Smart cities- the phrase strikes a futuristic image in your mind from the word go. Surely, the world will be composed of such smart cities and you will be living in such an apartment at that time. However, the difficult bit is to find a governance solution where a networked municipal system would emerge that could take charge of the situation. Such a thing is difficult to come by because such a system has not been developed completely as of now. While effort has been there from various cities and countries, the homogeneity is still developing.
What is a smart city?
Before the hubbub starts, you must know what is a smart city? A smart city is, to put it simply, a dot in the huge network in a state where all the cities have similar kind of governance and management systems with homogeneous transport, budget and citizen requirements. In short, it is an attempt to bind everyone in a single thread. However, this is surely a huge challenge precisely because development is never a homogenous quantity. It is an abstract idea which varies across places and you cannot pinpoint a specific site where a specific kind of development holds true.
What are the difficulties?
Of course, cities need citizens and hence, the basic questions becomes, who will be staying at the smart cities. The citizens need to be extremely technology-friendly since smart cities will heavily rely on them. However, there exists no such city in the world where there is only one kind of people with only one kind of buildings and one kind of lifestyle. This s a challenge beyond doubt. Moreover, trying to make a city user-friendly requires a humongous challenge since you never know where to start. Each city has its own set of problems which can never addressed in a singular way.
Starting with heterogeneity
Understanding the gravity of the situation, a change of plans has been addressed where each city is being given different levels of attention so that they can attain a certain level of quality. Each city addresses a given set of problems and hence, they need special attention. For example, cities with huge transportation problems will always be treated differently from cities that have governance issues. In fact, computers are aiding in the process of decision making so that huge amount of time and energy is saved in this process of decision making.
A network of technology
It is not just cities, but buildings and cars are also going to become smart. Automated cars, self-controlling buildings are some of the fictions that have become realities as of now. The cities, when connected through this network, can easily generate useful data for all the automated vehicles which will allow the vehicles to move through safe and clear areas. However, technology has not advanced enough to ensure perfect traffic data to be fed into the system. In fact, some startups are focusing on smart cities and their connected problems. They are looking to solve them through cutting-edge technology.