10 of the world’s smartest cities

September 23, 2014

Major global metropolitan areas are implementing a vast number of technology, energy, transportation, and Internet projects to make the metropolis a friendlier, greener, safer, and more sustainable place to be

It seems these days that everything is getting smarter, from your phone to your home to your car. Cities are no different, with major global metropolitan areas implementing a vast number of technology, energy, transportation, and Internet projects to make the metropolis a friendlier, greener, safer, and more sustainable place to be. Read on to look at some of the world’s smartest cities, and see what they’re doing to injentelligence into the urban environment

New York

Not to be outdone by its global counterparts, the US cultural capital of New York has been working on smart-city plans for a number of years, particularly with Internet and open-data plans to give residents more online access to city services and information. But perhaps its most ambitious smart-city project to date is the Hudson Yards project (artist’s concept pictured), a 28-acre commercial and residential area on Manhattan’s west side that will be a Utopia of green initiatives and Internet access once it’s finished in 2018. The project will digitally track environmental and lifestyle factors — such as foot traffic, energy consumption, and air quality — to provide an optimal quality of life for Hudson Yards residents and businesses. It will even include a trash-disposal system that will remove waste via underground pneumatic tubes rather than a typical truck-based service.

Amsterdam

One look at Amsterdam’s streets — which nearly all have designated bike paths and more bicycles and pedestrians than car traffic — shows how this city is one of Europe’s leaders in creating smart cities. Aside from its longtime promotion of bicycle commuting, the city also is working with leading technology companies like Cisco and IBM to implement a number of new technologies to create a more sustainable city. One example of this innovation is the Utrechtsestraat Climate street, an effort to make one of the city’s busiest commercial areas greener. The street (pictured) features shops with smart meters to reduce and monitor energy consumption; solar-powered waste bins with garbage compactors to reduce collection by electric-powered trucks; and sustainable street lighting, among other smart technologies.

Barcelona

The Spanish jewel of the Mediterranean, Barcelona also is a leader in smart-city projects, hosting a major annual forum for smart-city technology, the Smart City Expo World Congress. True to form, the city is working on efforts on a number of fronts especially to make Barcelona greener and more energy efficient. To promote the use of hybrid and electric vehicles, the city is deploying electric charging stations as well as using EVs in its own fleet, with more than 500 hybrid taxis and 294 public EVs in use. Smart energy meters, LED lampposts, and remote irrigation control for Barcelona’s numerous green spaces to avoid wasteful use of water are also among the city’s smart-city initiatives, the latter including the use of iPads by city workers to control park sprinkler systems.

Copenhagen

Denmark’s capital aims to become the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025. To support this goal, the city already is engaged in numerous smart-city endeavors, including an extensive city bike-rental system and efforts to promote cycling to improve residents’ health and reduce car traffic. As part of this system, there are digital counters around the city with tire pumps for bicyclists and displays that show stats about how many people are biking along a particular bike path daily and annually (pictured). Copenhagen also boasts one of the cleanest harbors in the world and has reduced its landfill waste to 1.8% of total waste from the city.

Hong Kong

It’s little surprise that China’s most sophisticated city is also one of the world’s smartest. Hong Kong has a tech-savvy population that takes advantage of some of the best Internet accessibility and highest Internet bandwidth in the world. Ninety-seven percent of households in the city can access broadband, and Hong Kong boasts 10,000 WiFi hotspots, one of the highest concentrations in the world. Other smart-city efforts include mass transit and healthcare, but the city hasn’t yet achieved intelligence in a number of key areas. To solve this problem, officials are working with a number of partners on the Wisecity Hong Kong Project to improve the city’s air quality, waste management, energy, and other issues that still need work to make the city smarter.

Tokyo

One of the world’s technology capitals, Tokyo is rapidly becoming a proving ground for a number of innovative companies to test out new smart-city strategies. Some of these efforts are due to necessity — the Fukushima nuclear disaster sent Japan into an energy crisis, with residents of Tokyo and other cities enduring rolling blackouts due to lack of nuclear power. To deploy smarter energy solutions, Japanese company Mitsui Fudosan is working on a program to control energy consumption through smart-grid solutions. The plan includes installing 2,500 Tokyo households with smart meters that will show electricity, gas, and water consumption in the home. Tokyo also soon will have a zero-carbon-status eco-village developed by Panasonic, the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (artist’s concept pictured). The concept aims to provide a model for how home automation, renewable energy, and other green technologies can provide a more sustainable and eco-friendly living environment of the future.

