smart city essay

What is a 'smart city'? 

Shining a light on what it means for a city to be 'smart'. Image:  REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

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• Participants in a World Bank event share their thoughts on what makes a city 'smart'?
• Technology, innovation and connection were key words associated with smart cities.
• Panelists also offered their thoughts on what makes a smart city.

What is a smart city ? We’ve heard the term in contexts as diverse as urban planning and governance, transport, energy, the environment, health, and education. We’ve also noticed that the notion of smart cities relies on a range of technologies—including the internet of things (IoT), mobile solutions, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain. Because of this connection with technology, we’ve had concerns about how smart cities will address issues such as data privacy and social exclusion. We see a risk that urban areas with poor web connectivity could be left out of the smart-cities trend. We’d like to continue an open dialogue on this trend.

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Being smart about smart cities: a governance roadmap for digital technologies, how blockchain can empower smart cities - and why interoperability will be crucial, our alliance is creating smart city governance.

At the World Bank’s Global Smart City Partnership Program, we held a Virtual Knowledge Exchange Program on Smart Cities for Sustainable Development , jointly organized with the World Bank’s Open Learning Campus , to discuss the trend. At the event, we polled more than 260 participants from around the world to find out what they thought a smart city would be, what makes a urban area and its citizens smart, and what they wanted to see in their own smart city. As the word cloud shows, “technology,” “innovation,” and “connection” were the first words that came to participants’ minds when they thought of smart cities. “Citizen participation” and “data” make a community and its citizens smart , according to most of the participants. Around half chose “sustainability” as a priority in their vision for a smart city, and a quarter voted for “resilience.” We asked our panelists similar questions; here are five takeaways.

The Data for the City of Tomorrow report highlighted that in 2023, around 56% of the world is urbanized. Almost 65% of people use the internet. Soon, 75% of the world’s jobs will require digital skills.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Urban Transformation is at the forefront of advancing public-private collaboration in cities. It enables more resilient and future-ready communities and local economies through green initiatives and the ethical use of data.

Learn more about our impact:

• Net Zero Carbon Cities: Through this initiative, we are sharing more than 200 leading practices to promote sustainability and reducing emissions in urban settings and empower cities to take bold action towards achieving carbon neutrality .
• G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance: We are dedicated to establishing norms and policy standards for the safe and ethical use of data in smart cities , leading smart city governance initiatives in more than 36 cities around the world.
• Empowering Brazilian SMEs with IoT adoption : We are removing barriers to IoT adoption for small and medium-sized enterprises in Brazil – with participating companies seeing a 192% return on investment.
• IoT security: Our Council on the Connected World established IoT security requirements for consumer-facing devices . It engages over 100 organizations to safeguard consumers against cyber threats.
• Healthy Cities and Communities: Through partnerships in Jersey City and Austin, USA, as well as Mumbai, India, this initiative focuses on enhancing citizens' lives by promoting better nutritional choices, physical activity, and sanitation practices.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us .

Michael Donaldson, Chief Technology Officer of the City of Barcelona , said that he has seen a shift in the understanding of smart cities from associations with data and technology to a layered definition embracing “citizen intelligence” and “humanizing technology.” Barcelona’s digital participatory platform enables citizens to help direct city management by suggesting ideas. “Citizens have a lot of experience about the city, and we need to gather this intelligence in order to make better decisions,” he said.

Alice Charles, Head of Cities and Real Estate at the World Economic Forum , noted the changing role of the private sector in smart cities from “selling widgets and gadgets to the cities” to “promoting an outcome-driven model.” Companies are focusing on technologies that help urban leaders achieve their goals. This model requires stronger partnerships among cities, the private sector, civil society, and academia. Examples include the Smart Cities Challenge by Infrastructure Canada; City Possible , by Mastercard; and the Helsinki Energy Challenge.

Martin Weiss, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh , sees an opportunity in the wake of COVID-19 to find out what alternative smart worlds would look like. Digital technology has stood out, as it facilitates remote work, private and public online service delivery, and contactless interactions. He said, “We will focus on different questions than before, like how we make access to high-speed services less dependent on heavy infrastructure investments.”

Pedro Vidal, Intelligent Transport Systems Coordinator at the Chilean Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications , said that the pandemic hit mobility and public transportation services hard. “We have made alliances with universities to understand behavioral trends and are convinced that there are some changes in mobility preferences,” he said. “We created lanes for bicycles and developed measures for using public spaces in a safe way. We have seen an increase in the use of public transport. This can be transformed into a big opportunity to have a more sustainable city.”

Rudi Borrmann, Deputy Director at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Local , emphasized the importance of openness and transparency in gathering and using data for public services, especially during the pandemic. He said that the first step toward creating a smart city is for local governments to improve the way they coordinate and communicate transparently with stakeholders. “Openness needs to be at the center of creating trust in bringing solutions to the citizens by using technology,” Borrmann says. OGP recently started the Open Response Recovery Campaign , in which the partnership developed a series of recommendations on how to better use open government as a way to strengthen trust during the pandemic.

All told, it looks as though a smart city is one that uses technology to efficiently engage citizens and meet their needs. In the post-pandemic era, we must prioritize measures to address inequality and digital divides, which leave many of the poor, and poor cities, behind. Data privacy and transparency must be protected. Cities become smarter when citizens and communities use technology to coproduce an environment where their digital rights are protected and their cities are made more sustainable.

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A frequently referenced forerunner of the smart city is this proposal by the British architectural collective, Archigram, for a “Plug-In City,” which supplanted fixed buildings with a moveable network of spaces and interchangeable “programs” for urban inhabitations. 

February 11, 2014

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Multiple information and digital cities emerged throughout the dot-com era. This example of the Cité Multimédia in Montreal documents the enfolding of imaginings of urban space with the capacities of computational rendering, which further inform actual development schemes. 

The diagrammatic quality of informational cities designs can be found in newer proposals for smart cities, including this sensor world by Libelium , an “internet of things provider” based in Spain. In this proposal, numerous urban services and operations, from lighting to shopping, become augmented and newly articulated through wireless sensor networks. 

The technology that is promoted as reconfiguring urban landscapes is computational sensors, relatively miniature devices connected to computational infrastructures of multiple different scales and generating an expanded array of command-and-control programs for making urban space more efficient. 

As part of the imagining and promoting of smart cities, numerous schematic designs have emerged that capture an apparently symbiotic fusing of technology and nature. This special focus on “Tomorrow’s Cities,” gathered together by the BBC , envisions “farmscrapers” and efficient infrastructures combining into a bucolic scene with delivery drones and sensor networks. 

The Connected Urban Development (CUD) initiative, formed through a partnership between Cisco and the Clinton Initiative, with MIT and the Connected Sustainable Cities project (CSC) joining the project as it progressed, is a clear example of smart cities developing into sustainable city initiatives, where sustainability–typically in the form of efficiency–becomes a guiding logic for reworking any number of urban services and operations.[vc_video title="#" link="http://vimeo.com/6145800"]

The perceived importance of reworking smart cities as sustainable cities is frequently narrated through the increasing numbers of people now living in cities, which have become dominant sites of resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This particular CUD video provides example scenarios for how smart city initiatives will realize more optimal urban functioning. Efficiency emerges here within a (gendered) logic of gamification, behavioral responsiveness and optimization. 

