No space on planet Earth is growing and evolving at the rate our urban areas are.

The statistics speak for themselves. Africa's urban population is projected to double from 704 million in 2020 to 1.4 billion by 2050, with Nigeria and Egypt leading the continent's urban transformation. The UN estimates that by that same time, nearly 80% of South Africa's population will live in urban areas, thus prompting the government to develop an Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) to manage that growth. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the urban population of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is expected to swell by 30% by 2030, with 90% of all residents expected to be concentrated in cities.

All these figures highlight the need for urban planners, officials and governments to prioritise making their cities more liveable, essentially optimising them for the people who visit, work and live in them. The answer lies with technology. Deployments must first and foremost serve those people.

Smart city projects and initiatives are a high priority for officials and governments, especially in the face of those urban growth projections. Case in point, Egypt has just launched its national Smart Cities Strategy to conduct upgrades and revitalise its urban centres, while the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in general leads the rest of the world in sustainable urban development, propelled by key nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The region achieves this by balancing technological interventions with the need to create inclusive public spaces and infrastructure. The result is people-centred smart cities, spaces that deploy IoT and smart solutions to ensure safety and security, as well as enable data-led decision-making.

There are various applications for this. For public safety, network cameras and sensors provide officials with enhanced situational awareness. Law enforcement can accelerate evidence collection and suspect identification, as well as maintain public order through supported crowd and emergency action management. For mobility, those same devices help reduce congestion, improve traffic safety and gather data to be used for enhanced traffic management and infrastructure planning. And for environmental monitoring and waste management, sensors can gather environmental and atmospheric pollution data to monitor air quality, while others can enhance waste collection and help identify illegal dumping.

Even something as simple as controlling streetlight illumination intensity has benefits, including reduced consumption and improved overall aesthetic. It's these kinds of technological interventions that enhance the quality of life of urban residents, all while contributing to broader sustainability objectives.

City planners and officials face the challenge of reconciling the operational needs of urban areas with fundamental principles of society, specifically the right to feel safe and secure as well as the right to privacy. Physical security and network surveillance systems carry significant implications when it comes to adhering to privacy regulations, while the gathering and use of data is subject to ethical considerations and compliance procedures.

The right kind of smart city solutions are the ones that address those elements directly. By embedding compliance and best practices into product development pipelines, vendors offer solutions that prove security and privacy can coexist. This leads to, for example, camera features such as dynamic privacy masks and scheduled blurring that allow cameras to track individuals while concealing personal details, configurable pan, tilt and zoom limits, and varying access levels. Meanwhile, the data that devices gather is protected by a variety of features, including password protection, encryption, IP address filtering and HTTPS.

Speaking of data, smart city solutions must only collect the data that's necessary for its application, minimising the potential for misuse or privacy violations. Security measures such as encryption and controls ensure that only authorised personnel have access to that data. That fundamental approach to security must also be applied as cities turn to the potential of AI. Like any security or network surveillance system, AI-based solutions need to be rooted in transparency and accountability, as well as adhere to all relevant privacy regulations.

Unlocking value, changing lives

Introducing data-driven security solutions into cities opens up exciting new possibilities for advanced urban planning and management. According to the 2024 future-ready cities report and its survey of 250 worldwide cities, published by ThoughtLab in collaboration with Axis, 93% of cities are now using, piloting or planning to use digital twins. Over the next three years, that number will reach 100%. And even if cities in Africa or the Middle East have not reached the stage of developing their own digital twins, data gathered by surveillance systems remains valuable and actionable.

The capabilities of those systems continue to grow. Today, officials and departments have their pick from a wide range of products, everything from indoor air quality sensors to traffic solutions that come preconfigured and are easy to install and operate. The variety of network camera solutions also continues to grow, with the industry even making strides in fusing surveillance technologies. One such example is the fusion of radar and video, where radar detections and classifications are embedded into video camera feeds.

Going forward, the development of smart cities will also be the result of enhanced collaboration. Working with external expertise and trusted product vendors and integrators, officials can best fulfil their needs and invest in reliable, long-term solutions.

That collaboration is reflective of the driving goal of smart cities. They are the result of people coming together, working together, and using every means at their disposal to change lives. What they end up building are the cities of the future: safe, secure and sustainable.

Andrea Sorri is Segment Development Manager – Smart Cities, EMEA at Axis Communications. Anders Grafström is End Customer Marketing Manager at Axis Communications

MENAFN04112025000049011007ID1110294864