01.08.2023 • Topstories • Smart City

Is a Complete Smart City Possible Now?

The last time you read Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ was probably quite a while ago. Thought-provoking, frightening, visionary … whichever you think apply, the substance of this classic science-fiction work is about a society under total surveillance, with every move foreseen, catered for, and controlled. The general public do not even have to think for themselves anymore, and safety and security are of course taken for granted. Smart cities in 2023 are not so intrusive and all-inclusive … yet. What they can do is the subject of this GIT SECURITY special focus article.

A typical city in the USA in fact has a lot in common with one of a similar size in Brazil, in France, in Sweden, in Malaysia, or in Australia. People are on the move almost every day, lots of people. They pack into buses, trains, trams and cars and move in during the morning rush-hour, and out again during the evening rush-hour. