Smart cities and ICT

Smart cities and ICT

From a technology standpoint, a smart city relies on embedded sensors and devices to gather data and then share that information via a combined wired and wireless communications system. Information from transportation systems, roadways, power and water systems, buildings, and other parts of the built environment is fed into software that analyses and organises it for use by local authorities, service providers, businesses and citizens to enhance services, address problems, and tap into information. For instance, smart power and water grids not only improve service delivery reliability and efficiency, they also help customers control their usage and lower their bills. Smart transportation systems optimise citywide travel by providing things like traffic mapping, public transport arrival and departure times, and taxi locations. This information is relayed via a variety of means, including tablet and smartphone applications.

Essential to the creation of a smart city is a good broadband network. Fibre optic is currently the fastest type of connection available; however, the most robust network combines fibre optic with cable and wireless networking to ensure broadband availability is as wide-reaching as possible, with the focus for fibre optic initially being in key areas like emergency response centres, learning centres, government centres, research and technical institutions, and key business areas.

Once a broadband network is established, the next step is to ensure that the city’s infrastructure and spaces are fitted with embedded systems that can provide real time data. Those systems then need to be interconnected to form an integrated ICT infrastructure. Finally, eservices and web-based applications need to be developed to ensure the right information gets to the right end users.

Also key to smart city ICT success is transparency. Government information, in particular, needs to be open and available to the public. The OECD provides five reasons open government data is essential to the future of our cities:

1. It improves transparency, facilitating accountability, responsiveness and democratic control.
2. Citizens feel empowered, and that supports engagement and participation on a social level.
3. Empowered citizens become empowered civil servants.
4. It encourages innovative thinking which, in turn, creates an increase in service value and efficiency.
5. As the result of all of the above, the city performs better economically. ²

Smart cities and sustainability

While the foundation of a smart city is its use of technology to enhance city performance and optimise service delivery, a major factor in what makes a city a smart city is its level of sustainability. A truly smart city uses technology to become selfaware, which enables informed decision making and facilitates positive change. This includes things like tracking weather conditions and measuring water supply and consumption to efficiently manage use and tracking waste patterns to create more efficient recycling programmes.

Key elements of a sustainable smart city include:

• Offering a sustainable agricultural ecosystem and plentiful access to raw materials
• Favouring efficient building design, sustainable energy systems, green
  transportation, and green living
• Providing zero footprint water consumption through low and high tech means
  (rainwater collection, recycling systems)
• Exhibiting an awareness of its own context and local impact
• Resiliency to long-term changes ³

Smart cities and quality of life

One of the most glaring problems facing future cities is how to make sure that the fundamental needs of its growing population are met. At its most basic level, a city needs to provide its people with uninterrupted access to power, water, food, transportation and healthcare in both normal (blue sky) conditions and during disruptive events. Through the use of smart city technology and innovation, gathered data can be used to predict system behaviour and foresee problems. This allows the city to better meet population needs consistently, as well as provide additional benefits to enhance quality of life. This includes things like:

• High quality, reliable, superfast broadband network
• Agile transportation systems and interactive bus shelters
• Citywide cloud access and near field communication (NFC)-enhanced digital services
• GPS for bikes and bike route calculators
• Improved public safety
• Cleaner air via cleaner energy sources and the integration of nature into the city’s footprint
• Smart grids to reduce energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, and problem response times
• Energy efficient housing that takes advantage of natural lighting
• Higher quality food through urban agricultural programmes
• Disaster preparedness and proactive response to weather events

Energy innovations of the future

In an interview with Peter De Pauw, Eandis’ head of business development and strategy, Mr De Pauw outlined some of the key areas where innovation in energy technologies are imperative to the future of cities. This included:

• Smart asset management and the use of sustainable materials in service grids to facilitate long term, cost effective performance
• Smart grids and smart meters that provide vital information regarding network performance to facilitate better connection to local, renewable energy sources and allow consumers to monitor and adapt their energy use behaviours
• Better power quality management through energy storage (thermal and electrical)
• District wide heating and cooling in areas where residual energy is created by industry
• Network monitoring, control, and operation to support longer asset lifetimes and lower maintenance needs
• Energy efficient designs for housing and public lighting
• Greener energy systems via renewable, clean energy carriers ⁴

Challenges faced

Whatever definition a city’s authorities chooses to adopt and work towards, the one element that remains universal is that smart cities are not static cities; there will always be new challenges that require continual innovation and the ability to adapt to conceptualised data. This includes things like:

• Population growth and meeting the needs of an ageing populace
• Increased human mobility and the globalisation of economies, ecologies, risks, demographics
• Geo-political shifts and governance framework changes
• Inequality (social tensions) and insecurity (food, water, energy)
• Developing technologies and climate change ⁵