We have seen the emergence of smart phones and smart cars, what’s next? The answer to that is smart cities.  I recently read an article about how the infrastructure of cities will be seeing a major change within the next quarter century.  According to statistics, world wide the number of people living in cities now is greater than the population in rural areas for the first time since the existence of man kind.

Take a minute to comprehend that… its really crazy to think about.  The majority of the worlds population is condensed into a very small amount of globes land mass.  In China, by the year 2025 over 350 million people will migrate to cities.. that is more than more than the current US population.

So what do these numbers mean?  Well it means that the way that cities operate will need to change.  That brings us to the point of this article… smart cities.  The concept is to make cities more “capable of delivering services and foster innovation”.  IBM is on the forefront of this movement.  The goal is to implement information communication technologies into the urban infrastructure.

An example is in Rio in Brazil.  Rio was subject to horrible mudslides in the year 2010.  Now the city is taking steps to improve weather predictability and systems that recognize any type of vulnerability.  Safety will be greatly improved as cities progress towards “smart city” status.  Changes that occur will vary in every city.  It will be interesting to see how cities in the US adapt to this new concept.  There is much more behind smart cities, below are links that will further explain what they are!

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_cities/overview/index.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/idUS119476552020111104