RK GAUTHAM
CUSHMAN WAKEFIELD (INDIA) PVT. LTD
Author, Architect, Sustainability Professional and a Technology Evangelist, Rk Gautham, in his long professional career spanning nearly 30 Years, has worked in various capacities with Consultancy, Execution and Project Management firms and has pursued diverse interests ranging from Design, Execution, Operations, Teaching, Training, Advocacy and Technical Authoring.
Gautham has also been actively associated with Green and Smart Building Projects and has keenly pursued emerging trends in the Building Industry including Building Information Modeling, Lean & Integrated Project Delivery, Corporate Sustainability and Smart Cities.
Rk Gautham heads the Sustainability business for the Global Real Estate firm Cushman & Wakefield in India.
There have been tremendous developments in the Smart Cities domain in the past few years, world over. From concepts and strategies through tools & technologies,on to implementation and operationalization, there are too many... [ view full abstract ]
There have been tremendous developments in the Smart Cities domain in the past few years, world over. From concepts and strategies through tools & technologies,on to implementation and operationalization, there are too many ideas and practices floating around everywhere, triggering numerous, divergent and often conflicting interpretations.
While it’s good to know that many urban governing councils have shown particular interest in adapting the new-age technologies so as to make their services more efficient and effective,it’s terrifying to see that many of them are taking a silo'ed and fragmented approach to meeting their smart city aspirations.
The very purpose of integrating diverse city services under one command and control is lost in such stand-alone developments with locked-in proprietary systems disregarding the bigger picture of the connected cities. All this also points to the missing framework of logic and design - or what is known as the ‘science’ - behind the whole phenomenon of Smart Cities.
As one would realize, the elements that go into making a typical smart city are much more complex and intriguing than what one would think they are and therefore call for a solution that can put these disparate pieces of information into one comprehensive and easy to use template. An online, interactive and instructive model that can make the ‘smart cities’ journey simple, objective and unified, is thus envisioned to address most of the issues confronting the smart cities eco-system today.
This idea is about identifying different ‘smart city’ components from inception through operational phases and sort them into various categories and sub-categories and arrange them according to a logical sequence into a neat abstract table which we call the “PERIODIC TABLE of SMART CITIES”, albeit a digital one.
This table or tool can not only help a smart city stakeholder - an aspiring city council or a consultant, a service provider, or just an enthusiast – understand and navigate through the multiple components and complicated processes involved in making a typical smart city but even provides a clear road map at every stage of the process.
The tool is currently on a basic electronic format, awaiting technology upgrades to get digital, intuitive,automated and truly interactive soon.
