'A Planned Smart City'
After the introduction to Smart Cities in my last post, I wanted to explore one of the world's first custom built Smart Cities in Songdo, South Korea.
Songdo has been labelled as the World's Smartest City and the City of the Future.
So what have the South Koreans done and why?
Songdo is a city that has been built from scratch on reclaimed land, some 65km away from Seoul.
It is a private real estate development, and when finished will have 80,000 apartments, 50,000,000 sqm of office space and 10,000,000sqm of retail space.
It will house around 50,000 as residents, with a further 50,000 commuting to work.
The project was intended to show the world the technological prowess of Korea and create a sustainable city. It has cost nearly $35 billion and is due to be completed in 2017.
Tellingly, 40% of the city is slated to be 'parkland', which ties into the sustainability aspect of Songdo.
As far as Smart Cities go, it is exceptional.
Songdo has been inundated with sensors, which monitor temperature, energy use and traffic flow.
These sensors allow you to understand when your bus is due, and provide current updates on the surrounds.
Other innovations (that are nearly all world firsts for cities) include;
- charging stations for electric cars
- water recycling systems that uses recycled water to flush toilets
- waste disposal system that automatically sorts waste according to its danger to the environment
- internal monitoring systems within buildings that provide information on any maintenance or issues
This all sounds amazing, however it is not quite perfect.
The city is only half full. A number of articles that I read described a visit to the city as very 'quiet'.
While the city has been beautifully created, planned and constructed with sustainability in mind, it needs citizens!
Personally, I think it is a great idea with fantastic innovation. Putting these innovations into place in other established cities is another challenge in itself.
There are a number of cities such as Chicago and Barcelona that have implemented a number of Smart initiatives that are becoming very successful. I want to investigate these cities to see how they have worked and what they have done.
For those who are interested about Songdo (it is interesting), check out these pictures and articles:
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