By 2050, 70 percent of the global population will be city dwellers. This means we need more cities, smart cities at that. Urbanisation although usually a has negative impact on the environment, does not need to be that way.
Raj Cherubal, the CEO of Chennai Smart City in the regional WWF Climate Solver organised by Aspiration Energy talked about the various ways the smart cities are using innovative technologies to help address issues concerning climate change.
He discussed a number of planned initiatives that could help move towards sustainability in cities:
Parallel Parking Systems
The aim of this project is to provide information on the parking spaces available in the city, and enable neat and and trouble-free parking. This will use IoT to track the availability of some 12,000 parking slots.
Although this system is not intuitively a climate change solution, it can be majorly effective in reducing the number of cars on road – and thereby reducing pollution
Cycle Sharing
Cycles will be made available for rental throughout Chennai, allowing the people both the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and also a eco-friendly mode of transport. The cycles will be fit with GPS enables trackers that will be help the people know the availability of these vehicles in their locality. Read more about the initiative here as part of Chennai being a C40 city.
Command and control
This system will help MTC buses ply efficiently thorough the help of intelligent traffic systems. Users can also get the information of the buses in their area and the would suggest the most optimum way to travel to the users.
Clean Sewage
The fourth initiative is to clean sewage under the bridge that are open and near residential areas and convert them into clean water sources and parks for the public
Smart Grids
Smart grids are the systems that could redefine the supply and distribution of both renewable and non- renewable sources of energy. As part of this the charging stations would be installed to enable charging of electric vehicles. TANGEDGO will be able regulate tariffs and play the role of present day petroleum companies.
These systems once in place can significantly help us tackle social, environmental and economical issues on a global level.