Internet of cities can help build smart cities

Today, cities are home to 55 percent of the world's population. By 2050, the number is expected to reach 68 percent - that is, 2.5 billion more people would be living in cities. Among countries with the fastest pace of urbanization, China will have another 255 million urban dwellers by 2050.

It is not only an academic premise but also society's shared understanding that cities are the cradle and driving engine of growth and innovation. However, they are facing unprecedented challenges due to the rapidly growing urban population. Finding sustainable solutions to the social, economic and environmental issues, so that cities become better, more livable places, has become an important topic at this moment.

"Smart city" is a widely recognized and adopted solution introduced by IBM in 2008 as part of its "smart planet" campaign. The idea was formed to solve the problems facing cities under the significant pressure of both the financial turmoil and the rapid growth in urban population worldwide. It said that to make the planet smarter, we need an "instrumented, interconnected and intelligent" world with a technological core composed of information and communications technology (ICT), internet of things, and urban informatics.