Since the end of the past century to
the beginning of the 21st century, cities have had a fundamental
paper in the socioeconomic development, given that the socioeconomic activity
has been concentrating in the urban areas.
Between 1950 and 2011 the urban
population increased almost five times. According to forecasts from the United
Nations in the year 2050, 70-75% of the world population will live in cities.
In Europe, with higher city density indexes, we are closer to reaching 80% by
only the year 2020. In developing countries there is currently a massive
migration from rural zones to the urban areas. This represents a greater
political weight and economic importance of cities.
"If
the nineteenth century was the century of empires and the twentieth century the
century of nation states, then the twenty-first century will be the century of
cities!”
Former U.S. Conference of
Mayors' President and Denver Mayor Wellington
E. Webb, First Transatlantic
Summit of Mayors in Lyon, France, April 6, 2000.
That is why cities, in addition to
the political and social relevance, also have to face the big challenge of society
sustainability.
The current deep economic crisis puts
in danger the local finances that have to keep the living standards of the city
and of its citizens. It also requires innovation in the governance model and of
management of public services, with the aim to achieve reduced costs of
services from an integrating perspective and a macro-municipal frame.
Facing this situation of finite
resources, either natural or economic, efficiency and sustainability become the
main challenges that cities have to presently face. A challenge in whichSmart City Expo World Congress Barcelona is centered.
In the last 10 years strategies have
been developed gearing towards future development of cities under the concepts
of digital cities, innovative cities, sustainable cities, sustainable growth,
etc... Smart City is the umbrella under which all these concepts have been
placed together as an integral vision. In the end, towards a smart city vision,
indeed.
From the 19th to the 21st of November
took place at Fira de Barcelona (Barcelona’s Fair) the world-wide congress
devoted to the sector of the smart cities, with congresses, networking and exhibition
space.
The Smart City Expo was an event that
gathered leaders and experts of more than 80 countries. The smart cities sector,
so much in fashion at present, bets on preparing a stage for a smarter world.
In this context, cities will have an important role in the 21st
century challenges: climatic change, consumption of non-renewable resources,
economic development, population growth or infrastructures aging, among others.
Technology then is shown as a tool to promote improvements and make cities more
accessible, manageable, communicative and focused on citizens.
In this ideal, the Smart City Expo World Congress Barcelona bet it all on a vision of the future that has as the goal to
convert the cities in better places to live and work.
The event was constructed around
three parts:
The first, the exhibition, is where
companies showed their products and their ideas and where they were able to
share knowledge, make new contacts and discover new opportunities for
collaboration.
The second part was the congress,
where experts and leaders of the smart city sector shared and exchanged their
ideas and knowledge.
The third was devoted to networking,
with planned activities to create and exchange business opportunities.
Organized in smart areas, these
spaces offered an integrated vision of all the areas that interact in the
development of smart cities.
Smart City Expo World Congress Barcelona was
built around the concept of an "Intelligent Society for innovative and
sustainable cities" that we will be presenting with more detail in future
articles in the smart areas of Energy, Technology and Innovation, Collaborating
City and Smart Society, Sustainable-built Surroundings, Mobility, Governance
and Economy, and Resilience and Urban Security.
by M. Duarte and F. Beltran
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