FUTURE PROSPECTS- FORECAST FOR THE YEAR
2026
1) Projected growth
As technology continues to advance, cities aim to deliver not
only the best hard infrastructure or physical capital but also are
striving to provide adequate social infrastructure or social
capital. Smart Cities are hence being designed to incorporate
both such features within the same structure and relies greatly
on the use of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs). The factor that distinguishes Smart Cities from
Intelligent Cities and others is its stronger emphasis on social
and environmental capital. For instance, lowering carbon
emissions and habitat protection is a crucial part of the action
plan.
According to Caragliu et al, 2009, Smart Cities are those in
which investments in traditional and ICT communication
infrastructure, human and social capital, have resulted in
sustainable economic development and subsequently a high
quality of life. Technology is put to use to address the various
needs and issues faced by the city’s residents. This is reflected
in the significant use of modern devices to regulate water levels,
energy usage, traffic flows and even safety of cities through
installing security cameras and the like.
In India, the term has moreso come to the forefront recently with
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing the ambitious plan
of building 100 such cities across the nation. “Cities in the past
were built on riverbanks,” he stated, “They are now built along
highways. But in the future, they will be built based on
availability of optical fibre networks and next-generation
infrastructure.” As per the Union Budget announcement,
funding of Rs.7060 crore has been allocated for this mission.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has urged officials
of states to suggest locations in the country that can be turned
into Smart Cities. It has further expressed plans of utilising
‘brownfield sites’, which although were previously used for
industrial purpose are often left abandoned due to adverse
effects of pollution and waste. Meanwhile ‘greenfield sites’ at
new locations offer the advantage of lowered costs involved and
may also be an option that is considered.
Given the fact that it takes often decades to build a new city, the
Urban Development Ministry is looking towards both
transforming existing cities into ‘smart ones’ through retrofitting
smart technology as well as creating new planned urban centres.
GIFT city in Gujarat is likely to emerge as India’s first ‘smart
city’ that is built from scratch. On its completion, GIFT city will
incorporate several aspects typically associated with Smart
Cities. This includes a command centre with information and
communication technology (ICT) infrastructure that will
regulate daily activities like transport movement etc. It will have
cooling towers using the energy-saving cooling technology and
in terms of waste management, solid waste will be collected
from homes and offices at 90 km/hr using pipelines that open up
to a waste processing plant. Other attributes include solar panels
installed in the buildings, efficient garbage collection and traffic
alerts sent as text messages to commuters.
The first set of three smart cities is set to be established in
Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi-Mumbai corridor (DMIC) over the
next five to seven years including Shendra-Bidkin in
Maharashtra and Global City in Haryana. Others include
Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, Khushkera in Rajastan and Tumkur in
Karnataka. Framework for DMIC entails underground utilities
for parking and sewage, dedicated bus and light rail corridors
and mixed use transit-oriented, polycentric city development so
that residents live close to their place of work. The hi-tech and
energy efficient cities along with connected communities will
take inspiration from the Barcelona City Model executed by
Cisco Systems. Tie-ups with technology giants such as IBM and
CISCO and collaboration with officials from countries like
Singapore and France further has been a vital aspect of the
project. One of the prime goals would be to focus on developing
the ‘economic potential of the area’. Several of the cities that
come up will include Special Investment Regions or Special
Economic Zones that create a conducive environment for local
industries and provide a business-friendly climate with relaxed
rules and lowered taxes to attract investment such as Dholera in
Gujarat.” In the new smart cities like Dholera [in the DMIC], we
have planned for ICT as another layer of infrastructure along
with roads, sewage. It is embedded right in the planning stage of
the project,” explained Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
A distinct feature of Smart Cities is its robust focus on citizen
involvement in public policy with promotion of e-governance.
ISO 37120 has been recommended to assess performance of
cities and further evaluate changes brought forward by the local
government. Making cities inclusive is a strong highlight of the
agenda and is set to ensure greater transparency and
accessibility in the provision of civic services. India can expect
further progress in this area as the government continues to
emphasise on developing this aspect as a priority.
