meet it’s electricity demand.
Each house in Songdo comes with smart meters so you understand how much energy you are using and how it compares to your neighbours.There are even monthly competitions on ideas how to reduce the consumption. Knowing if you overspend may lead you to better choices and more environment friendly way of living.
One third of the water resources is wasted through pipes. The pipes will be supplied with sensors to address any leakage before it does a bigger damage. Waste water recycling is another important aspect that is being explored by Tianjin Eco-City in China. Aquatic plants are being used to eliminate micro pollutants that can be formed in recycled water. As plants grow, they consume particles of nitrogen and phosphorous. Water that flows through this gravel filters, settles and exchanges ions. It also saves grate deal of energy as it’s using no energy at all.
Traffic and flow management will be further improved as the traffic lights and drivers are more connected. Songdo directs traffic automatically based on traffic condition in different parts of the town. Real-time data is being analyzed by central computer system that is the brain of the city. In case of an accident, the information is shared through drivers smartphones and traffic signs.
All parts of the city will be monitored 24/7 by thousands of interconnected cameras providing both video and sound. All of this in order to improve our protection. This obviously raises some concerns.
How the UK compares
CityVerve, a Manchester’s led project, attempts to use Internet of Things(IoT) to redesign the way we live. It’s one of the biggest initiatives in the UK in the more connected and eco friendly direction.
UK is slowly but surely moving into the right directions. Fast food free and elderly friendly zones could be soon reality in the UK as 10 towns, stretching from Devon to Darlington, were recently selected to address obesity and dementia problems. They will serve as a pilot which will be followed by bigger cities.
If you are interested in Smart Cities, I encourage you to visit London on 1st and 2nd February to attend Smart Cities UK 2017 Conference, where the main topic will be about shaping the future of UK Towns and Cities.
Are you looking forward to smart cities of tomorrow? Let me know in the comments below.