AI offers answers to Africa’s rapid urbanisation

Streets swamped by muddy water with garbage floating by, roads impassable. As in previous years, Diamniadio Lake City has not escaped the series of floods that affect some cities in Senegal each rainy season.

But not for long. Indeed, this urban centre is preparing to test, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), a new way of managing urban development.

“通过将Diamniadio的数字技术公园作为参考站点，我们进行了建模并在水上径流方案进行了工作，以引导它们并解决这些洪水问题，”数字技术公园的协调员Bassirou Abdoul BA告诉scidev.net。

“The introduction of AI in other cities will create opportunities that will retain young people and prevent migration to already highly populated areas,”

Aboubacar Sadick Ndiaye，数字化转型和破坏性技术专家

这个公园覆盖了25公顷，是距塞内加尔首都达卡（Dakar）35公里的“智慧城市”的第一个实验阶段。

根据Abdoul BA的说法，该项目旨在将Diamniadio变成一个基于管理模型的小镇datastorage, which would be used to control transport, street lighting, air quality, waste and wastewater treatment, and even provide care services.

In concrete terms, the inhabitants of the future city of Diamniadio can expect to live in connected homes, use paperless bus or train tickets and smart parking systems, access E-health services and live next to artificial rivers.

“From 2025, the first elements of this smart city will already be seen in the park with the installation of sensors for the monitoring of site security or maintenance; and later with smart shuttles, electric vehicles or automated waste management,” says Abdoul Ba.

Big data

Like Senegal, several countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Togo have initiated smart city projects in anticipation of rampant urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

根据study联合国于2019年6月出版，撒哈拉以南非洲的人口预计到2050年将翻一番，预计有60％以上的人口将居住urban区域。

科特迪瓦市计划与发展部的技术顾问让·克劳德·科亚（Jean Claude Koya）认为，AI可以帮助定义可持续的社会和环境政策，以应对这种快速的城市化。beplay足球体育的微博

Citing his country as an example, Koya explains that Côte d'Ivoire has a supercomputer that will be used in cities to collect and process data in sectors such as agriculture, climatology and health.

他告诉他说：“分析数据将有助于实现Ivorian城市的气候韧性和可持续发展目标。”scidev.net。

在塞内加尔虚拟大学任教的数字化转型和破坏性技术专家Aboubacar Sadikh Ndiaye认为，在非洲城市管理中引入AI可能有助于阻止预测的急速到城市地区。

他说，撒哈拉以南非洲大多数国家的问题是，大多数工作集中在一个城市中，这证明了人们流到这个城市中心的流程。

Ndiaye说：“在其他城市引入AI将创造机会，以保留年轻人并防止移民到已经被人口高处的地区。”

非洲现实

恩迪亚（Ndiaye）坚信AI可以是非洲就业问题的可持续替代方案，恩迪亚（Ndiaye）认为，非洲政府将受益于将每个城市变成专家technology中心。

“以塞内加尔为例，我们可以决定使圣路易斯成为农业技术中心，Mbour成为电子健康的中心等。这将创造很多工作，并阻止每个人都希望住在达卡（Dakar），他补充说。

Senegalese AI researcher Seydina Moussa Ndiaye suggests that African cities go through the stage of digitalisation before moving on to that of "smart city".

他指出，在非洲背景下，许多城市尚未将数字化与行政管理融为一体。

“How do we go from paper to a completely intelligent city without going through an experience of digitalisation of all procedures?” he asks.

非洲人governmentsshould already be integrating the digitisation of all administrative procedures or risk having “intelligent ghost cities” because of the lack of data to generate services, he warns.

In addition to the lack of digitalisation, Ndiaye points to the low level of connectivity as an obstacle to the emergence of smart cities on the continent.

他强调需要软件开发人员设计无互联网的应用程序。他提出，诸如非结构化补充服务数据（USSD）之类的渠道是GSM蜂窝电话与移动网络运营商的计算机进行通信的通信协议，并且首先是“ SMSING”的数字解决方案设计。

网络安全

Ndiaye倡导提高覆盖率的提高，并降低internetaccess to encourage its use among the population.

他建议，除了投资技术外，政府还需要对网络安全进行投资。恩迪亚（Ndiaye）说，随着智慧城市的说法，数据将成为公共安全和国家主权的问题。他说：“重要的是要从现在，在国家层面上对人们进行有关数据的教育，从而在基层上考虑这一方面，并​​通过制定网络安全政策。”

Ndiaye认为，重点也应该放在研究，创新，培训和展示当地专业知识上。

“The best way African cities can protect the data of their inhabitants and boost their创新领域是使用本地应用程序。”研究人员说。