There are already 150 examples of smart cities in the world that are being designed and built from scratch.
By Laszlo Beke
However, one of the ideas that many of these projects have mishandled is that you can plan everything from above. Cities do not work like that, they grow organically. Cities have the capacity to provide something for everyone, just for how much and only when they have been created by all. This is why initiatives such as the interactive MIT planning tool called CityScope have appeared, which allows users to visualize and explore the dilemmas around factors such as density, transport and pedestrian traffic and thus guide designers.
These cities are a risky bet as is happening with Songdo in South Korea: the city boasts of its advanced connectivity, but to date it has not been able to meet expectations by attracting residents and international companies. Smart cities are such an important phenomenon that it deserves to understand what is being sought there and the analysis of a couple of examples can help.
Urbanists vs Technologists
The most difficult component will be the integration between innovation and urbanization and there is a huge gulf between the people who plan and operate the cities and the technologists. Forming a team between both groups is a major challenge, this without forgetting the business component that ensures the viability of the investment.
Example 1: Union Point, New Jersey
It is built on the space of a naval base closed for many years. The community consists of 1,200 single-family units (houses and apartments), a sports complex with a miniature replica of Fenway Park and thousands of acres of commercial space. It will have steel and glass towers, public squares, scattered parks and a lot of free space:
· The energy plan includes micro-grid technology, renewable energy and power storage.
· Intelligent lighting is through public lighting with sensors that track sounds, light and other conditions.
· It will be a laboratory for new General Electric products.
· The integration of technology and urban planning has raised doubts about how the information collected is an application. There have also been debates about the regulation regarding self-manned vehicles.
Example 2: Toronto lake front reconstructed "from the Internet upwards"
This is the transformation of an area in disuse, within Toronto and in front of Lake Ontario, in a vibrant mini-metropolis and hopes to be a model of urbanism of the XXI Century. The project aims to create the conditions for healthier, safer, more convenient and also more fun lives. A partnership is being made with Sidewalk, a subsidiary of Alphabet-Google and it is an important collaborative experience with the public-corporation. Some of the radical ideas that will be applied are:
· The backbone of transport is self-manned vehicles, controlled by an application.
· The maintenance of street ownership: create recreational spaces as areas for disembarkation of self-manned vehicles and heated sidewalks.
· Re-imagination of the houses within the concept of the attic - strong wooden structures, but with flexibility for interiors, so that their use can be changed when desired.
· Climate control: to stimulate outdoor life, allow retractable plastics to allow people to shelter from rain. Pedestrian paths and bike paths will melt the snow.
· The agenda is green with plans for the use of eco-friendly construction materials that prohibit the construction of a factory to reduce the cumbersome and chaotic construction areas. This allows the creation of housing developments of rapid construction and low cost.
· A pilot for the reuse of gray water - that comes from sinks, showers, bathtubs and washing machines.
Sensors
Areas with many sensors to collect data - traffic, noise, sounds, air quality - and to monitor the performance of the electrical network, garbage collection and traffic, help drivers find space to park and alert authority in the case that a gun fired. Sensors for the elimination of waste in digestives. The data can not be used to monitor and collect information about citizens.
Reference is made to "The cities of the future: the city of Toronto from Google built" from the Internet "" https://bbc.in/2sbf7vh and "Building a city connected from scratch" https://nyti.ms/2HbnHAJ. It also appears on my blog http://bit.ly/2xCCdjH.
Source:
https://www.lapatilla.com/site/2018/06/03/no-todo-es-facil-para-las-ciudades-inteligentes/
