Smart Cities
The Zenith of The Tech World
Modern technology has significantly advanced in recent years, the development of AI, Machine Learning, Robotics, Mechatronics, etc has put the world in a revolutionary technological period. However, none of these fields in technology are even comparable to smart cities—the zenith of the Tech World.
What Are Smart Cities?
To improve urban services and resource efficiency and raise the standard of living for residents, smart cities employ technology. While there isn’t a set list of characteristics that a city must possess to qualify as a smart city, there are a few commonalities that smart cities generally have.
What Makes a Smart City Smart?
Infrastructure
Smart cities typically have advanced or developed infrastructure and buildings that are structurally sturdy and safe for human occupation. These buildings are constructed with safe techniques. Incorporating advanced materials can significantly increase the safety of occupants inside infrastructure. A few materials that often used to build smart infrastructures are particularly notable.
One such attractive material used to construct smart infrastructure is light-generating concrete. The internal and external designs of these structures are also pivotal in making the structure ‘smart’, which is why light-generating concrete is an excellent option.
Light-generating concrete is sturdy and it prioritises structural design. On the other hand, ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) specifically prioritises strength and durability, as how its name suggests.
Similarly, in large wooden structures, Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a valuable material. CLT is man-made wood that is developed in planks by gluing timber pieces in layers, each layer being perpendicular to the previous. CLT is not only known for its strength, but also for being lightweight. CLTs are often used to build floors, walls, and ceilings and when architecturally structured right, CLT can produce absolute marvels like this residential building in Norway.
Self Healing Concrete is another booming candidate for construction materials. But how does concrete heal? It doesn’t have a mind of its own, does it? No, self-healing concrete uses capsules of healing agents like a bacteria species called Bacillus Pasteurii, along with a form of starch that serves as food for the bacteria. These bacteria stay dormant in the concrete until a crack forms and air gets in. When air gets in the crack, the bacteria are exposed, and the change wakes them up from their dormant state, leading them to eat the starch added to the concrete. As the bacteria eat, grow and reproduce, they release the chemical — calcite. When the calcite bonds to the concrete, it fills the crack and seals it.
Because of its strength, durability, and healing qualities, self-healing concretes are very trusted and reliable materials and are used in the construction of roads and infrastructure.
When durability and stability are mentioned, carbon fibre cannot be excluded. Carbon fibre is one of the strongest materials not only used in smart infrastructure but also in building bicycles, aircraft and spacecraft materials, and race car bodies. Carbon fibre is made from organic polymer and is a non-corroding material.
Aside from the stable and sturdy construction materials utilised to build smart infrastructures, smart infrastructures are energy-efficient, which means these buildings do not waste energy. Instead, they use renewable energy, further promoting sustainability. Smart infrastructures often implement sensors in their buildings to detect if there are any leaks. Once the sensors detect these leaks, they are repaired as soon as possible to prevent any wastage of water. Smart infrastructures usually promote recycling materials as well, with campaigns and recycling trash bins to prevent the wastage of useful and recyclable materials.
A good example of a structure that has these traits and characteristics are the Marina Bay Sands Towers in Singapore. The Marina Bay Sands Towers are three enormous towers that are fifty-five storeys each, standing at 207 metres tall. They contain 2,561 hotel rooms, an exhibition centre, a mall, a museum, a large theatre, a couple of restaurants, and much more.
The towers were constructed with a wide range of materials; 7,000 tonnes of steel, high strength concrete (used to build the core structure of the building), glass facade (used to build and design the windows), and reinforced concrete (used for the foundation system to ensure that the buildings were stable).
The structural design of the towers is marvellous, combining engineering and architecture with innovation and beauty. The design of the three towers were inspired by decks of cards. Each tower is slightly curved, maximising the view of the Marina Bay and the city skyline. At the top of the three sits the SkyPark, which is a ship-like structure 200 metres from the ground on top of the three buildings, stretching 340 metres width-wise, longer than the Eiffel Tower!
What’s in the SkyPark? Well, the SkyPark holds a 150-metre-long swimming pool named the ‘Infinity Swimming Pool’, accessible exclusively to hotel guests.
The SkyPark is a testament to innovation, engineering, and architecture. The SkyPark is supported by a series of steel trusses. The steel trusses are anchored to the core of the towers, ensuring a safe and stable design.
However, Marina Bay Sands Towers are not only known for their marvellous structural design but also for their commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency. They promote sustainability in multiple ways, one of those ways being LED light. The Marina Bay Sands Towers use LED lights instead of regular lights in their structures. LED lights are more environmentally friendly than regular lights, as they use less energy compared to regular lights. In terms of energy usage, the towers are built from high-performance glass as mentioned before and insulation materials, which reduce heat gain, minimizing the need for air conditioning. The SkyPark on top of the three towers is especially environmentally friendly with its abundance of plants and trees.
In the context of water management, the towers employ water recycling systems to treat and reuse greywater (wastewater from toilets) for toilet flushing and irrigation. But don’t worry, this water is already filtered and treated, making it clean and safe for reuse. Faucets, shower-heads, and toilets in the Marina Bay Sands Towers are all low-flow, which means that they do not excessively and unnecessarily use water.
