Infographic: The Anatomy of a Smart City

TECHNOLOGY

Infographic: The Anatomy of a Smart City

Published 5 years ago on January 2, 2019
By Je Desjardins
SUBSCRIBE

Join the 375,000+ subscribers who

receive our daily email
ADVERTISEMENT

Your email address

Sign Up


ADVERTISEMENT

The Anatomy of a Smart City

There is no doubt that the city will be the de ning feature of human geography for the 21st
century.

Globally, there are 1.3 million people moving to cities each week – and by 2040, a staggering 65%
of the world’s population will live in cities.

At the same time, the 600 biggest urban areas already account for 60% of global GDP, and this will
only rise higher as cities become larger and more prosperous. In fact, experts estimate that up to
80% of future economic growth in developing regions will occur in cities alone.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Smart City: A Necessary Step

As cities become an even more important driver of the global economy and wealth, it’s becoming
crucial to ensure that they are optimized to maximize e ciency and sustainability, while
enhancing the quality of life in each urban conglomeration.

Today’s infographic from Postscapes helps de ne the need for smart cities, and it also gives great
examples of how technology can be applied in urban settings to facilitate cities that work better
for their citizens.

Features of Tomorrow’s Cities

Smart cities will use low power sensors, wireless networks, and mobile-based applications to
measure and optimize everything within cities.

Here are just some examples: (click below image to open full-size version)

Smart city solutions will fall into six broad categories, transforming the urban landscape:

1. Infrastructure
Smart lighting is one of the most important solutions that will be implemented in citywide
infrastructure. While smart lighting sounds trivial at rst glance, it’s worth noting that lighting
alone consumes a whopping 19% of the world’s total electricity.

2. Buildings
Heating, energy usage, lighting, and ventilation will be managed and optimized by technology.
Solar panels will be integrated into building design, replacing traditional materials. Fire detection
and extinguishing is tailored to individual rooms.

3. Utilities
Smart grids (used for energy consumption monitoring and management), water leakage
detection, and water potability monitoring are just some smart city aspects on the utilities side.

4. Transport
Intelligent, adaptive fast lanes and slow lanes (cycling, walking) will be implemented, while
charging stations through the city will power EVs.

5. Environment
Air pollution control, renewable energy, and waste management solutions will make for greener
cities. Rooftop gardens or side vegetation will be integrated into building designs, to help with
insulation, provide oxygen, and absorb CO2.

6. Life
There will be citywide Wi-Fi for public use, while real-time updates will provide citizens
information on tra c congestion, parking spaces, and other city amenities.

The Effect?
Cisco estimates that smarter cities will have impressive increases in e ciency: using many of the
above concepts, cities can improve energy e ciency by 30% in 20 years.

Simultaneously, it’s estimated that the broad market for smart cities products and services will be
worth $2.57 trillion by 2025, growing at a clip of 18.4% per year on average.

RELATED TOPICS: # Tech # Cities # Urbanization # Smart City

DON'T MISS UP NEXT

 The Rise of Regtech: How Software Can The Jeff Bezos Empire in One Giant Chart 
Help Cut Regulatory Risks

CLICK FOR COMMENTS

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Ranked: The World’s Largest Cities By The 50 Best One-Year Returns on the Ranked: America’s Largest
Population S&P 500 (1980-2022) Semiconductor Companies

Ranked: The 20 Most Air-Polluted Ranked: The World’s Biggest Steel Visualizing the American Workforce
Cities on Earth Producers, by Country as 100 People

ADVERTISEMENT

TECHNOLOGY

Ranked: The Most Innovative Countries in 2023

In this graphic, we show the most innovative countries in the world, and the factors
underlying their innovative strength.
Published 3 days ago on November 14, 2023
By Niccolo Conte

The Most Innovative Countries in the World in 2023

CONTINUE READING

Which countries are the global innovation powerhouses?

In many ways, the past year has represented an in ection point in technological
advancement. Almost overnight, OpenAI’s large language model ChatGPT became a
household name and AI was within reach to the masses.

Yet looking under the surface, innovation is in uenced by several unseen factors, from
the institutional environment and high-tech exports to research talent and
entrepreneurship culture.

This graphic shows the most innovative countries in the world, based on the 2023
Global Innovation Index (GII) put together by the World Intellectual Property
Organization.

POPULAR

POLITICS / 7 days ago DEMOGRAPHICS / 2 weeks ago MARKETS / 2 weeks ago MONEY / 1 week ago

Mapped: Recognition of Palestine by Visualized: Why Do People Immigrate Charted: U.S. Retail Investor Inflows The 20 Most Common Investing
Country to the U.S.? (2014–2023) Mistakes, in One Chart

MAPS / 1 week ago ENERGY / 1 week ago DEMOGRAPHICS / 1 week ago VC+ / 1 week ago

Mapped: The Expansion of the Progress on 2030 Renewable Energy When Will the Global Population Sneak Peek of Our Upcoming ‘Event
Shanghai Cooperation Organization Targets by Country Reach Its Peak? of the Year’ and More on VC+

     

ABOUT SUBSCRIBE VC+ MASTHEAD PRESS CENTER CAREERS

CONTACT US FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS STORE USE OUR VISUALIZATIONS LICENSING ADVERTISE

Copyright © 2023 Visual Capitalist