“Today’s topics on Cities in Japan 006”
Smart city
Smart City is, in short, “a city that utilizes ICT, IoT, and AI technology to operate urban infrastructure and social infrastructure including energy supplies and transportations in a rational and efficient (smart) manner, where people can live in comfort.”
In an “Eco City”, ICT technology is already used for “visualization” of energy. However, the infrastructures that should be smartened should not only be limited to the hardware infrastructures such as energy supply, water supply and disposal, transportation system and garbage disposal, but also to software infrastructures like home security, health management, medical care, nursing care service, education and disaster prevention as well as information sharing of community activities.
“Fujisawa Sustainable Smart town” in Fujisawa city, Kanagawa prefecture consists of about 1,000 detached houses, Shonan T-SITE,community facilities, and etc. in a site of 19 hectares. Solar panels (PV panels) are installed on the roof of each dwelling unit, and the surplus electricity is purchased by the electric power company. Also, a system to use electric vehicles (EV) as a power storage facility is built in.
“Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City” in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, is based on collaboration between public, private and academic with the keywords “environmentally symbiotic city”, “new industrial creation city”, and “healthy longevity city.” In about 273 hectares of land parcel, there are about 2,000 houses, about 1,000 workers that work at the office, and about 7 million people a year visit the commercial areas. In addition, an energy management system is installed in about 12.7 ha in the preceding gate area of the business area. “Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City” is aiming to become a complex developed smart city.
Many smart city projects are being promoted in Europe as well. According to the 2014 report by the EU, 240 cities out of 468 cities with a population of over 100,000 as of 2011 are classified as smart cities. The project of Hammarby Sjöstad (Sweden) is a famous example.
