‘Smart cities’ explores new type of urbanization
Print Edition
Li Wei, who took a vacation to escape her big city life, did not expect her short stay in the small coastal city of Wanning on China’s tropical island of Hainan Province, to be so “digital.”
“Download a film within two minutes, scan two-dimensional codes with phones to learn about tropical plants, and make a body-building plan at the hotel’s smart health room — It totally threw me,” Li said.
Wanning, which strives to boost its tourist industry by investing in making itself “smarter,” is among 193 trial cities that have been approved by China’s urban planning authorities to develop into “smart cities.”
The smart city program, initiated last November, is part of the country’s efforts to explore ways to foster a new type of urbanization.
Analysts believe the program has presented a beautiful picture for both the country’s future urban life and the potential of its economic growth.
First created by IBM, the “smart cities” concept promotes the use of new technologies such as the “Internet of Things,” which allows users to control and manipulate objects through computers and cloud computing to boost information sharing and coordination within a city.
Such a concept is expected to generate changes in fields ranging from transportation to the financial sector. With the help of data analysis, big cities will be able to calculate traffic and make rational transportation routes to ease any gridlock.
In Beijing, a network based on the “Internet of Things” will be completed by 2015 to facilitate the operation of transportation, tele-medicine and a smart home. While Shanghai will focus on developing wireless broadband technology and boosting the application of intelligent technology.
“The construction of smart cities will facilitate the transformation of China’s urban industries, innovate social management, improve the ecological environment and promote the public services system,” said Guo Liqiao, deputy director of the department of science and technology at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MHURD).
According to Guo, aside from the current 193 trial cities, many other places have submitted applications for the smart city program, indicating that more local governments have realized that the old path of urbanization can not support sustainable development of the local economy.
More than 80 cities have signed smart city design plans with the MHURD, which describe the tasks of local authorities regarding the building of smart cities over the next three to five years. The signing signals the start of actual construction.
A report conducted by McKinsey Global Institute showed that China’s urban population will grow from 63 million in 2010 to 990 million in 2030.
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