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Aerospace and Defense Review

Smart City Initiatives are Necessary to Mitigate Infrastructure Challenges Caused by Pandemic

Due to infrastructure challenges caused by the pandemic and increased urbanization, cities must invest in the right smart city initiatives to become resilient to these challenges.

FREMONT, CA: GlobalData advises cities must engage in the appropriate smart city projects to become resilient to these issues as a result of infrastructural headaches created by the pandemic and growing urbanization. 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the technologies that will support infrastructures such as health, water, and broadband, according to the leading data and analytics business. The worldwide smart cities market will approximately double in size from USD 221.1 billion in 2019 to USD 442.5 billion in 2030, according to GlobalData's research, Smart Cities, 2022 Update - Thematic Research. All citizens will be able to access the increasingly crucial digital aspects of life if broadband infrastructures are upgraded to enhance geographical coverage and improve download speeds.

Work, socializing, education, and shopping have become more digital, widening the digital divide between those who have access to fast broadband and intelligent gadgets and those who do not. Protecting these urban infrastructures and residents' data from criminals and hostile regimes would necessitate the use of cybersecurity. On top of that, cities must begin planning for future issues as soon as possible. Extreme weather events induced by climate change, as well as cyberattacks, particularly ransomware, have devastated urban infrastructures. Therefore, investing in robust water infrastructure will be critical. Climate change and cyberattacks will only get more dangerous as the earth warms and cities become more technologically connected.

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Municipal governments will be worse off due to the pandemic's economic consequences, whether through inflation, budget cuts, or both. In other words, cities face multiple challenges and have few resources to address them. Cities will need to carefully select the innovative city initiatives to invest in now more than ever. AI, IoT, and networking technologies such as 5G underpin the infrastructures that can address these issues. For example, in 2021, Atlanta deployed Olea Edge Analytics' AI-enabled IoT sensors to discover broken water meters, saving water and money. Four days before the WHO first publicly mentioned the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, BlueDot's AI-based infectious disease surveillance platform alerted Chicago. Sunderland was voted the UK smart city of the year by the Digital Leaders 100 for its usage of 5G and broadband infrastructure to increase connectivity and close the digital divide. Cybersecurity operations such as network traffic analysis and malware categorization rely heavily on AI and machine learning.

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