Smart City depiction

What's a Smart City?

Most definitions of a Smart City focus on:

innovative use of information and communications technology (ICT)
sustainable energy use
efficient transport systems
a clean environment

Sensors

The Smart City might get its information from a number of sensor sources, including:

traffic
light
weather
noise
waste management
motion detection
electric bicycle and vehicle charging stations
parking space occupancy detection
shooting detection
emergency
CCTV

Yeah, but why...what are the key focus areas of a Smart City?

Smart Cities use the extensive data that they collect to be able to plan and make decisions in these areas:

infrastructure, including
- energy
- public lighting
- transportation planning and traffic management
  - let's not forget parking and electric vehicle/bicycle charging
- building planning and development (residential/commercial)
environment
- parks and play areas/green areas
- solid waste management
- wastewater and sewage treatment
- air quality management
- potable water supply monitoring and management
- greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and management
social
- safety and security
- health care - clinics and hospitals
- emergency/disaster response
- cultural offerings (museums, libraries, art galleries, etc.)
- leisure activities (amusement parks, recreational centres, gyms, etc.)
- entertainment facilities and event management (concert halls, stadiums, etc.)
- retail - "street level" shops and commercial malls
citizen engagement
- getting feedback from residents on satisfaction with service delivery
- providing residents with information on available services

There's a lot that goes into managing a city!

How does a Smart City juggle all these interests?

The Smart City leverages, but isn't driven by, ICT. In this link, we get some insight into the role that ICT plays in the changing relationship of a city with its populace.

ICT is used to enhance quality, performance and interactivity of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to increase contact between citizens and government. Smart city applications are developed to manage urban flows and allow for real-time responses. A smart city may therefore be more prepared to respond to challenges than one with a simple "transactional" relationship with its citizens.

What is driving the development of Smart Cities?

In addition to the availability of technology, other factors such as urbanisation, climate change and economic inequality (and the pressures that brings) are all creating pain and opportunity points for cities and their residents...and so is the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Internet of Things

You knew I'd end up here eventually. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the environment we're currently living in, in which disruptive technologies such as the Internet of Things (in simple terms, our devices can talk to each other, without human intervention, in ways which help them operate more effectively), robotics and artificial intelligence are significantly affecting the way we live and work. It's not just about smart TVs and smart fridges, although those are pretty cool, it's about electrical networks being able to adjust to changing demand and weather conditions, it's about city road networks being able to automatically adjust traffic light phasing based on traffic sensor input - things that affect us at a community level.

What enables the development of Smart Cities?

In a word? Broadband:

Broadband is the new essential utility, as vital to economic growth as clean water and good roads. Intelligent Communities express a strong vision of their broadband future, encourage deployment and adoption, and deploy their own networks where necessary.

And this leads me into the fascinating area of Intelligent Communities, which I'll pick up on tomorrow. I hope you can cope with the suspense in the meantime!

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Smart Cities - an introduction