Rapid urbanisation is driving the agenda from the boardroom to city hall
Roughly 2% of the global population lived in cities before the industrial revolution; now the figure is closer to 50%. This rapid urbanisation, set to continue at pace, is the “mega trend” having the biggest impact on the big decisions being made by businesses worldwide – more so than ageing populations or climate change.
Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining company, supplies raw materials, such as iron ore and copper. “We are living through the greatest urbanisation in human history and without minerals you don’t build cities,” says John McGagh, head of innovation at Rio Tinto.
Mr McGagh claims that the average copper grade during the industrial revolution was about 17%. Today, the average copper grade is about 1%. Consequently, mining companies have to dig, haul and process a lot more rock than they did two centuries ago. This is driving requirements for more sophisticated technology, higher levels of efficiency and a significantly lower cost structure.
Rio Tinto works closely with its partners to achieve this. For example, it has been working with Komatsu – a Japanese multinational that manufactures construction and mining equipment – since 1996 to develop the 60 autonomous trucks that it has so far used to transport over 200m tonnes of iron ore around its mines.
From mining iron ore to data mining
Of course, the challenges of urbanisation are acutely felt by the cities themselves. The population of Berlin, Germany, has grown by 50,000 each year. This growth is both exciting and problematic, according to the governing mayor, Klaus Wowereit. “We have to create affordable housing, expand the infrastructure, and at the same time preserve the social balance: Berlin must continue to be a livable and affordable city for everyone.”
Just as with companies, this is driving unprecedented collaboration between local authorities in many of the world’s cities. The Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) in New York City collaborates with multiple local government agencies to overcome some of the challenges of urbanisation, such as overcrowding, road fatalities, and pollution.
In New York, local authorities tend to collect data for their own use and store them in a way that makes sense for their requirements. Integrating data from these disparate “information silos” is no mean feat. Data are streamed into MODA from 17 different agencies. MODA’s chief of staff, Nicholas O’Brien, estimates that his department sees at least 100m records pass through its systems daily.
But, having brought all of this valuable big data together for the first time, MODA is not content simply to use it in-house. “We are moving very aggressively on the open-data front,” says Mr O’Brien. “We want to make lot of the city data available to the general public, to the business community, so that they can use it and build businesses on the back of it.”
Yet the data available need not be big. Linking existing data intelligently can be just as effective. A new scheme in Berlin, for instance, requires the compulsory registration of companies wishing to dig up a road. This facilitates the co-ordination of construction dates, saving costs and limiting interruption to inhabitants.
