There are many ways to be smart, and there is no cookie cutter approach to being a high performing smart city. Cities should be ready to listen to their citizens, and address their concerns. This includes concerns about the present and about the future.
For cities in all parts of the world, this means granting high priority to sustainability, and improving their efforts and performance in all the ways in which they can contribute to a better to-morrow: better energy choices and consumption, better transportation and mobility, better waste management are key. To do this, better bench-marking and monitoring tools are needed, because you cannot improve what you cannot measure.
I was very proud to receive Miami Smart City Expo’s award for sustainability, and feel encouraged to pursue efforts to bring better metrics to cities in the future.
Culture is a vital aspect of smart cities. Madinah is one example of what can be done to ‘make the whole city a living museum’. Another example is what was done in Paris for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics: make the whole city vibrate together around its heritage, architecture and culture.
