by Peter High, published on Forbes

3-9-2015

Since the days of the industrial revolution, cities have been the engines of economic growth. The revolution was effective in developing prosperity for many countries, but the development was not always “smart,” sacrificing health conditions, for instance, for greater productivity.

Now with greater use of technology, a number of cities are accumulating data, delivering innovation, and enhancing lives of citizens. Juniper Research recently compiled its list of top-five “smart cities.”   The author of the study, Steffen Sorrell, focuses on two “overreaching” benefits of smart cities: sustainability and efficiency. To that end, he identified five essential components of a smart city.

• Technologies
• Buildings
• Utilities
• Transportation & road infrastructure
• The smart city itself

The people who live in cities are driven economic performers who are seeking to take advantage of technologies to further their personal and collective opportunities. Cities provide them these opportunities and in doing so draw many like-minded parties into their midst. With this drive and  an increase in active participants, there are downsides. Most notably, energy consumption, waste and congestion. In this day and age people are increasingly concerned with climate change and awareness of limited resources all while demanding more efficiencies and technological development.

Citizens are not the only factors to consider in the evolution of cities into smart cities. Governmental and commercial entities are going to play increasingly important roles  in development and implementation of technologies that pace the way to the smart city.

To read the full article, please visit Forbes