The 21st century has been referred to as “the urban century”. By 2050, over 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities. The rate of urbanisation is staggering: more than 400 million people in China and 215 million people in India will migrate to cities by 2015. Today’s cities can barely handle the burden of their current populations: core services like energy, water, communications, transportation and public safety are inefficient and increasingly decrepit. The burden on the environment is also profound: cities only occupy 2 per cent of the earth’s landmass, but account for over 75 per cent of our resource consumption. Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai will be stretched to breaking point.
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Posted by
Pastor_Alex on 01/12 at 01:12 PM
Great introduction to the idea and ethical concerns of smart cities. When we are looking at cell phones, there is already directed information to cell phones in some locales where text messages from stores one is walking past are sent to phones inviting purchases. I don’t see that as ethical, but information about traffic flow and congestion would be useful.
In terms of the cities being stressful on the environment, if we combine the smart city with the green city and work with idea like multi-layered greenhouses to grow food locally we can lessen the impact of urbanization on the environment.
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