Rainfall floods in the Benelux, storms in America and more alarming messages in the latest climate report from the United Nations. An increasing population pressures the earth and its natural resources and the current technologies and demands of humanity demand more from the earth than it could provide. Climate change is getting real for a lot of people.
RSM alumnus Meiny Prins was faced with the same problems a couple of years ago and decided to use her family business (PRIVA) to be a force for positive change. Her answer to tackle one of the problems surrounding the provision of food: The Sustainable Urban Delta.
To cope with the urbanization and provide a holistic solution for the problems that come with urbanization, Prins learned from the integrated approach in business and wanted to apply that. With her new business idea, she created a multipurpose solution for a multipurpose problem.
Nothing of this would be possible without the application of artificial intelligence in combination with smart cities and the internet of things. By using real-time data, the artificial intelligence systems can use the limited available resources in the most circular way as possible. This means optimal use of energy, water and most important: space. An integral way to combine city life while determining the best moment and place close by to provide in food and clean water. Using the benefits of one process to prevent problems of other systems. For example, by using vertical farming in city centers, cities can cool down the temperature by providing a green oasis. All of this combined in a perfect harmony and totally data driven.
However, one could argue the feasibility of this plan. Prins’s plan is to design total ecosystems in large cities to bring back the so-called green belt to create a livable future. However, to what scale do we need to develop these delta’s. And how is one able to create that on a large scale with the current state of urbanization? Even though that every 3 months a new 9 million people city rises, the current degree of urbanization will not allow the Sustainable Urban Delta to develop without a massive change in current civilization.
The vision of Prins is vivid and inspires people to do good. It is however the question to what scale PRIVA can provide impact with their digital solutions in agriculture and smart cities. But maybe by looking around, we can conclude that the Netherlands is one of the first urban delta’s on a national level.