As discussed in the “ Programming Environments ” article, the scenarios developed by William Mitchell and Federico Casalegno as part of their Connected Sustainable Cities visioning document illustrate in graphic-novel style the ways in which everyday actions such as commuting, cooking and heating one’s home may be synchronized through ubiquitous computing to enable more efficient use of resources. 

Beyond the use of resources, smart cities might also provide new ways of understanding relationality. Here, an eco-love contest becomes the site where an increasingly competitive approach to environmental monitoring is meant to ensure optimal mating opportunities. 

Urban sensor landscapes are presented in this scenario as not just enabling more efficient transit options, but also as facilitating political participation here through making air pollution data more apparent. However, the steps from data to action remain an elusive proposition, and the more contested and conflicted practices of citizenship that might actually contribute to political change are absent in these data-to-action scenarios. 

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cholars and practitioners of urban planning need to rethink the field’s futures at this important historical juncture: some might call it a moment of truth when there is little left to hide. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many cracks, contradictions, and inequalities that have always existed but are now more visible. This also includes the global vaccine apartheid that is ongoing as I write these words. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

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Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

• Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
• Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
• They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining.
• I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.
• They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

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Essay on Smart City

Students are often asked to write an essay on Smart City in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Smart City

What is a smart city.

A smart city uses technology to improve the quality of life for its citizens. It uses data from sensors and other sources to manage resources efficiently.

Features of a Smart City

Smart cities have features like smart grids for efficient energy use, intelligent traffic management systems, and digital libraries. They also use technology for waste management and water supply.

Benefits of a Smart City

Smart cities offer many benefits. They reduce waste, pollution, and energy consumption. They also improve the quality of life by making services more accessible and efficient.

Challenges of a Smart City

Despite the benefits, smart cities face challenges. These include high costs, privacy concerns, and the need for digital literacy among citizens.

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250 Words Essay on Smart City

Introduction.

Smart cities represent the future of urban living, leveraging digital technology and data-driven solutions to enhance the quality of life for residents. They aim to foster sustainable and efficient environments, addressing urbanization challenges with innovative solutions.

Essential Components of a Smart City

Smart cities are characterized by their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve public services. Key components include smart grids for efficient energy use, intelligent traffic management systems to reduce congestion, and digital platforms for real-time communication between the government and citizens.

The Role of IoT in Smart Cities

The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a pivotal role in the development of smart cities. IoT devices collect and analyze data, facilitating decision-making processes. For instance, smart sensors can monitor air quality, noise levels, and traffic patterns, providing valuable insights to city planners.

Benefits and Challenges

Smart cities promise numerous benefits, such as improved public services, reduced environmental impact, and economic growth. However, they also present challenges, including data privacy concerns, the digital divide, and the need for significant infrastructure investment.

In conclusion, smart cities represent an exciting convergence of technology and urban planning. While they offer significant benefits, it is crucial to address the accompanying challenges to ensure these cities are accessible, inclusive, and sustainable. As we move towards an increasingly urbanized future, the concept of smart cities will continue to evolve, shaping the way we live, work, and interact.

500 Words Essay on Smart City

Introduction to smart cities.

Smart cities, an innovative concept in urban planning, are rapidly reshaping the way we perceive urban living. Leveraging digital technologies and data analytics, these cities aim to enhance the quality of life, improve sustainability, and streamline urban services.

The Concept of a Smart City

A smart city is a framework, predominantly composed of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), to develop, deploy, and promote sustainable development practices to address growing urbanization challenges. A big part of this ICT framework is essentially an intelligent network of connected objects and machines transmitting data using wireless technology and the cloud. In a smart city, cloud-based IoT applications receive, analyze, and manage data in real time to help municipalities, enterprises, and citizens make better decisions enhancing urban services efficiency, reducing resource consumption and costs.

Key Components of a Smart City

Smart cities are built on a foundation of key components that work together to create a cohesive, efficient, and sustainable urban environment. These include:

1. Smart Energy: Smart grids, renewable energy resources, and advanced metering technologies ensure efficient use of energy. 2. Smart Infrastructure: This includes intelligent buildings and facilities that use ICT to enhance the reliability, performance, and interactivity of urban services. 3. Smart Mobility: Intelligent transportation systems, traffic management systems, and smart parking solutions reduce congestion and improve quality of life. 4. Smart Governance: E-governance and digital citizenship initiatives ensure transparency, citizen participation, and seamless access to public services.

Benefits of Smart Cities

Smart cities offer a plethora of benefits. They create a more efficient and cost-effective city management system, enhance the quality of life for citizens, and reduce environmental footprint. By using technology to streamline services, cities can save on resources, promote sustainable practices, and create a more interactive and responsive city administration. Furthermore, smart cities foster innovation and economic development, making cities more attractive to businesses and entrepreneurs.

Challenges and Future Prospects

Despite their potential, smart cities face significant challenges. These include data security and privacy concerns, the need for substantial investment, and the requirement for cross-sector collaboration. Moreover, the digital divide may exacerbate social inequalities if not properly addressed.

Looking forward, the concept of smart cities is poised to become even more relevant. As urban populations continue to grow, the need for more efficient, sustainable, and livable cities becomes paramount. With advancements in technology and increased emphasis on data-driven decision making, the future of smart cities is both promising and exciting.

Smart cities represent a bold vision for the future of urban living. By leveraging technology and data, they offer a powerful tool for addressing the challenges of urbanization and creating more sustainable, efficient, and livable cities. While there are significant challenges to overcome, the potential benefits make the pursuit of this vision an exciting prospect for the future.

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Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more livable future

Until recently, city leaders thought of smart technologies primarily as tools for becoming more efficient behind the scenes. Now technology is being injected more directly into the lives of residents. Smartphones have become the keys to the city, putting instant information about transit, traffic, health services, safety alerts, and community news into millions of hands.

After a decade of trial and error, municipal leaders are realizing that smart-city strategies start with people, not technology. “ Smartness ” is not just about installing digital interfaces in traditional infrastructure or streamlining city operations. It is also about using technology and data purposefully to make better decisions and deliver a better quality of life .

Quality of life has many dimensions, from the air residents breathe to how safe they feel walking the streets. The latest report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more livable future (PDF–6MB), analyzes how dozens of digital applications address these kinds of practical and very human concerns. It finds that cities can use smart technologies to improve some key quality-of-life indicators by 10 to 30 percent—numbers that translate into lives saved, fewer crime incidents, shorter commutes, a reduced health burden, and carbon emissions averted.

What makes a city smart?

Smart-city technologies have substantial unrealized potential to improve the urban quality of life, a look at current deployment in 50 cities around the world shows that even the most advanced still have a long way to go, smart cities change the economics of infrastructure and create room for partnerships and private-sector participation.

Smart cities put data and digital technology to work to make better decisions and improve the quality of life. More comprehensive, real-time data gives agencies the ability to watch events as they unfold, understand how demand patterns are changing, and respond with faster and lower-cost solutions.

