| | OCTOBER 20209statistics, cities around the world contribute to 70% of the total global CO2 emission and are in dire need for a greener economy and sustain-able development goals. Smart cit-ies thus designed comes with smart energy, waste, water and mobility management solutions equipped with smart meters, facilitation centers, intelligent traffic manage-ment, water quality monitoring, recycling, citizen engagement ser-vices and many such solutions that can improve lives, infrastructure and the environment enabling local area development.The goal of an ideal smart city is to improve safety, time, health, environmental quality, social con-nectedness, civic participation, jobs and cost of living. According to a research conducted by McKinsey, smart cities could help save 15-30 mins of daily commute, reduce 30-40% of crime incidents, and en-hance the efficiency of the local government and healthcare sys-tem among various other things. Some of the different facets of Smart city include:Augmented LivingThe growing congestion in the cit-ies has made daily commute for normal city dwellers a misery but in a smart city, urban mobility is powered with smart mobility appli-cations that is equipped with Intelli-gent Traffic Management, Integrat-ed multi-modal transport, smart parking that are custom designed as per each cities existing transit infrastructure, road lines and com-mute patterns. These applications can ease road congestions; provide real-time traffic alerts and highlight vacant slots in a parking lot thereby, saving time, energy and resources.Digital platforms that encourag-es citizen engagement like Meetup and Nextdoor facilitatesinteractions between members of the local com-munity making them feel more engaged and encourage citizens to contribute more to the economy. These platforms can also act as a channel to raise concerns, share in-formation and so much more. They can also act as a job or skill pool that can motivate unemployed or talented people to come out. Smart cities are also well equipped with security applications that enhance citizen safety and en-sure reduced crime rates within the locality. Video crime monitoring and real-time crime reporting play a major role in these well planned cities to improve the lives of its citizens. Sustainable EnvironmentSmart cities are specifically built on achieving sustainability. With highly specific applications to man-age waste, water and energy, smart cities are not only sustainable but are also cost effective and healthy for its dwellers. It has specially de-signed facilities that can convert waste to energy, fuel or compost, recycle and reduce C&D waste and treat waste water. Tracking and regulating water consumption has become rather important in cities, with solutions like smart meters, leakage identifi-cation and preventive maintenance along with water quality moni-toring, smart cities are promising much more than just simple wa-ter saving solutions. It is estimat-ed that with the help of these dig-ital sensors for water management the water wastage can be reduced by over 25%.Energy management is another major step towards sustainable liv-ing. To achieve that smart cities are equipped with smart meter to track electricity consumption, renewable sources of energy as alternative en-ergy source along with energy effi-cient and green buildings. Air quality sensors can be de-ployed to identify sources and lev-els of airborne pollutants and the public can get real-time updates on the air quality and the protective measures to take over their smart phones. These measures are esti-mated to reduce 3-15% of the health risks caused due to air pollutionThe Deployment ParadoxSmart cities for all the planning and vision have indeed developed into a deployment paradox. Even the most advanced cities in the most de-veloped countries of the world have been able to achieve only one-third of the planned deployment of the technology required to complete a smart city. With cities like Amster-dam and Singapore lagging behind where do cities in Africa, India and LATAM stand? Technologically ad-vanced countries across the globe stand a greater chance at reaching the pinnacle first since, smart cities are all about sensors and connected devices, communication networks and open data portals. THE GOAL OF AN IDEAL SMART CITY IS TO IMPROVE SAFETY, TIME, HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS, CIVIC PARTICIPATION, JOBS AND COST OF LIVING
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