REPOST: The Future Smart City Will Be Built Around You and the Internet of You

Due to the significant developments in technology in recent years, the concept of smart city has also gained ground. But what exactly are smart cities and how can they benefit the people? The Forbes article below provides a detailed explanation:  

Pssshhhhhhtttt. Like a shot of steam in your morning latte, the sound of train doors opening injects vitality into any urban commute. But imagine that at 7:18 a.m. on Monday in the London Underground the red doors stay open and quiet, and stay, and stay . . .

Inside the rail cars, instead of the familiar sway and howl of a train at pace, there’s just a nervous electrical hum. Londoners sit, yawn, and scroll absently on their phones. Tired of waiting, a couple of would-be passengers make a decision to tuck away their phones and head back out onto the platform.

Now what?

The commuters have no idea why their train is delayed or when or if it will move again. So they’re forced into a scavenger hunt for an alternate way to work.

 

Image Source: geolocation.ws

To be fair to London, this experience is rapidly becoming extinct. The city upon the Thames is growing faster than at any other time in its 2,000-year history. According to the City of London, the core will hit 9 million in population before New York and approach 10 million by 2030. London is on track to become one of 30 megacities that will exist by 2023. So it is necessarily reinventing itself in the digital age as a Smart City.

How does becoming a Smart City save the hapless riders stranded on the train? Imagine you’re a commuter in a different scenario. Sensors monitoring the Tube and its trains detect an irregularity in the brake system of your usual train. The data gets reported in real time to the government agency Transport for London (TfL), checked with a probability heuristic, and confirmed. There’s a 90% chance of brake failure in the next two hours.

No problem. Before you can leave a tip for the barista at your favorite coffee house, a text message alerts you to the delay and offers you an alternative route, as well as a coupon for a discount on your next cup of coffee. All compliments of the City of London and TfL. Apps like Citymapper are already taking the first toddling steps toward this ideal.

That’s why the current model of a Smart City as an extended Internet of Things is inadequate. It leaves out the most critical component—you, the digital citizen. You are not just a thing, but the reason the system exists. There can be no useful vision of a city, smart or otherwise, that doesn’t place you at its center.

So, then, what is a smart city? And what are the implications for the people who live within its bounds? To truly make the most of what a city can be, planners, companies, and urban dwellers need to understand three critical things:

1. You don’t just live in a city; you cross through its layers every day.

In the simplest view, cities have three layers:  the underground level, the surface, and the airspace. In a Smart City there’s a corresponding parallel universe of data-collecting sensors integrated within each stratum.
Take, for example, the underground. Like trees with a massive root system, cities are figuratively and literally supported by a vast subterranean physical complex—transportation, heat, sewers, fresh water, electricity, communications, and structural supports. Today these systems are being augmented with sensors, digital arrays, and hubs to monitor every aspect of their activity. If the earth shakes, whether from a train or a seismic event, the data will be accurately captured.

The next layer is the surface. Think of streets, parks, plazas, and even the retail shops, restaurants, and other buildings or entrances normally accessible from street level. At this layer the parallel digital network includes cameras, location-based services, cellular networks, and sensors monitoring everything from traffic to the pace of pedestrians.

The final layer is airspace. Skyscrapers, bridges, and towers hold aloft sensors that monitor wi-fi, weather, air quality, and perhaps even drone traffic.

So why is it important to think about the strata of the city? Because humans cross through each layer every day. Any technology solution that fails to anticipate and account for people is, at the outset, a hobbled initiative. The truly connected city begins to emerge in how data is managed across all three physical layers. Data analytics becomes the glue that, when managed well, dramatically improves your experience of life.

 

Image Source: pymnts.com

2. You will be the active, mobile center of a vast network.

We’re used to thinking of ourselves as part of a social network, but done right, Smart Cities promise to put each of us at the center of far-reaching civic and commercial networks, too. Points of connection will be everywhere—smartphones, clothing, cars, benches, buildings, parking meters, speed bumps, shop windows, and more. Pass by your favorite clothing boutique and your jacket alerts the store, flashing a special price on the window just for you.