Three layers work together to make a smart city hum (Exhibit 1). First is the technology base, which includes a critical mass of smartphones and sensors connected by high-speed communication networks. The second layer consists of specific applications. Translating raw data into alerts, insight, and action requires the right tools, and this is where technology providers and app developers come in. The third layer is usage by cities, companies, and the public. Many applications succeed only if they are widely adopted and manage to change behavior. They encourage people to use transit during off-hours, to change routes, to use less energy and water and to do so at different times of day, and to reduce strains on the healthcare system through preventive self-care.

MGI assessed how smart-city applications could affect various quality-of-life dimensions: safety, time and convenience, health, environmental quality, social connectedness and civic participation, jobs, and the cost of living (see interactive). The wide range of outcomes reflects the fact that applications perform differently from city to city, depending on factors such as legacy infrastructure systems and on baseline starting points.

Applications can help cities fight crime and improve other aspects of public safety

Deploying a range of applications to their maximum effect could potentially reduce fatalities (from homicide, road traffic, and fires) by 8 to 10 percent. In a high-crime city with a population of five million, this could mean saving up to 300 lives each year. Incidents of assault, robbery, burglary, and auto theft could be lowered by 30 to 40 percent. On top of these metrics are the incalculable benefits of giving residents freedom of movement and peace of mind.

Technology is not a quick fix for crime, but agencies can use data to deploy scarce resources and personnel more effectively. Real-time crime mapping, for instance, utilizes statistical analysis to highlight patterns, while predictive policing goes a step further, anticipating crime to head off incidents before they occur. When incidents do occur, applications such as gunshot detection, smart surveillance, and home security systems can accelerate law-enforcement response. But data-driven policing has to be deployed in a way that protects civil liberties and avoids criminalizing specific neighborhoods or demographic groups.

Seconds count when lives are at stake, making speed critical for first responders in getting to the scene of emergencies. Smart systems can optimize call centers and field operations, while traffic-signal preemption gives emergency vehicles a clear driving path. These types of applications could cut emergency response times by 20 to 35 percent. A city with an already low response time of eight minutes could shave off almost two minutes. A city starting with an average response time of 50 minutes might be able to trim that by more than 17 minutes.

Smart-city technologies can make daily commutes faster and less frustrating

Tens of millions of people in cities worldwide begin and end every workday fuming in traffic or piling into overcrowded buses and trains. Improving the daily commute is critical to quality of life.

By 2025, cities that deploy smart-mobility applications have the potential to cut commuting times by 15 to 20 percent on average, with some people enjoying even larger reductions. The potential associated with each application is highly variable, depending on each city’s density, existing transit infrastructure, and commuting patterns. In a dense city with extensive transit, smart technologies could save the average commuter almost 15 minutes a day. In a developing city with more grueling commutes, the improvement might be 20 to 30 minutes every day.

In general, cities with extensive, well-used transit systems benefit from applications that streamline the experience for riders. Using digital signage or mobile apps to deliver real-time information about delays enables riders to adjust their routes on the fly. Installing IoT sensors on existing physical infrastructure can help crews fix problems before they turn into breakdowns and delays.

Applications that ease road congestion are more effective in cities where driving is prevalent or where buses are the primary mode of transit. Intelligent syncing of traffic signals has the potential to reduce average commutes by more than 5 percent in developing cities where most people travel by bus. Real-time navigation alerts drivers to delays and helps them choose the fastest route. Smart-parking apps point them directly to available spots, eliminating time spent fruitlessly circling city blocks.

Cities can be catalysts for better health

The sheer density of cities makes them critical although currently underutilized platforms for addressing health. Recognizing that the role of technology in healthcare is broad and evolving by the day, we analyze only digital applications that offer cities room to play a role. We quantify their potential impact on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), the primary metric used by the World Health Organization to convey the global disease burden, reflecting not only years of life lost to early death but also productive and healthy life lost to disability or incapacity. If cities deploy the applications included in our analyses to their fullest effect, we see the potential to reduce DALYs by 8 to 15 percent.

Applications that help prevent, treat, and monitor chronic conditions , such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease, could make the biggest difference in the developed world. Remote-patient-monitoring systems have the potential to reduce the health burden in high-income cities by more than 4 percent. These systems use digital devices to take vital readings, then transmit them securely to doctors in another location for assessment. This data can alert both patient and doctor when early intervention is needed, heading off complications and hospitalizations.

Cities can use data and analytics to identify demographic groups with elevated risk profiles and target interventions more precisely. So-called mHealth interventions can send out lifesaving messages about vaccinations, sanitation, safe sex, and adherence to antiretroviral therapy regimens. In low-income cities with high infant-mortality rates, data-based interventions focused on maternal and child health alone could reduce DALYs by more than 5 percent. Another 5 percent reduction is possible if developing cities use infectious-disease surveillance systems to stay a step ahead of fast-moving epidemics. Telemedicine, which provides clinical consultations by videoconference, can also be lifesaving in low-income cities with doctor shortages.

Smart cities can deliver a cleaner and more sustainable environment

As urbanization, industrialization, and consumption grow, environmental pressures multiply. Applications such as building-automation systems, dynamic electricity pricing, and some mobility applications could combine to cut emissions by 10 to 15 percent.

Water -consumption tracking, which pairs advanced metering with digital feedback messages, can nudge people toward conservation and reduce consumption by 15 percent in cities where residential water usage is high. In many parts of the developing world, the biggest source of water waste is leakage from pipes. Deploying sensors and analytics can cut those losses by up to 25 percent. Applications such as pay-as-you-throw digital tracking can reduce the volume of solid waste per capita by 10 to 20 percent. Overall, cities can save 25 to 80 liters of water per person each day and reduce unrecycled solid waste by 30 to 130 kilograms per person annually.

Air-quality sensors do not automatically address the causes of pollution, but they can identify the sources and provide the basis for further action. Beijing reduced deadly airborne pollutants by roughly 20 percent in less than a year by closely tracking the sources of pollution and regulating traffic and construction accordingly. Sharing real-time air-quality information with the public via smartphone apps enables individuals to take protective measures. This can reduce negative health effects by 3 to 15 percent, depending on current pollution levels.

Smart cities can create a new type of digital urban commons and enhance social connectedness

Community is hard to quantify, but MGI surveyed urban residents to determine if digital channels for communicating with local officials as well as digital platforms that facilitate real-world interactions (such as Meetup and Nextdoor) can have an impact. Our analysis suggests that using these types of applications could nearly double the share of residents who feel connected to the local community, and nearly triple the share who feel connected to local government.

Establishing channels for two-way communication between the public and local agencies could make city governments more responsive. Many city agencies maintain an active presence on social networks, and others have developed their own interactive citizen apps. In addition to disseminating information, these channels create vehicles for residents to report concerns, collect data, or weigh in on planning issues. Paris has implemented a participatory budget, inviting anyone to post project ideas and then holding online votes to decide which ones merit funding.

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Becoming a smart city is not a strategy for job creation, but smart solutions can make local labor markets more efficient and slightly lower the cost of living.

Many local officials want to know if becoming a smart city will lead to an infusion of high-paying tech jobs or accelerate a wave of automation. Our analysis finds a slightly positive net impact on formal employment. Smart technologies will directly eliminate some jobs (such as administrative and field jobs in city government) while creating others (such as maintenance, driving roles, and temporary installation jobs). E-career centers can have a modest positive impact by creating more efficient mechanisms for hiring and drawing more unemployed and inactive people into the workforce. Data-driven formal education and online retraining programs can enhance a city’s pool of skills. Digitizing government functions such as business licensing, permitting, and tax filing can free local enterprises from red tape, contributing to a more entrepreneurial business climate.

