Driven by increasingly tangible visions of the future, smart cities are evolving far beyond digital kiosks and sensor-outfitted light poles towards wholly imagined communities built on fully integrated digital ecosystems. To help champion these technologies, Black & Veatch, a global provider of smart infrastructure services and solutions, announces that it has joined Forbes’ “Future of Smart Cities Campaign.”
The campaign, which kicks off later this month through a partnership with Business Reporter, acknowledges the need for urban communities to invest in smart, sustainable technologies. The effort aims to highlight technologies and strategies that allow for long-term societal and environmental benefit while promoting how best to monitor ecosystems and evolve cities in financially, environmentally responsible ways.
“The cityscapes of the future have the potential to impact billions of lives and create positive economic development,” Forbes said in a statement. “Now is the time to champion the technologies that will change how people live, work and do business in the metropolitan hubs of the future.”
Black & Veatch is playing a critical role in making these blueprints a reality. The smart infrastructure provider will serve as a technical program manager on the upcoming Bleutech Park (BTP), a $7.5-billion project that bills itself as the world’s first entirely sustainable, self-contained ecosystem. Slated to break ground in the Las Vegas valley in March 2021, BTP will incorporate extensive digital infrastructure, enabling it to harness the power of digitization, system integration, electrification, hydrogen technologies, and 5G to bring emerging technologies to life.
Black & Veatch will provide mission-critical infrastructure solutions and technical expertise across a broad scope of work that includes power, namely distributed energy and microgrids; water and wastewater; transportation, such as electric autonomous vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; telecommunications and infrastructure command centers/data centers.
“Data is the lifeblood of smart cities, which means that system integration is vital to build a secure, citizen-centric community that is flexible, sustainable and livable,” said Fred Ellermeier, vice president of Black & Veatch’s Connected Communities business. “Black & Veatch understands smart cities because we have been at the forefront of digital innovation for years, developing and building the advanced communication networks and digital infrastructure that bring these communities to life. Without the proper integration of digital infrastructure into the community, smart is a nonstarter.”