Dubai: A Sustainable and Smart City

Dubai: A Sustainable and Smart City to live in. The urban area significantly increased in size between 1975 and the present, transforming Dubai from a modest regional business, financial, and leisure hub into a major worldwide hub. The built-up area of Dubai increased more than ever during the past 20 years, as did economic and investment growth. Additional development projects were planned to support this urban boom. Within the previous 40 years alone, Dubai’s population has increased by a factor of a thousand. There were 183,000 inhabitances in total in 1975; this number rose to almost 2 million in 2015. Dubai’s population is now among the fastest-growing in the world thanks to this rise.

According to United Nations, Dubai is on the list of top urbanized countries present in the world. As mentioned at the top of the article, the growing population is further going to grow in the coming years, therefore UAE needs to plan, strategize and implement the construction and infrastructural facilities. The best way to make this possible is by introducing digitalization to its smart city approach.

Many may relate smart cities to increasing digitalization and urbanization. However, there is no exact specification as each and every country has its own definition. We at RSE FZE believe that you can develop a smart city only when you are inventing digital technologies (cybersecurity)that provide a better service and enhance sustainability by lowering the consumption levels of energy. 

It is still too early to assess the overall link between enhanced urban design as well as the key sustainability effect of such activities since the transformation to smart cities remains in its beginning phases. Overcoming the lethargy brought on by entrenched habits, whether in citizen behavior or urban planning is necessary for the energy transition to smart cities.

To do this, the government has to regulate certain policies and framework that improves energy efficiency in UAE in different industries and sectors like electricity, water, transport, telecommunications, waste, construction, and many more in the country. Building energy efficiency with smart buildings in UAE is a step toward a sustainable future taken by the country. It is obvious that if the UAE, one of the largest oil producing countries is so dominant in developing this future, any country can do the transition accordingly.

Some examples:

Over the past few years, Abu Dhabi’s demand for power has increased by a further 10% annually, outpacing the emirate’s impressive yearly population growing at a rate of around 9%. In response, the government of Abu Dhabi has implemented an innovative metering system that provides a variety of functionalities and prices to entice users to cut back on their use or move it to off-peak times.

With the increase in global energy industry investments, the power and energy industry is supporting the use of more renewable energy like water, wind and solar energy. Also, offshore wind energy investments have given rise to more floating wind turbines (history of wind turbines). Besides the wind turbine, the hydraulic turbine and solar panels are in greater demand to maintain a sustainable future. 

Dubai: A Sustainable and Smart City to live in. Similar to this, Dubai now has a number of interconnected programs in place to significantly reduce the amount of electricity consumed, including smart meters, demand-side management to motivate energy users to consume more efficiently, and distributed power generation (which entails producing energy on-site to minimize transmission losses). Gravity batteries are best used to store the forms of energy. These actions saved electricity of more than 1,100 Giga Watt-hours and water of 5.4 billion gallons in the years from 2009 to 2014, and UAE also decreased CO2 emissions by 12% and thereby having low carbon emission. Correct implementation of these environmental management solutions will solve many of the environmental issues that we are facing now.

Transportation sector – The UAE is encouraging the usage of EVs and constructing the infrastructure required to support the sector. The nation now has 16 EVs (electric vehicle) charging stations placed in various locations. By 2015’s last quarter, it hopes to have more than 100 automobiles. The UAE still needs to address bigger issues including cutting imported vehicles’ carbon emissions and raising the fuel economy, convincing locals they don’t always need to own a car, and lessening its reliance on low-cost gasoline so as to meet the travel needs of a debveloping urban population. The forging vs casting industry is also contributing to the successful manufacturing of vehicle motors. The forging industry with the usage of repair techniques like mechanical seals and abrasive blasting ensures the efficiency of these forged components.

Awareness Campaigns – The Emirates Energy Award, which offers financial rewards for creative work in projects of all kinds across the public and commercial sectors, was inaugurated by the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) also started customer awareness efforts, which have, among other things, convinced people to turn their A/C (air conditioners) up warmer in their homes and places of business. From the year 2009, DEWA’s strategy has generated total savings of more than AED 600 million.

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