Strategic Intelligence: Smart Cities

By 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, compared to about 50% today. Increased urbanization and the challenges created by a changing climate are causing growing infrastructure headaches for cities, which will only worsen. These challenges are driving the growing development of smart cities. This market will be worth $417.0 billion in 2028, according to the analyst forecasts, up from $204.8 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.3%.

Key Highlights

• Smart cities are spreading across the globe. The plethora of Chinese tech-led, surveillance-driven cities has been joined by a new breed of renewable energy-focused cities, notably in the Middle East. They include Neom in Saudi Arabia, a project designed to reduce the country’s dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors. Neom, like most smart cities, will adopt technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins, and 5G to run urban operations. Digital twins, particularly, are behind the successful operation of many cities, including London, New York, and Paris.
• The pandemic disrupted cities’ natural rhythms, such as the morning-evening commute, and that rhythm has yet to reset completely. The pandemic exposed weaknesses in urban health infrastructures, but cities have learned from the experience and are trying to become more resilient. That resilience will be tested by future health catastrophes and the climate crisis, which has increased the risk of natural disasters like floods. Such risks drive cities' adoption of weather monitoring systems and resilience planning tools. Cities are also creating healthier urban living environments, with low-emission zone (LEZ) schemes and more rigorous air quality monitoring.

Scope

• This report provides an overview of the smart cities theme.
• It identifies the key trends impacting growth of the theme over the next 12 to 24 months, split into three categories: technology trends, macroeconomic trends, and regulatory trends.
• It includes comprehensive industry analysis, including forecasts for global smart cities spending to 2028.
• The detailed value chain illustrates how smart cities fit into the IoT technology stack. The report covers three layers of the smart cities value chain: the platform layer, the app layer, and the services layer.

Reasons to Buy

• Smart cities is an important market that attracts substantial investment. This report is a clear and insightful overview of this increasingly important theme, telling you everything you need to know about what makes a city smart and which companies benefit from increased urbanization.