Technology to accelerate SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities. Internet of Things vision.
Currently, in the world there is an approximate population of 7300 million people, and for the 2050 there is an estimation that we will be 9700 million. According to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and they estimate that by the year 2050 that number will have increased to 6.5 billion people. If we think about it, we would be calculating that about two thirds of the world population represents the city of the world; hence, the problem arises that it is not possible to achieve sustainable development without radically transforming the way we design, construct and manage urban spaces.
The speed of growth of cities in the world, with set of migrations of rural communities in the city, has been an explosive effect of urban areas. In 1990, there were 10 cities with more than 10 million habitants in the world, by 2014 it had already increased to 28, where about 453 million people live[1].
The main problematic is the extreme poverty that tends to be concentrated in urban spaces. Improving the safety and sustainability of cities means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing and improving green public settlements and improving urban planning and management in a participatory and inclusive manner.
In this essay, I intend to publicize the participation that current technology takes in the development of sustainable cities, thus covering SDG number eleven. I will try to see the subject from a purely technological point of view, since I am dedicated to electronic engineering and one of my goals is to actively participate in world problems; I must clarify that the item that I will try to cover is the one that the Internet of Things gives to the development of sustainable communities. My attitude towards this is that the Internet of Things can really mark a favorable development for humanity.
Transforming traditional cities into “smart cities” implies a huge challenge, because the cities that we have today have remained without many changes for many years, turning them into “smart” will be a challenge for the coming years, but what is a smart city?, smart cities are defined as innovative cities that use information and communication technologies, as well as other means, to improve decision making, efficiency of operations, provision of urban services and competitiveness, while seeking the satisfaction of current and future needs and the balance between economic, social and environmental protection aspects. Although, technology is not the only thing that is needed, if it serves as a technological lever that catapults the process of design and management for the development of urban processes, so, I don’t say that technology is the most important part of the process. development of these cities, but in a very humanitarian sense if it is to make the most of the tools that are available to improve the quality of life of millions of people. Today the people who develop technology are dedicated to their own interests, to make money, but very few are dedicated to the process of improving the conditions of humanity.
An “intelligent city” according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is a space that generates integration, provides data for a transparent management of public resources, generates common procedures that increase the efficiency of the government, allows greater citizen participation in the resource management, produces performance indicators that are useful for monitoring and improving public policies, optimizes the allocation of resources and improves the level of satisfaction of the inhabitants.
According to the technical report of Dave Evans, active worker of Cisco, a city must, to become intelligent, focus on four important aspects: sustainability, inclusion and transparency, generation of wealth or added value and adaptation to the needs of citizens, and in this last case I stress that the citizens are all, not just a small minority, what is planned is that this diminishes the differences between that small minority and the large masses of the poor.
Throughout the world, cities are evaluating how to take advantage of smart technologies to improve the lifestyle of citizens, making the city more efficient and increasing its economic growth. The possibilities are several, among them I can mention the use of technology to achieve lighting, traffic and intelligent parking systems, public safety, among others. The question is: How can all this be achieved ?, and the answer has been forged since 1999 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is known as the Internet of Things (Internet of Things), which is a concept that refers to the digital interconnection of everyday objects with the Internet, this basically works with millions of sensors connected to any object that surrounds us.
Today, projects related to the IoT are already underway that promise to reduce the differences between rich and poor, improve the distribution of the world’s resources for those who need them most, and help us understand the planet so that we can be more proactive. and less reactive. Even so, there are several obstacles that threaten to slow the development of the IoT, including the transition to IPv6, which I will mention later, have a set of common standards and the development of energy sources for billions of tiny sensors. However, as companies, governments, standardization bodies and universities work together to solve these challenges, the IoT will continue to move forward and with it the desire for cities to become more inclusive to reduce the gap between rich and poor, I like to imagine a city where services are automatic, but not only for those who have money, but for all, even the most unfortunate.
In general terms, IoT is the true evolution of the Internet and we can see it as a leap that takes on a high importance, which is giving rise to revolutionary applications that have the potential to continue improving people’s way of living, learning and working. I still remember that the change that the Internet had in people’s lives was huge, we went from one moment to another to have a real-time communication with other people, and there are even people who today could not live or work without Internet tool, now the Internet of Things has managed to make the internet sensorial, that is, we can have access in real time to temperature, pressure, vibration, light, humidity, stress, etc., which allows the human to be more active, we can`t only have contact with people, also with our environment. In addition, the internet is expanding to places that are unreachable, in fact, there are many bids in Mexico by the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, so that network and communications services reach more places throughout the country. Extremely small sensors can be integrated into plants, animals and geological accidents and connected to the internet, there are also patients who ingest devices enabled to help doctors diagnose and determine the causes of certain diseases.
Everything I have mentioned, may sound general, but it is part of understanding something very important, communication is more important than you think, the human evolves because it communicates, for example, once the fire was discovered and It did not have to be rediscovered, but only communicated, taking into account that there is a direct correlation between the entry and exit of data in a person is essential to realize that the more data are created, the more knowledge and wisdom we can obtain. The Internet of Things significantly increases the amount of data to process.
As the population of the planet continues to increase, there is much more information to collect, but in particular it is necessary and important that people are a kind of guardians of the planet and its resources, we all want healthy, satisfying and comfortable lives for us and our families, thanks to the IoT you can detect, collect, transmit, analyze and distribute data on a massive scale with the way people process information, and if we consider that today information is, as I like to call it, “Milled gold”, this represents a kind of wisdom, like the one I mentioned earlier, that should be used to improve the living conditions of people in the world.
