The Smart City Movement
The world population stands at approximately 7.5 billion people at this time.
The United Nations in 2009 and the International Organization for Migration in 2015 both estimated that around 3 million people are moving to cities every week.
Today, approximately 54% of people worldwide now live in cities, up from 30% in 1950. Sources estimate this will grow to 2/3 of the world population in the next 15-30 years.
Those people want high-quality services and unfortunately, many of our cities are facing challenges maintaining or improving their infrastructure. We see a breakdown in transportation infrastructure and affordable housing in many high growth metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Secondly, everybody wants a clean environment, clean, abundant and low-cost energy. The Smart city movement represents a strategy to meet the needs of people for a high quality of life.\xa0 Technology will play a central role in how cities deliver high-quality services, support easy access to business and commercial areas, promote government communications, and provide for community engagement.