“Smart city” is one of the terms that seems to apply to many different areas, and yet lacks a clear definition.
The Netherlands and You has published an update on interesting developments in that country and elsewhere:
- This year, the roof of the Amsterdam Johan Cruyff Arena was covered in solar panels and the energy will be stored in batteries, which significantly contributes to Amsterdam’s ambitions.
- Together with top Dutch universities, the city is researching self-driving vehicles, mobility management and sustainable energy. The city even appointed a Chief Technology Officer to further their transformation.
- In Beijing, the focus is ‘smart economy’, while for Hangzhou the focus is on the ‘Internet of Things’ and Guangzhou is focusing on ‘intelligent traffic’. Also, completely new smart cities are being constructed, such as Xiong’an. This former village near Beijing is being completely transformed and made smart from the start.
- At present, there are about 500 smart cities in China that are being piloted. The market size over 650 billion yuan, with which the Chinese are investing more than any other country in the world. The Chinese smart cities are mainly concentrated in the major economic regions Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.