DUBAI – The latest innovations should ensure city residents experience a balanced lifestyle and well-being, key to the future of urbanisation, according to experts gathered at Expo 2020 Dubai’s Urban & Rural Development Week, in cooperation with UN-Habitat and The Executive Council of Dubai, part of the Programme for People and Planet.

Most people live in cities or plan to in the near future, yet, 60 per cent of urban areas are still to be built, meaning a sustainable approach is crucial to urban development. During a discussion on Designing for the Future at the Urban and Rural Development Business Forum, held at Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC), Tala Al Ansari, Director, Innovation Ecosystem and Scale2Dubai, District 2020 outlined the plans for Expo 2020’s future city – District 2020 – a model global community that will use state-of-the-art innovation, science and sustainability to create a cleaner, safer, healthier environment.

Al Ansari said: “We will be creating a place to work, live and play. What really distinguishes District 2020 from other free zones in Dubai is that we’re really focusing on setting an innovation ecosystem and community to contribute to Dubai’s future and to Dubai’s innovation economy. In this innovation ecosystem, we plan to focus on four sectors: We’re going to look at smart logistics, smart mobility, smart cities and smart manufacturing. We’ll be attracting the biggest companies that look at those sectors, as well as technologies that enable these sectors and disrupt them. Beyond companies, we’re also going to attract accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces, educational institutes, and venture capitalists.”

To that end, Al Ansari confirmed Siemens will be moving its logistics headquarters from Munich, Germany to District 2020 for 10 years, with its sister company, Siemens Energy, focusing on mobility at District 2020. DP World will be setting up DP World Flow Academy, which will introduce young minds to career opportunities in logistics, partnered with academic institutions around the globe to offer world-class executive education and research and promote the UAE as the premier global logistics hub, while Terminus Technologies will have its first international branch outside China at District 2020.

Adam Giambrioni, Director of Regional and Urban Mobility, NEOM, Saudi Arabia expanded on how technology is supporting an integrated approach to residents’ lifestyles in the urban planning of the future city of NEOM during Technology & Innovation for Tomorrow. He revealed the latest sustainable innovations in transport will be used in NEOM, including electric, shared mobility with a focus on convenient, autonomous elements.

Giambrioni said: “In order to achieve our objectives, we have to design our city to allow 70 to 80 per cent of all trips to be completed by walking or using micromobility. If you’ve heard of the 15-minute city, we’re really striving towards the five-minute city, with 70 or 80 per cent of trips being a short walk, whether that’s to go out for a coffee with a friend, take your kids to school, go shopping or even have your work located relatively close.”

During the Spotlight Session: The Smart Cities, experts focused on the development of innovation partnerships for smarter and cleaner urban mobility. Afzal Shabaz Mohammed, Vice President, IoT Technology and Innovation Team, Siemens said: “IoT [internet of things] allows you to bring the data in real-time or near real-time, which is important. Today, cities require coordinated efforts. When stakeholders exchange power, muscle and information, we can understand root causes and what has impacted other elements – this is where we expect IoT to actually help and improve situations in cities.”

Experts further highlighted sustainable solutions offered in Public-Private Partnerships for Urban & Rural Infrastructure, with Dr Einari Kisel, Head of Partnerships and Strategy, FinEst Twins, Smart City Centre of Excellence, Tallin, Estonia explaining how that country recently introduced its digital twin so that all the buildings and infrastructure are visualised in the digital model with relevant physical data. This allows, for example, assessments of the energy efficiency levels of houses to be made in minutes rather than weeks – the approximate time energy auditors typically require.

Dr Kisel said: “When it comes to investments into the renovation of buildings, whether public or private buildings, then these types of digital solutions can provide an additional boost. The Estonian start-up scene is focused on solutions that take information available on different databases and provide it to the citizens for better use.”

Wissam Ayoub, Senior Vice President, EllisDon MENA agreed: “With public-private partnerships, energy efficiency is now top of the agenda.”

During Urbanisation as Catalyst for DevelopmentHarj Dhaliwal, Managing Director, Middle East & India, Virgin Hyperloop explained how the government of Maharashtra in India is at the forefront of building the hyperloop infrastructure, having named DP World–Virgin Hyperloop One consortium as the Original Project Proponent for the Mumbai-Pune hyperloop project.

Dhaliwal said: “Hyperloop is not a system for the few: It’s a mass transport system. It is a system that is capable of transporting approximately 16,000 passengers per hour, per direction. By 2040, it [Virgin Hyperloop One’s system] will carry approximately 200 million passengers a year, linking central Pune and Mumbai in less than 35 minutes. This project is privately financed. It is important that we get everyone to use the transport system so it has to be affordable.”

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