Of course, smart doesn’t just mean opportunistic sales. The kind of porous and flexible connection required for usability argues for a whole new level of data security and privacy. A truly smart city must take into account social policy and how it translates into protection for its citizens. The good news is that as points of connection proliferate, so will your choices about when and how to interact with the network.

3. You will have the power to shape your experience of the city. 

In another futuristic example, imagine acting as a kind of living thermostat to regulate the temperature of your city. On the surface during rush hour, above certain key transit hubs, the temperature of the sidewalk can soar up to 20 degrees higher than the surrounding environment. What if city managers could transfer that heat from underground into the buildings above? Instead of energy escaping into the atmosphere, buildings could reduce their heat consumption and improve their carbon footprint. Take it a step further, and thousands of commuters could voluntarily alter their routes to promote heat exchanges and maybe even receive energy tax credits.

 

Image Source: iceconnect.eletsonline.com

Cities have always shaped their inhabitants. The élan vital can manifest in an accent, the pace of service, or even how much time people spend outdoors. But this may be the first time in history that an individual citizen will have the power to push back on and shape her city in real time. We’re reaching a new level of engagement—a kind of symbiotechna.

In coming articles, we’ll look more closely into the specifics of Smart Cities and the tremendous creative potential for sustainability, livability and commercial impact. Smart means a safer, healthier, cleaner, and even joyful city. Always with you at its heart.


Pete Kampfer is an experienced city manager who has dealt with urban planning and other community initiatives. Visit this blog to learn more about his work, as well as other concepts in city management.

REPOST: Old World, New Tech: Europe Remains Ahead of U.S. in Creating Smart Cities

Despite the region's economic doldrums, analysts say that Europe has embraced the concept of smart cities more than the U.S., a move that has inspired alliances for sustainable habitat and alternative technologies across the Atlantic. The New York Times contributor Mark Scott looks at the technologies and services that offer newfound promise for the future of cities.

Llibert Serra, head gardener of the Parc del Centre de Poblenou in Barcelona, uses an iPad mini to demonstrate “smart” watering. Image Source: nytimes.com

BARCELONA, Spain — The streets here offer a glimpse of what the future may have to offer.

Alongside the city’s world-famous architecture and pristine sandy beaches, sensors attached to trash cans now alert workers when they need to be emptied.

The irrigation systems built into Barcelona’s parks monitor soil moisture and turn on sprinklers when water is needed. And drivers can use a smartphone application to find the nearest available parking spot in the labyrinthine streets.

“It’s crucial that these new technologies are useful to our citizens,” Xavier Trias, Barcelona’s mayor, said in his stately offices, which date from the 15th century. “It’s an important change. We have to create a sustainable system.”

Barcelona is among a number of European cities adopting new forms of technology aimed at improving services. More important, the investments, including neighborhoodwide high-speed Internet connections and electricity charge points for cars and motorbikes, offer ways to cut energy use and generate income.

READY FOR PICKUP A “smart” waste collection system saves space and sends a signal when containers are full.
Image Source: nytimes.com

The push mirrors efforts in cities including San Francisco and Boston, which have spent millions of dollars to upgrade their infrastructure. Other projects have appeared elsewhere, notably Masdar City, a planned high-tech habitat created from scratch in Abu Dhabi.

Yet analysts say Europe, despite being hard hit by the recent financial crisis — and in part because of it — remains a step ahead of the United States in creating efficient, so-called smart cities that combine traditional services like electricity networks with 21st-century technology like Internet-connected home appliances.

“Europe has embraced the concept more than the U.S.,” said Bas Boorsma, a director at Cisco Systems who helps cities upgrade their infrastructure. “It will always require partnerships between the private sector and government, and Europe does that better.”

Given Europe’s economic doldrums (which bring the mixed blessing of less industrial pollution), many of the Continent’s governments have shifted from an emphasis on big renewable energy projects to saving money, while enlisting the private sector and exploiting the growing business possibilities of smartphones and tablets.

