Smart city development in China making headway

smart city

The digital revolution has presented remarkable opportunities for growth and has accelerated innovation in cities across the world. A smart city ecosystem can vastly improve areas such as mobility, communication, energy efficiency, buildings etc., achieved by comprehensive insights and management of big data. 

Emerging smart city landscape

Smart cities have gained importance since the emergence of technological advancement in the last decade, with China leading the way.

According to Statista, more than 800 pilot smart city projects are underway within various provinces of the country as of 2017, which is considered more than half of smart cities around the world between the years 2018 and 2023. “Cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are leading examples of the smart city venture and are, in fact, pushing the pace of smart city construction throughout the rest of the country.”

The vision, which aligns with national strategic priorities, has successfully combined embedded sensors, metering devices, cameras, and other monitoring technologies with big data processing and AI analysis to help manage its cities and public spaces.

In addition, reports estimate that by 2023, 44.5 percent of devices being used in China will comprise fixed smart video surveillance technology, the smart Grid, the Internet of Things (IoT) backend system and the smart transport system, according to Statista.

A growing smart home market

Smart home systems are gaining popularity and have the potential of becoming an integral part of the overall smart city experience. 

Smart home or home automation is considered an enhanced home lifestyle facilitated by technology; allowing home features such as lighting, heating, windows and other home appliances to be controlled remotely using a smartphone or a networked device, which means energy efficiency.

While this process also provides homeowners with security, comfort and convenience, IoT systems and devices in a smart home operate together by sharing consumer usage data among themselves while automating actions based on the homeowner’s preferences.

Showing the high level of interest from citizens in new era technology, Statista reports that the market size of smart homes is expected to surpass 170 billion yuan in 2020, while China’s target for the year 2023 is to establish around 100 million smart homes complete with smart appliances.