Houston Is Using The Pandemic As An Opportunity To Build A Resilient Smart City

Source: Forbes Published: August 18, 2020

Houston, Texas, with 2.3 million residents, is one of the most diverse cities in America. In the last few decades, Hispanic and Asian immigrants thrived in this metropolis while African Americans established tight-knit communities. Perhaps due to its diversity, innovation is thriving in the city of Houston. It is on track to becoming one of America’s leading Smart Cities.

From the beginning, Mayor Sylvester Turner saw the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to improve its infrastructure. Its smart city initiatives already contribute to the resilience of the city overall. When a recent spike in COVID-19 patients overwhelmed its hospitals, smart technology that were already in place immediately provided relief to the city’s hospitals.

Building a smart city has been driving the innovations of the city of Houston for the last decade. The city made strategic investments in Artificial Intelligence, the Cloud, the Edge, Smart Sensors, Big Data, and more. During the COVID-19 pandemic, while other cities struggled, smart technologies helped Houston to become resilient.

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