The Covid-19 pandemic has underlined two key points about the world in which we now live: we are inextricably connected, more than ever, and it is cities that represent the front line of any crisis, both now and in the future.
This fact is also likely to inform the way in which cities evolve; as society has come together to ‘flatten the curve’ we can expect that lasting changes in planning, policies and behavioural change are a likely result of the pandemic.
With the world’s urban population set to almost double by 2050, planning for future cities with sustainable infrastructure is an imperative and we are already gathering learnings from our response to Covid-19.
As society has worked to contain the spread of the virus, travel restrictions have been one of the most obvious manifestations of change. In China, and Italy, while factories and industrial output were on pause, satellite images demonstrated a stark reduction in air pollution levels while Carbon Brief have reported that Covid-19 is to cause the largest ever annual fall in CO2 emissions globally.
While industrial output will of course ramp up again and already has in certain countries, it is widely accepted that post Covid-19, the way office-based businesses work, will be forever changed. Perceived barriers in effective remote working have been torn down and we need to re-think how we approach urban planning to take this into account.
Leveraging new technologies will be key to implementing a more positive citizen experience beyond the pandemic and there are many places to look for inspiration. Amsterdam has become one of the smartest cities in the world by leveraging data on everything from energy usage to traffic volumes and Copenhagen is combining a range of environmental initiatives in a bid to become the first carbon-neutral capital by 2025. Will Singapore’s pioneering work on autonomous vehicles and their driverless taxi scheme become the norm in time in a post Covid-19 world?
The Government’s National Development Plan, published in 2018, already recognised the need for urban development in line with global trends. But Infrastructure projects have long delivery timelines and citizens could feel that the benefits are ‘too far off’, especially after the sacrifices they have made during the weeks and months of the fight against Covid-19. This pandemic has made people consider the priorities in their life and is forcing us to look at solutions for improving people’s quality of life while putting Ireland on the right path for sustainable future cities.
Challenges
Pre-Covid-19, Dublin and many Irish towns faced the same challenges as urban areas across the world: rural to urban migration that leads to housing shortages and high rents; traffic congestion that adds to excessive carbon emissions and air pollution; healthcare struggling to support an ageing population; struggling utility services like water supply. These challenges have not disappeared and in some circumstances, have been exacerbated or highlighted prominently in people’s minds by this pandemic.
Challenges are many and varied but all could be tackled through the use of technology and analysis of data. We know at EY from working with a wide range of government agencies that large amounts of data are held by different public sector agencies but the full value of this data has not been realised. We see a real appetite for turning it into insights that can either improve services directly or help make more informed decisions about how infrastructure spend is invested. The fight to halt this pandemic has shown us the importance of data and its use in solving problems.
Urban mobility is a case in point. Data is readily available about public transport, car ownership and traditional peak travel times that could help identify the best return on infrastructure investment – capacity planning, for example, or new public transport initiatives or revised scheduling.
Data-driven planning
Planning will become even more nuanced if we take the lead from other cities where new data is generated by IoT (Internet of Things) technology. We have seen in recent weeks how connected sensors can be used to capture information out on the street to analyse footfall and traffic across our towns and cities. Based on similar traffic data, intelligent traffic lights can be programmed to help the traffic flow, reducing congestion and the environmental impact while benefitting citizens with faster journey times.
With an intelligent transportation system that encompasses car parking, tolls and public transport, outcomes from analysing multiple sets of data become even more powerful. Predictive modelling with algorithms, AI and machine learning can be used to inform capacity planning, digging deeper into detail, such as the way people use multiple forms of transport on a single journey (trip chaining).
Connectivity is crucial and raises all boats. In future cities, for example, wearable eHealth devices could relieve the burden on hospital bed waiting lists by facilitating remote and preventative care that treats people at home. This in turn reduces the number of people on the roads and inner-city congestion. The collective impact is a sustainable ecosystem of collaborative services.
People playing a part
Building sustainable future cities is about our next Government, businesses and citizens working together. In the talks to form our new Government, we see a real political will to enhance the infrastructure of the country and to do it in a sustainable manner. As for the citizens, they are already ahead of the game.
People are using smartphone apps to check travel timetables, book tickets and pay for parking. In cities like Seattle, citizen apps allows mobile users to report issues, such as broken streetlights or potholes, encouraging a continuous improvement loop that engages citizens and keeps city services on their toes.
We can learn and leverage great initiatives like this, perhaps moving up the S-curve by adopting the latest iteration of technologies – 5G as opposed to 4G, for example.
While our immediate priority must be on responding to the health challenges presented by Covid-19, we can also plan now for a better future for all, beyond the pandemic.
The goal should be to build future-proof Irish cities that meet socio-economic and environmental objectives while improving the quality of citizens’ lives. All the components are available to do it, we just need to embrace them.
