Around the globe, humanity is experiencing a dramatic and transformational shift toward urbanism. In 1800, only 3 percent of the world’s population lived in what we would today classify as an urban area. In 1900, that number had risen to 14 percent and by 1950, urbanites still represented only 30 percent of our population.
Fast forward to 2008, though, and for the first time the world’s population was evenly split between urban and rural areas. And this global trend toward urbanization continues to accelerate, with 70 percent of the world’s population projected to live in urban environments by 2050.
This trend toward urbanization is largely positive. More densely populated communities consume natural resources more efficiently and allow for more effective delivery of critical services, leading to consistently improving quality of life. And cities generate more economic activity. For example, just 600 cities around the world produce nearly 60% of global GDP.
But along with these benefits come numerous challenges, including threats to physical and economic mobility, a lack of resilience in the face of environmental and man-made threats, challenges to public health and safety, and challenges to overall quality of life.
All of these complex factors make the of Smart Cities ethos critical to our collective future. On the whole, the promise of Smart Cities policies, practices and technologies is the promise to enable us all to live, work and play more efficiently in a future increasingly shaped by urban challenges and opportunities, regardless of our physical proximity to a major urban core.
To fully realize this promise, however, it’s essential that public sector leaders come together with academic and research institutions and the world’s leading private sector solution providers to actively co-create the future we desire to see.
Why Today? And Why Colorado?
While this optimal state has long been pursued, it has never been achieved. So, why can we succeed today while so many before us have failed?
The answer is simple: network technology and computational analysis present an opportunity to amplify the principles of good urbanism in ways that simply were not possible even a decade ago.
Sensors and actuators, data analysis and prediction, tools for civic engagement and empowerment: all these technologies permit us today to listen to the built environment as closely as we listen to the natural environment or the human body. And what we’re hearing is a set of problems and challenges that go beyond our cities’ abilities to solve them independently.
This technological advancement, set against this complex backdrop of global urbanism, presents us with a remarkable opportunity.
Here in Colorado we’re experiencing both opportunities and challenges related to the remarkable growth taking place across the state:
- Today Colorado has one of the fittest populations in terms of health and potentially one of the most diversified and resilient economies in the nation.
- With an unemployment rate hovering near 2%, the lowest in the nation, we’re essentially at or near full employment.
- Our diverse economy features some of the leading companies in the most advanced industries in the world. (Tech, aerospace, engineering, health care, telecom, etc.)
- Real estate values are rising, generating tremendous wealth for both individuals and businesses.
- In-migration to the region, particularly among highly educated young citizens, continues to exceed national averages.
- Recent projections anticipate more than three million additional people will move to Colorado by 2050, a 50% increase, inspiring both excitement and anxiety among community leaders and citizens alike.
For all these reasons for optimism, we’re also at risk of falling victim to our own success.
- Along with full employment comes transportation infrastructure that is at capacity today, even before accounting for future growth.
- Along with rising real estate values comes a lack of affordable housing options for the region’s fast growing workforce.
- Income inequality is growing and, regrettably, so too is the threat of related social tension in the future.
- As new, highly educated workers move into the region, lesser trained or lower paid service workers inevitably get pushed further out from population centers, putting even more pressure on the region’s services and transportation infrastructure.
The Solution – The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance
This level of complexity — and the multi-stakeholder collaboration it requires to create order — is the reason why the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance was created, and it’s the reason why Arrow has become the organization’s first private sector technology advisor and partner and the reason why we’ve partnered with the University of Colorado as our lead academic partner.
The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is a statewide, multi-jurisdictional collaboration of public, private and academic sector leaders committed to accelerating the adoption of smart cities technologies, projects and initiatives in their respective communities.
Its membership incorporates a dozen Colorado cities that together represent more than 70% of the state’s population.
The University of Colorado, the largest public research institution in the state, has signed on the be the Alliance’s lead academic partner.
The Innovation Corridor, a partnership between Formativ, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
The Colorado Technology Association, a connector that brings together public organizations, academic institutions and private enterprise to advance the tech ecosystem across the state ensure Colorado leads the way in smart city innovation.
Together, we collaborate to benefit our respective citizens and businesses across Colorado by enhancing quality of life through citizen-centered design and public policy and through the deployment of 21st century technology and infrastructure.
Making it Happen
Generally speaking, the evolution of urban technology and technology policy is headed in the right direction: from closed to open, from transactional to participatory. But our vision for the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance expands beyond that. Call it the next step in municipal intelligence.
We’re not about a particular technology.
The members of the Alliance represent an approach to solving problems that is relatively new: public-private-and-academic and, more importantly, cross-jurisdictional. Our belief is that the members of the Alliance have far more in common in their drive to serve the public than any differences of size, density, or demography.
By joining the Alliance, our city partners have agreed to:
- Conduct discovery work to define the most important priorities to their communities.
- Dedicate people and resources to engage in co-creating solutions with academic and private sector partners
- Develop at least one pilot or implementation per year within their community’s list of priority topics
- Share the results of their research and projects with the Alliance and its members.
In return, the Alliance will:
- Develop a series of virtual living laboratories of collaborative design, development, and testing of technologies aimed squarely at providing tangible solutions to problems experienced in our member communities
- Host quarterly “Civic Labs” around the state to identify and share challenges, expertise and solutions and provide deep-dive explorations into common challenges or problems.
- Create a shared warehouse of intelligence, white papers and best practices for Smart City exploration and implementation.
- Develop a vibrant ecosystem of resources, networks of solution providers and thought leaders to encourage public-private partnerships.
Though this work, we seek to create one of the most dynamic and powerful ecosystems of resources for smart city thought leaders anywhere in the world.
Want in? Email info@coloradosmart.city to engage with us.