San Francisco

With its proximity to Silicon Valley and its concentration of Internet-oriented companies, it seems natural that San Francisco would be a global leader in smart-city projects. But providing residents with Internet connectivity with a number of free WiFi hotspots (including three miles of free WiFi along Market Street, its main downtown artery) is not the only area in which the Bay Area excels. The city is a global recycling leader, with a mandate that all residents separate their garbage into recycling, compostable, and landfill waste. San Francisco also is promoting the use of hybrid and electric vehicles by providing more than 100 charging stations (pictured) throughout the city. Sustainable construction and renewable energy are other areas of investment for the city.

Seattle

Like San Francisco, Seattle is another extremely wired city — on both the Internet and its fabled coffee. The Emerald City is especially friendly to businesses that want to go green, offering substantial tax breaks to businesses and residents that purchase and implement environmentally friendly technologies. Other key areas of smart-city focus include e-government and green construction initiatives. The city was the first to develop an e-gov strategy in 2004 and is using the Internet in a number of creative ways to help residents, such as using Twitter to help spread the word and locate stolen vehicles. Seattle also helps qualified residents make their houses meet more energy-efficient standards, offering services to better weatherize properties against the elements with the installation of insulation.

Singapore

Well known for its cleanliness and efficiency, the city-state of Singapore also aims to be a smart-city leader, with its Infocomm Development Authority unveiling a recent plan to become the world’s first “Smart Nation.” The ambitious project unveiled by officials will begin rolling out its first technology trial in the Jurong Lake District (pictured), where boxes connected to fiber-optic lines will be deployed at street lights or bus stops and connect to sensors detecting pollution, heavy rainfall, or traffic jams. The sensors even can report back how full garbage bins are so they can be emptied, and keep a close eye on littering to keep trash off the streets. Singapore also aims to launch low-power super WiFi networks with unprecedented range to support the Smart Nation project.
Vienna

If Vienna has its way, it will beat Copenhagen to zero-carbon status by 2020. The Austrian capital is another one of Europe’s smart-city leaders, its strategy featuring a unique heating system that uses garbage incinerators to generate 32% of the city’s heat. The project is so renowned that one of the city’s largest incinerators, Spittelau (pictured), is a colorfully painted city landmark. Vienna also is a leader in providing easy and affordable mass transit to reduce traffic congestion; in a city of 1.7 million residents, its transit system handles about 1.3 million passengers per day.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Smart City

Gujarat’s GIFT City wins award for ‘Smart City of the Future’ from Cisco

September 23, 2014

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), country’s first integrated smart city being developed as a Global Financial Hub, has won the Cisco Technology Award for building India’s first Smart City with best-in-class sustainability features and technologies

GIFT City is the recipient of “Smart City of the Future Award’, an accolade that recognizes stand-out organizational contributions in driving change through technology. The award was conferred to GIFT City’s MD & Group CEO Ramakant Jha at a glittering ceremony organized in Mumbai on July 30, 2014 in which Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, State Bank of India was the Chief Guest. “We are pleased to receive this award from the company which has brought revolution in IoT. This award recognizes our efforts in achieving the vision of GIFT City laid down by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India i.e. “to tie up with technology, to create a hub complete with infrastructure, to meet the needs of modern India and to create a space in the global financial world”, said Ramakant Jha, MD & Group CEO, GIFT City.

Since the Internet revolution, technology has played decisive role in the financial services industry worldwide and changed global trade mechanism. GIFT City is being developed as an integrated smart city, which is helping India in creating technology based Global Hub for financial services by keeping in mind ‘Walk to Work’ concept and improving the lifestyle of those involved through technology. “With Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, India laying a great emphasis on setting up 100 smart cities in India, GIFT City can lead in realising this vision”, added Jha. Internet of Everything (IoE) is the next wave of internet revolution. The concept talks about integration of Information Technology with Process, Data & People; connecting them using various networking methods and creating value by turning information into actions that create new capabilities, easy to manage infrastructure, richer experiences and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries.

Unique infrastructure facilities of entire GIFT City like District Cooling System (DCS), Automated Waste Management System (AWMS), Water Management System, Power Infrastructure, City’s safety, security and surveillance, and Traffic management are all managed and monitored through a single platform called “City Command and Control centre (C-4)”. Phase 1-A of City Command and Control Centre (C-4) has already been completed and implementation of next phase is in progress. There are two parts of GIFT City’s Command and Control Centre (C-4). The first part, platform, hosts all the Utilities and provides a complete view of the City Infrastructure. The second part is hosting CCTV Surveillance, Integration of Intelligent Building Management System (IBMS) of various buildings and tracking critical parameters like fire and safety, intelligent traffic management system and Public Addressing (PA) system for handling law and order in the City. By integrating various infrastructure and Utilities through optical fibre based IT network spread across the city and by building Intelligence in every Building and Utility, GIFT City is able to see the status of various services in a holistic manner and manage them on real time basis. GIFT City is India’s first Global Financial Hub creating operations for domestic and international businesses.

