- Around the world, national and municipal governments have been deploying smart city technology in the fight against the coronavirus, using it to track theย spread of the pandemicย and support the implementation of medicalย strategies.
- As well as demonstrating the value of smartย technologies, these new applications are helping shape the future of smart cities
The pandemic led existing digital infrastructure to be deployed in innovative ways.
South Korea providedย one of the most successful demonstrations of the power of smart city technologies. The countryโs Smart City Data Hub system allowed the government to conduct advanced contact tracing, using data from cameras and other sensors. As a result, South Korea was one of only a handful of countries to rapidly reduce infection rates without a full lockdown.
The UAE has also deployed a wide array of smart technology applications in its containment efforts. Having previously used a system that tracks mobile phone pings to cell towers to monitor crowds during New Yearโs Eve celebrations,ย the UAEย adapted this to ensure social distancing and lockdown rules were obeyed. Parallel to this, an AI surveillance systemย in Dubaiย that reads licence platesย โย originally designed to reduce crime and traffic accidentsย โย has been adapted to identify citizens leaving their homes without authorisation during lockdown.
Meanwhile, Masdar City โ Abu Dhabiโs flagship sustainable smart city โ wasย at the centre of the Emirateโs efforts to manage the pandemic. A high-volume secure testing facility was built there in just two weeks, with the capacity to completeย thousands of daily diagnoses.
A number of cities across India have similarly used a smart city platform โ specifically, heat maps, aerial surveillance and GPS systems โ to monitor the movement of suspected Covid-19 cases and health personnel. Cities such as Pimpri-Chinchwad saw a significantly slower increase in the number of infections after deploying such tools.
Smaller cities spearhead spending
These and other creative solutions to unanticipated challenges โ among them disinfectant-spraying drones and a robot dog that reminds people in Singapore to observeย social distancingย โ are creating new investment opportunities in a sector that was already poised for significant growth before the pandemic.
According to a 2018 forecast from Grand View Research, the global market size of smart citiesย was set to rise to $2.57tnย by 2025, up fromย $737bn in 2018.
Although the disruption of Covid-19 may temporarily curtail development plans, the long term trajectory is positive.
In Februaryย โ prior to the global lockdownย โ the International Data Corporationโs Worldwide Semiannual Smart Cities Spending Guide projected global expenditures of $124bn in 2020, up 18.9% on 2019.
While a number of ambitious projects with a spend of over $1bn were anticipated, the largest 100 smart cities only represent 30% of total investment, with the remainder to be spent in medium-sized and smaller cities. These includeย Algiers Smart City, a project that has been developed โas an answer to three fundamental challenges: a fairly isolated technology ecosystem, limited technology transfer and low confidence in growing tech giants,โ Riad Hartani, strategic technology adviser to the Algiers Smart City project, told OBG.
Countercyclical growth opportunities
The global economic slowdown will impactย smart citiesย both negatively and positively.
Some projects have already seen a slowdown, and Alphabetโs Sidewalk Labs cited the pandemic as the main reason for shelving their ambitious Toronto smart city plan. However, analysts have noted that the project faced considerable local oppositionย over privacy concerns.
Fears that smart cities could lead to unchecked surveillance by government and corporate actors can often slow or preventย the application ofย certain population monitoring technologies. It is conceivable that public concerns about data collection could be less pronounced following the current health crisis, providing more regulatory space for public and private actors to experiment with profitable smart city models that might have otherwise been considered tooย invasive.
Furthermore, experts in the field see parallels with the 2008ย global financial crisis, which helped to propelย the first global wave of smart city projects. The economic crash and resultant government budget shortfalls created an impetus for cities to collaborateย with technology firms to addressย urban problems and generate new sources of revenue.
A Covid-19 recession could result inย similar dynamics, with more public-private partnerships or entirely private sector-driven initiatives entering the space.
No 5G slowdown
In many emerging markets, the government and the private sector are already working together to speed up development of 5G infrastructure in the wake of the pandemic. In Thailand, for example, telecom operators are joining forces to provide 5G networks to hospitals.
The country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC)ย โ which is vital to attracting the necessary high-value investments in advanced manufacturing and services to achieve the government’s Thailand 4.0 vision โ is pressing ahead with its 5G plans despite the disruption.
โThe EEC mandates that 5G must cover at least 50% of the area in 2020, which means equipment installation must commence this year in industrial areas and some of the big cities like Pattaya,”ย Kanit Sangsubhan, Secretary-General, EECย Office of Thailand, told OBG.
“This means our commitment to upgrading the automation systems in Thailandโs industries will be realised. At the same time we are looking towards other developments related to 5G, including data storage facilities.โ
Theย global rollout of 5G infrastructure isย crucial toย the growth of smart cities.
The faster, more reliable and higher-capacity fifth-generation network better facilitates internet of things connectivity, which is fundamental to many smart city features.
While Covid-19 initially threatened to delay the installation of 5G infrastructure in Europe and parts of China, its impact seems to have been limited. In some cases, the pandemic has even provided opportunities for accelerated roll-out. For instance, empty streets in many countries made it easier to install physical infrastructure such as antennaeย and fibre.
Indeed, Bob Everson, senior director for 5G architecture at technology multinational Cisco, told international media in June that demand for 5G was higher than ever. The outlook for smart city growth, particularly in emerging markets, is similarly positive.
This article was originally published by theย Oxford Business Group and is republished with permission.