Scotland’s major cities occupy the second and third position in the top 10 smart cities list
London is considered as the smartest city across the U.K., according to a recent study by Juniper Research. The study, which has identified the top 10 smart cities in the U.K., was conducted over a range of city indices, including transport, healthcare, public safety, energy and productivity.
The research also found that Scotland’s major cities were strong performers across the board. Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh has been deploying smart city initiatives over the last 16 years, which allowed the city to reach the second position in the ranking, according to Juniper Research.
“Glasgow has used the smart city concept to address a number of key challenges,” said Juniper Research analyst Steffen Sorrell. “The traffic system is integrated with emergency services, helping save lives. Meanwhile a £24 million ($31.6 million) grant was used to plan smart CCTV rollout, using artificial intelligence to detect suspicious objects and terrorist activity.”
The research found that significant hurdles lie ahead for the U.K smart city market. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Horizon 2020 have contributed over £23 billion to the U.K market over the last 3 years; after 2019, alternative funding will have to be found to replace them, according to Juniper Research’s study.
Juniper Research found that funding challenges bring with them issues in scaling projects, particularly for small and medium-sized companies. Juniper urged the creation of more test bed environments in cities, enabling experimentation prior to full rollout. This would allow more risk-averse players, such as utilities, to enable disruptive service providers to work in partnership with them to develop smart city solutions and new business models.
The top 10 smart cities in the U.K are London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, Brighton, Liverpool, Oxford, Birmingham and Milton Keynes.
