There are so many components with the potential to create the towns of the future, where the automation of tasks is predicted to make our day-to-day lives more convenient and environmentally safe.
Automation has quite a big capacity in terms of the features of smart city projects all over the world: for instance, traffic could greatly develop thanks to grid systems, which will become possible because of reliable and instantaneous network connections which are being introduced. This would lead to more consistent public transport systems that collaborate well between different means, and, perhaps, even the use of driverless cars, which are also getting closer to coming to be a reality. Bodies such as the Telecom Italia board have used their corporate social responsibility branches to support innovation and provide a platform for discussion in this specific sector. This is definitely a space for innovation for several sectors, from telecommunications to manufacture of vehicles: When thinking of smart cities IOT, or internet of things, seems to be a key development in offering a reliable platform to link all the different discoveries.
One of the main points in the notion of smart cities is that sustainability is frequently taken into account: in order to build the cities of the future, in fact, we as a society must make certain that they are well implemented in the surrounding environment, and work in harmony with it, rather than against it. Initiatives like the GrowSmarter project have this type of purpose in mind, and the solutions developed in this industry are commonly aimed towards a more sustainable life, which is one among the primary advantages of smart city projects. For example, finding novel manners to implement green areas and more trees in a city is a good way to naturally attain fresher air and far better insulation: innovative concepts such as vertical and rooftop gardens have been shown to insulate homes more effective without requiring energy, and, at the same, time absorbing carbon-dioxide with photosynthesis.
Amongst the common features of smart city arrangements seems to be the concept of self-sufficiency, that is, the appropriate resources being generated within the city itself. A nice example for this idea is energy: renewable resources, for instance, could be put in place in the urbanized space, such as with solar panels on buildings. This way, households and companies alike would be able to generate the energy they will consume at little to no expense, and will have a lower carbon footprint as well. Another element commonly mentioned at smart cities conference events is that of smart meter systems, something that the Drax board has taken into account; by monitoring usage on an individual household basis, resources can be distributed more effectively and it will be easier for users to understand how they can apply them more efficiently.