Many of the world’s most dynamic and desirable cities have serious housing shortages , driving up rents and home prices. Expanding the supply of housing can bring down those costs. In many places, bureaucracy bogs down land acquisition, environmental studies, design approvals, and permitting. Digitizing these processes can remove risks and delays, encouraging more construction. In addition, most cities have a surprising amount of land sitting idle that could be suitable for infill housing. Creating open-source cadastral databases can help to identify land parcels for development.

Smart applications produce savings in other areas, such as encouraging more efficient usage of utilities and the healthcare system. Products such as home-security systems, personal-alert devices, and lifestyle wearables involve consumer purchases, but they offer value that many are willing to pay for. Mobility applications offer new value as well, although e-hailing may encourage people to take more rides than they once did. However, e-hailing and other sharing applications make it possible for some people to forgo private vehicle ownership. MGI estimates that the average person could save as much as 3 percent on current annual expenditures.

MGI took a snapshot of deployment in 50 cities around the world, not to crown the world’s smartest city but to show the full sweep of activity under way around the globe. This includes assessment of each city’s technology base, its current application rollout, and public adoption.

Download and print a smart-city snapshot showing deployment progress.

Our view of each city’s technology base looked at the extent of sensors and devices , the quality of communication networks, and the presence of open data portals. Among the most advanced are Amsterdam, New York, Seoul, Singapore, and Stockholm—but even these front-runners are only about two-thirds of the way toward what constitutes a fully comprehensive technology base today. In general, cities across China, East Asia, Europe, and North America have relatively strong tech bases, as do select cities in the Middle East. But those in Africa, India, and Latin America lag behind, particularly in installing the sensor layer, the most capital-intensive element.

We gauged each city’s progress in implementation using a checklist of current smart applications. Mobility has been a top priority for most cities, but those places with the highest number of applications implemented overall—London, Los Angeles, New York, Seoul, Shenzhen, and Singapore—have branched out into multiple domains. Some cities have not yet implemented the applications with the greatest potential to address some of their priority issues.

MGI conducted online surveys in all of the cities analyzed to gauge how residents feel about the technologies already at work in their environment. We found that Asian cities are the strongest performers in awareness, usage, and satisfaction, while European cities lag. Positive adoption and awareness appear correlated with having a young population that not only accepts a more digital way of doing things but also expects it.

Smart-city technologies help cities get more out of their assets, whether they have extensive legacy systems or are building from scratch. There is no getting around the need to invest in physical assets and maintenance, but smart technologies can add new capabilities as core components are upgraded.

Infrastructure investment once locked cities into capital-intensive and extremely long-term plans. Now, using the right combination of traditional construction and smart solutions, they can respond more dynamically to how demand is changing. If population growth surges in a far-flung neighborhood, adding a new subway or bus line with the accompanying fleet expansion may take years. By contrast, a privately operated on-demand minibus service could be up and running much faster.

City government does not have to be the sole funder and operator of every type of service and infrastructure system. While implementing most of the applications that we examined would fall to the public sector, the majority of the initial investment could come from private actors (Exhibit 2). Public financing may be reserved for only those public goods that must be provided by the government. Furthermore, more than half of the initial investment that needs to be made by the public sector would generate a positive financial return, which opens the door to partnerships .

Adding more actors to the mix is a positive, since it increases adoption and applies more creativity to the available data. When private-sector innovations spring up organically, the role of government may involve regulating, convening key actors, offering subsidies, or changing purchasing decisions. Rather than taking a master-planning approach, some cities position themselves as ecosystems, creating consortia and even physical collaboration spaces.

Some cities are starting their transformations with inherent advantages such as wealth, density, and existing high-tech industries. But even places that lack these ingredients can set themselves apart with vision, good management, a willingness to break with conventional ways of doing things, and a relentless commitment to meeting the needs of residents. There are many blank canvases for the private sector, not for profits, and technologists to fill—and above all, individuals should be empowered to shape the future of the cities they call home.

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Lola Woetzel is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Shanghai office and a director of the McKinsey Global Institute; Jaana Remes is a partner in the San Francisco office; Brodie Boland is an associate partner the Washington, DC, office, where John Means is a partner; Katrina Lv is a partner in the Shenzhen office; Suveer Sinha is a partner in the Mumbai office; Gernot Strube is a senior partner in the Munich office; Jonathan Law is a partner in the New York office; Andrés Cadena is a partner in the Bogotá office; and Valerie von der Tann is a consultant in the Berlin office.

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‘Smart’ Cities Are Surveilled Cities

When everyone and everything is connected, the door is open to all kinds of digital threats..

• Science and Technology

Cities around the world are getting smarter. A growing number even designated themselves “smart cities.” There are, of course, as many definitions of smart cities as there are cities professing to be smart. Very generally, smart cities deploy a host of information communication technologies—including high-speed communication networks, sensors, and mobile phone apps —to boost mobility and connectivity, supercharge the digital economy, increase energy efficiency, improve the delivery of services, and generally raise the level of their residents’ welfare. Becoming “smart” typically involves harnessing troves of data to optimize city functions—from more efficient use of utilities and other services to reducing traffic congestion and pollution—all with a view to empowering public authorities and residents.

However one defines them, data-enabled cities are booming. By one estimate , there are over a thousand smart city projects underway around the world. Rankings and indices are also proliferating, with such cities as Singapore, Helsinki, Seoul, and Zurich routinely topping the list. Notwithstanding global enthusiasm for hyperconnected cities, this futuristic wired urban world has a dark side. What’s more, the pitfalls may soon outweigh the supposed benefits.

That’s because “smart” is increasingly a euphemism for surveillance. Cities in at least 56 countries worldwide have deployed surveillance technologies powered by automatic data mining, facial recognition, and other forms of artificial intelligence. Urban surveillance is a multibillion-dollar industry , with Chinese and U.S.-based companies such as Axis, Dahua, Hikvision, Huawei, and ZTE leading the charge. Whether they are in China or elsewhere, smart cities are usually described in benign terms with the soothing promise of greener energy solutions, lower-friction mobility, and safer streets. Yet in a growing number of places from New York to Hong Kong , there are growing concerns about the ways in which supercharged surveillance is encroaching on free speech, privacy, and data protection. But the truth is that facial recognition and related technologies are far from the most worrisome feature of smart cities.

Part of what supposedly makes cities smarter is the deployment and integration of surveillance technologies such as sensors and biometric data collection systems. Electronic, infrared, thermal, and lidar sensors form the basis of the smart grid , and they do everything from operating streetlights to optimizing parking and traffic flow to detecting crime. Some cities are adopting these platforms more quickly than others. China, for example, is home to 18 of the top 20 most surveilled cities in the world. Shanghai, which achieved full 5G coverage in its downtown area and 99 percent fiber-optic coverage across the city, is covered by a veritable thicket of video surveillance. Identity collection devices are commonplace, having exploded across public and private spaces. Shanghai recently installed Alibaba’s City Brain public surveillance system, which oversees over 1,100 biometric facial recognition cameras. A combination of satellites, drones, and fixed cameras grab over 20 million images a day. The bus, metro, and credit cards of local residents are also traced in real time. And these tools are spreading. Chinese firms are busily exporting surveillance tech to Latin America , other parts of Asia , and Africa , helping enable what some critics call digital authoritarianism .