In smart infrastructure, a smooth and fast network flow is necessary to accommodate all occupants of the building. What exactly is a fast network flow? In a smart infrastructure, fast network flow is a reliable, secure, and high-speed flow of internet that circulates throughout a smart infrastructure. Fast network flow is pivotal in ensuring that all occupants are connected and face no digital issues in loading, lagging, download issues, etc.
Smart infrastructures also have excellent security systems, using high-level CCTV cameras, motion detection, and night vision to monitor any activity in public areas. The use of video analytic software can also analyse previous security feed to determine whether there was any suspicious activity anywhere at a given time. Most smart infrastructures also tend to have metal detectors and security checks at the entrance of the building, to detect any unauthorised substances or materials. Of course, there also guards usually close to the entrance to detect any unauthorised materials or substances not found by the sensors and detectors.
Transportation
Smart transportation refers to the integration of modern technology into transportation systems and appliances. Smart cities often have sustainable and reliable methods of transportation, using new and emerging technologies in daily transportation systems. Every year, 1.9 million people lose their lives in car accidents alone. In an attempt to prevent this, smart vehicles are often equipped with sensors that can detect any nearby vehicles and avoid a collision in case a driver is not paying attention.
So how do these sensors work? Most of these sensors, like infrared sensors, radio sensors, and ultrasonic sensors, emit waves into the environment. Infrared sensors detect if the waves reflect off an object to determine whether there is a vehicle in front of it or not, ultrasonic sensors take it one step further by omitting the waves and measuring the time it takes for them to reflect back to the sensor to determine how far the vehicle is from them, radio sensors also measure the time taken to reflect back like ultrasound sensors.
The use of modern onboard computing systems in vehicles allows vehicles to exchange data with traffic management centres, reducing traffic congestion and avoiding potential crashes.
Smart cities often have reliable and sustainable methods of transportation and traffic management throughout. Take the city of Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is a vibrant and dynamic Spanish city known for its cultural and rich history. Barcelona’s traffic management system utilises real-time data, sensors, and cameras to determine the best solutions to prevent traffic congestion. The cameras record vehicles driving in multiple streets and parts of the city. Sensors on cars in the city detect nearby vehicles to try and avoid collision and traffic. Data from these sources is analysed to find any traffic bottlenecks.
In the same city, the concept of smart parking systems is used. Smart parking systems utilise sensors in their parking spots to detect which parking spots are occupied and which are vacant. They are accessible via a mobile app, providing efficient driving facilities for the citizens.
Most smart cities have some sort of method of public transportation. For example, Pune, a smart city in India, known for its education, arts and craft, and culture, offers various methods of public transportation, including rickshaws, bus services, local taxis, and a suburban railway system.
A very popular and effective transportation service is called Mobility-as-a-Service, or MaaS for short. What is MaaS? Well, MaaS is a transportation platform that offers various transportation services such as motorbikes, busses, trains, and even carpools. Users can plan, book, and pay for all these modes of transportation that can help them get from one destination to another. Yes, all those different modes of transportation and much more from a single platform. The platform provides real-time information on any updates, schedules, or new prices on different modes of transportation, from public transportation to shared rides.
Users of the app can customise their own journey planning by changing the customisable times, dates, and other preferences that are accessible via the app. MaaS allows users to make payments for multiple transportation modes without the use of buying and organising separate tickets physically. MaaS collaborates with multiple transportation providers and technology developers to continuously update their platform and optimizes their interface by collecting data from travel patterns and preferences from a user on their platform, optimising the transportation recommendations, prices, and updates to their liking.
One of the newest editions to smart transportation are autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are vehicles that can automatically manoeuvre and control themselves. How do they work? Well, autonomous vehicles use radio sensors and cameras to detect and identify any vehicles, objects or generally anything in their routes. The radio sensors emit radio waves frequently and measure the time taken for each radio wave to reflect back to the sensor. This gives an approximate value for the distance and speed of any object from the autonomous vehicle, allowing it to create a virtual radar. For more visual data, autonomous vehicles almost always have cameras attached to them, these are required to provide a more accurate view of the environment around them. The Global Positioning System(GPS) is also often used to ensure that the vehicles are travelling on the right path.
The data from the cameras, sensors, the GPS and other detectors on the vehicle is transferred to the central computing system. The central computing system processes all the data received from the sensors and cameras. It runs intense AI and ML algorithms to interpret the environment and try to make predictions and decisions.
If the objects detected in the environment by the sensors and cameras are identified as a hazard to the autonomous vehicle by the central computing system, the vehicle gradually slows down and stops or chooses another route to pursue.
Energy Sustainability
In smart cities, energy sustainability is essential for the well-being of both humans, the environment, and the entire planet. As mentioned above, smart infrastructures are often sustainable and energy-efficient. These buildings are designed to maximize energy efficiency and reduce unnecessary energy consumption. This involves building with sustainable materials and minimizing pollution. Some sustainable materials are:
Recycled steel is made when waste steel such as steel scraps are converted back into a reusable steel that is as durable and sturdy as regular steel and can be used for roofing, structural work, and reinforcements.
