The Role of Innovation in Smart City Developments

Photo by İltun Huseynli on Unsplash

As smart cities around the world continue to develop and improve year on year, we all understand by now the role that innovation plays in their day-to-day functioning. By adopting smart technologies and incorporating them into different segments across the planning board, these urban sectors get more and more efficient.

Let’s take a closer look at some leading examples. In the Chinese city of Hangzhou, an AI-based smart technology called “City Brain” has helped reduce traffic jams by 15%. In Nevada cities, Waycare’s predictive AI delivers an 18% reduction in primary crashes and a 43% reduction in the percentage of speeding drivers along key corridors. In San Diego, more mobile apps have been developed with a citizen-centric focus in mind, while during the pandemic, in New York City, data showing spending patterns in specific neighbourhoods was used to improve investment priorities.

These are just a few examples of how a city, by adequately processing data about different factors, can better understand what resources to further develop, significantly improving the efficiency of its budgets and, ultimately, its results.

Another stand-out example to showcase is how tech can help rebuild war-torn regions, such as Azerbaijan. Conflict-hit regions of Azerbaijan are undergoing extensive reconstruction and revitalisation, with plans for green, digitally-connected smart cities offering a better way of life to its citizens. This initiative also focuses on building new communities that can become appealing for those looking to return, including a pilot project that will see a number of 'smart villages' built in the Zangilan region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Here, more than 200 houses will be built using innovative building materials, such as recycled steel and precast concrete, and connected to smart electricity, gas and waste management utilities.

What I’ve observed over the last decade is how, increasingly, technologies are insightfully being developed to accommodate a more diverse range of human needs. This human-centred approach is what transforms a simple smart city into one that can successfully achieve its purpose. From smart transportation, to civic and sustainability initiatives and so on, we’ve now developed a sense of expectations on how a city of the present and future should look like. It’s exactly that principle of interconnecting a smart city with its citizens, creating urban systems that will work in the long run.