Decoding the “Smart” of the Smart City?
“Smart City – Does it mean a city for A+ graders only?” asked my daughter, studying in 5th class, with great intrigue as she started to research on the topic for her school essay.
The question got me to smile, sensing a window of opportunity to boast off my expertise on the esoteric subject of Smart City and impress my little girl.
But then I stopped in my response, to cogitate on this rather innocuous query.
What appeared so innocent in the first instance, on introspection, assumed a much deeper meaning to it and looked no more an ignorant query from a 5th grader.
Was Smart City all about technology making life simpler for its inhabitants to live or , Was it the inhabitants that will make the city a truly smart place to live?
The technological advancements will enable the quintessential smart solutions - smart power management, smart water management, smart traffic management, smart waste management and myriad of similar smart solutions.
But technology can do only so much, leveraging these solutions to improve the quality of life is still in the purview and power of the inhabitants of these cities.
No smart power management system can eliminate the power wastage unless the users bring the discipline in the manner they consume it.
No smart water management system will reduce water wastage unless the citizens imbibe habits to conserve this critical life sustaining resource.
No smart waste management system can improve the clean quotient of the city unless its citizens comply to the waste segregation and disposal process at individual household level.
No smart traffic management system will reduce the traffic issues unless the individuals driving the vehicle adhere to the traffic rules and inculcate disciplined driving manners.
The technology at best can only compliment and augment the human effort, the effort still has to be made at the individual level.
And it is this cognition and effort on behalf of the individuals which will make them an A+ grade citizens and make the city they reside in a "Smart City".
“Yes darling, it indeed means a city of A+ graders” was my response after the brief pause, which got my little girl gleaming with her newly acquired wisdom.
And I smiled back with great satisfaction , having decoded the real “Smart” of the Smart City.
IT Infrastructure and cloud - Operations | Engineering | Information Security | Vendor management
8 年Anup.. you bang on point. But in some case SMART efforts are relevant where human intervention is minimal and THINGS are connected and automated to save time, energy and efforts to reach at results or near to result. Something like online applications, filing complaints, getting needed certificates which is totally automated or with less human intervention without adding human behavior. The examples you are saying.. power, water and waste management are more human action dependent and success of them is totally dependent on human behavior. I also agree with Ranjit for is definition of SMART. Well said.
Supercharging Progress as Sr. Manager in Data Services & Application Development. Certified PMP, Certified Predictive Business Analytics. Pursuing Executive Product Management from ISB.
8 年Smart explanation of SMART city to a kid, Anup. Also, I think first of all rule of law needs to be implemented in India, where the might of money and mob rules. I am sure there are plenty of A+ graders, who are corrupt to the core. Technology needs to make public service delivery system S - Simple, M - Measurable, A - Accountable, R - Responsible and T - Transparent - for a truly SMART city.
Product Engineering | Agile Management | Data Science | Emerging Tech Enthusiast
8 年Anup nicely explained the concept of Smart citiy