Climate Smart & Urban Development

Author(s): Carmen De-Pablos-Heredero, Miguel Blanco-Callejo
Date: from 5th November until 15th December 2024

Long story short:

Smart City Expo World Congress 2024: This event was held in Barcelona from 5-7 November and brought together more than 25,000 attendees from 850 cities. The main theme was climate resilience and urban sustainability, highlighting the need to integrate resilience into urban infrastructure to cope with the effects of climate change. This year’s edition also focused on urban resilience following the devastating floods in Valencia on 29 October, which underlined the urgency of preparing cities for the effects of climate change.

Main Content:
Scholars, industry leaders and government officials gathered in Barcelona in November to pursue a shared vision of sustainable urban development in the 14th edition of the Annual Smart City Expo World Congress. This congress serves as a global hub for urban development that connects people and companies working to build better cities.
Under the theme “Live Better,” this year’s expo urgently called for climate resilience and sustainability as cities worldwide face the growing impacts of climate change. Held at Fira Barcelona’s Gran Via venue, the event attracted a record-breaking 25,771 attendees from 850 cities globally, according to the organizers. Featuring 1,150 exhibitors and 632 speakers across 261 sessions, the scale of the expo prompted Fira Barcelona to expand the exhibition space by 30 percent to meet the increased demand, they said.
One of the main focuses of the congress was how to address some urban challenges with innovation for better living and assuring sustainability in the future. Main messages were oriented to the fact that If we want to ‘live better,’ we should change our way of life, use technology, and seek innovation through collaboration.
Another important focus was on tools for preventing and forecast natural disasters in Europe. One of the main conclusions in this was that the smartness of a city is not defined by how much data or technology it deploys. It is defined by how it uses data, technology and knowledge to manage and prevent extreme climate events. Being smart doesn’t only mean predicting and tackling disasters. One of the smartest things we can do is to adapt and mitigate the effects of the climate emergency in the long run, underscoring the need for resilience to be integrated into urban infrastructure.
A special attention was paid to the catastrophic flooding on Oct. 29 that devastated the province of Valencia in Spain. This reality serves as a stark reminder of the urgency of these challenges. The flooding claimed at least 222 lives and destroyed infrastructure, homes, businesses and factories.
The devastating rainfall highlighted the need for cities to prepare for the effects of climate change and be ready to guarantee the well-being of citizens. Technology enables governments and institutions to monitor and set early warning protocols that can mitigate the effects of events such as the storms in Valencia.
Another special attention was paid to the need to build inclusive communities. Under the name of “low-status communities.” the systemic challenges that these communities face, such as poor public services and limited economic opportunities, which are deeply rooted in historical inequalities were highlighted. These include practices like redlining and discriminatory zoning laws that have segregated and marginalized these areas for decades in different countries around the world.
A key point seems to have the capacity to retain talent in the areas were the talent come from. Talent retention is crucial for reversing economic stagnation and fostering community growth. Some examples were described as, for example, the transformation of a neglected area along a River into an award-winning park, providing green spaces where residents can connect with nature and each other. The need to put into action job training programs for people facing employment barriers, linking them to the green economy and providing new opportunities within their communities was another key point at the Congress.
Co-creation of value with inhabitants of cities was another key topic in the Congress. The Korea Land & Housing Corporation won the Living & Inclusion Award of the World Smart City Awards. COMPAS, the award-winning platform, utilizes citizen participation and data analysis to tackle urban challenges through a crowdsourcing approach. By engaging citizens in developing algorithms and exploring solutions to local issues, the platform aims to enhance urban sustainability and residents’ quality of life. The Chinese city of Shenzen was awarded as “Smart City of 2024” at the World Smart City Awards that acknowledge every year the most outstanding initiatives and projects in the urban transformation industry. The awards also honored Milano Mayor, Giuseppe with the Leadership Award for his remarkable contributions to international urban innovation.

Impact on Industry:
These news impact in a positive way in the industry as best practices are presented that can be replicated in other context and improve the sustainability of cities under the basis of climate smart urban development. Unfortunately, the recent floods disaster occurred in Spain the week before has been a powerful driver to start taking actions and orient technology and rest of resources to apply climate smart urban development solutions worldwide.

Conclusion:

• Recent disasters in Valencia (Spain) and other parts of Europe have increased the urgency to develop climate smart urban development projects.
• Cities must be prepared to be resilient to nature disasters.
• Climate smart urban development should be a priority worldwide.
• Sharing experiences in climate smart urban development enriches all as they become benchmarks to follow.
• Data Quality and public availability to data is key to generate useful applications oriented to prevent and mitigate negative consequences of natural disasters.
• Recent developments in Climate Smart Urban development in Asia can become a real inspiration for Europe in the next years.

Relevant Links:

https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/events/smart-city-expo-world-congress—barcelona-2024
https://data.europa.eu/en/news-events/events/smart-city-expo-world-congress-1
https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia/20241105/abre-smart-city-expo-barcelona-2024-ciudades-resilientes-111406359
https://www.femp.es/comunicacion/noticias/el-proyecto-edint-presentado-en-el-smart-city-expo-world-congress

Smart City Expo World Congress 2024: un repaso de lo más destacado del evento en Barcelona