A video surveillance camera hangs from the side of a building in San Francisco on May 14, 2019. The city was the first in the United States to ban facial recognition technology by police and city agencies. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Surveillance technologies are hardly confined to China. They are also widespread in U.S. cities. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, law enforcement agencies and private companies deployed surveillance tools, ostensibly to improve public and private safety and security. The 9/11 attacks and subsequent U.S. Patriot Act dramatically accelerated their spread. Yet support for facial recognition systems appears to be ebbing. San Francisco was the country’s first major city to ban its agencies from using them in 2019. San Francisco was among the top five most surveilled cities in the United States when eight of the nine members of its Board of Supervisors endorsed the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance . Rolling back surveillance has proved difficult—digital rights advocates recently detected over 2,700 cameras still in use for police surveillance, property security, and transportation monitoring. In 2000, campaigners sued the city for tapping into private cameras to surveil mass protests, in defiance of the new ordinance .

Across North America and Western Europe, the tensions over smart cities can be distilled to concerns over how surveillance technology enables pervasive collection, retention, and misuse of personal data by everything from law enforcement agencies to private companies. Debates frequently center on the extent to which these tools undermine transparency, accountability, and trust. There are also concerns (and mounting evidence ) about how facial recognition technologies are racially biased and inaccurate when it comes to people of color, discriminating particularly against Asian and African Americans. This helps explain why in the two years since San Francisco banned facial recognition technologies, 13 other U.S. cities have followed suit, including Boston; Berkeley and Oakland in California; and Portland, Oregon. By contrast, in China, racial bias seems to be a feature, not a bug— patented , marketed, and baked into national policing standards for facial recognition databases . What’s more, Chinese companies are bringing their technologies to global markets .

But a narrow preoccupation with surveillance technologies, as disconcerting as they are, underestimates the threats on the near horizon. Smart cities are themselves a potential liability—for entirely different reasons. This is because many of them are approaching the precipice of a hyperconnected “internet of everything,” which comes with unprecedented levels of risk tied to billions of unsecured devices. These don’t just include real-time surveillance devices, such as satellites, drones, and closed-circuit cameras. By 2025, there could be over 75 billion connected devices around the world, many of them lacking even the most rudimentary security features. As cities become ever more connected, the risks of digital harm by malign actors grow exponentially. Cities are therefore entirely unprepared for the coming digital revolution.

Baltimore’s information technology office lost dozens of time-sheet records in a 2019 ransomware attack. Kenneth K. Lam/The Baltimore Sun via Reuters

One of the paradoxes of a hyperconnected world is that the smarter a city gets, the more exposed it becomes to a widening array of digital threats. Already, large, medium, and small cities are being targeted for data theft, system breaches, and cyberattacks, all of which can undermine their operation and provision of essential services, and pose an existential threat. Hundreds of cities around the world have reported major digital disruptions to municipal websites, emergency call centers, health systems, and utilities delivering power or water. When city security is compromised and data privacy jeopardized, it undermines the faith of residents in digitally connected services and systems. As people feel more insecure, they may feel less inclined to participate in online health care, digitized utilities, remote learning opportunities, electronic banking services, or green initiatives—key tenets of the smart city. While not all digital threats can be countered, cities need to mount a robust capability to deter, respond to, and recover from attacks while preserving, as best they can, data protection and privacy.

To start, city authorities, companies, and residents need to design digital security into all domains of governance, infrastructure, commerce, and society. At a minimum, new smart city technologies must avoid reinforcing disproportionate surveillance that undermines basic freedoms, especially privacy. National, regional, and city governments should also mandate and enforce standards that require that all internet-enabled devices sold and deployed in their jurisdictions have minimum password protection, authentication, and encryption built in. It is essential that cities encourage digital literacy across the public, private, and civil society sectors, since many potential digital harms can be reduced through basic awareness and precautionary measures.

To get smarter, cities need to know their blind spots. This requires undertaking real-time monitoring to map the vulnerability of wireless devices in their environment. Passive monitoring across broad-spectrum wireless networks to detect data leakages will need to be routine—and properly explained to citizens. Cities will need to invest in automated incident response and in identifying and fixing their vulnerabilities in relation to networks and devices. Above all else, cities will need to take digital risks seriously and enforce security requirements across all connected devices, from the health watch to the ticket scanner to the internet-connected refrigerator, in a smart city ecosystem. The pursuit of smarter cities can and should not come at the expense of safety, privacy, or liberty. Indeed, the failure to prioritize both human well-being and security in a world of exponentially increasing complexity is a monumentally dangerous folly.

China Will Use Huawei to Spy Because So Would You

There is a long, and secret, history of countries—including Britain and the United States—forcing companies to protect national security by helping them eavesdrop in bulk.

China Isn’t the Only Problem With 5G

The network has plenty of other security weaknesses, including ones the United States doesn’t want to fix since they help its own surveillance efforts.

Make Surveillance Capitalists Pay Their Dues

Congressional action has typically left big tech firms intact, instead mandating that they improve access for all consumers. Washington should stick to that model.

Robert Muggah is a principal at the SecDev Group, a co-founder of the Igarapé Institute, and the author, with Ian Goldin, of Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years . Twitter:  @robmuggah

Greg Walton is a fellow at the SecDev Group and a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Urbanization — Smart cities concept

Smart Cities Concept

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• addressing privacy and data protection concerns that could arise from UAV monitoring and surveillance applications;
• collision avoidance and conflict resolution in highly populated residential areas;
• optimizing path planning, flight scheduling and utilizing shared airspace;(transition) analyzing the current standardization efforts for each of the three aspects in order to identify and prioritize future research questions with the aim of making a contribution towards narrowing the gap between research and technical standardization.

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Smart Cities, Bad Metaphors, and a Better Urban Future

Maybe it’s a cliché—I think I’ve used it myself—to say that scientists’ and philosophers’ explanations for how the brain works tend to metaphorically track the most advanced technology of their time. Greek writers thought brains worked like hydraulic water clocks. European writers in the Middle Ages suggested that thoughts operated through gear-like mechanisms. In the 19th century the brain was like a telegraph; a few decades later, it was more like a telephone network. Shortly after that, no surprise, people thought the brain worked like a digital computer, and that maybe they could build computers that work like the brain, or talk to it . Not easy, since, metaphors aside, nobody really knows how the brain works. Science can be exciting like that.

The absence of a good metaphor hasn’t stopped anyone from studying brains, of course. But sometimes they confuse the map for the terrain, mistaking a good metaphor for a workable theory. It’s easy to do when it comes to complex systems that interact at scales either too big or too small for us to observe in their entirety. That’s true for the brain, a lump of think-meat generating an individual mind from, researchers think, around 86 billion individual cells woven into an electrochemical jelly-network. And it’s true for a city, the dense network in which millions of those individual minds come together to form a community. The people who write about cities— I’ve done it myself — also tend to grope for organizing metaphors in current science. A city is a machine, a city is an animal, a city is an ecosystem. Or maybe a city is like a computer. To the urbanist and media studies writer Shannon Mattern, that’s the dangerous one.

