LETTER: The pandemic has exerted a heavy toll on the economy as all sectors will require time to recover. Thus there is a need to explore new options.
Technology will assume a larger role in dealing with future emergencies. After analysing global Covid-19 cases, most of the infections are in urban centres.
Cities have also come under scrutiny because of climate change. They are the largest greenhouse gas source (GHG) due to their reliance on fossil fuel-based transport, poor waste management and inefficient energy use.
This explains why good city management is crucial when dealing with the two
largest threats to humanity, public health and climate change. We have seen the pandemic disrupt global health systems and derail the world economy.
Unlike Covid-19, the full force of climate change is not here yet. Climate change and the pandemic are invisible enemies as the former is in the form of a virus, while the latter comprises greenhouse gas emissions.
As cities become centres for pandemics and greenhouse gas emissions, the solutions to both lie in their better management using the "smart or intelligent city" concept.
A smart city is all about its sustainable management, ensuring a better quality of life for the population. The Internet-driven digital group of technologies has emerged as prominent in the proposed solutions.
However, the success of a smart city is possible provided that authorities and citizens embrace the right technology mindset. Most importantly, these cities must establish the right digital infrastructure, a key technology driving smart cities.
Malaysia has also unveiled the Smart City Framework in 2019, which defines the policy and implementation strategy. But, critics see its implementation as lacking in transparency.
For example, we need an institution to coordinate and drive the implementation. A ministry should not be the one to shoulder this responsibility. The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology, in partnership with Confexhub, is publishing an outlook for the smart city framework, to analyse the gaps in implementation.
The relevant technology providers for the seven components of the smart city agenda were invited to position themselves to be visible in the Smart City Outlook Report.
Compared with the progress of smart cities worldwide, those in Malaysia have a long way to go. We must catch up because smart cities are among the criteria to attract foreign direct investment.
Digitalisation will transform cities, becoming the hotbeds of new green business. The cities of tomorrow will have to invest in Internet-enabled technologies to make city transport more efficient and less polluting.
Sensitive electronic sensors, like those found inside traffic lights, can feed data to decision-makers. This move will help them make less congested mobility systems. Sensors and digitalisation will do wonders for the efficient management of city wastes.
Integrated waste management systems will render the landfill waste remediation system archaic and allow garbage waste to be converted into energy and fertilisers. The reliance ?on big data analytics will be the cornerstone of such intelligent cities. ?Success is possible only if citizens and city authorities embrace the digital culture.
PROFESSOR DATUK DR AHMAD IBRAHIM
Fellow, Academy of Science, UCSI University
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times