Technology has made the world we live in a smaller place today. Years ago, the world seemed to be out of reach when technology was less advanced. All over, people were comparatively less informed about anything beyond where they lived. Today, you are only a few clicks away from information on any part of the world.
Advances in healthcare and other sectors have helped foster an exponential rise in the world’s population. Cities have become more heavily populated as many moved in from the rural areas to settle down and make a better living.
With the rise in population density, the need to optimise city living should be a priority for the government and other stakeholders.
Our own metropolitan city of Kuala Lumpur was estimated to have a population of 1.76 million last year. That’s 6,890 people per sq km. The Klang Valley, the area covered by 10 municipalities surrounding KL, is also densely populated with 7.2 million people. And, the numbers continue to grow each year.
Technology plays a crucial role in improving living conditions in a city like KL. Take a look at some of the world’s more advanced cities such as Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco and Stockholm. Not only are they heavily populated, they are also among the world’s most technologically advanced.
Recently, the World Economic Forum placed Kuala Lumpur seventh in the list of the world’s most visited cities last year. The city is truly a melting pot of culinary and diverse cultures, and tourists enjoy exploring its rich heritage and fascinating buildings, and the great shopping that it offers.
To make KL and other cities “more liveable”, we should make greater use of technology. For example, the use of energy efficient technology in residential and commercial buildings should be encouraged to reduce our carbon footprint and bring about a greener environment.
LED lights and solar power systems, and monitoring of energy usage will allow for better smart grid management, optimisation of power production and distribution of energy. This in turn will lead to cost reduction, lower pollution and higher living efficiency as our city becomes more developed. Some of the best smart energy living cities in the world which we can emulate include Reykjavik (Iceland), Vancouver (Canada), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmo (Sweden).
A smarter mode of transport would also go a long way to promote better city living. We travel every day, to work and to other locations for our leisurely pursuits. Our public transport system certainly needs improvement to make it more convenient to move around.
We need to look into developing a better and smarter transport infrastructure. Multi-modal transport, smart traffic systems and monitoring, and smart parking are some examples. Fewer cars on the road means less traffic congestion, cut down the number of parking spaces needed and fewer accidents. There will be less pollution, less time spent on the roads and reduced petrol consumption too.
Take Tokyo for example. The city’s efficient public transport infrastructure includes 13 subway lines with more than 100 routes that can get you anywhere within the shortest time possible since the schedules are run with strict time schedules. Hong Kong, meanwhile, encourages the use of a reusable contactless smartcard for electronic payments for public transport, shopping and everything else.
Keeping city folk safe at all times is another characteristic of a modern and effective smart city. Seoul, for example, has intelligent CCTV cameras that can detect trespassing, high-tech street lamps which broadcast audio and give free secondhand smart devices as well as wireless Internet access to low-income families.
The advantages of technology boosting city living is endless. Our capital city may still be quite a long way off, compared with some of the world’s smart cities, as far as using technology efficiently and effectively is concerned. But who knows what the future may hold.
Not many predicted that Seoul would become one of the best smart cities in the world and yet, it has done just that within a short period of time. We have the capability and resources to make it happen. With strong commitment and effort from the public and private sectors, we can transform our cities into high-tech, smart hubs in the not too distant future.
Ahmad Kushairi is editor of BOTs, the weekly tech section in Life&Times. Trained in Maths, he has since traded his problem-solving skills with writing about how tech has helped to transform the world for the better