Urban tech

1. Can cities become “spongey”?

   “Sponge tactics” are being explored by architects as a way to make cities more resilient to flood risks.

   This approach involves designing cities to be better able to absorb and retain water, reducing surface run-off and decreasing flood risk. A big task is to find permeable alternatives to concrete, which exacerbates flood situations, as it absorbs no water.

   Cities are developing new flood smarts: Copenhagen, for example, is constructing a series of underground tunnels to collect excess water. As climate-related disasters becomes more commonplace — just look at the recent unseasonal rainfall in large parts of central Europe — expect to see flood resilience rise up the agenda.

2. Will personal wind farms ever work?

   Ask an illustrator to draw the city of the future and they might sketch you skyscrapers with small wind turbines perched up on the roofs.

   There are efforts — from companies including Portugal’s Windcredible — to make this vision a reality. Windcredible, for example, recently stuck a prototype turbine atop Nestlé’s Lisbon office.

   In reality, however, this is a difficult bit of tech to pull off. Small is usually no good when it comes to energy.

   For wind turbines to make sense, and pay back development costs, they need as big a power output as possible. Another problem: they need good wind, the kind that commonly doesn’t blow through cities.

   So not everyone in the climate tech circle is sold on the personal wind farm idea — it's up to Windcredible and others to prove them wrong.

3. Urban farms stumble

   When people imagine smart cities, they may also think of lush greenery cascading from tall buildings and plentiful urban farms.

   Hydroponics, which is the process of growing plants without soil, is an idea that's been around for a long time. Innovators say it will make food easier and cheaper to grow food in cities.

   But various urban farm projects — including the ones that VCs happily chucked money at in the tech boom years — have not fared well in Europe.

   Berlin’s Infarm is an interesting case: the company attracted $500m in VC funding but was then declared insolvent last year. This year, against the odds, its founders are trying again. It’s an unlikely but compelling story and the outcome will tell us a lot about the prospects for indoor farming.

4. Sleepwalking into dystopia?

   Sensors, data and pervasive cameras can help make city life run efficiently and safely. But there’s always a fear that this tech will be abused.

   It might be as small a thing as your home devices getting a little too inquisitive — smart TVs may ask for users’ viewing habits and a smart washing machine might require your date of birth (this data may then be sold to the likes to TikTok or Google, so as they can better target you with ads).

   More seriously, some say tech is helping to bring people under authoritarian control. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chinese cities like Chongqing, where there are some 300k facial recognition cameras, according to the BBC. In Europe, advanced facial recognition cameras have been banned in public squares.

5. Green materials need time

   A crucial mark of a smart city is a low carbon footprint. Building materials have a significant impact on the climate. Cement, for example, is responsible for around 8% of all CO2 emissions, while steel generates around 7% of the total.

   We’re not ready to replace these materials, yet, though a lot of startups are trying to produce “green cement”. H2 Green Steel, which recently changed its name to Stega, is a leader in developing environmentally-friendly steel.

   Lawmakers have a role to play in making buildings more sustainable. Regulations in France, for example, mandate that all new public buildings should be built with at least 50% timber or other natural materials.

Who early stage startups are up against