Learn about some initiatives that smart cities can carry out to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
How can smart cities help meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
Although there is no globally agreed definition, organisations such as the United Nations, through UN-Habitat, or the European Union agree that the fundamental feature of smart cities is the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the management of urban challenges and that their objective is to improve the lives of citizens and promote their development.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) add the concept of “sustainable“: A smart and sustainable city is an innovative city that uses ICT to improve the quality of life, the efficiency of urban operations and services and competitiveness, while ensuring that needs are met of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental and cultural aspects.
Smart cities must therefore consider the SDGs as lines of inspiration to define their policies.
Here are some initiatives that smart cities can carry out for each of the SDGs:
SDG 1: No Poverty – End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
As our experts said when analysing the Disruptive Cities trend, “Perhaps the greatest of all challenges is the fight against inequality, the only option for developing a cohesive society”. It is necessary to reflect on how new technologies (robots, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, etc.) are going to change the way we work and how to prepare citizens so that they are not left behind.
SDG2: Zero hunger – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Another possible initiative is to join forces and show solidarity with eminently agricultural regions, promoting fair trade and food safety. As stated in our report Disruptive Cities, by the year 2100, 85% of the 9,000 million people who will then populate the planet will live in cities, a limiting proportion, according to the OECD: fewer inhabitants in rural areas would not be able to produce enough food for urbanites.
SDG3: Good Health and Well-being – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Health is undoubtedly one of the hot spots of adaptation to an increasingly long-lived society. “It also implies new needs in terms of transportation, promoting the socialization of the elderly and encouraging exercise to improve the physical and mental health of the population,” says our Bruno Fernández-Ruiz, co-founder and CTO of Nexar.
In the following video, our expert William Haseltine gives us his vision of how to make healthcare more efficient in cities:
SDG4: Quality Education
Technology can help promote lifelong learning in citizens.
In addition, with the huge amount of data generated in cities, especially by citizens themselves, big data and artificial intelligence solutions can quickly and accurately detect the schooling and education needs of different groups.
SDG5: Gender equality
The applications of big data and artificial intelligence play a fundamental role here, avoiding bias or gender discrimination when analysing data and proposing measures or suggesting policies.
SDG6: Clean water and sanitation – Ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Smart sensors and devices can help ensure the availability of water and its sustainable management, providing relevant information “on the level of sanitation, network pressure, hydrants, flow meters and readings of water quality parameters”.
SDG7: Affordable and clean energy
One of the biggest challenges facing cities, according to the experts of the Future Trends Forum, is precisely sustainability and the energy transition: “We need to develop an aggressive electrification agenda, placing special emphasis on commercial transport, such as vans or trucks”.
“The promotion of electric vehicles should be understood as a measure aimed at reducing the energy footprint of cities and combating pollution, another of the scourges of urban populations (and especially of the health of their inhabitants).”
SDG8: Decent work and economic growth – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Smart cities can help promote productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and foster the formalization and growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.
As Chris Johnson, Gensler’s Managing Director and Chief Creative Officer, says, the future of employment is directly related to cities. According to Chris, there are four drivers of change that affect the future of employment: talent competition, technological change, the rise of the culture of experiences and the power of the urban.
SDG9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
It is essential to bet on open innovation. As our experts at the Future Trends Forum say: “Without the cooperation of all parties involved in the development of cities, including their inhabitants, and without a long-term vision, it seems difficult to successfully face the many transformations that cities are going to undergo.”
SDG10: Reduced inequalities.
“New technologies, digitalization, gentrification, can be factors that increase social inequalities, fragmentation and segregation.” How to make the much-needed social cohesion possible?
Big data and data analytics can provide special support solutions for disadvantaged and marginalized citizens and create indicators that empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all people, regardless of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic status or other status.
As our expert, Natalia de Estevan-Úbeda, points out, “the social divide that the digital world is causing must be included in the agenda of those who are dedicated to the planning of smart mobility services”.
SDG11: Sustainable Cities Communities
For a smart city, this goal must be the fundamental pillar on which the others must pivot. “The future we want includes cities of opportunity, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more facilities for all.”
“All the elements that make up today’s city are important. But we should give even more weight to protecting the environment, on which our future depends,” says our expert Marco Pedrazzo, head of business development at the architecture firm Carlo Ratti Associati.
As reflected in the analysis of the Disruptive Cities trend, in its report Towards the City 4.0, the consulting firm KPMG detects four areas on which the management of the environment and energy resources should focus:
- Efficient management of resources. For example, through intelligent systems for switching public lighting on and off.
- Waste management. This task is becoming more efficient thanks to measures such as the installation of cube sensors that warn when they are full.
- Smart water management. As we mentioned in SDG6, sensors and smart devices can provide relevant information “on the level of sanitation, network pressure, hydrants, flow meters and readings of water quality parameters”.
- Air quality control. It can be done thanks to the smart sensors scattered around the city.
SDG12: Responsible consumption and production
Smart cities need to promote the efficient use of resources and energy, the construction of infrastructure that does not harm the environment, the improvement of access to basic services and the creation of green jobs, fairly paid and with good working conditions.
Smart cities can create systems that allow them to move towards Circular Economy models. One of the trends identified by our expert, architect Chris Johnson, Gensler’s executive director for the Middle East, is the growing use of recycled materials in cities.
In the Disruptive Cities report, we illustrate this responsible production with the case of the British studio that has launched WikiHouse, an open-source construction project of houses that are assembled with large standardized pieces, like a kind of giant Lego (or large Ikea piece of furniture). The intention is to democratize and simplify the construction of sustainable homes with the least possible use of materials.
SDG13: Climate action
Closely related to the rest of the SDGs, smart cities must create systems to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related risks and natural disasters.
One of the emerging technologies highlighted for this year by the MIT Technology Review is Climate change attribution, a field that aims to scientifically determine the mechanisms responsible for global warming and vice versa, which meteorological phenomena can be blamed on climate change.
SDG14: Life below water
Conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development is of particular relevance for coastal cities, but not only:
- Prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.
- Sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse effects, in coordination with other Administrations.
- Create effective water purification systems that prevent pollution and eutrophication of coastal waters.
SDG15: Life on land
With the aim of halting the loss of biodiversity, cities could make use of new non-invasive technological tools such as camera traps and radio frequency scanners to study and monitor the animals that inhabit the city.
“One of the great challenges for cities is to re-ruralize the urban center,” says our expert Chris Luebkeman, director of Global Foresight at Arup. “Urban gardens, urban beekeeping… Citizens want organic and fresh food that comes from trusted sources.”
SDG16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Here are some examples to help promote just, peaceful, and inclusive societies:
- Local police with modern coordination tools with other public security forces.
- Use of ICTs to achieve transparency in municipal public management and avoid corruption.
- Use of ICTs to promote citizen participation.
SDG17: Partnerships to achieve the goals – Revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.
It is necessary to create alliances with the private sector and civil society, involving the local university world (with the Triple Helix innovation model).
To achieve this goal, it would be useful to create a network of smart cities built on principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals.
If you want to delve into the current state of Smart Cities and the challenges and opportunities that arise, many of them aligned with the SDGs, you can consult the analysis of the trend of our think tank, Future Trends Forum, by clicking here.
