It is said that only 2% of the Earth’s surface is occupied by cities in which more than half of the world’s population lives. Cities consume as much as 75% of the world’s energy. It is expected that by 2050, 2 out of 3 Earth’s inhabitants will live in cities and this will be one of the biggest challenges for the modern world, that needs to build smart and connected cities.
Nowadays we live in an on-demand world defined by smart mobile devices, big data and the sharing economy, but, thanks to the expansion of real-time dynamic optimization technologies, “on-demand” will be soon truly “demand-driven” instantaneous, efficient and without wasted resources.
According to Gartner, a smart city is an urbanized area where multiple public and private sectors cooperate to achieve sustainable outcomes through the analysis of contextual real-time information.
But Gartner analysts, also focus on the authentication within IoT environment, as Anmol Singh — Principal Research Analyst, who launched an interesting reflection about authentication methods. These in fact, are more agile than current methods and require sure a strong focus on safety but especially a network infrastructure optimization. In Singh’s view, “Internet of Things authentication is the mechanism for verifying identity and establishing trust levels for entities including, but not limited to, devices, people, applications, cloud services and/or gateways operating in an IoT environment. Authentication for the “things” in IoT is different and considerably “lighter” weight than people authentication methods prevalent today due to the potential resource constraints of devices, the bandwidth of networks they operate within, and the nature of interaction with the devices”.
A broad definition of a smart city refers to a metropolitan area that uses technology to make life better for its residents. The Internet of Things (connected things) has the potential to transform industries and the way we live and work. In brief, a smart city is one where everyone (and everything) is connected. Cars, public transport, the grid, it’ll all be online.
Smart City developments are causing many technologies and solutions to integrate with convergence seen across with many resource areas including energy, water, sanitation, and other essential services.
Some estimates have machine-to-machine data transactions eventually making up 50 percent of all data transmitted over the Internet. That’s why, according to Pike Research, Global Investment in Smart City Technology Infrastructure to Total $108 Billion by 2020.
Gartner estimated that 1.1 billion connected things will be in use by smart cities in 2015 will allow citizens to gain more transparency and awareness about their cities.
According to Frost & Sullivan the smart cities will be measured on the level of intelligence and integration of infrastructure connecting sectors of healthcare, energy, buildings, transportation and governance.
By 2023, there will be 30 mega cities globally, with 55 percent in developing economies of India, China, Russia and Latin America.
There will be about 40 smart cities globally by 2025.
Frost & Sullivan has analyzed the top 20 mega cities of the future and ranked them based on population and economic growth factors (Strategic Opportunity Analysis of the Global Smart City Market”, Frost & Sullivan, July 2013).
Smart city initiatives worldwide are increasingly focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), and local governments are competing to build innovative and sustainable cities with it.
In the Transport ecosystem an example is Singapore, that utilizes a sophisticated Intelligent Transport System, which combines a myriad of connected systems such as Electronic Road Pricing systems, expressway monitoring and advisory systems, as well as GPS systems installed in every taxi. The intelligent system has enabled Singapore to be one of the least congested cities, with an average car speed on main roads of 27km/h, compared to an average speed of 16km/h in London, 11km/h in Tokyo and 5km/h in Jakarta.
Some of the cities bidding to become "city of the future" are already able to capture value through a variety of public sector projects, including the implementation of apps that improve citizens’ lives by expanding the potential value of city services, such as shown in following figure, realized by Cisco:
TOP Smart Cities 2015
Last 17th February 2015 Juniper Research has revealed the top ranking Smart Cities globally for 2015:
- Barcelona
- New York
- London
- Nice
- Singapore
Juniper’s Smart City Rankings have been compiled following an analysis of each city’s ‘smart’ capabilities, with particular focus on their use of smart grids, smart traffic management and smart street lighting, alongside aspects such as technological capability and social cohesion, among others.
One core factor of the Smart Cities concept is that governments can’t do everything on their own — rather, they rely on enabling local innovators to improve the efficiency of the city, better the quality of life of its citizens, and ultimately create a better economy. By hosting the annual Smart City Congress, Barcelona has also been promoting the Startup sector development. Also, the city has over 20 ongoing programs of public-private collaboration.
To boost smart city initiatives and development programs, Barcelona has provided public resources and tools, such as financial funds, open data and innovative working spaces.
Also, has created the Smart City Campus, a diverse, balanced, sustainable environment, in which the most innovative companies and universities coexist with housing, facilities and green zones.
The key point for the obtaining of leadership has been that the city has been able to combine in an innovative environment different actors: government, companies and private sectors, universities and academic world, leveraging the power of smart communities.
Despite London is only the third in the ranking by Juniper Research, the UK has re-launched its role as innovator in the field of smart cities, by announcing recently that Highways England later this year will launch the trials of the technology needed to power electric and hybrid vehicles on England’s major roads.
Transport Minister Andrew Jones said: "The potential to recharge low emission vehicles on the move offers exciting possibilities. The government is already committing £500 million over the next five years to keep Britain at the forefront of this technology, which will help boost jobs and growth in the sector".
There are several ways of developing smart cities; depends on the context requirements as well as of citizen needs.
As reported by Guardian, for example, in Santander, Spain, thousands of sensors in and around downtown are attached to things like street lamps, walls and even the underground, collecting data on everything from traffic to weather. In Finland, sensors in garbage cans send a signal when pickup is needed, which has led to a 40% increase in savings in waste collection. The city of Rio de Janeiro has a high tech central operations hub that aggregates information from dozens of agencies.
In short, the future of our cities must be defined by constant digital disruption, by able to combine technological innovation with contexts' needs.
