The government of Saudi Arabia has embarked on an exercise which is aimed at building at least six smart cities. This exercise will move along way in attracting investors as well as be used as a platform through which the government will improve the welfare of people. In addition to that, the government aims at ensuring the environment is conserved for the benefit of the people as well as evaluating the possibility of reducing consumption of natural resources and especially oil. The government also put into consideration the possible challenges that will be associated with the coming up of the smart cites in the country.
Challenges
The smart cities have a challenge to come up with mechanisms that will be used to improve the monitoring key business application in the cities. For instance:
1) Energy distribution, water distribution, transport, waste management, security and communication networks shall be monitored in the smart cities.
2) How to improve the cities attractiveness to have a competitive edge to attract investors and businesses. This is a great challenge to the smart cities since they are being developed from scratch.
3) Selecting the right technology is the other challenge that the smart cities are facing. The technology that shall be put to use must add value to the environment and be of benefit to the people of Saudi Arabia. This is with regard to all critical form of infrastructure, transportation, energy distribution among others.
Environmental benefits
Smart cities in Saudi Arabia will have a great impact on the environment due to the benefits associated with it.
1) Unpolluted environment: homes will be connected, cars will be connected, and busses will be connected so there is no pollution from emissions.
2) Waste management shall be controlled since the ICT cities will provide alternative method to manage wastes through e-waste programmes. This will move along way into giving a chance for adaptation to climate change.
3) Stop use of disposable plastic bag: since the plastic bags are products of petrol smart cities will offer solution for the plastic bag as they are a health hazard.
4) The externalities associated with congestions on the roads shall be internalised and therefore no negative impact on the environment.
Benefit to the people
People will greatly benefit from the smart cities since most of their basic needs shall be fulfilled quickly and to their satisfaction. For instance:
1) Water supply shall be checked to ensure constant supply of water to all people due to their ability to detect leakages immediately they occur.
2) Electricity supply shall be well developed since connection to power is a key pillar to support the establishment of smart cities.
3) Sewerage systems shall be well connected to ensure service delivery is not interfered with.
4) Communication facilities shall be at their best to ensure transfer of information from one place to the other is timely.
5) Development of transport network that ensure people can access different places with a lot of ease.
Reduction in consumption of oil and other natural resources
The smart cities will reduce the consumption of oil and other natural resource for fuel:
- The connectivity of the automobiles will mean that consumption of oil will reduce.
- Most of the industries in the smart cities will use high powered energy which will ensure environmental sustainability in that they will refrain from using other alternative of fuel for instance coal.
- The government has put efforts in production of energy from sun resources and using the same energy in electrical stations
- The government has allocated a significantly large amount of money in undertaking research on going green.
- Through research and development, the government has come up with various sources of renewable energy
Bibliography
Al Waer, Husam, and Mark Deakin. From Intelligent to Smart Cities. From Intelligent to Smart Cities: Earthscan, 2011
Campbell, Tim. Beyond Smart Cities: How Cities Network, Learn and Innovate. Abingdon, Oxon: Earthscan, 2012.
Information Resources Management Association. Wireless technologies: concepts, methodologies, tools and applications. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2012.
Netton, Ian Richard, and Muḥammad ʻAbd al-Ḥayy Muḥammad Shaʻbān. Arabia and the Gulf: from traditional society to modern states. Totowa, N.J.:Barnes & Noble, 2006.
World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, and Álvaro Rocha. Advances in information systems and technologies. Berlin: Springer, 2013
