By Roman Pavlyuk, VP Digital Strategy at Intellias
The smart cities concept has gained significant traction in recent years, with many metropolitan leaders and authorities looking to implement technologies and systems that will improve efficiencies and the quality of life for their citizens. However, the process of building a smart city is not without its challenges, and realising its potential benefits is a long-term commitment.
One of the biggest barriers to success is the urgent need for infrastructure development, including the implementation of advanced technologies such as smart grids, sensors, and data analytics systems. These technologies require significant investment and can be difficult to integrate into existing city infrastructure.
In addition, effective collaboration and coordination between different stakeholders, including government agencies, businesses, and citizens, is key to turning vision into reality. All of these groups must work together to develop and implement strategies and technologies that will benefit the entire community. This can be complex and time-consuming, particularly in larger cities with multiple interest groups and diverse needs.
Consider the gap that typically exists between urban and rural areas, for instance, where the smaller communities might not have the necessary tools and resources to support smart initiatives. Helping meet their needs and ambitions requires the collaboration and support of cities with established technology infrastructure and implementation experience. In doing so, they can be given invaluable assistance across a diverse range of projects, from traffic management and smart mobility to smart lighting and smart grid energy.
Similarly, tech-led initiatives that are delivered on a national scale, such as smart meter rollouts, are useful for encouraging cooperation and knowledge sharing and building momentum behind other smart city projects for both rural and urban communities.
Driving digital change
Although the concept of integrated mobility is at the core of the smart city ethos, many contemporary metropolitan neighbourhoods are still years away from delivering coherent and reliable services. For instance, if a public transportation app fails to notify users of new or overrunning roadworks, people may miss the opportunity to use a replacement bus service, and as a result of a spike in demand, may have no alternative to expensive taxi journeys.
In contrast, digitally integrated transport services can help solve these problems for public transport and car users alike. Advanced online assistance systems can help people get about cities and towns in the most efficient way, as well as providing a mechanism to purchase their parking and public transportation tickets. In practical terms, users can quickly and efficiently make payments using their connected bank cards, and they can easily work out the live bus and train locations.
Turning to the crucial issue of community safety, intelligent urban systems are playing an increasingly important role in ensuring residents can feel safer throughout the city environment. Just as all building types require protection from fire, natural disasters, and unauthorised entry, outfitting buildings with a variety of sensors can increase security and comprehensively monitor elements of the work environment, such as temperature management.
Ideally, these smart city alert systems would develop to work as part of a standardised and unified approach. For example, just as smart technology in the US is used to warn of the risk of wildfires, a similar approach could also be applied to providing people with flood warnings in the UK. By implementing a single control and management centre for all smart city services, these solutions could also be developed to include city navigation features for everything from emergency services access to reserving city services, including restaurants or hair salons.
The journey ahead
So, where are we heading on the smart city journey? First of all, by removing the friction that users encounter in daily life, such as when travelling within cities, we can provide better environments. Among the most practical steps includes providing a live broadcast on buses or subways with information about the current stop, the live schedule, the weather, and the time on a screen. This can be made possible by starting with the provision of free Wi-Fi across cities.
Taking this a step further, faster connectivity can improve challenges such as traffic monitoring, including CCTV, anomaly detection, traffic lights, and other systems. In addition, the installation of cameras that continuously monitor traffic can provide residents with early warnings of traffic bottlenecks and suggest alternate routes.
Permission-based data gathered from user devices, public traffic feeds, road cameras, and in-car sensors can all be incorporated into an IoT-enabled traffic control solution. The intelligence and insight this yields can be shared with road users and local traffic management facilities as real-time traffic updates – all processed and analysed locally, and stored on the cloud.
Overall, the potential is enormous. By leveraging technology and data-driven solutions, smart cities have the potential to improve infrastructure, reduce waste and congestion, and provide better services to residents. While there are challenges to overcome, such as concerns about privacy and the need for coordinated planning and implementation, we can expect to see increased efficiency, sustainability, and livability in our urban centres.