Mattern’s new book comes out August 10; it’s a collection (with revisions and updates) of some of her very smart work for Places Journal called A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences . In it, Mattern wrestles with the ways that particular metaphor has screwed up the design, planning, and living-in of cities in the 20th century. It happens at every scale, from surveilling individual people as if they were bits to monitoring the widescreen data necessary to keep a city functioning for the good of its inhabitants. Of all the ways information can travel through an urban network, Mattern says, it’d probably be better to have public libraries be the nodes than the panopticon-like centralized dashboards so many cities try to build. The problem is that the metrics people choose to track become targets to achieve. They become their own kind of metaphors, and they’re usually wrong.

The first two essays are the ones that had the most oomph when they were first published—and still do. “City Console” is a wild history of information dashboards and control rooms designed to be panopticons for urban data. These informational hubs collect input on how well municipal systems are working, crime is getting policed, children are getting educated, and so on. Mission control, but for freeways and sewage. My favorite example from Mattern’s book is the 1970s effort by Salvador Allende, then the leader of Chile, to build something called Project Cybersyn, with an “ops room” full of button-studded chairs that would have made Captain Kirk proud, plus wall-sized screens with flashing red lights. Of course, since no city had real-time data to fill those screens, they displayed hand-drawn slides instead. It’s goofy, but there’s a direct line from Cybersyn to the ways lots of US cities now collect and display law enforcement and other urban data in CompStat programs. They’re supposed to make government accountable , but they often justify worthless arrests or highlight misleading numbers—on-time transit travel instead of number of people carried, let’s say.

In the next essay, the titular one, Mattern warns against the ambitions of big Silicon Valley companies to build “smart cities.” When the essay first appeared, Amazon was still on tap to build a city-sized headquarters in New York, and Google was pushing to do much the same in Toronto. (The Google project, from a sibling company called Sidewalk Labs, would have featured wood skyscrapers, pavement that used lights to reconfigure its uses on the fly, self-driving cars, and underground trash tubes.) Now, of course, most of the big smart-city, tech-enabled projects have failed or scaled back. Hudson Yards in New York didn’t deploy with anywhere near the level of sensor and surveillance technology its developers promised (or maybe threatened). Cities still gather and share all kinds of data , but they’re not exactly “smart.”

In a conversation last month, I asked Mattern why tech companies seem to have failed to smarten up any cities, at least so far. She thinks it’s because they missed the most important parts of citymaking. “A lot of more computational and data-driven ways of thinking about cities give a false sense of omniscience,” Mattern says. The people in charge of cities think they’re getting raw truth when in fact the filters they choose determine what they see. “When everything is computational, or when we can operationalize even the more poetic and evanescent aspects of a city in a datapoint,” Mattern says, “that makes us unaware that it is a metaphor.”

That’s bad, is the point. But the game isn’t over. “Even though the really charismatic projects haven’t come to fruition, they planted seeds and showed possibilities,” Mattern says. “Some of the tech companies can implement what they’ve learned in other, more subtle forms.” If Sidewalk Labs’ promise to build robocar-ready, reconfigurable illuminated pavement doesn’t come to fruition, that’s probably a relief to people on foot and bikes. But the replacement might be corporate housing built by Google or Facebook in Silicon Valley that automatically pings cell phones and relies on biometrics to keep track of its residents. And maybe the people who live there won’t mind, because after all, no one else is building much housing. Company towns could seem like as good an option tomorrow as they did to laborers in the 19th century—only now every apartment will come with Alexa wired into the walls.

David Kushner

Andy Greenberg

Louise Matsakis

Mattern studied chemistry as an undergraduate, then went on to do a PhD in media studies, with a lot of other work in architecture and anthropology. So the book reflects the ways a bunch of academic disciplines refract the idea of urbanism, of how to make a city that supports everyone who lives there. She’s particularly interested in public libraries as a place where city dwellers can learn and connect with information about resources, education, jobs, and infrastructure. Libraries are a very different kind of place today than when Matern wrote her dissertation on them in the 1990s; even spatially, the stacks and card catalogues have given way to plaza-like public spaces and cafes, performance facilities, internet access, and digital collections. (No one younger than Gen X knows the particular pleasure of flight that comes from navigating a microfiche landscape at top speed.) It’s a bummer to lose physical media, but now “libraries are not just places for the consumption of information and knowledge, but places for local communities to build their own collections and perform them,” Mattern tells me. That makes them a sort of antithesis to all the cameras, speed sensors, and Bluetooth location sensors that a “ smart city ” might use to suck data out of its inhabitants .

Between the time Mattern wrote the essays and their collection into a book, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. There’s a terrible irony in that; you can’t really have a pandemic without cities . Without huge numbers of people living within disease-transmission distance of one another, viruses and bacteria don’t have as much to do.

The history of public health is a history of urban theory and design: quarantine as a requirement of Renaissance trade; the “cordon sanitaire” as a barrier to separate nominally sick locals from their colonists; John Snow’s map of cholera near public wells in London; Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann’s redesign of Paris in the 19th century (to fight cholera and other diseases and to make it easier, if necessary, to pacify the rebellious poor ); the hygiene and sanitation movements of the early 20th century that led to better US housing ; and disastrous, racist “slum clearances” to fight “ blight .” The histories of urban theory and public health are knotted together.

At the turn of the 20th century, the twin infectious disease threats of tuberculosis and the Spanish flu combined with faddish ideas on wellness among people rich enough to afford their own architects, and led to something new. As the architectural historian Biatriz Colomina has written , that was Modernism, with its clean lines, honest materials, porous relationship between the indoors and outdoors, more sunlight, more ventilation, and solid surfaces that were easy to clean. It was more than an aesthetic. It was disease control.

With a better understanding of how diseases like Covid-19 transmit through shared air , a similarly radical transition could happen again . “Rethinking the workspace, the office, wondering about flexible schedules and if that can help make a more humane work environment and assist with social distancing—we’ve been on quite a roller coaster,” Mattern says. “There was a lot of hope. We realized the need for parks, public spaces, alternative forms of transportation. But then we see the depressing debate over infrastructure bills and our lack of desire to expand what counts as infrastructure.”

It’s here that I start to think the twinned histories of cities and public health are having their own metaphor crisis. Our own personal dashboards are forcing the issue. Americans spent the summer of 2020 switching their web browsers from Covid deaths to wildfire locations to air pollution levels —when we weren’t looking for community on Twitter, TikTok, or Facebook. What is social media if not a dashboard for our personal lives? As always, the data you collect determines what you know. If Project Cybersyn pointed the metaphor needle toward a clean, gleaming Roddenberry utopia, 2020 twisted the dial toward a breakdown straight out of Octavia Butler or William Gibson. But sci-fi dystopia is a pretty bad metaphor if you hope to avert the end of the world.

Mattern’s deft dissection of metaphors for cities shows that when they’re misguided, they point to a failure not only of imagination but of a city’s ability to carry out its chief function—as a bulwark against disaster. Humans build cities as fortresses against failure: economic collapse, natural catastrophe, human venality and cowardice. The city walls keep those things out, when they work. If houses are, as the architect Mies van de Rohe said, “machines for living,” then cities are places where those machines get daisy-chained into a society. Cities are machines for cooperation, and survival.

