More than 50 percent of the 130 smart city projects underway worldwide are focused on innovations in transportation and urban mobility, according to a tracker report just released by Boulder, Colorado-based Pike Research (News - Alert). Europe is leading the way, following by Asia-Pacific, North America, and Latin America.
“Smart city initiatives cover a wide [swathe], but urban mobility is becoming a lynchpin issue that ties together energy reduction, sustainability, and technology innovation,” commented Pike Research Director Eric Woods. “Devising an environmentally friendly, economically efficient, and voter-acceptable mobility strategy for the modern city is at the top of the priority list for many… city planners.”
Based on the findings of the “Smart City Tracker,” the past 12 months have seen an explosion of interest in the smart city concept. Not only are new projects being announced, but many existing programs are being rebranded as smart city initiatives.
Indeed, Pike Research forecasts that the global smart city technology market will grow from $6.1 billion in annual revenue in 2012 to $20.2 billion by 2020 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.2 percent.
Pike’s Smart City Tracker report covers five industry sectors—smart energy, smart water, smart transportation, smart buildings, and smart government—all of which are designed to enable municipalities to:
» Reduce environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions;
» Encourage economic development; and
» Deliver improvements in citizen services.
“The growing interest in smart city programs is creating a global market opportunity that represents billions of dollars in annual revenue,” said Woods. “City officials see sustainability as closely tied to the economic opportunities for their cities. They understand that the growth industries of the future will be closely linked to the development of information and communication technologies and services, as well as innovative clean technologies, and they see the smart city concept as both a useful marketing tool and a means of coordinating investment and innovation.”
Edited by Brooke Neuman