As Dubai paces itself towards becoming a smart city, industry and government representatives affirmed that data analytics is a crucial tool towards designing smart cities. The panellists were speaking at the World Green Economy Summit 2017, which ran from October 24 to 25 in Dubai.

Sharing details of how data analytics is currently being used as a smart city tool, Yousef Ahmed Baselaib, Director-City Operation, Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company), said: “Masdar City takes into account all the factors that affect sustainable living, such as noise levels, C0₂ emissions, humidity, cooling and so forth. Data analytics helps us to set targets and measure our performance.”

Offering an international example of how data analytics is being used, Dr Daeyeon Cho, Executive Director, Smart City International Cooperation Department at the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA), said: “In Korea, we use city data to build smart cities. The data helps us to engage with various sectors and enables us to plan infrastructure projects, mitigate traffic problems and improve public transportation.”

Dr Cho added that the ultimate goal of a smart city is to have technology transform infrastructure to serve its citizens.

Highlighting the importance of data analytics for a smart city, Osman Sultan, CEO of Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (Du), said that data analytics is at the epicentre of smart city designs and that the data collected could be used to make the lives of the citizens more efficient.