Are smart cities the next phase of urban development, and thereby, the collective hopes for improving living standards across the pita-consuming region? On June 9th and 10th, PITAPOLICY attended the first annual summit on smart cities review of North Africa, or the Maghreb region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya…with some mention of Egypt). Below is our overview from the presentations…
Walking past the Check-in counter in Casablanca’s Mohamed V International Airport, a digital sign claims X amount of solar energy used and X amount of energy savings occurred in powering a transit hub with the use of polycrystalline panel technology. As a tourist, this may come as a pleasant surprise if she has not yet had the opportunity to see other improvements, like Rabat’s tram system. As a citizen, this may be inspiring as the term “smart city” hints at better infrastructure and technology use. However, what qualifies a city as a “smart city” is more often a topic for discussion only among Maghreb countries and not implementation. Infrastructural developments like this–as well as challenges with water access and traffic jams–prompted the 1st annual International Summit on Smart Cities in North Africa (#ISSC2014) at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. [Click here to continue.]
