3 Of The World’s Smartest Cities & the Technology They Are Used
Smart cities. For those who are not familiar with the term, these are the cities that are very developed regarding human capital, governance, social cohesion, urban planning, international outreach, technology, transportation, mobility and so on.
In simpler terms, these are cities that use smart technology or specific measures of environmental sustainability as a means of performing well. Here are the 3 of the world’s most fashionable cities, and the technology they use.
1. Hong Kong
Hong Kong ranked second in International Internet Bandwidth in the World of Economic Forum’s Global I because of its excellent infrastructure. Likewise, it’s also known for the “Hong Kong Science Park” that supplies a tremendous amount of R&D space, giving it a consistent ranking as one of the smartest cities on a global scale.
One of the most popular smart successes of Hong Kong would probably be the “Octopus Card” that is widely used for public transport, shopping, e-business transaction, rapid immigration, and many more. It’s a remarkable breakthrough regarding smart payment systems, and since its initial launch, it has undergone a lot of enhancements.
The Octopus Clearing House System is considered to be one of the most significant achievements as it’s being used by a lot of organizations and merchants all over Hong Kong. Various areas of the system also use different high-end technologies.
It’s a system that utilizes a collection of business rules made to verify every transaction before authorizing settlement amounts. After that, a set of reports is sent to each involved service provider regularly with the purpose of settling payments within 24 hours, or on the following day.
The beautiful thing about Octopus cards is that they also have a built-in IC chip capable of communication with different payment processors and fare through the use of a writer/reader. This has a main board, and a built-in antenna that relies on radio frequency to transmit signals to the cards, and products.
As the security handshake gets verified, it is delivered back to the central computer for clearance and settlement.
2. Sydney Australia
Sydney Australia is very popular for hosting Olympics, and this allows them to develop further renewable energy solutions that make them one of the smartest cities in the world.
What used to be an “Olympic Village” has turned into a 90-hectare development project that comes with solar-powered housing, as well as a waste recycling system that helps in reusing as much as 90% of brick, wood, and concrete used in the development.
Furthermore, Sydney is also the home of “Smart Grid, Smart City” project where a range of smart city infrastructure is being tested, together with intelligent city technologies.
The smart grid investments will focus on improving smart electricity metering, grid communications, and advanced storage. The market opportunity is available for vendors, and even the US firms have found success in the Australian market.
We could expect that regional diversity will keep on going and this would represent opportunities in various states. Some of its notable advantages include energy storage solutions focused on grid stability, smart metering, and renewable integration smart grid ICT solutions.
3. Barcelona Spain
Barcelona is also one of the smartest cities in the world, and it has a remarkable field of transport that the use of safety cones becomes unnecessary. They are doing their best to design an efficient bus network with a set of smart traffic lights that offer “green light” routes for emergency services, giving vehicles faster passage during emergency situations.
Aside from that, Barcelona is also implementing a sensor system for drivers that functions as their guide in identifying available parking spaces, and it also notifies the drivers about it. Since its implementation, the city managed to issue more than 4000 permits for parking on a daily basis, and that’s not all, there’s also a provision for settling parking fee online.
Aside from that, Barcelona was also considered as the “Mobile World Capital” as it managed to beat 29 other cities from 2012-2018. That’s because this city is fully committed to extending the scope of mobility on an international scale, and even locally. It also aspires to improve tourism infrastructure, transportation, and the like. This also gave them the privilege to be chosen to host the city’s annual trade show for the mobile sector– popularly known as the mobile world congress.
