Sustainability Blog Post #4: How Can We Make Smart Cities More Sustainable?

Developing smart cities and human settlements is vital to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It establishes a clear outline for better city spaces in accordance with the needs of today. Goal 11, in particular, emphasises the development of inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities.

As we look for ways to optimise our surroundings and decarbonise our economy, ensuring that living spaces are up to standard should be high on our priority list. After all, one way to make sure that we can live in a sustainable environment is by starting from the places we call home. But how do we make cities sustainable?

Introducing Smart Cities

The concept of smart cities has been around since the 1960s, when the US Community Analysis Bureau began using databases and analysis to direct resources to mitigate against disasters and reduce poverty. Amsterdam was the first “smart city” with the creation of the virtual digital design in 1994. But exactly what are they, and how can they help with sustainability?

According to IBM, a smart city is “one that makes optimal use of all the interconnected information available today to better understand and control its operations and optimise the use of limited resources.”

In theory, this should eradicate critical problems such as poverty, homelessness and the misuse and mismanagement of resources. However, this is easier said than done. An enormous amount of data is needed to assess the challenges faced by larger cities.

Data accuracy is critical in these situations but how can anyone authenticate this data? Rampant data manipulation has created a trustless environment that often undermines data collection efforts. Blockchain, as an immutable source of data, can help with the collection of vital information. This can be used to make decisions to promote sustainable development. Infrastructure that promotes data collection will allow leaders to shape policies to benefit citizens’ quality of life. Smart cities use three layers of “smartness” to do this.

These layers can help tackle challenges more efficiently. Yet, a problem most urban areas face today is the implementation of sustainable ideas. Cities weren’t made with sustainability in mind. This makes it harder for policymakers to actually do anything substantial.

What needs to change is the fundamental way we view cities and human settlements. As with all other sectors, urban planning must shift its focus and put sustainability at the very heart of the operation.

How Can We Make Smart Cities More Sustainable?

With the help of the data gathered, critical issues can be addressed. In 2016, key performance indicators (KPIs) for Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) were developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and several UN programs under the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative.

At present, a closer look at three crucial areas can transform our smart cities into sustainable ones.

1. Energy

Energy consumption is a massive challenge today. With efforts being made to shift toward sustainable energy, one of the main challenges is ensuring that energy is used efficiently and saved. Using renewable resources, we can optimise existing technologies to create energy savings. MyPower can help with energy usage by tokenizing energy-producing assets. This will allow people to own their own energy and make use of tokenization for further incentives.

2. Carbon Emissions

As addressed in our previous blog, carbon emissions are a significant problem globally. Governments worldwide are monitoring emissions as a means to manage and curb ozone depletion. One way to ensure this is by tracking and lowering emissions, increasing walkability in cities, planning less traffic and journey times and developing the necessary infrastructure and resources for electric vehicles.

Riddle&Code’s Enterprise Program includes mobility use cases specifically targeting carbon emission tracking. Thanks to the hardware wallet, corporations can monitor CO2 levels and utilise this information for further research to improve existing technologies. It would also allow authorities to check on emission levels in cities.

“The HW3 Enterprise program aims to convert industries to a Web3 logic, enabling optimised, decentralised businesses’ mechanism and open their ecosystems to operate into a trustless environment. The company can then, autonomously, rapidly, develop its own solutions in a Low Code framework by connecting its machines to the RDDL Network and using the HW3 Enterprise toolchain.” ~Minh Cao, Director of Mobility at Riddle&Code.

3. Water

Modern technologies can be used to monitor water metering systems to limit extensive water consumption. Sensors can be used for leak detection to save maximum water. The development of appropriate hardware infrastructure is necessary to facilitate the observation and implementation of water-conservation methods in smart cities.

While traditional models limit the adoption of such methods on a large scale, more recently, we’ve seen newer technologies which can certainly deal with this challenge. Blockchain technology, for instance, provides unprecedented levels of transparency without compromising critical security concerns. It can be used to keep checks on water consumption, ensuring that everyone abides by established water conservation policies.

The Road Ahead

These strategies will definitely be able to transform modern cities into sustainable spaces. In the next blog, we will take a closer look at the urgency to take immediate actions to combat climate change.

We must act quickly and remove the obstacles delaying our progress. Blockchain technology will provide us with the solutions we need. In our first blog, we spoke about how blockchain technology helps with sustainability. Now, we will explore these opportunities in detail to tackle climate change.