Smart city solutions, hailed as the future for cities, are gaining rapid traction. Global population growth is accelerating, and more people are looking for work and income in cities. By 2050, the United Nations predicts that 68% or more of the world’s population will be living in cities. Most people already live in cities in the developed world. This includes the United States, Europe and most of Asia. Africa is the only continent that remains predominantly rural. This situation is rapidly changing.
Urbanization is not without its challenges. Many cities are not prepared for the influx. Many urban areas today are struggling with issues such as mobility, pollution, high energy needs, dilapidated infrastructure, lack social amenities, rampant crime and other urbanization-related challenges.
To solve these issues, cities have no other choice than to implement smart city solutions. Where does a city start? It’s not as simple as installing CCTV cameras or giving everyone free wifi. Becoming a “smart city” is much more complex. A smart city is a network of interconnected parts that works together to improve the quality of life of its residents.
Ten smart city solutions are suggested for consideration when implementing smart cities initiatives.
- Data
Smart cities use data to make informed decisions that result in positive outcomes for residents. To begin, city officials need to consider what data they require, how they plan to collect, analyze, and store it, as well as how long they intend on keeping it. Staff must be able to use data tools and make sense of it.
For urban planning and development to be successful, it is important to look at historical trends. Smart city solutions must have backups both in the cloud as well as off-site.
City officials also need to decide which data they wish to keep and for how long. Smart city infrastructures can generate large amounts of data in a short period of time. The average smart car produces four terabytes per day. This data is only useful for a short time, and can be thrown away. As camera technology improves, so will the amount of storage required for video and images. It is important that officials create policies to govern the release of storage space.
- The Network
The data is the basis, but the network gives structure to the smart city. You can manipulate data through the network. It should be fast, and it must support many devices in small spaces. Here comes 5G technology.
Smart cities are built on 5G solutions. 5G is a fifth-generation mobile network and an improvement over the 4G LTE networks that are currently in use around the world. This technology provides faster connections and increased capacity. 5G URLLC systems (Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication) have a response of one millisecond, compared to the 20-30 milliseconds that 4G LTE systems had. 5G technology uses’massive MIMO antennas (multiple input multiple output). This allows it to connect many users at once and maintain high speeds. This is a contrast to 4G systems, which lag when multiple users and devices are connected to the network at the same time. It’s a useful feature for smart city networks where many devices and people will be connecting to the networks at the same time.
Camera footage with high bandwidth needs can benefit from 5G.
- The Internet of Things
5G networks enable the Internet of Things. IoT smart cities refers to the ubiquitousness of gadgets and devices that collect data, as well as equipment and devices that are Internet-enabled. This includes items we wouldn’t expect to be connected with the Internet. For example, lampposts can collect weather and traffic data, stormwater sewer meters can detect clogging or large foreign objects, and doorknobs can detect pathogens, log their results and send them to a remote location. IoT gathers data for the city to use in making smart decisions. Batteries are also required to keep these devices connected to the Internet, and to relay the data they collect. Battery life has improved dramatically, but a city without 5G technology may be able to solve the problem by using a low power wide area network (LPWAN).
- Modular Infrastructure
In order to maintain a smart city, the IT infrastructure must be updated. Before vulnerabilities can be exploited, they must first be identified. Software must be patched, and devices should be replaced with minimum interference. This can only be done with a modular system that allows maintenance to be performed on a specific network segment without shutting down the whole system. Modular infrastructure can also be scaled down or up as required.
- Security
Smart city solutions can help to solve urbanization issues, but they also pose significant security risks if hackers gain control of IoT infrastructure and devices. In a world where everything is connected, it’s not hard to imagine scenarios like planes falling from the sky, trains colliding with each other, or autonomous vehicles going berserk.
A vigilant approach is required to ensure security in a smart-city. Access to administrative systems should be tightly controlled by using multiple verification methods, such as QR codes, passwords, biometric controls and app passwords.
The city officials should hire ethical hackers who will look for vulnerabilities 24 hours a day to fix them before hackers do. Staff at the city should also receive regular security training, as most successful hacks are due to social engineering techniques.
- Privacy
Another potential outcome of smart city solutions is the loss of privacy. To operate a city as intended, citizens must be willing to share data with the city. These data include their location, services they use and where they shop. They also include how they commute and what they eat. This data is analyzed by the city to improve quality of life. This data can fall into the wrong hand and be used in an unfair way to target individuals. This information could be used by city officials with a racial agenda to discriminate in the delivery of services. Data can be stolen from people and used without their consent for commercial purposes or blackmail.
Data privacy laws reflecting the will of citizens must be adopted by legislative bodies to mitigate these negative outcomes. Regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR), which protects citizen data, are good examples of the legal direction that smart cities should follow.
- Sensors & Data Capture
Many smart city officials do not understand the challenges of implementing smart solutions. People tend to speak about data collection without being specific. Data can include anything, including noise pollution if you don’t specify.
Pollen, road surface temperature, sewage flow rate, soil moisture and valve pressure, as well as wildlife, wind direction and any other information that is captured.
Smart city solutions capture specific data. The City of Philadelphia, for example, has an app crowdsourced by drivers that helps them find free parking as well as navigate the parking rules of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Boston’s analysis of all traffic data protects pedestrians and bikers, while New York has an automated water reading system that streamlines billing.
- Distributed data processing
The collection of data is important, but the processing of that data is equally crucial. Not all the data you collect is useful. You should filter the data you upload to your cloud storage. In a distributed processing setup, data is processed by a central computer and networked computers. This allows for different systems to react faster, such as traffic management.
- Start small and expand
Smart city solutions are a huge project that involves many moving pieces. If you try to take on too much, it can cause project delays, mistakes and abandonment. Many promising smart city projects have failed to take off due to poor planning or execution. Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs, for example, abruptly halted the Toronto smart city project because of the COVID-19 epidemic that rendered the project unprofitable.
To avoid failure and false starts, it’s best to break the project down into smaller subprojects and milestones. Each part brings the city one step closer to achieving full smart city status. The city officials can start by prioritizing city problems and focusing on smart city solutions to solve the most urgent issues. Imagine a smart city project as a process that begins small and grows gradually.
- De-silo Departments
Globally, public administrators are not as innovative, as open to new ideas or as collaborative as their private company counterparts. When they feel that a new technology or way of doing something is infringing upon their territory, individuals can quickly become territorial.
These siloed mindsets often impede the progress of smart cities initiatives. They must be stopped in their tracks. For the project to succeed, departments must work together and share data.
It may be necessary to hire a consultant to educate staff about the benefits of smart city solutions and to use team building exercises to bring everyone on board.