ESI ThoughtLab’s new report “Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World” reviewed 167 cities worldwide. Changes wrought by the pandemic prompted 69 per cent of the respondents to say they are reconsidering urban planning, and more than two-thirds said smart city programs are crucial to the future.
The pandemic has also accelerated the rise of Cities 4.0, or cities that are leaders in the use of smart technology, data and partnerships to achieve social, environmental and other goals, explains a statement. All Cities 4.0, which include Boston, Los Angeles and New York, have invested in the internet of things. They have also explored mobile technologies, biometrics and blockchain, and they excel at data management.
“One of the big failings, cities told us, during the pandemic is they didn’t have access to the real-time data they needed; things were shifting very fast,” said ESI ThoughtLab CEO Lou Celi. He continued that the most successful cities would be digitally transformed, citizen-centric, and fully sustainable.
According to the report, other big investments will be in 3D printing (200% increase), data warehouses and lakes (149% increase) and artificial and virtual reality (147% increase).
