Leading from the Front: Dubai Rapidly Transforming into a Smart City


Leading from the Front: Dubai Rapidly Transforming into a Smart City
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Leading from the Front: Dubai Rapidly Transforming into a Smart City

Leading from the Front: Dubai Rapidly Transforming into a Smart City


United Nations predicted that by 2050, 68% of the world's population will be living in urban areas. That's up from a figure of 55% today and means an additional 2.5 billion people will migrate towards cities. To cope with the strain of this additional load and improve sustainability, economic development and quality of life, local governments are increasingly turning to technology.

These smart city initiatives are springing up all over the globe, but perhaps nowhere catches the eye more than Dubai, which appears to have the cash and the vision to transform itself via a series of standout projects.

A global race
All over the world, the race is on to use cloud, IoT, AI, big data analytics and other technologies to make public services smarter, more efficient and cheaper to run. From Amsterdam, London and Barcelona in Western Europe to the multitude of Asian cities in China, India, Japan and beyond receiving investment, there's a true sense of international competition in this area. The Middle East is an increasingly important geography too, with Dubai leading the way.

The battle for investment revolves around two major factors: availability of funds to build infrastructure and the type of use cases proposed. Dubai has an advantage on both fronts. The Emirate government has been a generous supporter of its smart city initiatives since 2000, when the Dubai eGovernment agency was launched. Since then it's changed its name twice, and is now known as Smart Dubai Gov (SDG). It's also been able to build a roll-call of interesting projects.

United Nations predicted that by 2050, 68% of the world's population will be living in urban areas. That's up from a figure of 55% today and means an additional 2.5 billion people will migrate towards cities. To cope with the strain of this additional load and improve sustainability, economic development and quality of life, local governments are increasingly turning to technology.

These smart city initiatives are springing up all over the globe, but perhaps nowhere catches the eye more than Dubai, which appears to have the cash and the vision to transform itself via a series of standout projects.

A global race
All over the world, the race is on to use cloud, IoT, AI, big data analytics and other technologies to make public services smarter, more efficient and cheaper to run. From Amsterdam, London and Barcelona in Western Europe to the multitude of Asian cities in China, India, Japan and beyond receiving investment, there's a true sense of international competition in this area. The Middle East is an increasingly important geography too, with Dubai leading the way.

The battle for investment revolves around two major factors: availability of funds to build infrastructure and the type of use cases proposed. Dubai has an advantage on both fronts. The Emirate government has been a generous supporter of its smart city initiatives since 2000, when the Dubai eGovernment agency was launched. Since then it's changed its name twice, and is now known as Smart Dubai Gov (SDG). It's also been able to build a roll-call of interesting projects.

 


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