Building a SMART Community Brings Economic Success
Nate Green.
Montrose Group.
Smart Communities embrace technology as the key to their economic future. The first step in building a smart community is defining the elements of a smart community and what the economic benefits are from achieving that status.
The economic benefits of becoming a smart community are substantial. Successful technology based economic development is a well-established, five drivers of regional economic success—along with advanced manufacturing, global trade, advanced services and energy. Successful regional technology economies are built on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics occupations. STEM occupations consist of nearly 100 specific occupations consisting of 6 percent of U.S. employment counting nearly 8,000,000 jobs. STEM jobs are high-wage positions paying on average $77,880 and only four of the 97 STEM occupations had mean wages below the U.S. average of $43,460. The creation of smart community operating systems for cities also suggests substantial economic gain. According to a study by Accenture, Smart City solutions applied to the management of vehicle traffic and electrical grids could produce $160 billion benefits and savings through reductions in energy usage, traffic congestion and fuel costs.
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