Courtesy : en.wikipedia.org
Green smart city
A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. Information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in return, that data is used to improve operations across the city.This includes data collected from citizens, devices, buildings and assets that is processed and analyzed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities, water supply networks, waste, Criminal investigations,information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services.Smart cities are defined as smart both in the ways in which their governments harness technology as well as in how they monitor, analyze, plan, and govern the city. In smart cities, the sharing of data is not limited to the city itself but also includes businesses, citizens and other third parties that can benefit from various uses of that data. Sharing data from different systems and sectors creates opportunities for increased understanding and economic benefits.
The smart city concept integrates information and communication technology (‘ICT’), and various physical devices connected to the Internet of things (‘IoT’) network to optimize the efficiency of city operations and services and connect to citizens.Smart city technology allows city officials to interact directly with both community and city infrastructure and to monitor what is happening in the city and how the city is evolving. 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 conventional “transactional” relationship with its citizens.Yet, the term itself remains unclear in its specifics and therefore, open to many interpretations.Many cities have already adopted the smart city technology.
Terminology
Due to the breadth of technologies that have been implemented under the smart city label, it is difficult to distill a precise definition of a smart city. Deakin and Al Waerlist four factors that contribute to the definition of a smart city:
- The application of a wide range of electronic and digital technologies to communities and cities.
- The use of ICT to transform life and working environments within the region.
- The embedding of such Information and Communications Technologies in government systems.
- The territorialisation of practices that brings ICT and people together to enhance the innovation and knowledge that they offer.
Deakin defines the smart city as one that utilizes ICT to meet the demands of the market (the citizens of the city), and states that community involvement in the process is necessary for a smart city. A smart city would thus be a city that not only possesses ICT technology in particular areas, but has also implemented this technology in a manner that positively impacts the local community.
Alternative definitions include:
- Business Dictionary, 6 Nov 2011: “A developed urban area that creates sustainable economic development and high quality of life by excelling in multiple key areas; economy, mobility, environment, people, living, and government. Excelling in these key areas can be done so through strong human capital, social capital, and/or ICT infrastructure.”
- Caragliu, Del Bo, & Nijkamp, 2011: “A city can be defined as smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional transport and modern ICT infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance.”
- Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UK 2013: “[T]he concept is not static: there is no absolute definition of a smart city, no end point, but rather a process, or series of steps, by which cities become more ‘liveable’ and resilient and, hence, able to respond quicker to new challenges.”
- European Commission: “A smart city is a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital solutions for the benefit of its inhabitants and business.”
- Frost & Sullivan 2014: “We identified eight key aspects that define a smart city: smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizen.”
- Giffinger et al. 2007: “Regional competitiveness, transport and Information and Communication Technologies economics, natural resources, human and social capital, quality of life, and participation of citizens in the governance of cities.”
- Indian Government 2015: “Smart city offers sustainability in terms of economic activities and employment opportunities to a wide section of its residents, regardless of their level of education, skills or income levels.”
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 23 Apr 2019: “A smart city brings together technology, government and society to enable the following characteristics: a smart economy, smart mobility, a smart environment, smart people, smart living, smart governance.”
- Paiho et al. 2022: Smart city is a city that uses technological solutions to improve the management and efficiency of the urban environment. Typically, smart cities are considered being advanced in six fields of actions, namely ‘smart government’, ‘smart economy’, ‘smart environment’, ‘smart living’, ‘smart mobility’ and ‘smart people’
- Smart Cities Council, 1 May 2013 : “A smart city [is] one that has digital technology embedded across all city functions”[
Characteristics
It has been suggested that a smart city (also community, business cluster, urban agglomeration or region) uses information technologies to:
- Make more efficient use of physical infrastructure (roads, built environment and other physical assets) through artificial intelligence and data analytics in order to support a strong and healthy economic, social, cultural development.
- Engage effectively with local governance by use of open innovation processes and e-participation, improving the collective intelligence of the city’s institutions through e-governance, with emphasis placed on citizen participation and co-design.
- Learn, adapt and innovate and thereby respond more effectively and promptly to changing circumstances by improving the intelligence of the city.
They evolve towards a strong integration of all dimensions of human intelligence, collective intelligence, and also artificial intelligence within the cityThe intelligence of cities “resides in the increasingly effective combination of digital telecommunication networks (the nerves), ubiquitously embedded intelligence (the brains), sensors and tags (the sensory organs), and software (the knowledge and cognitive competence)”.
These forms of intelligence in smart cities have been demonstrated in three ways
Bletchley Park often considered to be the first smart community.
- Orchestration intelligence:Where cities establish institutions and community-based problem solving and collaborations, such as in Bletchley Park, where the Nazi Enigma cipher was decoded by a team led by Alan Turing. This has been referred to as the first example of a smart city or an intelligent community.
- Empowerment intelligence: Cities provide open platforms, experimental facilities and smart city infrastructure in order to cluster innovation in certain districts. These are seen in the Kista Science City in Stockholm and the Cyberport Zone in Hong Kong. Similar facilities have also been established in Melbourne and Kyiv.
- Instrumentation intelligence: Where city infrastructure is made smart through real-time data collection, with analysis and predictive modelling across city districts. There is much controversy surrounding this, particularly with regards to surveillance issues in smart cities. Examples of Instrumentation intelligence are those implemented in Amsterdam. This is realized through:
- A common IP infrastructure that is open to researchers to develop applications.
- Wireless meters and devices transmit information at the point in time.
- A number of homes being provided with smart energy meters to become aware of energy consumption and reduce energy usage.
- Solar power garbage compactors, car recharging stations and energy saving lamps.
Some major fields of intelligent city activation are:
| Innovation economy | Urban infrastructure | Governance |
|---|---|---|
| Innovation in industries, clusters, districts of a city | Transport | Administration services to the citizen |
| Knowledge workforce: Education and employment | Energy / Utilities | Participatory and direct democracy |
| Creation of knowledge-intensive companies | Protection of the environment / Safety | Services to the citizen: Quality of life |
According to David K. Owens, the former executive vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, two key elements that a smart city must have are an integrated communications platform and a “dynamic resilient grid.”
Data collection
Smart cities have been conceptualized using the OSI model of ‘layer’ abstractions. Smart cities are constructed by connecting the city’s public infrastructure with city application systems and passing collected data through three layers, the perception layer, the network layer and the application layer. City application systems then use data to make better decisions when controlling different city infrastructures. The perception layer is where data is collected across the smart city using sensors. This data could be collected through sensors such as cameras, RFID, or GPS positioning. The perception layer sends data it collects using wireless transmissions to the network layer. The network layer is responsible for transporting collected data from the perception layer to the application layer. The network layer utilizes a city’s communication infrastructure to send data meaning it can be intercepted by attackers and must be held responsible for keeping collected data and information private. The application layer is responsible for processing the data received from network layer. The application layer uses the data it processes to make decisions on how to control the city infrastructure based on the data it receives.