The Development of Smart Cities

The Development of Smart Cities

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to offer examinations of the role of communication technologies and new information systems (ICTs) in the establishment of smart cities. Therefore, through the use of critical comparative analysis and descriptive analysis, the impact of the new technological development that is the new generation of communication referred to as 5G technology on the development of smart cities is described.

On an international basis, all countries and cities have their primary goal as sustainable and smart development. The need for the development of the smart city has existed for decades.  The cause for the existence is the increasing collection of debris and other related activities that have increased on the exploitation of the available resources within the country, improve on the levels of pollution, and the increasing need for public services to fulfill the realities. The need for sustainable and smart development of cities can be achieved through continuous integration of communication technologies to enable the development of public services to cause an improvement of the standards of living the citizens residing in the cities (Huston, Rahimzad & Parsa, 2015).

Other available technologies which were available earlier have been necessary for the causing efficient information transmission and communication but have not been well efficient to cause sustainable development of cities to have a smart city; therefore, that created a need for implementation of the 5G technology to support the development of cities into smart cities. Basing on the advancement of information and communication technology, the term smart city emerged with a reason for mitigating the effects which are caused by rapid urbanization. Rapid urbanization and its outcomes have always been a challenge to most of the existing cities in the world. There is a challenge in the transformation of cities and other areas to smart cities because of the rapid growth of population, the increased demand for resources, space, and facilities. The development of smart cities will be beneficial in reducing the problems that are caused by the rapid growth of the population. Some of the problems which are caused by the rapid growth of the population are increased traffic, more significant pollution problems, demand for satisfaction of sanitation services, and energy demands.

Thesis statement: The integration of 5G technology creates an answer to sustainability and the development of smart cities due to mass consumption and overexploitation of resources.

Benefits of having a smart city

Cities contain different platforms of human social, cultural, and economic activities that are very useful in providing services and opportunities for external and internal stakeholders. Considering the environment the different individuals or stakeholders are living, the civil and public society, especially the internal stakeholders within the city, are highly concerned about the facilities that are tangible for example the services and products offered by the city, creation, fixed environment, and accessibility of employment, education, family, and friends. Depending on the discussed concepts, the benefits of implementing the idea of a smart city include an increase in the efficient allocation and utilization of resources, the increased quality of life, the openness of the government towards internal stakeholders, and enhanced transparency. Implementation of a smart city through the use of Information and communication technology helps in the provision of diversified services. Some of the services which are delivered efficiently through the use of ICT include education, healthcare, energy, mobility and transport, public safety and security, and other services. The use of sophisticated 5G technology is very efficient in helping the city become very competitive when compared with others. The development and implementation of a smart city show that their permission of development of industrial/technological sector in the urban economy; that creates specialization which creates competition in the cities, therefore attracting external stakeholders including tourists, investors, and migrants. The implementation of the smart city is very dependent on the way how the city can be planned, operated, and financed.

Importance of 5G technology or network in the sustainable development of cities to smart cities

The integration of the 5G network to the cities will be essential in reducing some of the problems existing within the cities.5G is the current and latest mobile technology developed in the world; it has various advantages as compared to other already existing technologies. Different studies identify that the characteristics of this technology over other existing technologies are high accessibility levels and the ultra-speed of data and communication (Marta & Adrian, 2019).

The essential characteristics of the 5G technology that will make it useful in the development of sustainable smart cities are:5G technologies or networks have high bandwidth and speeds that will be useful in enabling the development of connections of various number of devices at the same time; the techniques are also characterized with reduced latency, that will be very useful in offering responses that are very quick for emergency and critical applications; 5G infrastructure consists of 5G aerials that can easily be in various number of location to provide support for various network devices (Willis & Aurigi, 2018). 5G networks and technologies enable network grid; that means that it can be divided into multiple subnets that are adjustable to offer unique support to various applications, for example, intelligent metering, autonomous vehicles, efficient allocation of public and utility resources, support of public Wi-Fi and many other functionalities.

Different telecommunication companies have conducted the support of 5G networks since 2018, the reason behind the quick deployment of the network was to have a test on the response of the network and technologies on the ever-increasing problems, challenges and complex requirements that are existing in the social and economic environment. The conducted tests implemented that the techniques are expected to have integration of a variety of infrastructures and devices, products, building, services such that there is provision of sustainable and optimal solutions to address the existing urban challenges or issues, for example, high carbon-dioxide emissions, the consumption of energy, health systems, and traffic (Huston, Rahimzad & Parsa, 2015).

The other detected importance of 5G networks or technologies to the sustainable development of smart cities is that it offers support to the analysis of vast amounts of data and Information; the technologies can give support to the complex projects and strategies such that urban settlements are turned into smart cities to ensure growth of the standards of living for the urban citizens (Bulu, 2014). The solutions that are provided by the 5G networks or technologies that develop smart cities include smart transport, intelligent public parking systems, reduction of energy costs and consumption through implementing smart lighting public systems, autonomous drones and auto-vehicles connections, development of advanced new industrial technologies and software, waste and water management, and many others. Through the use of 5G networks in developing smart cities, there is a provision of opportunities that can easily enable the provision of public services to the citizens efficiently (Yenchun &  Jeng-Chung, 2019). Some of the services that would be quickly delivered include health through using telehealth, fight against natural disasters in critical times (Marta & Adrian, 2019).

