Building Smart Sustainable Cities to meet the country’s Sustainable Development Goals

• Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani- National President– NAREDCO & MD- Hiranandani Group

As the world evolves, there has been a lot of thrust on rapid urbanization and development. The growing awareness and alarming concerns over global warming have emphasized on the need for a more sustainable ecosystem. There is a dire need to bring in ‘Conscious Consumerism’ decision to have a positive economic, social, and environmental impact to build a successful economy. To create such advancements, the Government of India announced the ‘National Smart Cities Mission’ to develop 100 smart cities across the country, making them citizen friendly, tech – savvy and sustainable. The advanced technology will be enabled to bring in best global practices and redesign the sustainable world.

Creating integrated sustainable developments has become a reality in India. Having said that, the need for ecological sustainability is also of equal importance. Countries and nations expect to achieve a wholesome future. The marrying of technology with ecological sustainability helps develop a nation that is not only smart, efficient, sustainable but also successful. UNECE and ITU jointly developed a definition of smart sustainable cities as an innovative city that uses ICTs and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generation consumers with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects. In India, particularly, the government and the real estate industry are collectively working towards creating this as the “wholesome future” envisaged.

The use of technology in a smart sustainable city cannot be underplayed. In today’s age, the demand for emerging technology is on the rise. Ensuring ways to use these technologies in bettering the city management goes a long way in creating a system that is efficient and reliable. Information and Communications technology has opened up many possibilities in the sustainable smart cities paradigm. With various advancements in Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Sensors, Geospatial Technology, Machine Learning (ML), Big Data analysis etc. tasks like e- governance, healthcare, waste management, finances, traffic, education, security and protection among others become more streamlined. Smart cities are built of smart homes. Therefore, today, as the world progresses, new age homebuyers have expressed the need to have home automation integrated in their day to day lives through a central system monitoring the lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances.  

The aspect of sustainability, in reference to smart cities, is ideally, about projects and the overall blueprint of the infrastructure planned. Apart from integrating sustainable and eco- friendly practices in the construction phase of a building, being an eco-friendly and sustainable township is also about using methods that help in overall energy efficiency and waste management. Efforts such as recycling garbage to form bio-composts inadvertently help in powering utilities, to harness wind and solar power to provide a part of power requirements. Other systems such as charging the water table through rain water harvesting, and sewage treatment which provides treated sewage in form of water for gardens and construction/ cleaning purposes are integrated within a smart sustainable city. Sustainability within a smart city requires smart architecture which ensures aligning construction with the wind and natural light resources, so that load on HVAC and luminaries is reduced. It is also important to focus on areas like air and water pollution control, sewage disposal, connectivity that ensures low pollution emission on the roads and during activities including construction.

The Covid- 19 pandemic has highlighted the need for technology as it has the need for a home for everybody. Technology came in handy for sustaining communications and connections while maintaining the norms of social distancing, while home is what allowed us to return and protect ourselves in a safe and secure environment. The need to blend the two together to create a holistic and self- sustaining ecosystem has been the aim for economies across the world. With each integrated eco-township or a smart city that is planned and executed, India reaches a step closer to its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).