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Smart Cities on the Rise, Report Says

According to a new report, the number of smart cities is expected to increase four fold over the next 11 years.

More cities are reaching into their coffers for smart infrastructure investments. By 2025, there will be at least 88 smart cities worldwide, up from 21 in 2013, according to a new report by IHS Technology, which also states that annual investment on smart city projects is expected to surpass $12 billion by 2025.

The report, Smart Cities: Business Models, Technologies and Existing Projects” defines a smart city as one that has implemented or is piloting technology across three or more “functional areas,” which include things like transportation, energy or safety.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to lead in smart city technology, with an estimated 32 cities by 2025, followed by Europe with 31, and the Americas with 25. The report showed that American smart city projects are typically narrower in scope than those found in Europe, often focusing on just one functional area.

In May, Governing magazine, a sister publication to Government Technologyfeatured “the smartest smart city,” Santander, Spain, in May, showing how 12,500 sensors measure trash in cans, cars in parking spaces, crowds on sidewalks, and particulates in the air. Computers analyze the real-time information to give city officials a better informed vantage point from which to make decisions.

Among the 21 cities IHS currently categorizes as smart, five are in the United States: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

-- Colin Wood

Colin wrote for Government Technology and Emergency Management from 2010 through most of 2016.