Last summer, the disasters of climate change and disease pointed at the ways those machines could fail. The past year has made it clearer than ever that economic and racial inequities around the world, and especially in the United States, have imminent, deadly consequences. The warning lights are all flashing red : A conversation about cities can no longer be about the invisible data of surveillance cameras and stock trades. It has to be about the visible, more human-scaled construction of something better. The built environment can’t be an accident anymore, because that leads to catastrophe. We don’t live in a metaphor. “The built environment is the product of so many agencies and institutions, often working in the background,” Mattern says. “It’s hard to localize responsibility for that.” As she writes, cities aren’t mere computers. but I might still deploy a facile idea from that metaphor: Justice and survival now depend on cities getting a serious upgrade to their firmware.

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The “Smart City” Concept Essay

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Could computing was a trend of the decade in the 2000s. The development of the technologies facilitating data transmission over the internet has brought an enormous set of opportunities to be used for the variety of purposes. One of the opportunities is the accumulation of the upcoming data, processing, and transformation into a readable and useful form, using the appropriate software. It is the basis for the projects of a “smart city” like the one that has been successfully launched in Dubuque.

Cloud computing, in this case, is the backbone for as data collection from the variety of the numerous wireless sensors as well as its analysis and effective provision to the end users. Such end users are the Dubuque authorities that receive valuable data as the decision makers and the responsible citizens of the city as the evaluators of the impact the project has on their life in the “smart city.”

The importance of the cloud, in this case, is tremendous due to the need to accumulate and process quite versatile data. Another substantial reason to use cloud computing to support Dubuque’s authorities in this endeavor is the requirement to provide meaningful information to the end users that are distributed throughout the city. The efficient data delivery can be achieved using the variety of the contemporary tools such as mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Windows, for example, or personal web pages that can be accessed from any place in and outside the city. Such simplicity, flexibility, and efficiency of the data accumulation, processing, and provision can be provided by cloud-oriented instruments only.

Finally, the use of the cloud became the only cost-efficient solution these days. The development of the complex proprietary software that would provide the same functionality could be rather costly for the cities like Dubuque. The cloud is the only reasonable choice in this case.

A “smarter city” is the city that tends to balance energy and resources used for its maintenance with sustainable, environment-friendly practices. Additionally, it is the city where people are aware of the benefits provided by the sustainable approach. Resources and energy consumption are top priorities of both the authorities and the citizens of a “smarter city.” More to say, it is not the response to some burning issue or a disastrous problem. It is the conscious choice of the part of the local residents to pursue sustainability through the practices proposed by the authorities. Dubuque is a “smarter city” because it grows and develops in a non-traditional way. It is considered as one of the most progressive sustainable communities in the USA for a reason.

Dubuque is the place where residents can receive what they actually need but not what the city can offer to them. If a citizen of Dubuque wants to pay less money for the electricity consumption or water use, it is necessary to install the required wireless sensors where it is needed and start to generate information. Further analysis of the data provides meaningful information that can be used in the process of decision-making.

Thus, for example, if a house has water leakages, it cannot be determined easily, and the problem remains. In the case of a “smarter” approach, the problem can be solved within a rather short time because the house owner receives measurable and simple to understand data regarding the scale of the issue. The most important issue, in this case, is the determination of the source of the problem. “Smarter cities” are energy- and resources-efficient. Moreover, they are citizen-friendly. Considering these peculiarities, such cities as Dubuque are attractive cities to live in, and it is one of the advantages the concept of a “smarter city” brings to the cities that are eager to embrace it as the core concept of the city functioning.

The major “smarter city” projects in Dubuque are as follows: “smarter water, smarter electric, smarter gas,” and “smarter travel.” Within the “smarter water” project, the citizens of Dubuque received the opportunity to control the process of water consumption in their households. The impact of the program was the statistical data regarding the leakages and water loss in an average household. It appeared a household could lose be up to four gallons per hour in leakages.

The project has provided the data regarding the reduction of water consumption up to 6.6% in the pilot households. Additionally, the data demonstrated the trend of the increased leak detection. It showed the eightfold increase. Such an increase of awareness and consciousness regarding water leaks and consumption respectively should bring nothing but positive results in the future. The less water is used, the lesser efforts must be applied to recycle it for further reuse, so such approach affects other energy consumption areas as well.

Electricity overconsumption is another problem of the majority of the cities in the USA. The project called “smarter electricity” is aimed at the electricity consumption reduction and the increase of cost effectiveness of the Dubuque households, participating in the project. Thus, one of the participants experienced up to 26% of electricity consumption reduction after one year of participating in the pilot project. It meant for this household not only the reduction of electricity consumption but also the cut of the relevant expenditures as well. Therefore, “smarter electricity” is the part of the larger plan of resources consumption reduction in Dubuque. All projects launched in the city at the moment are the parts of the larger project aimed at the improvement and optimization of the resources’ usage.

The next move of Dubuque’s authorities after the successful development and implementation of such projects as “smarter water” and “smarter electricity” is the effort to combine all available information into one set of data to determine the interconnections between the different silos of data. These interconnections can provide the researchers with information regarding the factors that influence the development of the city in the positive and negative ways.

Such a merge of data is necessary to see the bigger picture of the situation in Dubuque and the ways of its improvement. The goal is to create such an information system that would track the current situation, determine the present and upcoming issues, and propose effective steps aimed at its improvement. Currently, these standalone projects provide only the minimal effect as they are aimed at particular areas that can be improved. The analysis of big data will provide Dubuque’s officials with information regarding the areas where improvements are needed first.

Prioritization is another benefit of such a system, so it is important for Dubuque to prioritize steps of the city’s improvement. Joint silos of information will play the most important role in the process of prioritizing the next steps because such a form of data organization will facilitate the analysis of the most comprehensive and full sets of information regarding the costs, expenditures, and issues essential for each strategic area of the Dubuque city’s household. It should be noted that this move would not require additional resources or efforts as data from the currently running projects would be combined and used. It means that such a merger of the projects’ databases should not stop any of the currently running projects.

Dubuque is not the only city in the USA that practices the “smart city” concept. Portland, Oregon, is another American city that extensively uses the tools that information technologies can provide. Microsoft, Forio, and Portland administration managed to obtain information from the variety of government agencies regarding the state of things for the past ten years in more than seventy-five city areas.

The effort resulted in the system that could be used for the variety of purposes and access online. There are several similarities as well as differences in the approaches of the authorities in these two cities. The following similarities can be outlined. The first one is the use of information technologies to collect and process the data about the vital systems of the city. A computerized approach to the data analysis is the most efficient one as of today, so it is used extensively everywhere.

The second similarity is the extent, to which the systems in Portland as well as in Dubuque are used. In both cities, nearly every critical system is explored, evaluated, and controlled using the computerized methods. It helps to respond to the upcoming issues much quicker and thus, provide more efficient and timely solutions in each given situation.

