Page 24 - Guide for smart and sustainable city leaders: Envisioning sustainable digital transformation

Guide for smart and sustainable city leaders: Envisioning sustainable digital transformation

3 Conclusion: Cities are our best future

While sustainability challenges of cities are significant, urban areas also hold the key to achieving
many global sustainability goals. Cities are home to the majority of humanity and sustainable
development and digital transformation cannot be initiated without significantly altering the
way we build and manage our urban spaces.

The infusion of digital technologies into key processes is pertinent to achieving SDGs. Emerging
technologies such as IoT, AI, blockchain and digital twin can assist with the establishment of
SSCs through innovation and redesign of existing processes. This can include new applications,
technologies and systems for access to communication, smart energy, smart mobility, intelligent
sustainable buildings, smart water management and smart government.

As digital technologies provide an integrated strategic approach to sustainability in SSCs,
they are key enablers of urban development, making digital transformation also vital to the
achievement of the SDGs.
Cities do not have the option to continue functioning as they have done in the past. Hence, city
decision-makers have to decide on a maintainable urban process, which promotes economic
progress, as well as environmental protection. Here, the SSC vision and the cycle elucidated
in this report not only provides the benefit for sustained economic growth but also ensures
a high quality of life for the inhabitants along with environmental sustainability and digital
transformation.

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