2019 growth is forecast for smart city movement

More and more urban areas are expected to embrace the fundamentals of Smart City technology this year, says an engineering technology website.
The Smart City movement in 2019 is “going to take a longer view into the future,” contends the website Interesting Engineering.
With urban officials everywhere constantly looking for ways to reduce building costs, the Smart City movement is proving particularly alluring because it avoids the necessity of digging up “the same streets over and over every year in order to add infrastructure for the new applications.”
Defined as any place where the application of communication and information technologies is used to enhance both sustainability and efficiency, the Smart City movement remains an “outlier of things to come,” technology writer Llewellyn King predicted earlier this month.
“Smart cities are the precursor to big changes in everything from transportation to entertainment, from food delivery to garbage control,” writes King in the site InsideSources.
In September, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade announced it was investing $500,000 in the Arrow Electronics company for its testing of Smart City urban environment concepts.
Earlier in the year Panasonic unveiled a Smart City testing ground near the Denver International Airport.
In Arizona, the Arizona Technology Council is advocating that state lawmakers meeting for the regular 2019 session of the Arizona State Legislature should embrace Smart City development programs, while Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced in December that he is looking for ways for the city to implement its own Smart City effort by installing cameras and sensors to optimize transit and other services.
A new report released by the EastWest Institute of New York contends that as the Smart City movement continues to gain traction, cities across the country need to identify a Smart City Vision, adapt government structures, and ensure a wide stakeholder participation.
With such goals, notes Smart and Safe: Risk Reduction in Tomorrow’s Cities, urban areas will be better able to make strategic decision in advance, “instead of as an afterthought.”

By Garry Boulard

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