French Week In Oman 2020: Designing Sustainable Cities Conference
French and Omani companies are already addressing these challenges with proven and innovative solutions.
The Economic Department of the Embassy of France hosted a conference on ‘Sustainable cities’ at the occasion of the third edition of the French Week in Oman.
Organized under the auspices of His Excellency Renaud Salins, Ambassador of France to the Sultanate of Oman and His Highness Sayyid Tarik Al Said, Patron of the Environment Society of Oman, the aim of this conference was to discuss the important challenges cities will have to face over the coming decades. French and Omani companies are already addressing these challenges with proven and innovative solutions.
His Excellency Renaud Salins said, ‘With 55% of the world’s population now living in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050, cities are a symbol of success for globalization. But this progress came with increased complexity, and reliance on many systems, networks, that, should they fail, could impact millions of people’s lives in a matter of seconds. Hence our theme today: sustainable cities, not only in the meaning of climate change, but also sustainable for humans.’
This means designing systems that will be able to sustain an ever-larger demand over the coming decades. As the world continues to urbanize, the use of smarter and greener technologies becomes a prerequisite, in order to provide everyone with a safe and healthy environment. These challenges include housing, transportation, energy, water and waste systems, safety and cyberspace.
The first panel focused on Smart City networks, with Thales and Idemia showing how to ensure the security of citizens and urban systems, while Seureca and Suez presented the automatization of the water supply in Muscat, along with the managers of the Public Authority for Water/Diam.
The second panel showcased multiple Sustainable Technologies. Be’ah and Suez presented optimal waste management strategies and how to reuse the energy created. Tabreed-Engie, JC Decaux and Total focused on energy sustainability, covering efficient cooling systems , energy efficient ads and green transportation perspectives.
His Excellency Talal Al Rahbi, Deputy Secretary General for the Supreme Council for Planning honored the conference with his concluding remarks.
