Cities and communities around the world are slowly but steadily transforming into ‘smart’ connected hubs. Whether it’s switching to smart meters for their water or electrical utilities, or upgrading their communications and alert systems for emergency responders, public entities are starting to take action and engage with the absolute certainty that our everyday lives are only becoming more connected.
Smart cities can only be cultivated by communities with a master plan. That plan needs to determine top investment priorities, and it needs to be transparent and inclusive so that all stakeholders in the community (citizens, local business, government and private enterprise) can provide input, according to Thom Rickert, vice president and emerging risk specialist at Trident Public Risk Solutions.
Weiterlesen: Everyone must work together on ‘smart city’ master plans
As a city’s management network increases to include streetlights, water and electric meters, traffic signals, security cameras and more, these growing numbers of connected devices and sensors augment services and complexity. This raises concerns around whether smart cities are also secure cities.
The smart cities concept is intended to improve the lives of city residents, make governance more effective, and resource consumption more efficient through a digital transformation. However, as digital tools become more prevalent in managing smart city development these same tools are vulnerable to security threats and risks. As cities across the world strive to modernise infrastructure to levels that are fully integrated, the complexity of multiple systems connecting and sharing data through the network grows. Essential to the success of secure smart cities is the near-instantaneous collection, analysis and sharing of large quantities of data from various sources. Thus, the primary purpose of smart cities technologies is to make cities data-driven; allowing city systems and services to be responsive and actionable in real-time.
Weiterlesen: Heightened threat: Is a smart city a secure city?
Humans are flocking to cities, and cities are rapidly evolving — not just to accommodate more people, but to help them flourish.
With the UN forecasting that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050, an increasing number of cities are turning to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to make their streets, trains, taxis and government services “smarter” to improve efficiency and quality of life.
Smart Mobility, whether it be moving people, goods, or services is the lifeblood of our future city, and one that we must get right before a city can truly become a well-oiled machine. Without it, it is impossible to move commerce efficiently through time or space.
In a perfect world, a transportation system should move the necessities required for complex urban life the same way the blood system moves nutrients throughout a body. If a body’s bloodstream is clogged, pressured, and inefficient, the body will breakdown – the same holds true for a smart city. For example, a hospital can identify that a required medical device is in a hospital across town, but if moving the patient or the equipment remains inefficient then the benefits are non-existent. On the other hand, a system that allows for faster and prioritized routing, and seamlessly integrates with all modes of transportation to find the most efficient route increases the usefulness of detecting, identifying, and servicing the need.
Weiterlesen: The IoT and the Future of Smart Cities Depends on Smart Mobility as a Building Block
All over the world, governments, institutions and businesses are combining technologies for gathering data, enhancing communications and sharing information, with urban infrastructure, to create smart cities. One of the main goals of these efforts is to make city living more efficient and productive – in other words, to speed things up.
Yet for citizens, this growing addiction to speed can be confounding. Unlike businesses or services, citizens don't always need to be fast to be productive. Several research initiatives show that cities have to be "liveable" to foster well-being and productivity. So, quality of life in smart cities should not be associated with speed and efficiency alone.