Smart cities of the future are being built now. South Korea's Songdo and China's Meixi Lake exemplify the design features that will distinguish our Western Australian cities of the future. These new cities are nearing completion in what are multibillion dollar builds that incorporate intelligent infrastructure and eco vibes.
Songdo is a modern mega structure marvel built on what was once an expanse of mudflats. Presently this new city that lies fifty kilometres south west of Seoul is forty percent complete. It is now dotted with more than one hundred high rise buildings including a 7,800-person apartment complex, a massive convention centre and a Sheraton hotel. Completion date for the city is set for 2014 with a final price tag of 35 billion US dollars making it the largest private real estate project in history.
Backers of the Songdo project include Morgan Stanley, Gale & the Korean steel maker Posco. All are betting that the city will become a trading hub linking Tokyo & Shanghai.
The city will conform to the U.S. Green Building Council's energy-efficient L.E.E.D standards; all buildings are incorporating special window glazing and ventilated double facades. Grey water and rain will be collected for irrigation and use in cooling towers. A network of underground pneumatic pipes will move solid waste, reducing the need for garbage trucks.
From a transportation perspective the city is already offering car sharing, water taxis, bike rentals and buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
An amazing 40% of the city space is allocated to greenery & vegetation including parklands & play areas.
Data networks developed & deployed by Cisco link every facet of the city including schools, stadiums, municipalities and the utility grid.
Cisco views Songdo as a model it can replicate around the world. It plans to build a global centre for "intelligent urbanization" and the replicate the solution in new cities as they are built.
We can certainly expect many of these intelligent city themes to find their way into new cities built in Western Australia.
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