Archivo mensual: abril 2013

The concept of a smart or future city has been around for several years now. We have all seen thevideo that shows how our journey to the airport will be transformed in the future, with transport systems that are not only fully integrated, but intelligent enough to respond to changing circumstances and demands.

These visions offer a utopian view of a world that adapts to the needs of the user and automatically and seamlessly adjusts the various systems to optimise and prioritise the competing needs of different users.  Although these visions provide an interesting and easily accessible interpretation of what may be possible, it isn’t yet realistic. For the first time in history, the vision and the reality are starting to align, but they aren’t there quite yet. Sigue leyendo →

Around the world new cities are being built while those we have lived in for centuries are being upgraded for the future.

It is partly a reaction to over-crowding and pollution and partly because in an ever-connected world it makes increasing sense to hook entire cities up to the network.

A smarter city may mean one that uses data on traffic to ease congestion or one that aims to join up services to provide better information for citizens. For many it is about making cities greener and more efficient.

Technology firms such such as IBM and Cisco see smart cities as a huge business opportunity but, alongside the schemes being touted by technology firms, are more grass root projects which aim to empower citizens and allow them a say in how the city will look.

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The world’s population is rapidly moving into city centers; by 2050, seven out of every 10 people on Earth will live in a city. But not every city will be a megacity–defined as an urban area with over 10 million inhabitants–and not every megacity is equally large.

Every year, Demographia releases a comprehensive list of the population, land area, and population density of urban areas with over 500,000 inhabitants. It’s a huge list, as you might imagine. But in looking at the top 10 urban areas by population, some clear patterns emerge. Below, the list.

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MADRID, 11 (EUROPA PRESS)

El secretario de Estado de Telecomunicaciones y para la Sociedad de la Información, Víctor Calvo Sotelo, ha anunciado este jueves que el Gobierno presentará antes de verano un plan de apoyo a las ‘smart cities’ (ciudades inteligentes) para garantizar su interoperatividad y reutilización.

«Con el mismo método utilizado para la Agenda Digital española, lo que vamos a hacer es sentarnos con el sector, con todas las empresas que están involucradas y coordinar a los distintos agentes con el fin de garantizar la interoperatividad y la reutilización de las smart cities», ha señalado Calvo Sotelo, al termino de la presentación del informe de Ametic ‘2012 Smart Cities’.

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