Smart City Technologies
Smart City Technologies: Driving Economic Growth and Community Resilience
Today, cities across the United States face significant challenges. The future of economic growth is uncertain. Community leaders struggle to make overburdened transportation and energy systems more resilient to climate change, while workers grapple with the impacts of automation on jobs. First responders are stretched too thin as they react quickly to public-safety needs such as natural disasters.
An emerging set of smart-city technologies from industry and university labs offer communities tools to help address these challenges. Smart-city programs deploy sensors, networks, and data analysis to expand economic opportunities for citizens and make communities more resilient. While smart-city technologies are not panaceas for urban challenges, they can enable communities to move more quickly and cost-effectively in addressing some of their most difficult obstacles.
But smart-city technologies are not yet being used to their full advantage. In particular, small-and medium-sized cities lack the resources, networks, and investor appeal that has enabled larger cities to race ahead in implementing and scaling such technologies. Federal support is needed now to help advance smart-city technologies in underserved communities, helping all Americans to succeed and thrive…