With the benefits offered by Internet of Things it`s possible to create various applications in the fields of automation, sensor detection and communications between machines, among others, what you should think, is for which field you will require, for example, in The Economist special report entitled “Augmented Business”[2] describes the way in which cows are to be supervised, and so as not to go too far into the subject, I will only describe it superficially: This is Sparked, a Dutch company that implements sensors in the sheep of the cattle, this helps the farmers to control the health of the cows, carry out a follow-up of their movements, which guarantees a more abundant and healthy meat supply.
Although, the greater effectiveness and the new models of IoT have a positive economic impact, the human aspect is that I want to stand out, because I think it is the advantage that can be used the most and in this aspect I rely on the book of Dr. CK Prahalad , the fortune at the base of the pyramid: how to eradicate poverty through profits[3], where the results of a poorer neighborhood of Bombay, called Dharavi, with the richest called Warden Road. The basic difference is that in Dharavi they pay, for running water, 1.12 dollars per cubic meter, while in Warden Road they pay 0.03 dollars, the injustice that this represents is alarming, now that we are talking about basic needs, for everything that at home we need water, for a long time until it serves me. Find more information about diseases and infections.
I put the above as an example about the inequality that exists between the populations, it is not necessary to go to the other side of the world to realize that this same problem is close to us, and that on occasions we are also for this case. inequality, the main cause of this is the higher cost of providing public services in poor neighborhoods thanks to infrastructure, for example, the needs of people, social networks, social networks. in the richest neighborhoods, for example, in a poor neighborhood, the famous “little devil” is immediately visible, that is to say, an illegal source of energy directly from the light poles, often we also have problems with water, the place where I live, for example, a few meters people run out of water until two months, while in my case this does not happen, but what happens in these cases?, The responsible? Bad plans? deficiencies?.
On the one hand, the Internet Of Things, thanks to the sensors and connected systems, will provide the authorities with more information and control in order to identify and solve this type of problems, with this I hope that public services will work in a more profitable, which provides a great incentive to improve the infrastructures of the poorest neighborhoods, at the same time allowing the reduction of prices, which in turn means that it will encourage people who take advantage of services in a free to become paying customers. Another use of sensors, which in fact is already used, is the implantation of sensors in the elderly, it is a small device that detects the vital signs of a person and can send an alert to a professional when the health of the person is not optimal and can even detect when a person falls and cannot get up.
The challenge in these devices is the implementation of an interface that allows its use, in this case an IPv6 call, which I had already mentioned, but, broadly speaking, it means that the thousands of sensors that you want to use must have an IP address own, which is not possible with the IPv4 interface that we currently have, with the IPv6 output that is planned in the coming years, the automatic configuration of these sensors and the security features of these will be possible. Well, what happens with the energy that they need to work? Well, this question is already being answered by Zhong Lin Wang, who is the main scientist of the Institute of Georgia[4], they dedicated themselves to the invention of electricity generators that work thanks to the environment, vibrations, light, air flow. Scientists announced a commercially viable nanogenerator at the National Meeting and Exhibition of the American Chemical Society[5], citing: “This development represents a milestone towards the production of portable electronic devices that can be powered by body movements without the need for batteries or electrical outlets Our nanogenerators are about to change the life of the future, their potential is limited only by the imagination of people”.
As a conclusion and a personal reflection, I can add that smart cities can only work if we can trust them, I like to see it with an ecosystem, made up of governments, companies, software suppliers, device manufacturers, energy suppliers and service providers. all of them, working together, giving their part and integrating solutions that meet four basic security objectives, such as availability, access to data in real time, the integrity of information, such as confidentiality. To achieve these security objectives, robust self-management authentication must be integrated, but the government must also do its part, such as the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of the United States, which establishes the minimum-security requirements for security. connected devices.
I can say that as urban areas continue to expand, and smart city technology expands, sustainability will improve and serve humanity better, with the use of widespread connectivity can align the changing needs of each of the people of the world, by this I mean that many of the services of smart cities can be reduced in costs. I know that the IoT is very little known, but the more acceptance the IoT gains from the public, the service providers and other organizations must offer applications that bring tangible value to people's lives. The IoT should not represent the advancement of technology because it does not have growth alone, but the sector has to demonstrate that there is value in the human level so that the world can trust that technology can help communities be sustainable.
NOTE: This article is pure academic.
Quotes:
[1] Fuente: Programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo.
[2] The Economist.
[3] The fortune at the pyramid base: How to create a decent life and increase options trough the market, Pag. 158–200.
[4] Georgia Institute of Technology, U. S. News and World Rankings.
[5] The last meeting was in 2012 and is part of the Chemistry Society of the United States.
Sources:
[1] United Nations, Department of economic and social affairs, (2017), World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100, From: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2017.html
[2] United Nations program for development, (2017), Development goal, from: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/es/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-11-sustainable-cities-and-communities.html
[3] Gemalto, (2017), IoT and Smart, safe and sustainable cities, from: https://www.gemalto.com/latam/iot/inspiracion/ciudades-intelegentes
[4] Dave Evans, (2012), Internet of Things: The next evolution of the internet is changing everything, from: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/global/es_mx/solutions/executive/assets/pdf/internet-of-things-iot-ibsg.pdf
[5] Federal telecommunications institute, from: http://www.ift.org.mx/
[6] The economist, (2010), Augmented business, from: https://www.economist.com/node/17388392
[7] ACS, (2017), United States Chemistry Society, from: http://es.acs.org/content/es-acs/es.html
[8] Conner, Margery (9 de mayo de 2010). Sensors empower the “Internet of Things”, Pag. 32–38.