Bamboo is a sustainable construction material used to construct flooring, walls, and is often used as ladders during construction.
Reclaimed wood is a sustainable material that is made by reusing existing wood and has a certain aesthetic appeal to it, it is often used for flooring and furniture.
Cork is another sustainable construction material that is an extremely good insulator and is used to construct wall coverings and floors, providing sufficient insulation and warmth.
Insulating Concrete Forms are another excellent insulator like cork, they are strong and fire-resistant and are used to build walls, foundations, and floors.
Most smart cities rely on renewable energy sources such as wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectric energy, etc. Wind energy is accessible via wind turbines, Solar energy is accessible by solar panels, Geothermal energy is accessible by geothermal power plants, and hydroelectric energy is accessible by hydropower plants.
Renewable energy generation can power entire stadiums and concerts without the expenditure of non-renewable energy. Smart cities aim to cut down carbon emissions to build a safe world for future inhabitants.
Freiburg, a city in Germany, is known as the ‘Solar City’ due to its extensive use of solar panels and solar energy, significantly reducing the energy expenditure of non-renewable energy and protecting Earth in a small way in the future, will make a big difference.
Another city that is sustainable, is Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, best known for its rich history and sustainability has a dual responsibility to mitigate the effects of climate change and to show that it is feasible to combine growth, development, and an enhanced quality of life with lower CO2- emissions, this is the CPH25 Climate Plan. The aims of the CPH25 Climate Plan in Copenhagen is to reduce energy wastage, increase renewable and sustainable energy production and achieve zero carbon emissions. While reducing global warming, smart cities simultaneously protect the environment by reducing pollution and decreasing carbon emissions.
Smart Grids
Smart Grids are one of the most efficient methods of energy sustainability used in smart cities. Smart grids are advanced electrical grids that use digital communication technology to monitor and control the flow of electricity, reducing energy waste and ensuring a stable and efficient energy supply. So, how do smart grids work? Inside a smart grid, there is a component called a smart meter. A smart meter is a device in a smart grid that measures energy consumption information such as voltage levels, current, and power factor in real-time and provides data to both utilities and consumers via a secure network, monitoring energy usage.
As mentioned above, smart meters use bidirectional data flow, unlike usual meters which utilise unidirectional data flow. Bidirectional data flow is just a fancy way of saying that the information (data) that the smart meter monitors is provided to both the utilities and consumers. The utilities in turn can monitor this data flow and fix the smart grid if there are any problems or technical difficulties.
Similarly, smart grids use automated systems to detect and respond if there are any changes or faults in the grid. They isolate the region which is faulty until further maintenance by humans.
Healthcare
What is smart healthcare? Smart healthcare is an interconnected healthcare framework that uses the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), and wireless communication networks to communicate and connect between medical staff, emergency responders, doctors, nurses, technicians, etc. Telemedicine, remote health monitoring, and data analytics are used to improve healthcare services and accessibility. The smart healthcare system is designed specifically to deal with emergency situations in real-time. Smart healthcare is often associated with smart hospitals and clinics.
A smart hospital is a hospital that utilises the smart healthcare system and other technologies to monitor rooms and patients. Smart hospitals tend to be interconnected with other clinics, medical services, and hospitals themselves via the IoMT or other applications, like the roots of nearby trees. This is a precaution in case one hospital does not have the necessary staff, treatment, medication, etc required during an emergency. The hospital with the shortage can send out a message in dire times like this and wait for other medical services to respond and bring the necessary treatment, medication, etc.
Smart hospitals also have electronic health records or EHRs, which are electronic records of a patient’s health history and conditions, optimising quick and accurate diagnosis or examination. Remote monitoring through wearable devices keeps track of a patient’s condition and can alert doctors immediately via signals if anything unexpected happens.
Some smart hospitals like the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden use AI for patient monitoring and predictive analytics, along with extensive use of telemedicine and remote monitoring. What is telemedicine? Telemedicine is the usage of electronic communication for medical data.
More About Smart Cities?
So how many smart cities exist? Well, no one has really counted, but it’s estimated that by 2025, there will be around 88 smart cities in the world. However, there is possible only one smart nation—Singapore, since it serves both as a city and a nation. Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative aspires to harness technology and innovation to transform the city-state and improve citizens’ lives. It was launched in 2014, with the vision of leveraging data and digital technologies to bring about seamless, efficient, and sustainable living in a city. This basically addresses smart mobility, health, living, and the governance segment.
It encourages the development of smart infrastructure, including autonomous vehicles, homes with intelligence, and health systems that are digitised. Through this culture of innovation and collaboration, Singapore aspires to mitigate the challenges posed by urbanization, improve effectiveness in its public services, and get its economic growth in shape to make it a global leader in smart city development and a digital economy.
So in conclusion, smart cities serve a major role in the advancement of technology. From smart healthcare to smart infrastructure, smart cities build a pathway towards a future where the digital and electronic worlds can significantly assist human lifestyle.
