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Smart Cities on the Rise
Jan 12, 2016
Many of our metropolitan areas today are in urgent need of an infrastructure upgrade. Current transportation, energy, water and waste systems were not designed for a rapidly rising population and the consequences are dire. Even though cities represent today’s economic growth engine, they also account for most harmful gas emissions and sewage overlows.
For example, measurements of air pollution in London’s main shopping area known as Oxford Street revealed that it only took less than five days for the British capital to exceed the legal limit for the whole of 2015. But air pollution is actually a global problem. In 2013, China had to shut down an entire city of 11 million people because of poor air quality.
Even if we ignore the dangers for citizens’ well-being, there are also important financial and social consequences that result from the temporary closing down of businesses in highly-polluted urban areas.
One answer to the current problems faced by many urbanites is the upcoming IoT revolution which promises to deliver the underlying technologies that city, state and federal governmental agencies can use to build the next wave of smart cities.
Generally speaking, a smart city will use two categories of devices: gateways and sensors. A smart city gateway combines a powerful microprocessor with multistandard, high-performance connectivity (Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, cellular etc.) to provide local analysis of data from neighbourhood sensor hubs. Once processed, this data is then sent to the cloud for analysis and management.
Smart city sensor hubs are embedded devices used to measure anything from air quality to noise, humidity or temperature levels. Their hardware architecture consists of a microcontroller, low-power connectivity and a multitude of microelectromechanical sensors (e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, digital compasses, inertial modules, pressure sensors, humidity sensors, microphones and image sensors.)
Upgrading the infrastructure of metropolitan areas is a major opportunity for companies involved in IoT. Consulting firm Arup estimates that the global market for smart urban systems will amount to around $400 billion per year by 2020. Technology can make a real difference in improving living conditions inside metropolitan areas.
Smarter Energy Management
One category is smart grids, which involves building dedicated, energy-efficient computing centers that automatically predict and manage demand for electricity. One main advantage of a smart grid is its ability to reduce demand during peak usage intervals by informing smart devices in the home and local businesses when energy demand is high, thus preventing system overloads. Examples consist of utility companies automatically adjusting the level of street lighting based on natural brightness conditions or shifting temperature set levels for air conditioners in a city.
The Intelligent Automobile
Self-driving cars also can change the infrastructure of smart cities by ushering in fully automated public transportation—a move that will ensure a bright future for automotive companies, sensor providers and the semiconductor industry. Adopting a fleet of autonomous, intelligent public transport systems would also help shake off images of long delays and overcrowding that still reside in the public consciousness.