How A Swedish Touch May Help Maharashtra's Smart Cities Get Smarter
During his visit to India last month, Swedish Minister for Housing, Urban Development and IT Mehmet Kaplan offered his country's assistance in developing Maharastra's smart cities. “We have been processing almost 2.8 million tonne of solid waste. Most countries in Europe send their waste to Sweden, which we use to generate bio-fuel. We have been running 250 public transport buses on this waste-generated bio-fuel in Stockholm. A similar model can be worked out in Maharashtra,” newspapers quoted Kaplan as saying.
Under its plan to develop 100 'smart cities', the Centre has shortlisted 98 cities so far. In Maharashtra, 10 cities --- Amravati, Aurangabad, Kalya-Dombivali, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, Nagpur, Pune, Solapur and Thane --- will be developed as smart cities
Sweden's model of developing sustainable cities, also known as Sweden's SymbioCity model, may help develop Maharashtra smart cities to a great extent. By a sustainable smart city approach to urban planning and development, this model has helped many African and Indonesian countries develop a holistic solution to citizen needs.
What is a SymbioCity?
With a belief that these factors are a must for good living conditions, prosperity and welfare of a city, a SymbioCity model pinpoints its development process on information technology, energy, water and waste management. The objective is to cut down carbon print of a city by devising and executing alternative methods which suit the needs and the topography of an area.
How does a SymbioCity work?
A SymbioCity uses innovative and sustainable solutions to design all the elements of a city. These include:
Energy: The project finds all the necessary recycling loops and bring all the options together in a combined strategy. The new methods will save money as well as resources. Sweden had experimented on district heating and the use of large and combined power systems by the use of water incineration, medium-scale biogas production. It also curbs Carbon emissions.
Traffic & transport: Smart traffic and transportation methods ensure future demand for transport will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This includes using renewable energy in transport systems, intelligent transport services and driver-support systems for road safety and fuel economy.
Information & communication: The use of digital and IT communication can change the way logistics and other information- based services can be supported. This includes use of digital communications to reduce transport need, intelligent monitoring to save on transport fuel, electricity, heating and storage space, digital tie of health services, education and others.
Architecture: Sweden design teams are well-known for making affordable and energy saving patterns. With public and private co-operation, such architectures include large-scale collaboration among architects, urban planners, engineers and municipal authorities.
Water supply & sanitation: The SymbioCity method interlocks energy requirements with efficient waste management. It intends to make the most of water by the use of bio residue, digestion of biodegradable waste, septic sludge and other products for small-scale energy production.
Waste management: The project considers waste a hidden residue and goes by the principles of reduce, reuse and recover.
Mumbai and sustainable development
While such a model could work wonders for all the 10, it is crucial for the twin cities of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. As these require large brownfield developments, given their huge legacy infrastructure, many elements of the SymbioCity model could come to their rescue.