Artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, robotics, sharing economy, etc., are shaping a new development phase for the smart city 3.0. By 2020, the world’s population aged over 60 years and older will outnumber children under 5 years old. A tsunami of the aging problem is coming. With the emergence of the Internet of things, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics, it is estimated that half of the current livelihoods – from working class to professional – will disappear. 

The essence of a smart city, i.e., to strike a balance between conservation and development, improving our quality of life without undermining our future with the help of information technologies and data-driven decisions, that’s the core value of Smart City 3.0.

The following six attributes define a smart city 3.0:

  • Smart People  – How can we groom talent to face the rapidly changing future? How to attract talent? Will a smart city benefit the disadvantaged? What is the value of creativity? ICT training (including computer programming, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) becomes a must and language skills. 
  • Smart Economy – How do innovative industries such as the sharing economy, crowdfunding, and FinTech create quality employment and development opportunities for the coming generations? How can we grasp the opportunity with old jobs disappearing and new jobs upcoming? The exponential growth of the sharing economy is anticipated, with global revenue expected to increase to US$335 billion by 2025. The most popular categories include tourism, car sharing, finance, human resources, music, and video streaming.
  • Smart Environment – How should we balance urban development and ecology conservation? What is the role of information technology in these aspects?
  • Smart Government – The government uses information technology, opens data, and increases governance transparency, thus, facilitating communication between the government and the public, which stimulates civic innovation. Establishing a common spatial data infrastructure and opening up government information can encourage the public to brainstorm together on improving the quality of living.
  • Smart Living – The risks and opportunities brought about by the tsunami of the aging population, cybersecurity in the internet age, the changes of lifestyle brought by the Internet of things, etc., have pushed technology forward. Linking up families and neighbors (People), caregivers and doctors (Private) as well as the policymakers within government (Public) to form a Partnership (4P) with a holistic aim of creating a smart health environment can keep citizens safe, healthy, and happy with advanced information technology.
  • Smart Mobility – What kind of changes will the unmanned era bring us? How can we benefit from flying cars? When faced with the increasingly serious air pollution, some cities have come up with alternative ways of travel which are worth our consideration. By the middle of the 21st century, advanced AVs are expected to reduce accidents by 90%. In the US, it would have the potential of saving about US$190 billion annually as a result of the decrease in casualties.

LATEST POSTS

GOVERNMENT