Different models of cities around the world: Smart cities
Singapore, the smart city that never ceases to amaze Singapore is a pioneer in smart city innovation and sustainability projects. In fact, the city-state has always topped the smart cities index for years. The astonishing Southeast Asian city is following Singapore’s so-called Green 2030 Plan, which marks 60,000 electric vehicle charging points on its schedule by 2025 and a goal of ensuring that 80 percent of its buildings are green by 2030. This means that to create more sustainability and enhance the well-being and safety of its citizens, Singapore’s homes and commercial buildings will become increasingly electric and digital, and even more software-driven and sensor-connected. An example of this is the ecological city of Tengah, which will have a car-free urban center and will use autonomous vehicles in other parts of the city. Its streets will have at their disposal emerging technologies, such as smart lights in public areas that turn off when they detect that the space is unoccupied. The city’s five residential areas, with 42,000 homes, will be equipped with solar-cooled water pipe systems instead of regular air conditioning systems, generating CO2 reductions equivalent to taking 4,500 vehicles off the road annually. The homes will also have automated garbage collection through a pneumatic system. This system extracts the garbage and transports it to a central chamber where a garbage truck will collect it when the sensors indicate that it is full. Tengah will also feature various public gardens and other green spaces. They are looking for a city in which the pedestrian and the bicycle are the kings.
Cancun develops the Smart Forest City
The city of Cancun in Mexico is going to develop the so-called Smart Forest City, which will be focused on environmental quality and technological innovation, in order to guarantee the self-sufficiency of the city through the circular economy. Smart Forest City will be a botanical garden within a modern city. An advanced research center that will be able to house all university departments, international organizations and companies that deal with the main problems of sustainability and the future of the planet. The area will have 557 hectares and is expected to host up to 130,000 people. Of all that land, 65 percent will be dedicated to green areas such as garden roofs, large parks and facades of green buildings. The city will have 7.5 million trees and plants, capable of absorbing 116,000 tons of CO2, and will be self-sufficient in food and energy. The settlement will have photovoltaic panels for electricity production, the proposed transportation system will be semi-automatic and fully electric, and each inhabitant will have services within walking distance by bicycle or even on foot. Seawater will flow through an underground system and feed into a desalination basin. From there, it will be used to meet the irrigation needs of the city and the surrounding farmland. The path that will lead to dematerialized and detoxified goods and services can be summarized in the four R’s: reduce, repair, reuse and recycle. Smart Forest City will address these development needs, enabling and fostering education and economic empowerment, especially for women, by developing radically more eco-efficient solutions, lifestyles and forms of behavior that begin with reducing overall demand. of energy and a decrease in waste production.