Stanford researchers are bringing the concept of the “smart city” to the countryside. Just outside of the city of Almere in the Netherlands, the first closed-loop, regenerative, self-sustaining, off-grid “smart village” is being created. The village will house about 200 families on 40 acres of land and will marry on-site solar- and wind-energy generation and storage with clean water recycling, waste-to-resource management, on-site aquaculture, small-animal ranching, and organic farming. While this may sound more utopian fantasy than reality, the concept of “smart” villages and cities has the potential to solve several global problems at once such as housing shortage, waste management, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The concept of “smart” is making its way to the countryside
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