Riyadh… The Future Of Smart Cities

By : Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Al-Naimi

The management and development company of the King Abdullah Financial Center “CAVD” and the Saudi artificial intelligence company “Sky” announced their partnership to implement a new project in the field of smart cities, which will contribute to a qualitative transformation in urban life in “CAVD” to be a model for other smart city projects throughout the kingdom.

Sustainable smart cities rely on stable, secure, reliable and interoperable communication infrastructure to support a huge volume of ICT-based applications and services.

Recent developments in the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, digital twins, robotics, smart grids and smart meters are all driving and supporting the development of sustainable smart cities around the world, and to enrich and enhance the decision-making process of governments.

Governments can use ICT in conjunction with renewable energy and other technologies to build smarter and more sustainable cities for their citizens, a sustainable smart city is an innovative city that uses ICT to improve the quality of life, make urban operations and services more efficient, enhance its competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of current and future generations in terms of economic, social, environmental, and cultural aspects.

Although cities in which all urban systems and services are connected do not yet exist, many cities are on the way to becoming sustainable and smart cities, and they rely on ICT, for example, to promote energy efficiency and waste management, improve housing and health care, improve traffic flow and safety, detect air quality, alert the police to crimes occurring on the streets and improve water and sanitation networks, make rural communities smart and sustainable and improves the quality of life of rural residents and helps achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals “SD-G”, and have The possibility of accelerating the achievement of all seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals, including the eleventh goal, which aims to achieve sustainable cities and communities.

The Saudi government has increasingly developed the concept of a smart city to meet the challenges of sustainable development and improve the quality of life of its citizens, and based on this accelerated growth, this vision is embodied in the Smart City project as Riyadh, which reflects the kingdom’s commitment to achieving technological development and environmental sustainability, Riyadh is considered one of the most important cities in Saudi Arabia and one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

Smart city concepts include several key elements that include Smart Infrastructure, Sustainability, Technology and community engagement, these elements work together to improve the quality of life and enhance the experience of citizens in the city.

The smart city in Riyadh includes the development of infrastructure to provide advanced services to citizens, through the use of telecommunications technologies and smart networks, the management of public facilities such as transport, sanitation and electricity is improved, and this helps to reduce congestion and save time and energy.

Sustainability is one of the most important components of the smart city in Riyadh, this sustainability includes reducing carbon emissions and improving the management of local resources such as water and energy, based on renewable energy and environmental practices to preserve the environment and preserve natural wealth.

Technology also plays a crucial role in Riyadh’s smart city, and these technologies include the use of artificial intelligence, the Internet of things and big data to improve urban services and facilitate the lives of Citizens, for example, intelligent systems can be used to manage traffic and predict crises.

The smart city in Riyadh encourages the participation of the local community in the development of the city, through open dialogue and foresight of the future vision, citizens can contribute to decision-making and achieve sustainable development.

The government of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has used measures to combat traffic congestion, including adaptive traffic control measures or prioritization measures. The intelligent transport system monitors and manages the city’s traffic through various sensors and a closed-circuit television system “CCTV”, and uses advanced analytics to carry out historical and predictive real-time analysis of traffic, including context-specific reporting of traffic accidents and traffic to inform traffic information boards and key performance indicators for reporting.

The city of Riyadh has advanced to the 30th place out of 141 cities for smart cities, within the Smart Cities Index issued by the International Institute for administrative development 2023, globally, and Mecca, Medina and Jeddah have also entered the index, bringing the total of four Saudi cities within the index.