However, there is a drastic difference between the two systems used in these cities. The difference is in the system itself. While Dubuque uses the cloud to read and process the data from the numerous wireless sensors throughout the city, Portland’s authorities decided to go far and ordered the development of the modelling system that could predict and model the events that did not even happen yet. In other words, the system used in Portland is far more advanced than Dubuque’s one in terms of the modeling capabilities, which makes it so advantageous for the city management. The disadvantage is the lack of access to the real-world and up-to-date information as it can be done in Dubuque.

The system in Dubuque is the great achievement of the local authorities. It is the giant step towards the creation of the cost-effective, sustainable, and the environment-friendly community. The use of the cloud technologies and wireless sensors provides numerous opportunities for the further development of the system in the future. Wireless sensors can be installed literally anywhere, so such “smarter” projects can be developed for any critical as well as a non-critical system of Dubuque.

The simplicity of the system’s use is another outstanding achievement of Dubuque’s authorities. It does not require to be technically educated or to have some excessive knowledge in networking technologies to become the participant of the “smarter” projects in the city. It is an excellent idea in terms of involving new participants and obtaining more comprehensive volumes of the data.

The first recommendation is to extend the network of the wireless sensors and include other critical systems to the process of data generation. It should provide Dubuque’s authorities with a better understanding of the current state of things in the city. The next step of the officials should be the effort to create the system that would provide midterm and long-term plans of Dubuque’s development.

The current system provides up to date information only, tracking the changes in consumption rates. It would be wise to develop the system similar to the Portland’s system. Then, the wireless sensor network with its capability of generating real-time data should be integrated into the new planning system. It would add value to the both systems, creating very powerful and useful tool for the control, planning, and decision-making processes.

Summing, the paper explored the project in Dubuque aimed at the development of a “smarter city.” The most important issues were evaluated to provide the in-depth analysis of the current steps of the “smarter” concepts’ implementation. Current projects in Dubuque are very promising, and they appear to be the significant contributors to the process of making the city’s community cost-effective, sustainable, and environment-friendly.

Additionally, the paper explored the experience of the Portland’s authorities in creating and maintaining planning system that is supposed to provide them with information, critical for the decision-making process. The system in Portland appeared to be different but worthy of attention. The appropriate comments were provided to reflect upon the system in Dubuque and its potential. Finally, the relevant and useful recommendations were presented to demonstrate how the system in Dubuque could be improved. The current system required further improvement and development; therefore, the recommendations could be used as the guide.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 14). The "Smart City" Concept. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/

"The "Smart City" Concept." IvyPanda , 14 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

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IvyPanda . 2024. "The "Smart City" Concept." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

1. IvyPanda . "The "Smart City" Concept." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The "Smart City" Concept." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

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Branded content | miami’s smart city ambitions: from better bus to better tech.

Lauded for its vibrant culture, beautiful beaches, and thriving economy, Miami has also been making strides toward becoming a world-recognized smart city.

Recent initiatives like an urban planning conference hosted by the University of Miami have showcased the community’s commitment to leveraging technology to promote sustainable urban development and improve quality of life. However, the transit challenges of today remain a barrier between the present and a better tomorrow.

The conference brought together experts, policymakers and innovators to discuss how technology can help address urban issues ranging from transportation to public safety. Discussions centered on leveraging data and advanced analytics to optimize city operations, enhance sustainability, and foster innovation. It was a beacon of hope for a city striving to be at the forefront of the smart city movement.

Yet, in the middle of all of this future-gazing, Miami is left grappling with the fallout from recent changes to its public transit system. The implementation of the Better Bus System has sparked criticism and frustration among riders, with many reporting increased delays and disruptions. While the intentions behind the overhaul were undoubtedly noble — to improve efficiency and accessibility — the execution has left much to be desired.

One of the key challenges straining Miami’s transit system is congestion, exacerbated by outdated infrastructure and inefficient traffic management. However, there is hope on the horizon. Innovative solutions, such as smart traffic monitoring technologies, offer a glimmer of promise in alleviating gridlock and improving transit times.

Enter Miovision, a leading provider of smart traffic solutions, whose recent acquisition of Global Traffic Technologies (GTT) and their Opticom solution has expanded their capabilities in transit signal priority (TSP) technology. TSP enables transit vehicles to communicate with traffic signals, granting them priority at intersections and minimizing delays.

Michael Duench, vice president of marketing at Miovision, explains, “Transit Signal Priority technology works by giving transit vehicles priority at traffic signals, reducing delays and improving overall efficiency. By investing in these solutions, cities can significantly enhance their transit systems and provide faster, more reliable service to commuters.”

From Duench’s point of view, TSP technology could address the woes plaguing its transit network. By strategically deploying smart traffic management solutions, the city can not only reduce transit times but also enhance emergency response capabilities and curb greenhouse gas emissions — both critical components of a sustainable and resilient urban future.

The benefits of investing in smart transit solutions extend beyond Miami’s borders. Cities worldwide grappling with similar traffic challenges stand to gain from embracing innovative technologies like TSP. With urbanization on the rise and congestion becoming an increasingly pressing issue, the need for efficient and sustainable transit solutions has never been greater.

As Miami charts its course toward becoming a global smart city hub, it should strike a delicate balance between ambition and pragmatism. While future-forward initiatives showcase the city’s commitment to innovation, they should be complemented by tangible improvements in everyday urban life. The recent setbacks with the Better Bus System serve as a stark reminder that progress must be inclusive and responsive to the needs of all residents.

Decision-makers should consider a holistic approach to urban development that prioritizes the well-being and mobility of its citizens. This involves investing in cutting-edge technologies, as well as fostering collaboration between government, academia and industry stakeholders. By harnessing the collective expertise and resources available, Miami can navigate the complexities of urbanization and emerge as a model smart city.

While recent strides in technology and innovation are commendable, they should be complemented by improvements in transit and urban mobility. By leveraging smart traffic solutions, communities across South Florida can address pressing transit challenges and pave the way for a more sustainable and resilient future.

The news and editorial staffs of the Sun Sentinel had no role in this post’s preparation.

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Smart City Essay

Smart City Essay – Hello Students today we are going to learn Smart City Essay for all classes. The essay was asked in SSC exam and in 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 class. Sometime you may get a question like “Essay on Smart City Mission” and “my city smart city essay”.

Learn Smart City Essay in English

Smart City mission, is an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the government of India. On 25th June 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched this mission with an objective to develop 100 cities across the country having core infrastructure, harnessing technology and a clean and sustainable environment.

This mission works under the guidance of the Ministry of Urban Development a total of 48000 crores has been approved by the Indian Cabinet for this po mission.

Cities accommodate 31% of India’s population and contribute 63 per cent of GDP (census 2011). Urban areas are to house 40% of India’s population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2030. This required comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure. The core infrastructure elements of the mission are adequate water supply, assured electricity supply, sanitation including soil waste management, efficient transport, good governance, sustainable environment, safety and security of citizens, robust it connectivity and health and education. The strategic components of a smart cities mission are city improvement (retrofitting) City renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (Green Field development) plus a pan-city initiative.

There are some challenges too, like low allocation of budget, lack of centre-state coordination, less number of skilled manpower and advanced technology, corruption at centre and state level etc.

However, this problem can be solved only by the active participation of citizens, funding from International bodies like World Bank, the participation of private players and Independence to local bodies to recognise the need of cities in a decentralised way.

In this way, Smart City mission, an innovative and new initiative by the government of India will drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people.

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