Experts: Smart City Work Should Stay the Course Amid Crisis

Source: Gov Tech Published: May 1, 2020

The smart city and sustainability projects that make communities more efficient and resilient are more necessary than ever, advocates argue, but other priorities are competeing for the limited resources that could move them forward.

A number of cities are faced with not only new demands for services, but also nearly unthinkable falloffs in revenue collections as the coronavirus pandemic has forced much of the nation into a second month of lockdowns. On Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported the gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, the worst decline since the Great Recession in 2008.

The overall situation has put local and regional governments in a tight spot, forcing officials to choose between innovation and maintaining the status quo.

In Fayetteville, Ark., a college town in the northwest corner of the state, a large solar array at a wastewater treatment plant is moving ahead in an aim to increase clean energy use from 16 to 72 percent. Additonally, a bio-gas system is being explored for the treatment plant to produce a supply of clean natural gas.