Engendering development of smart cities

The United Nations (UN) has predicted that majority of the world population will live in urban areas by 2050. This will naturally engender an increase in environmental, social and economic problems.  One of the efficient ways to address these envisaged challenges is the development of smart cities. Embracing the smart city technology agenda and making […]

The United Nations (UN) has predicted that majority of the world population will live in urban areas by 2050. This will naturally engender an increase in environmental, social and economic problems. 

One of the efficient ways to address these envisaged challenges is the development of smart cities. Embracing the smart city technology agenda and making it beneficial for present day and future development will remain a focal point for discussion in housing and urban development as the world population increases. Technology will surely drive global urban development in the near future. 

The emergence of smart cities has more than ever before, placed enormous responsibility on the role estate surveyors and valuers, as well as other professionals in the built environment across the world. In recent years and in most developed economies of the world, investments in smart cities have been quite huge. 

Many scholars and some real estate professionals have variously defined smart cities. One denominator in the definition of smart cities is the empirical fact that they are technologically driven with the aim of assisting the world’s growing population to efficiently achieve better living conditions. A smart city uses data driven technologies to achieve efficiency and significantly improve the standard of living.

In this context, therefore, a smart city is a technologically driven urban development that places great emphasis on the use of data, internet, and other proven electronic methods in the management of the city. 

According to the World Global Data Thematic Research, the development of smart cities dates back to 1974 when the first smart city was developed in Los Angeles, USA. Since this historic milestone, subsequent smart cities have been developed across the world especially in the developed economies. 

Despite its appealing benefits, smart cities development will definitely require the needed infrastructure as powered by the government, its institutions and the private sector developers to work. In a developing economy like Nigeria, the dream of fully functional smart cities that are internet and electronically driven is still a mountain to climb because of its dwindling power generation capacity which is a major factor in the realisation of a truly functional smart city. 

Virtually all phases of smart city development will require the professional input of an estate surveyor and valuer. 

The benefits that come with the development of smart cities are immeasurable which will of course generate jobs for estate surveyors and valuers. In a developing economy like Nigeria, where estate surveyors have the sole mandate to carry out valuation of landed properties and other assets, the estate surveying and valuation professionals have a catalytic role to play in the unfolding of smart cities. 

To align with the developmental model that will depict the cities of the future and by extension smart cities, the government, private sector practitioners, estate surveyors and valuers along with other professionals in the built industry must come up with developmental urban housing policies that will engender the actualisation of smart cities as the global city development evolves. 

 Samson Ishaya Idi is the MD of a real estate development company in Abuja