How Smart Cities Can Defend Against Future Pandemics
When the COVID-19 threat has come and gone, there will be a lot of reflection from countries, city leaders, and scientists about how society was able to respond to the crisis. Emergency response during this pandemic has already taught us a lot about social distancing, disease spread, and how to implement societal regulations to flatten the curve.
Technology is one weapon in the fight against the novel coronavirus that will continue to evolve. Already we are seeing how disease-tracking data, geolocation analysis, and autonomous delivery can help stop the spread and allow city officials to make informed decisions faster.
Smart cities, in particular, can help stop the spread of pandemics in densely populated urban areas. Read on to discover how these cities of the future are fighting against COVID-19.
Disease tracking
Software that uses big data and natural language processing to track disease spreads throughout the globe can help city leaders make smart decisions fast.
A Canadian company by the name of BlueDot alerted its users to a cluster of unusual pneumonia cases in Wuhan on December 30. This was 10 days before the World Health Organization alerted the public about a novel coronavirus outbreak.
Autonomous delivery
Social distancing orders have made contactless delivery essential in the fight against COVID-19. After all, you can’t “stop the spread” if delivery workers continue to come in contact with members of the community who are quarantined.
Autonomous technology makes contactless possible. We have just begun scraping the surface of what autonomous delivery can do: in future pandemics, expect delivery drones to drop off essential items such as medicine.
Smart cities of the future should implement an autonomous delivery system they can control in order to prioritize essential goods and services.
Geolocation:
Your smartphone is tracking your movements using geolocation data, which pinpoints where a user is located in real-time. Analyzing this data can teach you a lot about a community’s behavior and predict future movements. Knowing what time traffic picks up in the morning and which public parks are the most densely populated can help when drafting curfews and city ordinances.
Internet connectivity
Smart cities of the future won’t just use technology to make decisions: these cities will also share technology with all of its citizens. Features such as free public WiFi let everyone stay connected, regardless of socioeconomic status.
Furthermore, cities outfitted with information kiosks allow city leaders to communicate with residents easier, as information can be updated immediately and then displayed throughout the community.
As our world becomes more connected, so do our communities. Urban planning of the future will include a pandemic response plan, and smart city technology adds a great line of defense.
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