The Specific benefits for using 5G networks and technologies for sustainable development for the smart cities

Energy

• Through using 5G networks, there will be a connection between the various devices such that there is the management of consumption of energy efficiency and to reduce costs. 5G will be useful in reducing the consumption of energy in the public space as well as the other costs that are connected to the light intensity c

Health

• There would be easy monitoring of health problems through the adoption of digital devices
• There would be conduction of general medical examinations through using mobile devices
• There would be a reduction of rates of hospitalization through conducting remote monitoring of the status of the patients

Transport

• Through using the 5G technologies and networks, there would be a reduction of time that is spent in traffic
• Through using the 5G technologies, there would be rapid communication among the vehicles to make it easy to create reports on the traffic problems.

Retail

• Through using the 5G technologies, there is a reduction in the cost and time that are associated with purchasing services and products online.
• Through using 5G technologies, there would be the management of the products in stockpiles. There would also be the establishment of price strategies through making collections of data of the market demand.

Security

• There would be communication efficiently to resolve and avoid offenses
• There would be fast use of warning signals and remotely to protect people from natural disasters.

Environment

• Through the use of 5G technologies and networks, there would be an increase in the selective recycling rates
• There would be an adaptation of sustainable strategies against the changes in the climate.

Adaption of 5G technologies in different countries and cities in Europe

Various factors are considered when adopting 5G technologies and networks to have a sustainable development of smart cities. The European Union presents different countries and their ranking on how to adopt the 5G network and techniques in the future. The states with the highest rank are Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, and the countries with the lowest rank are Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania that are the states that later joined the European Union. The results of the capability of each country in the EU were divided into two clusters basing on the performance. The table below identifies the results of different countries:

Figure 1: Table showing the capability of countries in the EU to implement a smart city through embedding a Smart city source: Marta & Adrian (2019).

Based on the above table, it is observed that countries which are located in western and Northern Europe are highly favorable to the implementation of 5G technologies in the sustainable development of smart cities. The states in the southern part of Europe, according to the research, are less adaptive to the development of smart cities through using 5G technologies. The states or countries which are highly developed and are financially stable can easily implement sustainable development by using 5G technologies.

There are several reasons why developed countries are gradually developing smart cities. One of the reasons why developed countries, for example, the United States of America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and others, implement smart cities is that they allocate a good percentage of their revenue or GDP to research and development. Those countries allocate 3% of the Gross Domestic Product to research and development (Marta & Adrian, 2019). Other states, for example, Cyprus, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Roman have a range of 0.5% to 1% of their Gross National Product to Research and Development (Marta & Adrian, 2019). Therefore, countries that allocate fewer funds to research and development together with developing countries find it hard to have the easy implementation of 5G technologies, and they face competitive problems from developed countries. Some countries are finding it hard to effectively implement 5G technologies because they have inadequate infrastructure, low technology developments, low skills for the available workforce, and unfavorable government policies towards the development of technology.

Conclusions

The research has been useful in having an empirical analysis of 5G technologies and networks in the sustainable development of cities. The research indicates that there are various benefits of integrating a 5G network to the different sectors when there is a need for sustainable development of smart cities. Some of the benefits are speed, latency, large bandwidth, and many others. The research also indicates that cities have to implement and meet specific criteria before looking forward to implementing 5G networks. Some of the requirements that have to be met by the cities before the implementation of smart cities are Very high use of ICT in all sectors of the economy and city, high-quality development of the human capital, adequate infrastructure development, favorable government regulations in line with the ICT development, and high level of innovations. The research shows the reasons why developing countries are having low development of smart cities. The core reason is that they allocate low funds for research and development.

References

Marta, C.S., Adrian, P. (2019). The Role of 5G Technology in Sustainable Development of Smart Cities; ISSN-Online 2344-441X;https://doi.org/10.35219/eai1584040930

Willis, K.S., Aurigi, A. (2018).  “Digital and Smart Cities”, Routledge: Oxon, NY, USA.

Bulu, M. (2014). “Upgrading a city via technology”, Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 89, pp. 63–67.

Huston, S., Rahimzad, R., Parsa, A. (2015). “Smart ‘sustainable urban regeneration: Institutions, quality and financial innovation”, Cities, Vol. 48, pp. 66-75.

Luque-Ayala, A. and Marvin, S. (2015). “Developing a critical understanding of smart urbanism?” Urban studies, 52 (12), pp. 2105-2116.

Yenchun, J.Wu.,Jeng-Chung, C.(2019). A structured method for smart city project selection, International Journal of Information Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.007