The global market for smart city information and communications technologies will grow by 15.8 per cent per year on average over the next five years, reaching $994.6 million by 2023. A new report by BCC Research claims cities in North America will dominate, notably New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in the US, and Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary in Canada
The market for smart city technologies is worth $476.7 million in 2018, reckons BCC Research. Over the next five years, around two-fifths of the value ($419 million) will be realised in North America alone, a third will come from energy management ($330.9 million) solutions, and a quarter ($288.4 million) will come through the deployment of ‘internet-of-things’ (IoT) sensors.
The fastest rate of growth will be in the Asia-Pacific region, with a CAGR of 18.9 per cent, and in water management generally, with growth of 19.1 per cent. The report buckets smart city technologies under four headers: communications, hardware, sensors, and software. It considers smart city technologies in relation to six sectors: energy management, water management, transportation management, assisted living, e-government, and waste management.
The number of so-called ‘smart cities’ globally has gone from “about two dozen to more than 100 in just a few years.” The US market for civic-related technology solutions is currently worth $196.5 billion, according to the report. It suggested “technology ubiquity, advanced investment and organisational models”, notably in leading smart cities in the US and Canada will continue to drive investment.
The Asia-Pacific market is worth $116.2 billion; the report says early investments in Asia-Pacific will boost its regional market value in the short term. Europe will fall behind Asia Pacific in the period, despite major European Union initiatives, such as energy management. Latin America and Rest of World markets, though small, will exhibit strong growth; good work in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, in transportation, energy, security, and public safety is noted.
“The smart cities market opportunity is driven by the convergence of information and communications technology in a number of areas, in particular the development of advanced connectivity and analytic software and hardware,” said Michael Sullivan, senior editor at BCC Research, and the report’s author.
“Smart cities leverage the array of connected sensors and analytics platforms to drive stronger coordination within departments and across city agencies and community groups. Everything from video surveillance for security and traffic management to emergency coordination and public events participation benefit from smart city technology.”
