IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Much hype and excitement surrounds India’s plan to build 100 smart cities, with 20 already selected in the first, competitive round. The government plans to invest Rs. 50,802 crore ($7.6 billion) in these cities with more funding to be raised from private companies and through monetization of services. The second round of the smart cities program starts in April.

Each of the selected cities has identified discrete areas that will serve as prototypes for other regions. They include solid waste management, security, health care, traffic management, parking and even crowd management during festivities. Running themes across the projects are the use of IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

Water, Wind and Solar energy (WWS) has the potential to replace diminishing and polluting fossil fuel, petroleum, coal and other traditional power sources in a way that can change the very course of our planet’s future.

Sustainable energy is already driving positive changes throughout the world, even as we are still early in the process of scaling WWS and making naturally generated power available through more modern grids, in the developed and developing worlds.

Despite the apparent trade-off between privacy and efficiency, authorities across the globe are intent on becoming known for achieving smart city status and for the right reasons. Politicians are seeing the real benefits and cost savings that smart city initiatives can provide, and as citizens we need to get used to the idea of our towns collecting and making use of more and more data to reshape the world around us for the greater good.

As the number of connected sensors, machines and devices rapidly grows in crowded cities, the data generated will provide the ubiquitous big data that we often hear about. But we are only just beginning to realize the value in a network that increasingly consists of everyday objects. Everything from buildings, energy, traffic flow, education, healthcare and even elevators contains information that represents both the daily grind and natural flow of every city.

The City of Johannesburg’s drive to accelerate the use of technology as a means to facilitate and promote learning and literacy received a major boost at the launch of the e-Learning project on Friday, 27 March 2015, at the Sandton Library.

This launch coincided with SA Library Week. The theme “Connect @ your Library” speaks to the Smart Citizen Programme that will see the City, not only connecting people to the library, but also linking them to the global world through WIFI and Internet access at libraries.

They say cash is king, but Joburg Metrobus says cash-less is the future, as they forge ahead with their plan, come October 1.

Joburg Metrobus said the move aims to enhance the convenience and efficiency of their services.

At the beginning of last month, Metrobus notified its current and potential commuters that effective from October 1, it is going cashless.

The use of technology in the 21st century classroom is no longer a want but an essential part of education and learning. Nowadays universities exist as mini towns with the ever-growing connectivity demands. This as students expect to receive all their data and services wirelessly while professors and researchers need to be able to connect easily over the network.

This is why universities need to get connectivity right, and there are a few parallels which can be drawn between their ambitions and those of a smart city, according to networking specialists Aruba.

In its bid to create a smart city, Johannesburg has been hard at work for quite some time already, and its Public Access to Internet in Libraries (Pail) project has been up-and-running for years to empower Joburg’s poorer citizens.

Nobuntu Mpendulo, the director of library and information services, spoke about the initiative on the second day of the smart cities themed week of the GDS2040.

Huawei officials underlined the benefits of a smart connected city at the 2019 Shenzhen Smart City Forum, with rapid progress being made in how cities collect and use bid data.

The forum aims to promote communication and cooperation in building smart, digital cities, with MMC for economic development at City of Johannesburg, Leah Knott, attending the event, held at the Shangri-La Hotel Shenzhen on Tuesday.

I just read that Cape Town has been named Africa’s smartest city by a new report sponsored by Nokia. This comes as no surprise as Cape Town, the second largest city in South Africa has been in the news for its innovations in making use of technology to improve the lives of its inhabitants.

Early this year, in June, the city of Cape Town introduced free wifi in the MyCiti public bus, and only last month, they announced plans to roll out a fleet of electric buses in 2017. Some other principal smart city activities include CCTV, with 560 cameras located throughout the city, open data portal launched in 2015, and several pilots of a smart grid system underway.

Smart cities are no longer just a consideration, but are now a global necessity. RESHAAD SHA, Chief Strategy Officer at DFA believes now is the perfect time for South Africa to implement the basics to get itself ready for the smart city revolution.

In the past, the concept of smart cities may have been a lofty consideration for a Sunday afternoon, but smart cities are no longer a preference—they are quickly becoming a critical necessity. This is due to the confluence of increasing urbanization, greater pressure being placed on the successful management of a city due to a rising population, and climate change. The latter in particular means that a city needs to have the wherewithal to manage a sudden natural crisis, such as flooding, and be able to dispatch emergency and medical units without delay to save lives.

Cities of the future are smart – but what is it going to take for us to get there?

A city can be considered smart when three conditions are met: investments are being made in human and social capital; money is being spent to improve traditional infrastructure; and, finally, disruptive technologies are implemented to fuel sustainable economic growth and promote a high quality of life.

The Smart City Dubai example offers South Africa how to improve efficiencies for both tourists and locals by reducing costs, red-tape via unnecessary paper work and wasted hours.

Earlier this year President Cyril Ramaphosa bore the brunt of a South African backlash after his State of the Nation Address when he announced it was time for South Africa to consider building a smart city.

Smart cities need the operational technology foundation of smart panels and transformers, the middle layer of connected devices with edge control self-management and the top layer of real-time insights that can optimise services.

“When asked how we can create a smart city, we need people to understand that there are three levels to the technology,” explains Taru Madangombe, vice-president of power systems in southern Africa for Schneider Electric.

The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Company has announced a call for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from qualified local and international firms to take part in the development of significant infrastructure projects at its grounds. These projects include the construction of three-star or five-star hotels, a convention centre, an office tower, and a theme park.

In a notice issued on Monday, the trade exhibition company stated that it had already secured a US$12 million commitment from a development partner for the construction of a state-of-the-art shopping centre, marking a major step in the ongoing transformation of the ZITF grounds. The company is seeking firms with a minimum of 10 years' experience in handling large-scale development projects.

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) will this year expedite the implementation of its smart city programme which it hopes to complete by 2024.

This strategy, which was boosted by the visit of BCC officials to Dubai towards the end of last year, entails implementation of various development projects across various economic sectors.

ZIMBABWE needs $1,5 billion to roll out the first phase of the smart cities programme which is aimed at improving transport networks, energy efficiency and urban management, a Cabinet Minister has said.

The smart cities concept was proposed early last year as a means to decongest the country's urban centres using information and communications technology (ICTs).