Integration is the Key to Urban Evolution: Technical Challenges for the Smart City and the Internet of Thins

Abstract

According to the statistics and estimates of the United Nations, half of the world's current population resides in cities. In addition, there will be 91 cities with populations of over 5 million by 2025, and 36 of them will be megacities with populations of over 10 million. This signifies that cities shall play an increasingly important role in human civilization. However, as populations continue to concentrate in cities, more challenges shall arise in areas such as transportation, energy, housing, disaster prevention, pollution prevention, and various life-support systems and the issue for effectively improving "use efficiency" would need to be addressed.