All across the globe, smart cities are emerging, creating new opportunities for both government and citizens. The challenge is building these connected municipalities—which will require construction companies to partner up with tech companies and government to deliver the next generation of innovation.
In its latest smart-city market analysis, ABI Research finds that governments in China, Japan, and South Korea lead the deployment of citizen-centric, smart-city initiatives in Asia. The smart-city program improves overall quality of life, boosts enterprise operational efficiencies, and enhances the effectiveness of public safety and security, transportation, citizen engagement, catastrophe management, and sustainability services.
Contractors need to be aware of the technology being used not only to make it a smart city, but on the jobsite. The work being done will be the benchmark for smart cities in the future.
In this case, Asia’s demand for smart-city solutions will heighten during the next five years with China, Japan, and South Korea now accelerating adoptions of smart light, meter, building, and transportation, as well as renewable energy programs. All three countries possess strong wireless communication networks, which likely account for the regions’ ability to rapidly deploy many smart-city initiatives in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
Japan also recently launched a smart catastrophe management program, which included an Emergency Warning System developed by NEC, to detect and issue a warning that will alert both the government and citizens of upcoming natural catastrophes and identify high-risk areas to promote quicker response times and resource dispatches. These technologies being installed will provide a blueprint for many other smart cities.
Contractors that are familiar with the tech will be the ones that have an advantage when it comes to getting jobs working on smart city projects.
