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How can the concept of smart cities help emerging economies? And what part do international standards play?
Lagos, Nigeria
At first glance, when considering the topic of smart cities, I wrongly assumed this to be a western concept only applicable to cities in developed economies. The IEC Electropedia definition of a smart city, is “a city where improvements in quality of life, services, sustainability and resilience are facilitated by the effective integration of many and various types of physical, digital and social systems and the transformative use of data and technology”.
The concept of smart cities appeared to be linked to advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, which, I mistakenly thought, can only be harnessed in places where economic prosperity is part of the equation. And indeed, some of the first internet searches came up with a myriad of cities in the developed world from Copenhagen to Canberra. In various lists of the top ten smart cities in the world, none appear to be situated in the developing world.
As the IEC General Meeting is taking place in India, I decided to dig a little deeper and found out about the Indian government’s smart cities mission, which kicked off in 2015. One hundred cities, called “lighthouse cities” were concerned and included Lucknow, Chennai, Jaipur and New Delhi, to name but a few. In the smart cities mission guidelines, one of the defined objectives was to “to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of smart solutions”. Examples ranged from implementing waste management schemes, public information to IoT-based traffic management systems.
At the Davos 2023 meeting, the World Economic Forum published a report which underlined that developing nations are defining the smart cities of the future. The forecast is that, as the biggest city growth will be in the developing world in years to come, these cities will be the first to innovate and find solutions to challenges that will affect other cities in the longer run.
Apart from India, smart city programmes have mushroomed in emerging economies around the world. As smart city planner and IEC expert Ripin Kalra explains: “ The Indian smart city programme has had a huge impact and drew attention to smart city planning in emerging nations and what that could achieve. Other countries in South Asia such as Bangladesh and Nepal have adopted similar programmes.”
Smart city programmes in the developing world have to some degree benefited from the lessons learnt by other smart cities elsewhere around the world. “They can potentially leapfrog ahead of some of the problems experienced by the earlier programmes,” Kalra says.
An example where this could apply is in the area of electricity access. Local city governments could choose to invest in solar panels and microgrids instead of building an electricity transmission network from scratch with transformers, electric lines and substations and then investing in smart grid tech. Microgrids and solar panels are not only often cheaper, they are also more resilient in the face of extreme weather and more sustainable than other carbon emitting systems.
While leapfrogging is a benefit, developing world cities face challenges that are unique to each location. One of them is finding ways to develop an IT infrastructure accessible to all, which is essential to make the transformative use of data possible in the first place. In this report from 2023 published in Current Trends and Future Prospects on Smart and Sustainable Cities, which looks at the potential for Dhaka to transform into a smart city, experts highlighted the challenges for a digital infrastructure which comprises “transparency and accountability, insufficient infrastructure capacity, internet connectivity and speed, and limited access to online apps and web portals”.
Elsewhere, the report focuses on more global problems relating to cities in the developing world, which include “poor governance, inadequate infrastructure, funding, skilled personnel, a lack of stakeholder engagement, data security and privacy”.
Climate change is also exacerbating these global challenges. In the list of the ten hottest cities in the world in 2025, not one is situated in the developed world.
According to Kalra, improving stakeholder engagement is key, but it needs to be done in ways which make the best use of existing connectivity, cultural traditions and practices. Time, more than money, needs to be invested to get the message across to city dwellers. “In countries from Central Asia to South Asia, there are leaders at all levels who are respected and can champion awareness, inclusion and transformation. In India, for instance, the role of resident associations or community volunteers that go house to house or organizes meetings is key to spread the information effectively and rapidly,” he describes.
You also need to engage with businesses and companies – and that is where standards come into play. “It is essential to ensure international standards appear in procurement contracts. If you are buying digital tech, you need to make sure that products from different vendors interoperate and are also future-proof. One of the problems is that local governments invest in digital tech, but it is often a one-time budget commitment, which is no use in the long run, as investment is needed for the full life-cycle of the systems. Software needs to be upgraded and systems maintained, and that requires regular funding and also an understanding of the life-cycle issues. Getting budgets to include a yearly source of funding for digital upgrades is therefore really important as well, ” Kalra adds.
Funding is perhaps the most important challenge for developing world cities, where competition for resources is acute. According to Kalra, smart city programmes can initially seem too expensive to finance. “We are talking in terms of millions. One hundred thousand of any currency will generally not suffice,” he admits. A way round the problem is to use tools such as a cost and benefit analysis – the initial cost may seem high but it will enable huge savings and both social and economic returns in the long run. “For instance, making a city more resilient to severe weather will cost a fair amount in the initial stages, but it will enable to protect assets, ultimately save on precious resources, as well as attract and reassure international investors and keep them there,” Kalra indicates.
He also thinks that educating about standards should be part of the global smart city process. “You may not be able to always educate local politicians, but architects, engineers and city planners should be aware of the benefits brought by standards and how best to apply them.”
Water allocation is an important smart city concern. While drinking water is becoming scarce all around the world, developing world cities face even bigger challenges: many people do not have access to running water, and even if water access exists, it can be polluted because badly treated. Poorly maintained infrastructure can also lead to leakages, wasting the precious resource. Many developing world cities are situated in arid areas where freshwater is non-existent and have to rely on desalination plants, which are not an ideal solution. (For more on desalination tech, read The tech response to global water scarcity | IEC e-tech). Using a smart city programme can help to detect leakages, allocate resources where they are most required, and find innovative, sustainable and low-cost solutions to water scarcity.
The IEC recently published IEC SRD 63301-1, which aims to provide a high level analysis of water systems in smart cities, based on use cases. One of the use cases is the city of Shenzhen in China. The analysis highlights that, because of population growth, 80% of all water in that area had been diverted to the city, which is not a viable proposition in the long run. The situation was improved by the implementation and use of smart technology, which has optimized water supply and demand management in real time. Event decision management has allowed for better water utilization, water discharge and pollution control in more timely and precise ways.
The standard highlights what is required for an effective smart water programme: policy support for smart water supply; secure use of smart technology, including open, interoperable data transfer, processing, alerting and visualization to ensure effective water operations and management; a long-term, government-backed financing policy ; industry accredited project, programme and business management; public consultation and engagement; corporate governance standards specific to water-related infrastructure, supply and disposal activities.
It serves as a blueprint which can be applied to cities in emerging economies – provided that specific challenges are recognized and dealt with.