Smart Cities: Affordability and Sustainability

The glittering promise of smart cities, those technologically advanced urban oases envisioned to solve everything from traffic jams to civic engagement, has captured the imagination of planners and policymakers worldwide.

Yet, as the blueprints for these hyper-connected metropolises are drawn, a crucial question echoes through the halls of urban development: can these futuristic visions truly deliver on the fundamental pillars of affordability and sustainability, or are they destined to become exclusive, energy-guzzling enclaves?

The concept itself, championed by tech giants like Microsoft and IBM, paints a picture of urban utopia where digital information and communication technologies – artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and digital twins – seamlessly enhance every facet of city life.

Infrastructure hums with efficiency, public services are optimized, and citizen engagement flourishes, all while boosting municipal coffers.

It’s a compelling narrative, one that suggests a future where urban living is not just tolerable, but profoundly improved.

However, beneath the gleaming surfaces of these conceptual renderings lies a simmering unease.

There are legitimate fears that AI is not merely optimizing, but subtly redesigning our cities by stealth.

From traffic lights that adjust in real-time based on unseen algorithms to entire neighbourhoods digitally simulated before a single brick is laid, the human touch seems increasingly secondary.

And then there’s the undeniable cost.

This sophisticated ecosystem of sensors, networks, and data centres doesn’t come cheap, and ultimately, it’s the taxpayer who will foot the bill, raising immediate concerns about accessibility and equity.

These anxieties found a prominent voice at the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit (ADIS), held in mid-June 2025, where the discourse around smart cities evoked a mix of admiration and apprehension.

Success stories like Singapore’s meticulous balance of economic growth and social inclusivity, Copenhagen’s visionary Nordhavn district with its “5-minute city” model, and Abu Dhabi’s own Masdar City – a pioneering example backed by the Emirate’s renewable energy champion, Masdar – were highlighted.

These cities proudly foster a strong sense of place and identity, yet their inherent affluence often sets them apart, begging the question of replicability.

Can the inexorable march towards ‘smarter’ urban living, as epitomized by these affluent pioneers, be truly replicated across the globe?

Daniel Liu, executive director of MORROW Intelligence, a Singapore-based urban advisory firm, offered a complex answer at ADIS.

While acknowledging the immense importance of smart technologies in bringing efficiencies and progressive evolutions in city management, Liu delivered a sobering truth: “Smart cities don’t come before cities.”

He emphasized that every city grapples with its own unique socioeconomic and investment parameters, alongside pressing municipal issues.

The advantages enjoyed by a Singapore or a Copenhagen are simply not universal.

Liu’s insight underscores a critical point: urban excellence, the ultimate goal of planners and developers, doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

It’s inextricably linked to economic and social development, a journey, he posits, that will span 30 to 50 years for many cities, marked by evolving challenges.

This long view necessitates a shift in perspective.

Indeed, discovering urban excellence and forging a truly smarter future often boils down to making smart decisions, not just deploying smart technology.

Emre Arolat, founding partner and principal of Emre Arolat Architecture, articulated this eloquently.

For him, the best cities are those imbued with a sense of community and harmony, offering good access to housing and the ability to reach life’s essentials within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride – a metric already at play in many urban centres, including parts of Paris.

This isn’t a marvel of AI, but a testament to smart thinking and strategic building.

At the heart of this human-centric vision must be affordable housing.

Arolat stressed that building affordable housing doesn’t necessitate sacrificing high-value real estate.

Instead, it requires strategic planning and foresight, with local, provincial, and federal governments playing a crucial role in anticipating and meeting future housing demand systematically.

Asma Aljassmi, executive director of projects control and operations at Aldar Projects, a developer owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, affirmed this commitment.

“At Aldar we have a clear roadmap for development.

From the get-go we incorporate affordability in what we do, what we design and what we build.

Its included in our masterplan for specific projects.

Being desirable places to live and work in should not be the sole preserve of luxury developments,” she stated.

This commitment to inclusivity, rather than exclusivity, is a hallmark of genuinely smart urban development.

Beyond affordability, the clamour for sustainability casts a long shadow over the smart city narrative.

The more digital and interconnected these cities become, the greater their electricity consumption, placing immense strain on existing power grids.

This mirrors the ongoing conundrum of hyperscale data centres, which, despite powering new-age technology, continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels for their energy needs.

The uncomfortable truth is that, much like data centres, many smart cities will be powered by conventional, carbon-emitting sources for decades to come.

Any gains in carbon footprint reduction achieved through digital efficiency could well be negated by the very power source keeping the lights on.

Masdar City, with its reliance on renewables, offers a rare counter-narrative, alongside select European, particularly Scandinavian and German, mid-sized townships.

But for the vast majority of the world, renewables-powered smart cities remain a distant dream.

This matters profoundly, given that cities account for nearly 80% of global consumption and, by extension, nearly 80% of the world’s carbon emissions.

With urbanization relentlessly proliferating, the fight against climate change and the quest for improved living standards will ultimately be won or lost in these urban centres, regardless of whether they bear the ‘smart’ label.

The real intelligence, then, lies not in the sophistication of the technology deployed, but in the wisdom of the decisions made.

It’s about prioritizing human well-being, ecological balance, and equitable access over technological dazzle.

The future of our cities hinges on whether we choose to build truly intelligent communities, or merely technologically advanced, yet fundamentally flawed, urban experiments.