World Cities Summit 2022
This week, July 31, 2022, until August 3, 2022, was World Cities Summit week. Many delegates from different countries joined this summit to share their cities' projects and achievements.
By the way, Vienna was awarded the winner of this year's Lee Kuan Yew World Cities Summit for livable cities. The indicators are given by
- People-centric and demographic dynamics-focused policies
- Affordable housing for citizens
- Active mobility facilities and deterring measures for driving
- Infrastructures built for resilience to climate change
- Create green spaces and leisure places to attract people to socialize
I talked with one of the representatives from Vienna, and he mentioned how public transport has been made better available by developing more access with bus routes and MRT and providing suburban parking facilities for cars to park before public transport into the city. The incentive to use the suburban parking areas is given by the very expensive parking spaces in the city and a lucrative public transport year card, which only costs one euro per day and permits the commuter to travel anywhere in the city on public transport.
Vienna has also developed more green spaces for citizens to spend time and socialize. This contributes to the citizen's quality of life. Moreover, the citizens are actively participating in Smart City activities. For example, house owners can co-invest in solar panels and earn money by selling the generated energy back into the electrical grid.
Singapore focuses heavily on food security and plans to achieve a 30% local supply by 2030. Some developments include rooftop gardens, where recent policies permit companies to set up operations through government schemes.
Other development in Singapore is focusing on spreading out the business areas across the city-state. The Jurong Lake project will introduce a new business district linked to public transport hubs and residential areas. This is not the first attempt to spread the businesses from the Central Business District, as other business parks have already been set up in Changi and Jurong West.
Hyundai had an interesting display of city designs around nature areas. The structures illustrated urban designs in clusters, with an apparent transport system around each cluster, illustrating green spaces and nature.
ST Engineering is one of the biggest partners in Singapore Smart City projects and offers various services.
Accenture had an interesting display that illustrated the usage of data and analytics to uncover needs in communities, urban spaces, and buildings.
Collecting data about energy consumption in Singapore and breaking the analytics down to geolocation and usage while mapping the location with type of building and, for example, business. It can bring up suggestions for energy savings, for example, if such businesses use a typical type of equipment that may be prone to consuming more energy.
Another demonstration was linked to community engagement by offering an awareness app that uses gamification to educate users about energy consumption, waste management, and more. The data can further be used to understand local community behavior and needs.
From these experiences, cities focus more on resilience, the environment, and citizens' well-being. Several exhibitors discussed how they would like to bring a more value-added vision to city and urban planning.