The international financial services will be carried out in a multi-service SEZ with International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) status that would cater to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms, world-class infrastructure and facilities. It will attract the top talent in the country by providing the finest quality of life. It is estimated that GIFT would provide 5,00,000 direct and an equal number of indirect jobs which would require 62 million square feet of real estate office and residential space. With the completion of Phase – I infrastructure and the allotment of around 11 mn. sq. ft. of BUA for various commercial, residential and social facilities; GIFT City is rapidly emerging as a favored destination amongst Financial Services and IT/ITeS companies for setting up their operations and is setting an example for developing smart cities in India.

Source:Information week

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Government (Govt), Smart City

Mangalore bets on 2 villages for Smart City

September 22, 2014

A population of 513. That’s what Mangalore desperately requires to qualify for the Prime Minister’s ambitious Smart City project under which 100 Indian towns are likely to leapfrog into the next league with modern amenities.

Guidelines say cities with a population of 5 lakh to 10 lakh, as per Census 2011, will be chosen for the Smart City plan. Now, Mangalore is looking at bringing in two villages with a combined population of 80,000 under its fold to swell the numbers beyond the magical 5-lakh mark.

Moodushedde and Bala are the villages expected to give Mangalore a big push. Moodushedde, about 22km from the city, is located on the way to Moodbidri; Bala is a 25-minute drive towards Surathkal.

The city in general and the district as a whole have been witnessing regressive positive growth in its decadal population figures.

The district population marginally rose from 18,97,730 in 2001 to 20,89,649 in 2011. In fact, its share in Karnataka’s population has declined from 3.59% in 2001 to 3.42% in 2011.

The district saw its population grow 10.11% from 2001 to 2011, and it’s a steep climb from 14.59% seen from 1991 to 2001. To make the cut for the Smart City project, Mangalore civic authorities are dusting up a resolution passed three years ago to push up its population figure.

Source:Times of India

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Smart City

Esri sees big business in India’s smart city plan

September 22, 2014

Esri, a market leader in geographic information system (GIS) mapping technology, sees a big opportunity in India as Narendra Modi-led government embarks on its plan to develop 100 smart cities on the lines of developed countries.

While the US giant hopes to expand its operations in both public and private sectors, it believes that GIS technology and applications can help at every stage of development — planning, designing, decision making, network analysis and monitoring to create better infrastructure, modern residential colonies, 24*7 power and water distribution, organised law enforcement, eco-friendly industrial development, intelligent traffic management, effective water conservation and disaster management and quality health facilities.

Esri global president Jack Dangermond said, “In India, many customers are building their geographic knowledge base. There is a larger realization with the people talking about GIS as a platform across government agencies. Our job is to support these agencies and government by providing them best technology and help them in their vision of building a better India”.

GIS contains a spatial database, representing aspects of cultural and physical environment of a particular geographic region together with procedures for analyzing combinations of attributes and generating graphical products.
Esri India already works with government, private companies and educational institutions, covering various areas including telecommunications, disaster management, transportation, municipal management, natural resources and building/designing.

Esri India president Agendra Kumar said that they already control 70% market share in the country and use of GIS is rising radically.

While it boasts of several apps that are being used by global as well as Indian companies, its ArcGIS platform is being used for all the aspects of developing a smart city — planning, design and management.

(The writer was in San Diego at the invitation of Esri)

Source:Times of India

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Smart City

IT majors queue up with smart city plans

September 22, 2014

The plans for smart cities and bank accounts for all adult Indians are opening up major investment opportunities for IT giants like IBM.

Vanitha Narayanan, managing director of IBM India and South Asia, told a select press meet that her company has already provided a blueprint for a smart city to the government. “We met Amitabh Kant, (secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) when he was the CEO of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project” she said.

IBM joins the growing league of global IT firms that plan to step up their investments in India to take advantage of the digital plans of the Narendra Modi-led government. Cisco has already signed an agreement to transform Bangalore Electronic City into a smart city in partnership with Electronics City Industries Association.

Similarly SmartCity Dubai plans to tie up with the Madhya Pradesh government for a similar project to be located between Bhopal and Indore. Narayanan said that with the new government in power, the investment environment of the economy has “changed”.

