IN FAIRNESS to the two sides however, the two are actually complementary, because smart technology could be used to produce green energy, in the same way that green energy could power smart technology.
Although automation could be done separately in many places such as homes, offices, factories and farms, all of these smaller spaces should eventually end up in the digital transformation of smart cities in particular and the entire country in general.
How I wish that Local Government Units (LGUs) would take the lead in the planning for the automation and the digital transformation of their respective areas of jurisdiction but if not, do not worry because market forces will eventually lead to that.
As it usually happens however, well planned digital transformations would tend to be more orderly and organized, while on the other hand, unplanned digital transformations would tend to be chaotic.
It seems that there is presently confusion about what a smart city should be on one hand, and what a green city should be on the other hand. As I see it however, a city could not be fully smart if it is not fully automated.
I already said that a city could not be smart if it is not green, but to that I will add that even the process or the infrastructure that runs the city to make it green could also be automated. As it is already happening now in many cities of the world, there are systems in place that would not only reduce the production of carbon dioxide; these would also increase the production of oxygen. Putting it another way, these positive systems could reduce the carbon footprints of cities, thus making them smarter so to speak.
It is said that the Internet of Things (IOT) will be made up of billions of sensors that will be part of many types of devices. Since these sensors could monitor and run anything and everything that could make a city smarter, it could further be said that the more sensors there are, the smarter a city could be.
Although that might sound logical, this is not really a game of numbers because what really matters most is the quality of the designs and not the quantity of the devices. It is not only the quality of the designs that should be evaluated; it should also be the higher quality of life that is the result of automation and digital transformation.
Eventually, the happiness index should be evaluated, because the higher the quality of life, the happier the people should be./PN
