NEW YORK ― A global expert in urban planning called for cities to seek to reform their outdated infrastructure for sustainable growth.

Urbanization around the world has been accelerating and cities, which already account for some two-thirds of global energy consumption, drive the world’s growth.

“Cities around the world, however, are facing challenges their original planners could have never imagined,” Roland Busch, a managing board member of German industrial giant Siemens, told The Korea Herald in a recent meeting held in New York. 

Busch pointed to the ballooning populations, air pollution and resource accessibility as just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to adapting today’s urban environments for what tomorrow will bring.

In an effort to tackle such issues that cities are facing, he said urban planners need to take concrete steps to improve their sustainability by reinventing their infrastructures.

With its belief that cities are a key growth market for the future, Siemens added the infrastructure and cities sectors in 2011 to its core business portfolio. Siemens’ two other core business areas are energy and health care.

Last year, the IC unit generated 17.8 billion euros ($22.5 billion), 23 percent of the company’s total revenue, the company said.

“We can’t just start over and build a new New York or new Shanghai from scratch. Innovative solutions are needed to equip cities with the technology necessary to adapt and adjust,” said Busch.

He said the integration of technical solutions, for instance, can lower the high energy consumption of buildings by as much as 40 percent.

The German industrial giant has offered a technical infrastructure portfolio for urban places, which ranges from energy efficiency solutions for buildings to total building solutions.

Key projects that the firm’s infrastructure and city sectors led included the renovation of Carnegie Hall, the 120-year-old historic landmark in New York. The company introduced energy efficiency, fire safety and security solutions to revitalize the nonperformance space of the building, while preserving the facility’s architectural integrity.

In Korea, Siemens won several projects to provide building solutions for Emart and the Busan International Finance Center. The company also supplied fire safety and security systems for Sejong Administrative City.

By Park Han-na, Korea Herald correspondent
(hnpark@heraldcorp.com)