Digital society: Smart cities (2016/7)
This is an archived version of a page from Digital Society 2016/7, to preserve content for past participants. See the main page for the latest materials.
In this session we introduced the concept of smart cities and looked at some of the ways in which technology is used within our current urban environment.
What is a Smart City?
A smart city is “an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology and Internet of things solutions to manage a city’s assets” (Musa, 2016), or as defined by the Smart city Council it is a city that “has digital technology embedded across all city functions” (Smart City Council, 2017) to make cities safer and improve the lives of residents.
A city’s functions or assets can include but are not limited to:
- Schools/Universities
- Shops
- Libraries
- Transportation systems
- Hospitals
- Powerplants
- Water supply networks
- Waste management
- Law enforcement
- Agriculture
Problems in our city
Our landscapes are continuously evolving and because of this we need to think about how the role of technology fits in throughout this process and how we can utilise technologies to make our cities better places to live. For example, technology can be used to reduce crime such as geographically spotting areas with high crime rates, identifying specific patterns, or even by detecting gun sounds and immediately reporting to law enforcement. Most of this is done by using sensors placed within our environment to record information and/or trigger an action (Musa, 2016).
There is also the issue of the current impact that our cities are having on the environment. The application of technologies within our environment may be used to help reduce the consumption of resources as well as costs in the long term by managing processes more effectively.
Furthermore, it is my belief that we need to have a say in what happens to the places that we live; this is to ensure that our environments are not just dictated to us without taking into consideration our different wants, needs and abilities.
In our first activity of the session we identified some of the existing problems we have experienced within our city. We thought about what does not quite work or could work better, such as the amount of traffic on the road, the amount of pollution that is created, not really knowing when your bus is coming, dark areas which might be seen to be unsafe, as well as how we exchange goods and services. We used Manchester as an example as it has old buildings and infrastructures but yet it is a place that is constantly developing. These were then presented back to the rest of the group for discussion.
Technology in our Environment
We then looked at some examples of how cities across the world have been embracing technologies to improve their systems and services to inspire us for the following activity.
There is a pilot project currently being undertaken in Moscow which uses magnetic sensors under the road to detect when a car is parked over the top of it. This works alongside a website that pinpoints the available spaces for drivers and electronic road signs also point them in the right direction to tell drivers exactly when and where a parking spot is vacant. This was created by a company called Telensa who are based in the UK and work on the development of smart cities to improve the running of urban areas from identifying which roads to grit when it snows, to turning on lights when police are pursuing a suspect.
Another example are cycle counters which can be found just outside the University of Manchester. These keep track of how many people have cycled down Oxford Road as a way to encourage more people to start cycling.
People are exploring new sources to harvest energy for example sustainable dance floors have been developed which converts kinetic energy from people’s dance moves to actually power the nightclub itself.
Other examples to take into account are how new ways are being developed as to how we interact with our surroundings by using wearable technologies. The BBC (2016) reported on a ring that can be used as an credit card so you don’t even need to pay at a counter in shops, you can just pick up what you need and walk out with it. And there are even examples of having sensors wired into our clothing which react to or work within certain environments.
Imagining Smart Cities
The idea of imagining cities of the future is not a new concept and it allows people to create, apply and even test new ideas in a low risk environment.
These images are taken from an article called ‘Story of future cities: What will our growing megacities really look like?’ where designers have come up with renditions or concepts for future/smart cities.
Here we can see a very green looking New York with sleek technology exposed in small amounts.
This is a rendition of floating city as proposed to escape severe flooding and increased temperatures which is an increasing problem in our changing environment.
Here’s another example where they propose using waste to build our cities, the designer states that because the material is unwanted and currently in constant supply, it will be cheap to use and solves the issue of materials going into landfill.
And in contrast to these visions of the future, I also decided to include an artist’s rendition from around 1910 entitled The Future of Manhattan by Richard Rummell. What do you think? Do you think it looks like New York now?
The examples we explored brought us to our next activity, where we attempted to solve some of the issues identified in the previous activity by theoretically applying real and imagined technologies. This included existing, completely fictional or developing technologies that are not currently in existence.
However, we also asked the group to think about a possible repercussion or problem that could arise from the proposed solution. Who might they have a negative effect on? What kind of new issues could arise from this solution? Could it be difficult for some people to use and why?
These were then also presented back to the group
Issues
In this session we looked at how the application of technology can be awesome and contemplated how it can be applied to solve some of the problems that we currently experience in our cities. However, we also considered how and if some these technologies could cause problems or perpetuate further exclusion within our society.
People who already face a degree of exclusion within our society such as people from low income backgrounds, people with disabilities, homeless people, and the elderly may not be able to engage with these technologies in the same way as others. As the gap between the rich and poor is increasingly becoming wider and with an ageing population we must ensure that the technologies that we put in place work for everyone.
Due to the rate of how technologies are being developed we must also consider that the environment that we create is adaptable to the changes that we continue to put into place.
Other issues we touched upon were: Are these systems safe against hacking? What damage could be done if they were hacked? There are also questions surrounding surveillance — as these systems unquestionably make it easier to collect data about us, could these technologies be somehow used against us? What does this mean for our “freedom” and privacy?
Finally, it was highlighted that although technology can be a useful tool to improve systems and services, it may not always be the best approach to fix a problem and other options should always be considered.
Summary
By looking at some examples of how technology is applied within cities around the world and through considering some of the problems that exist currently within our city, we came up with creative solutions for how technologies may or may not be applied within our environment.
We explored:
- Examples of smart cities
- Explored current problems within our own environment
- How (real or imagined) technologies could be applied to solve these problems
- Difficulties of implementation
- Potential issues it can raise
- The fact that technology can sometimes cause further issues and dis-empowerment to areas of society
