Smart Cities from a Sudanese Perspective

Authors:

El Tohami AEA*

Volume 2, Issue 8

Abstract

This article aims at identifying the constraints facing Sudanese cities and prevent them to be smart cities. It is also a trail

to define smart cities from a Sudanese point of view. This article is dependent to a large extent on reviewing the available

literature and personal experience of the author. The constraints facing Sudanese cities to be sustainable or smart could

be classified to sets of factors. The first groups are natural factors while the second ones are related to human factors

which are particularly related to infra-structure development. Natural factors are summed into the following: ill location

of residential areas such as flood plains which will increase the annual flooding hazards, natural drainages and rapid

urban expansion due to environmental degradation in rural areas which encourages illegal expansion of settlement in illsuited

areas and /or at the expense of agricultural lands. While anthropogenic factors can be summarized as follows: poor

infrastructure in cities which are manifested in lack of adequate and efficient drainage of rains water, roads are badly

constructed and maintained lack of coordination between Ministry of Road and Transport with other related Ministries

or government department such Ministry of Electricity and dams and telecommunication and Urban water resources

corporation. This resulted in the continuous destruction of asphaltic roads to extend cables of electricity or telephones

and domestic water supply networks. However, the present location of the central transport station is not suitable and

has resulted in traffic jamming and wasting of time as well as increase fuel consumption that leads to increase in emitted

air pollutants and noise pollution. Moreover, regardless of building of new hospitals and clinics most of the Sudanese

have no access to health services because of its high costs and most of the people have no health insurance or their

insurance cannot cover the actual expenses. Horizontal expansion of Khartoum capital was not accompanied with

accessible roads an d adequate transportation means Smart cities from a Sudanese perspectives are cities where the

people have an access to basic services such as water, steady electric and water supply, regular maintenance of roads and

improvement of the present rain water drainage systems and building of new bridges and suitable location of thetransport central stations. One can conclude that each country should have its own prerequisites for cities to be smart

depending on the prevailing climatic and environmental conditions and the available infrastructure.

Keywords:

Smart Cities; Sudanese Perspectives; Ill-Suited; Natural and Man-Made Factors; Poor Infrastructure

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