Case-Study
Contrary to popular belief, any city in the world can be smart. A city is smart if it is deemed smart by a city’s people and governing authorities. In LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries), even cities that haven’t integrated advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things into the daily lives of its citizens can be a smart city. This can be because the city is relatively ‘smarter’ than the other cities in the country, or the economic condition of the country isn’t optimal. The conceptualisation of smart cities varies from country to country. This depends on the level of development in the country, aspirations, and resources of the residents and their willingness to change.
A smart city would have a different meaning in a place like India when compared to say, Dubai or a European city. In LEDCs, the residents’ demands would mostly be adequate water supply, assured electricity supply, sanitation, etc. But in places (such as in MEDCs) where these services are taken for granted, the residents would demand more advanced services such as robust IT connectivity and digitalization, good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation, sustainable environment, etc.
For example, in India, residents might call a city smart if it has organized and punctual transport systems, good home services, decent infrastructure, and a respectable level of cleanliness. However, all these aspects and more are already present in Dubai of which residents make full use. Therefore, this can’t be called ‘smart’ in a place like Dubai. The residents of Dubai may expect more advanced and sophisticated technologies to be used in their daily lives before they could call it ‘smart’. Thus, it can be seen that the meaning of ‘smart cities’ varies from country to country, or city to city.
Following is a case study comparing and contrasting 2 different types of smart cities – Barcelona and Dubai.
Barcelona is the first city in Spain to be termed a ‘smart city’ and is the fifth overall within Europe. It is known to be the epicenter of technology and innovation. But it isn’t the technological advancements that make Barcelona so renowned. It is the high standard of living there that makes it so popular. A strong competitor of Barcelona is Dubai. Dubai has over 500 smart services in both the public and private sector and looks to maximize its citizens’ happiness through ease of living. It looks to implement sustainable alternatives in all types of fields to reduce the overall carbon footprint.
As written on the ‘Understanding Smart Cities’ page, Boyd Cohen has said that a smart city is ranked on the basis of the following six factors: Smart Economy, Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, Smart Government, Smart Living and Smart People.
In this case-study, the 'Smart Mobility' aspect of Barcelona and Dubai will be analyzed to see how the transportation systems of the cities are different because of the different norms and ways in the 2 regions.
Barcelona has a stellar transport system called ‘Transports Metropolitan de Barcelona (TMB)’, It recently put in place an orthogonal bus network including vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines, making it faster, more frequent, and easier to use. Barcelona’s objective is for a person to make no more than one transfer between any two places in the entire city. The bus system also included modern sustainable and eco-friendly solutions. There are hybrid buses, hugely reducing carbon emissions. There are smart bus shelters which use screens powered by solar panels that show the waiting times.
There’s also a bicycle sharing system called ‘Bicing’. This is a sustainable and economic form of transport, made for people to go short distances without consuming energy. Citizens can get a Bicing card, scan it on any station throughout the city, check out a bike, and check it in at another station closest to the citizens’ destination. There is also a Bicing app that lets users see how many bikes are available at a station so that the user can plan his/her trip more efficiently.
Dubai, too has a very sophisticated transport system. The metro system is modern and makes use of latest technologies and services to enhance user experience. Metros are always punctual causing no unnecessary delays. In the coming years, a new fast transport service called the ‘HyperLoop’ will make its debut. It will allow people to travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi within 10-12 minutes, a journey which would take 1.5-2 hours by car. There’s even a tram system that has begun in Dubai, which, like the metro system, is always punctual. UAE residents can expect to see driverless electric cars and smooth flowing traffic in the coming years. Top car brands are trying to make the world’s first driverless cars and they have made progress. Brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW have already created cars that can drive themselves for a short period of time in cases of the driver dozing off, or swaying to another lane without realizing. These cars are available around the world. Smooth flowing traffic in Dubai is achieved with the use of technologies such as M2M which allows the backhaul of data from devices in real time. Traffic congestion is a huge problem all over the world which not only causes delays and frustration but also more emissions. To overcome this, there are over 150 e-services in Dubai, 23 of them via smartphones in order to reduce congestion. This is very essential, as the population of Dubai is predicted to increase around 293% of its current population (Zameer, Sherry) which would lead to more ownership of private cars, and hence, more chances of traffic congestion. There is also mobile technology which enables vehicles to connect with road infrastructure systems and traffic management. The government has used sustainable means and green energy to reduce emissions.
It is quite evident that both Barcelona and Dubai adopt relatively different means of incorporating smart technologies to ease their residents' lives, yet both have sustainable systems in place for a clean and smart environment.