Commenting on the tax notices served by the revenue department on IBM, she said, “We are now talking to the government about it.” The company has been asked to pay a sum of Rs 5,357 crore as outstanding income tax for FY09 , which it has disputed.

IBM has big plans for India as it expands its global cloud footprint. While the number of its data centres in the country will jump to about 40 by the end of this year riding on its private cloud service, Narayanan said the investment in public cloud solutions will especially help small and medium enterprises deliver solutions for their customers .

Source:The Indian Express

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Smart City

Sistema JSFC plans to develop Narendra Modi’s Smart City project

September 20, 2014

Sistema JSFC, the Russian oil to telecom conglomerate with $34 billion of annual revenue, plans to approach the Indian government with a proposal to develop smart cities on the lines of projects it has implemented back at home.

Sistema’s global leadership team will shortly make presentations to the Prime Minister’s Office and urban development ministry on the smart cities it has developed in Moscow and other Russian cities such as Rostov, Ufa, Kazan, Smolensk and Novosibirsk, a top company official told ET.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to discuss the topic with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visits New Delhi in December for the Indo-Russian summit, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The Russian government owns 17.3 per cent of Sistema’s Indian arm, telecom operator Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which is likely to be involved in the plans.

Source:Economic Times

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Government (Govt), Smart City

MMRDA plans to transform BKC into a ‘smart city’

September 17, 2014

MUMBAI: With a view to attract investor interests and get a premium pricing for its remaining land bank, the city’s planning authority MMRDA plans to transform the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) into a ‘smart city’.

“We want to provide such basic amenities that will transform BKC into a smart city, which will strengthen its brand value,” Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) Additional Commissioner Sanjay Sethi told PTI.

He said the authority is contemplating to provide facilities like wi-fi in the region, smart parkings, street lights with focus on energy efficiency, among others.

“We have been studying on this proposal for the past six months. We are yet to finalise the plan as we are working on its nitty-gritties,” he said adding, “We are yet to decide whether to cover the entire BKC with wi-fi or some portions and how to provide energy-efficient solutions through solar power.”

Sethi said the authority is working on the feasibility of supplying excess power generated from solar lighting to the common grid and also how it can earn carbon credits, if any.

“We are studying how we can provide video analytics. Instead of just putting up CCTVs, we are studying how such a system can be integrated in such a way that in case of emergency its services can be deployed immediately,” Sethi said.

He said the upcoming International Convention Centre, being developed by Reliance Industries (RIL), will also attract investors.
“They are developing around 2,000 car parking spaces out of which 1,000 will be allotted to MMRDA. These we plan to monitor through video analytic system. Also we will be creating recreational spaces,” Sethi said.

When asked about the estimated cost of the project, he said, “It will be too premature to talk about the cost of the project now as they are yet to finalise on whether to implement the project on BOT basis or EPC or both.”

Source:Economic Times

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Default, Smart City

States seek financial help to develop Smart Cities

September 15, 2014

Unanimously welcoming the Smart City initiative of the Centre, states have demanded technical help to prepare project reports and higher financial assistance to execute the scheme.

Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu today reviewed the suggestions and views from states and Union Territories expressed at the national conclave held yesterday and directed officials to examine the suggestions in detail.

He has also asked the concerned officials to prepare a proposal for discussion at an inter-ministerial meeting where Ministers of Finance and Defence, Highways and Surface Transport, Railways, Power, Environment and Forests are likely to attend.

Reiterating the importance of smart leadership in developing smart cities, Naidu said he would write to all the Chief Ministers on the need for proper decision making to enhance revenues of urban local bodies and improving urban governance.

States have made ten broad suggestions for developing Smart Cities including seeking flexibility in implementation, capacity building, higher central assistance in view of the resource constraints of urban local bodies and expeditious clearances by the Centre, said a senior Urban Development official.

Higher level of Viability Gap Funding with respect to solid waste management and water supply projects, capital expenditure to be borne by central government since private operators can only manage the operations and maintenance with utility charges and Special Purpose Vehicles to be created for executing the projects are some of the suggestions made by states at the conclave.

Some states referred to the difficulties associated with adoption of Public-Private Partnership model with respect to some urban projects in view of the complexities involved and levying of user charges.

Source:Economic Times

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Government (Govt), Smart City

Experts’ speak: Why are smart cities important?

September 15, 2014

Modi’s dream project is building 100 Smart Cities across the country and the 2014 Budget has laid out a roadmap by providing the fund of Rs 7,060 crore? But what are these smart cities? Are they good investment options? Magicbricks asks the experts

In his Budget-day speech, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Smart Cities will be developed as satellite towns of larger cities and by modernizing the existing mid-sized cities.

