INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology
Future smart city initiatives to enshrine ‘ Green ’
By 2020 , half of all the smart city objectives will include climate change , resilience and sustainability key performance indicators ( KPIs ), according to Gartner , Inc . Cities are defining new objectives and placing them into tangible programs . This creates measurable outcomes that meet the targets agreed upon at the COP 21 in Paris to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions .
“ With the Horizon 2020 goals of energy efficiency , carbon emission reductions and renewable energy in mind , many cities in Europe have launched energy sustainability , resource management , social inclusion and community prosperity initiatives ,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan , research vice president at Gartner .
Tratz-Ryan discussed how Internet of Things ( IoT ) technologies , and the ability to analyse data in a contextualised way , can accelerate the development of smart city execution during Gartner Symposium / ITxpo , which is taking place here through Thursday .
Urban mobility drives sustainability targets Major world cities have adopted traffic and mobility objectives to resolve or mitigate the traffic congestion issue with IoT-enabled smart city solutions , but urban mobility does not stop at a seamless choice that consist of moving from A to B .
“ The uptake of ride sharing , the electrification of public transportation , the support infrastructure for e-vehicles and congestion charging for combustion engines , all of those examples are driving cleaner air , producing fewer GHG emissions and saving energy , while improving the noise levels and ambience on streets ,” Tratz-Ryan said .
She cited the Florence card as an example of how there can be a substantial economic benefit in those measures that can be also directly related to climate change , resilience and sustainability outcome .
“ The Florence card provides free transportation on electric buses to many touristic sites , helping improve the cultural and touristic experience of the visitors while using environmentally friendly electric buses ,” Tratz-Ryan said . “ This example shows that there are economic advantages in those measures that can be also directly related to climate change , resilience and sustainability outcome .”
Sensors have become a critical element in the execution of climate change goals and are at the heart of smart cities . According to Gartner , in 2017 around 380 million connected things will be in use in cities to deliver sustainability and climate change goals , and this figure will increase to 1.39 billion units in 2020 , representing 20 % of all smart city connected things in use . In 2017 , use cases in smart commercial buildings
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