Mayors in places including Copenhagen and Hamburg hope to cut their cities’ energy and water use and waste by upgrading municipal services so they can monitor how services are delivered and pinpoint where savings can be found.

In Barcelona, where the unemployment rate remains above 20 percent, the city expects to cut its water bill by 25 percent this year after installing sensors in local parks. The annual savings are expected to total almost $60 million.

“We were wasting a lot of water,” said Julia Lopez, coordinator of Barcelona’s smart city program. “We can now control the system directly from an iPad.”

The infrastructure upgrades have led to agreements between cities and some of the world’s largest technology companies, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and General Electric. By deploying their technology in citywide pilot projects, these companies say they can test new business models and other services that might have worldwide appeal.

In January, Google reached a $3.2 billion deal to buy Nest Labs, which makes energy-saving devices like Internet-connected thermostats and smoke detectors. Nest says its products, designed by former Apple engineers, can cut household heating and cooling bills by around 20 percent by monitoring people’s habits and adjusting the thermostat automatically.

Growing corporate interest is inspiring new alliances across the Atlantic.

The European technology companies Philips and Ericsson, for example, are working with Verizon Wireless on a pilot project in the United States that will combine energy-efficient street lighting with mobile phone infrastructure. This year, Philips and Ericsson plan to start selling their new product to city governments. The idea is to provide cities a source of income through rentals of streetlights to carriers that want to expand their cellphone coverage. The companies also expect that the energy-efficient streetlights will offer savings of about 50 percent compared with traditional lighting.

“We’re trying to solve the problem of how to make cities more sustainable,” said Hans Vestberg, Ericsson’s chief executive. “These projects are key for cities that want to remain globally competitive.”

While cutting electricity use and garbage collections has environmental benefits, policy makers say that economic returns, not carbon dioxide reductions, are now driving many cities’ plans.

Two years ago, for example, Amsterdam’s planners changed how they funded technology projects intended to improve city services.

Amsterdam had previously subsidized upgrades in the local electricity network and other infrastructure but had seen little improvement in city finances. In response, its policy makers started investing in local start-ups that were creating businesses using advanced technical infrastructure, through a 70 million euro, or $96 million, fund.

They also fostered partnerships among local businesses to take advantage of previous investments. Among them were Ajax, a soccer team, which paid a nearby hospital to generate electricity for its home matches by installing solar panels on the hospital roof.

“The financial crisis helped us to think differently,” said Ger Baron, Amsterdam’s chief technology officer. “We don’t subsidize anymore. We invest.”

Across Europe, cities are opening their infrastructure to companies eager to offer new services that provide revenue for the city and offer potential environmental benefits.

In London, the start-up Citymapper used access to the city’s transport data to create a smartphone application that helps people navigate the complicated bus and subway networks. Azmat Yusuf, the company’s founder, said that since Citymapper started in 2011, usage of London’s iconic red buses jumped significantly, creating additional revenue for local government and cutting the number of cars on the streets. The app is now available in New York, Berlin and Paris. And last year in Barcelona, Jaume Mayor, a local entrepreneur, created WeSmartPark, a service aimed at making it easier for drivers to find parking spaces.

Mr. Mayor said drivers spent up to 20 percent of their time looking for places to park, even as many spaces across the city remained empty during the day when residents were at work.

With his 10-person team, Mr. Mayor created a system to allow individuals to rent out their private parking spaces by installing sensors that record when they are available. The information is transmitted in real time over local mobile networks, and customers can book the spaces hourly through a smartphone app.

So far, Mr. Mayor has signed up 1,500 parking spaces across the city, including some at shopping malls and hospitals. He also has almost 100,000 users, or roughly 6 percent of Barcelona’s total population.

“We’re using the resources that we already have, but getting more use out of them,” Mr. Mayor said. “Because people are driving less to find parking spaces, Barcelona as a city is getting a direct benefit.”

Pete Kampfer worked as an economic development executive in a tourist destination community before serving as a city manager of Raton, N.M.,where he gained recognition for his contribution for the region’s economic and urban planning development. Follow this Twitter page for more links to insightful discussions on urban design, city management, and economic planning.