Apart from the allocation of Rs 7,060 crore Magicbricks reveals the other key steps aimed at encouraging the development of Smart Cities and their impact on the Property Market. These include, requirement of built-up area being reduced from 50,000 sq. m to 20,000 sq. m and capital conditions for FDI that have been brought down from USD10 million to USD 5 million, with just a three year post-completion lock-in period.

What are Smart Cities?

So will these Smart Cities be planned on the same lines as upcoming cities, such as Lavasa, Auroville and Pallava?” asked Magicbricks. “Cities like Lavasa are not considered home for lower or middle-class income groups but are targeted towards the upper middle class. The government is keen on focusing housing for all and that can be possible only through affordable housing.” replied Dr. PR Swarup, director general, Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), at the `Magicbricks Budget Discussion on Real Estate & Urban Infrastructure’ organized by Magicbricks recently.

But are these efforts enough to convert this vision into a reality? Is this enough? Magicbricks asked real estate experts to find out.

“The seed has been sown, the vision is bang-on, the intent is there and it is a welcome move. But the actual question is how and when will this be implemented,” added Dr. Swarup.

Speaking to Magicbricks he added “The allocated money is just like ‘token money’. The amount translates into a meager Rs. 70 crore per city, which is not enough to develop one whole city. The blueprint of this dream is still in the pipeline. Identification, time-lining and definition of the concept still remain to be executed. There is also a question mark on how they will provide 24×7 water and electricity, transit, jobs, etc.”

Why Smart Cities?

Magicbricks data clearly shows that development in the country is city-centric and is thus, making a large number of people migrate to the fast-developing cities. The Finance Minister substantiated this fact when he stated, “The pace of migration from the rural areas to the cities is increasing. A neo-middle class is emerging which has the aspiration of better living standards. Unless new cities are developed to accommodate the burgeoning number of people, the existing cities would soon become unlivable.

Impact of Smart Cities on real estate

Speaking to Magicbricks, experts were upbeat about the impact this decision would have on real estate and on infrastructure across the country. Navin Raheja, chairman, National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco), said, “With the Smart Cities project, there will be a surplus of land issued for urban development and housing. This will ensure that with more supply, the prices of property are reined in.”

Raheja also pointed out to Magicbricks that because of lack of regular planning and small-term perspectives, land utilization is sub-optimal. By freeing up land for planned urban development and long 50-year term plans, cities can continually regenerate themselves and adapt to changing demographics.

V Suresh, principal executive officer, HIRCO, added to the Magicbricks discussion, that Smart Cities should boast of good infrastructure, well-maintained drainage and sewerage facilities, good connectivity and more.

What else does the real estate sector gain from the Budget?

Discussing the impact of the Budget 2014 on the Indian real estate market, the Magicbricks discussion panelists unanimously agreed that the Budget was a positive move towards reviving consumer sentiments in the real estate sector. Vaibhav Sankla, director, H&R Block India Private Limited said that the additional incentive on home loan and the tax rebate is comforting to the business community and the tax payers. “The housing loan rebate raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh may also boost youngsters to buy homes,” he said.

Speaking to Magicbricks, Partner and Head Real Estate and Construction, KPMG India, Neeraj Bansal said, “Accepting the modified version of the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) was also felt to be another positive move. “It will help in easing liquidity requirement for developers, paving the way to raise easy capital and also provide access to retail investors to benefit from regular income and appreciation benefits from the real estate.”

“Overall the government’s commitment to boost the real estate sector seems to be well intentioned. The idea to create Smart Cities was welcomed, but it is still to be seen how this vision of PM Narendra Modi will get off the ground.” summarized Jayashree Kurup, Head of Magicbricks Research and Content.

Source:Economic Times

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Articles, Smart City

Arunachal Pradesh seeks three smart cities in the state

September 15, 2014

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh has requested the Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to set up three smart cities in the state.

The request was made by the state Urban Development Minister Pema Khandu at the National Conference of All Ministers and Secretaries of Urban Development at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi yesterday.

Stating that the density of population in the state was lowest in the country with just 17 persons per sq km, Pema appealed to the union minister not to deprive the state from the scheme merely on the ground of low population, a press release said here.

The union minister took note of the matter raised by Pema and assured him to take it up with the Prime Minister at the earliest, the release said.

The conference was convened by the Union Urban Development Ministry to discuss in detail the draft concept note of establishment of 100 smart cities in the country.

Source:Economic Times

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under About, Government (Govt), Smart City

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