FEATURE: SMART CITIES
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Sustainability should be a
key focus when introducing
the Smart City concept to an
existing conurbation within
the African context. Alison
Groves, Regional Director,
WSP, Building Services,
Africa, explains how and why
sustainability can shape
the future.
When looking to introduce
the Smart City concept to
an existing conurbation
within the African
context – from a planning, designing and
infrastructure building point of view – we
need to be conscious that even in our
existing cities and urban centres there are
challenges to maintaining the capacity of
existing infrastructure networks.
These nodes still boast long-term
infrastructure planning, which includes
introducing smart technologies into their
city scape that will make these cities more
connected, innovative and nimble in the face
of future disruption.
Therefore, to support continued and
future growth – of populations, industries
and economies – long-term planning must
be approached with a vision to compensate
for both current and future priorities of
the development cycle – and everything
in between.
The ideal is to build cities and spaces that
are liveable, resilient to disruptions and
futureproofed. And building for sustainability
is the way to get there.
Sustainability is a lens through which the
planning, project delivery and development
processes focus to achieve the needs of
the communities today without sacrificing
capacity for future generations.
A sustainability lens always includes
balancing priorities across several areas,
including the economy, community needs,
environmental quality but also equity, health
and wellbeing, energy, water and material
resources, transportation and mobility needs
– as well as how all of this can be supported
by the adoption and integration of the latest
in digital technologies.
City planners therefore need to scope their
vision and planned projects beyond just
the (immediate) key economic factors and
in their infrastructure planning start to
build with a sense of ‘societal resilience’
in mind and resilience that can withstand
socioeconomic and climatic changes well
into the future.
It is this resilience that will build economies –
particularly in a conurbation environment.
As we enter an age when humanity’s
impacts become dominant in shaping
our world – cities provide the biggest
opportunity to enhance people’s lives –
and the biggest challenge.
Cities are the canvas on which much of
our collective futures will be drawn. How
Smart Cities
are built with
resiliency in mind
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