Everything here is organized especially for people.
According to the latest UN report, now living in cities 56% of the world population. And most big cities already barely cope with the loads on their systems in the first place — transport and energy. It is easy to imagine what awaits us in 2050, when according to forecasts of the same UN, the urban population will increase to 70%, and the total number of people on the planet will exceed 9 billion. But there is a solution. To help the humanity comes to the concept of “smart city”.
When we say “smart city”, we mean a city that actively uses technology in various ways to function more efficiently. A city meets the needs of its inhabitants and literally adapts to them. All this implies a deep integration of modern information technologies into all city services and complete coordination with each other.
But all this is just dry theory. What about the practice? In the world today in different degree of readiness there are several cities, which without exaggeration can be called “smart.” And we are not talking about individual technology clusters like SKOLKOVO or the Silicon valley. It is a real city with all the associated infrastructure. One of them, namely the Korean city of Songdo, we want to tell.
The story of the Korean miracle
Approximately in the mid-90s, when the world did not know of the collapse of the dot-com and global financial crises, and the new technology gradually began to penetrate all spheres of life, suddenly was a very popular concept cities of the future. Rich private companies one after another began to invest in the construction of such projects. Was no exception and the giant South Korean industry, the Daewoo, which wanted to build the smartest city in the world on a large artificial island. But construction did not last long, due to the bankruptcy of the company it had to be frozen at a very early stage. And in 1999, the project bought us Gale International and South Korea’s POSCO E&C. And later as an investor and joined Bank holding company Morgan Stanley.
Officially the project was started in 2001, when shareholders managed to accumulate on it needs around $ 35 billion. This amount is automatically made Songdo’s most expensive private real estate project in history. Several years it took to design and planning. In the end, the construction itself was started only in 2005. And the first objects were commissioned in 2009. They were 12-kilometrowy bridge connecting Songdo with Incheon airport Convention center Songdo Convensia, the design of which was obviously inspired by the Sydney Opera house.
Originally it was planned to finish construction by 2016, but the different situation in the world economy and made adjustments to the plan. As a result, the surrender was postponed to 2025. However, this does not mean that Songdo is a Ghost town. On the contrary, it is already live and quite successfully people work. In 2012, the population of the city consisted of 22 thousand people, and now there is a population of about 90 thousand inhabitants. Thousands more arrive daily in Songdo from the mainland to work. It is planned that by the end of the construction of the city’s population will be more than 250 thousand people and more than 200-300 thousands will come to work.
The city itself is focused on the maximum no of residents from personal transport. First: it was originally designed so that any point can be reached in 15 minutes by bike. Secondly: in the city 25 kilometers of paved Bicycle paths. As for the town area of only 6 km2 is quite good. And thirdly: the city has an excellent public transport system — buses, there is even a subway that connects it to the mainland. Oh, and if for some reason you are still not ready to give up their own car — the city encourages the choice in favor of modern means of transport on alternative sources of energy. On all areas there are countless charging stations for hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as free Parking, 95% of which are located underground.
A single “brain” for the entire city
Naturally, participants in the construction of Songdo are not only the above mentioned companies engaged in the real estate and communications. One of the key partners of the new “smart city” — a well-known Cisco. They were placed in Songdo thousands of various sensors on everything, wherever possible. Every square inch of the city was connected to a single network, and the information flows to a Central management node. There will be analyzed all the congestion, energy demand, condition of underground utilities, number of cars and pedestrians on each leg.
Energy efficiency
Songdo is not just smart, but also incredibly energy efficient city. For example, street and road lighting, thanks all the same sensors, able to adapt to the needs of citizens: the system automatically turns off the light where currently there are no people or cars, and brightens where a lot of them. Of course, that all residential, office and technical premises in the city are made according to the standards of “smart home”. At any time, wherever you are, you can remotely manage your facilities, a microwave oven, or air conditioning. All the Windows in the city made of glass with a low coefficient of thermal conductivity, and all the lights built on led.
Innovation
The city is geared to maximize efficient use of available resources. For example, the waste hot water used for space heating, the waste water is cleaned by special filters and used for irrigation in parks and businesses, green roofs reduce storm water run-off and uses the heat of the sun for photosynthesis and cooling of the surrounding air. As usual for our rubbish collection in Songdo is not at all. All household waste, and moist, and dry, pneumatic tube delivered immediately to the processing station. In the end, the city has no garbage cans, no garbage trucks. All these innovations have allowed each building to reduce energy consumption by 30% and consumption of clean water in Songdo and does 10 times less than in a normal city.
In the end, in just 10 years this artificial island from the dirty swamps became one of the most promising and without a doubt the most efficient city in the world. Songdo environmentally friendly, technologically equipped, convenient for life and work. Plus also very well located geographically: one-third of the world’s population is within a three-hour flight from Songdo. And most importantly — this is not some fantasy, it is reality. The city lives and develops, its population is constantly increasing. Here it is, the world of the future.
Apartments in Songdo sold very actively. Prices — the average of large cities. But the issue of the comfort of life, Songdo will give odds to any other city in Europe and in America.
