A smart city is a municipality that makes use of information and communication technology (ICT) to boost administrative effectiveness, disseminate information to the general public, and enhance the standard of public services as well as the welfare of its residents. While the precise definition varies, a smart city’s primary goal is to use smart technology and data analysis to optimize local operations, spur economic growth, and enhance residents’ quality of life. The smart city’s worth is determined by how it chooses to use its technology, not just how much of it may have. In this article, we’ll discuss how a survey says general population lacks awareness on smart cities.
Awareness of Smart Cities
It’s important to be well aware of the society we live in, however, different observations report that people lack awareness of smart cities. Over half of the world’s population, which is anticipated to rise to two-thirds by 2050, resides in cities. Given that less than 30% of the population resided in cities just 60 years ago, this growth in both percentage and absolute numbers represents an extraordinary shift in human lifestyle. In general, city systems will be heavily taxed by the accelerated increase in residents, traffic, and businesses, resulting in crowded and polluted conditions in much of the world. As a result, few of these cities are expected to embody anything remotely resembling a utopic vision of civilization.
If cities are to handle this development and remain the economic engines of their nations, they must fast adapt and evolve. Terms like smart cities and sustainable cities have been used a lot recently to describe ways that cities can accomplish more with less money. The cities themselves have most definitely taken notice of this. The majority of the time, a basic Google search for a smart city combined with a specific nation or state can yield useful information regarding city plans and initiatives, pilot programs, and vendors to cities ready to share their activities and value propositions in the field.
Also Read: Envision Charlotte: Building a Smart City Through Collaboration and Innovation
A Smart City Survey Highlight
Smart cities are communities that successfully implement policies and initiatives to make them more sustainable, habitable, and economically viable. In the spring, the smart city survey was issued to 3,423 communities in the United States with populations of 25,000 or more. A total of 493 jurisdictions answered, for a 14.4% response rate which showed survey says general population lacks awareness on smart cities. Some of the survey highlights are listed below-
- In general, larger cities place a greater emphasis on smart city initiatives than smaller ones. Population density is positively related to the degree to which governments prioritize smart city initiatives.
- Safety of the public is the top priority for smart city technology implementation. Nearly half of respondents (48.9%) rank public safety as the most important application for smart city technologies, followed by customer service/public engagement and telecommunications.
- Smart City Technologies Encourage Community Engagement in the Field of Smart Payments and Finance. Almost (60%) of people who took the survey said they are using smart payment and financial technologies already. The other two areas of technology where respondents are active are civic involvement and energy. Public safety was chosen as the top priority for smart city technologies; however, communities are not very engaged in this area.
- The primary benefit of implementing Smart City technologies is the potential for financial and/or operational cost savings. (81%) of people surveyed cited a desire to cut costs as a major or moderate factor in their decision. The benefits of safety and security and the importance of continuity for mission-critical operations also rank highly.
- The implementation of smart city technologies is hampered by a lack of funding. Most respondents (75.4%) cited financial constraints as a major or moderate obstacle to their city’s adoption of smart city technologies. A subsequent requirement for increased internal capacity and supplementary infrastructure follows.
- The most common Smart City collaborative effort among responding communities is peer-to-peer information exchange. (71%) of respondents named peer-to-peer information exchange as their community’s smart city collaborative effort.
