IEEE Future Directions
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Future happens. Yet, in a few areas the future is built through a multi-year planning with a very precise roadmap. This is the case for smart cities having the goal of becoming smarter.
A city is a complex environment, with several independent systems that are influencing one another. The orchestration of these systems is essential for an effective working of the city and planning their evolution is an important part of making the city smarter.
Dubai worked out a “smart city plan” to leverage on the opportunities offered by Dubai Expo 2020, and is now releasing the Dubai Vision 2030. This is actually a vision encompassing both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
It is much more than a vision. It is a roadmap with concrete plans and actions to turn Dubai into a leading sustainable city. And if the vision is for Dubai 2030, the plan is expecting to lead to significant achievements in the previous years.
By 2021 Dubai expects to:
- print 10% of buildings parts of the new buildings using advanced 3D printing technologies, reaching 25% of building parts in 2025
- deploying automation in public transportation, serving 25% of passengers using autonomous vehicles
- deploy hundreds of artificial trees serving as hot spot to provide free WiFi throughout the city
- have the first commercial passenger drones service moving people from point to point
- becoming one of the top 10 sustainable cities in the world (notice the particular challenge due to the massive energy required to power the buildings air conditioning for most part of the year).
In the following years Dubai expect to activate the first Hyperloop to connect with Abu Dhabi in just 12 minutes. By 2030 Dubai expect to become the world leading hub for 3D printing in three areas: construction, health care and consumer products. Notice that this is an amazing shift from being a “Country” that has basically no manufacturing capability to one that is leading the way in tools for manufacturing.
What I find very interesting is that there area areas in the world that area clearly lagging behind today but have the goal of leveraging on disruptions on the horizon to completely leapfrog into the future as leaders.
This is the great opportunities brought by disruptions, and the interesting thing is that you can start counting on them and planning on leveraging on them.