2) Technology
Networking and communications
Critical to many of the technology trends related to smart cities i
s the underlying communications infrastructure that enables sma
rt cities to connect infrastructure, devices, and people, and gathe
r data and deliver services to myriad endpoints. The complexity
of smart city technological and service ecosystems requires a ho
listic approach to networking and communications that offers su
pport for a range of needs, from infrastructure monitoring to bac
kbones for digital media enterprises and from household securit
y to citywide transportation monitoring. These diverse needs dic
tate that any smart city will encompass a range of technologies f
rom low bandwidth wireless technologies such as Bluetooth LE
and ZigBee, to dedicated fiber optics for backbone needs. Some
critical technologytrends that will affect future smart city develo
pments include the following:
LowPower WAN technologies
Fitting a niche in the technological landscape between pers
onal/local area networking technologies such as Bluetooth
LE, ZigBee and WiFi; licensed cellular networking such as
existing 3/4G, and the evolution to 5G; sit technologies su
ch as LoRaWAN and the evolving 802.11ah. These techno
logies use unlicensed spectrum and focus on low power an
d cost. While some argue they are a stopgap measure befor
e the deployment of 5G networks, they are the subject of
much interest and anumber of trials including those by NT
T in Japan, SigFox in France and Australia, and Comcast i
n the
United States. One major appeal driving city adoption is th
e ability to offer a citywide servicefor free, at a relatively l
ow capital cost. An approach taken, for example, by the no
nprofit organization ThingsNetwork.
3/4G evolution
While there is significant activity around the development
of 5G standards, they are not expected to
have full deployment until 2020. In the meantime, a numb
er of important initiatives are focused on
the midterm evolution of existing cellular technologies. Th
e 3GPP consortium is working on several
activities including work on CAT‐1 (and Cat‐
0) as well as the upcoming CAT‐M1 and the narrow‐band
long‐term evolution (NB‐
LTE). These standards focus on IoT scenarios and include
better energy
efficiencies, cost reductions, and better penetration/density
, all critical for IoT situations in
smart cities.
5G networking
Nextgeneration networking (5G) is the subject of intense t
echnological (and business) activity with a number of maj
or initiatives underway. 5G aims to address some of the ke
y future needs of smart cities with higher bandwidth, deliv
ery and performance guarantees, adaptability, energy effici
ency, and realtime capabilities. 5G is still an evolving spac
e, with considerable discussion on its long‐
term goals and [Link] complexity and rapid rat
e of change in the 5G space makes it difficult to provide m
ore than a brief overview. For a fuller exploration of 5G pl
ease see the IEEE industry trend paper on 5G published as
part of this series. Regardless of the evolution of 4G and th
e eventual transition to 5G, two critical technology trends t
hat address the need combine multiple evolving technologi
es are software‐
defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualiza
tion (NFV). Obviously, this complex networking landscap
e poses a challenge as operators and users grapple with nee
ds that span multiple technologies. One solution to this is t
he adoption of SDN and NFV technologies that allow netw
ork operatorto mix and match services using SDN and to p
ush more intelligence into their networks (edge processing
) using NFV
3) Infrastructure
Clean air and water for all
The possibility that urban environments may deteriorate as a
result of weather changes is a major threat. The aim in many
cities is therefore to set the stage for clean air instead of smog;
incentivize electric mobility instead of congested roads and
promote clean drinking water and affordable electricity from
renewable sources that is available when it is needed, instead of
expensive or “dirty” energy produced from fossil fuels.
As more and more cities move toward these goals, they will rely
increasingly on digital resources that will, for example, monitor
emissions figures and traffic density and coordinate local public
transportation and traffic light switching times with monitoring
results. Ultimately, they will also use digital technologies to
inform individuals about the best ways to reach their
destinations, regardless of whether they are driving their own
vehicles, sharing cars, using a public transport system, or
combining transport modes.
Forecasts for smart cities
The first step toward making a city smart is to increase
knowledge regarding the operations of its infrastructures
ranging from water and energy management to traffic, air
quality and lighting. In every big city, innumerable sensors and
meters collect data from these and other sources. The challenge
that cities face is thus to turn this avalanche of data into
actionable information.
From smart data to new markets
The future of smart cities will be shaped by the Internet of
Things as a networking technology and by smart data as a
forecasting technology. For example, it will be possible to
coordinate power generation and power demand more precisely
than ever before. This development will make increasing
decentralization manageable, merge the markets for heating and
electricity, and integrate industrial facilities, buildings, and
vehicles as energy suppliers.
4) Future Job Roles in Smart Cities-
Robotics specialist
Cyber security analyst
3D print technician
Virtual reality design
Network programmer (SDN)
Machine learning scientist
Industrial network engineer
Customer makers
Neuro implant technician
Professional triber
Digital anthropologist
Platform developer
Business transformation practitioner
Cloud architect
Data scientist
Urban innovation/Urban mechanics
5) Enviornment
