Since the concept of smart cities was introduced in the 1990s, these cities have been evolving each year, driven by technological advancements and the growing need for sustainable urban development.
For 2024, several trends can be identified with the aim of making cities even more efficient and improving the residents’ quality of life.
Given that smart cities and sustainability are interconnected, and that technological progress should go hand in hand with social and environmental advancement, among these trends are actions promising to reduce environmental impacts and resource wastage.
Keep reading to explore the trends that are set to shape smart cities in 2024.
What are Smart Cities?
Smart cities, also known as connected cities or digital cities, are those that combine various technological solutions to become more efficient, improve the urban quality of life, and ensure that processes and resources are managed more effectively.
Through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), along with a data-driven culture, smart cities integrate various public services and collect relevant data to improve public transportation, lighting, sanitation, waste management, public safety, among other fronts, as well as guide decision-making.
By identifying consumption patterns, behaviors, and movements, among other things, city managers optimize resource allocation and contribute to achieving several benefits, such as:
– Attracting new events and businesses
– Reducing traffic jams and carbon emissions
– Lowering crime rates
– Enhancing urban management
– Modernizing and increasing adoption of public transportation and alternative mobility services
– Ensuring agility in citizen services, reducing response times
– Increasing the efficiency of natural resource use and waste management
– Improving communication channels, facilitating the exchange of information between the population and the public sector
There are over 180 smart cities worldwide, including smart cities like Amsterdam, Athens, Copenhagen, London, New York, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. However, it is in Brazil where the world’s smartest city is located, according to the latest edition of the World Smart City Awards, which awarded the title to Curitiba, in Paraná, thanks to urban planning and environmental sustainability initiatives.
What are the main trends?
The innovations orchestrated by smart cities continue to evolve, both in Brazil and around the world. The trends below aim to ensure even more security, sustainability, agility, and quality of life for citizens and businesses that are in these smart cities.
Artificial Intelligence
As in various other sectors, Artificial Intelligence is at the top of the list of trends, due to its myriad of possibilities for urban management.
Through AI, smart cities can implement or enhance functionalities such as environmental management, to monitor landfill levels, and urban mobility, focusing on controlling traffic jams by redirecting vehicle flow to alternative routes.
Urgent societal demands, such as combating dengue fever, can also be explored by smart cities with AI support, allowing the identification of breeding grounds in hard-to-reach areas.
Another use of Artificial Intelligence is the prevention of environmental disasters, by early identification of cracks and unevenness in constructions.
H3 Geolocation
Real-time geolocation associated with Artificial Intelligence is also a trend in smart cities in 2024.
Imagine how these two technologies can benefit emergency response by dispatching the nearest ambulances to the scene and guiding the best routes for the vehicle to reach its destination faster. This also improves the provision of other services, such as street lighting and urban maintenance.
Chatbots
Chatbots serving smart cities will increasingly be present in various sectors of urban management. In education, for example, they help make classes more dynamic, and improves teacher-student communication.
In the healthcare field, bots can assist in patient triage, as well as raise awareness among the population about treatment and prevention methods.
Task Automation
Improving the quality of citizen services and reducing response times to the population are some of the benefits provided by smart cities, and they are interconnected with task automation, making it another trend that is expected to continue advancing in 2024.
Task automation avoids manual opening of tickets or generating reports. With this technology, the work routine becomes more optimized, improving urban management and making public services more efficient, generating resource savings and citizen satisfaction.
Combating Digital Exclusion
Despite the world becoming increasingly connected and technology being a central aspect of smart cities, the reality is that many people still don’t have access to the internet. To prevent digital exclusion of the population, a strong trend in smart cities is to ensure access to information and communication technologies, regardless of economic conditions or regions where they live.
This strengthens a fundamental player in smart cities, the digital citizen, or an individual actively involved in improving the urban environment, mainly through apps that allow reporting infrastructure issues or scheduling services.
5G
Trends like the Internet of Things (IoT) can be improved or expanded through the deployment of 5G networks, speeding up real-time data transmission.
The fifth-generation technology enables the use of smart devices and sensors to improve traffic and air quality, just to name a few examples.
Energy management is another sector that can benefit from the advancement of 5G, IoT, and machine learning, allowing for better energy distribution according to real-time tracking and data analysis for the prevention of possible failures in the electrical system.
Sustainable Energy
As smart cities evolve, the need for energy to ensure the proper functioning of all technologies increases. However, this advancement cannot be tied to environmental impacts and fossil fuels.
Therefore, smart cities are increasingly perfecting the use of renewable resources for energy generation, including solar and wind sources. In the promotion of clean energy, another growing practice is the transformation of organic waste, such as converting animal manure into biogas.
About Exati
Innovative technological solutions are essential to the viability of smart cities, improving urban management, favoring better resource utilization, and increasing citizen satisfaction with public services.
Exati is among the companies that are a reference in this regard, offering a less bureaucratic and more accessible management model that reduces operational costs without neglecting the quality of public services.
In addition to Street Lighting management, in which Exati’s software is a highlight in Latin America, the solutions we offer also cover other segments such as waste management, urban forestry, pavement, and remote management.
Some of the trends in smart cities are present in Exati’s system and favor municipal management, regardless of city’s reality, including Artificial Intelligence, Task Automation and Geolocation. Talk to one of our specialists and understand how our software can streamline and transform your management.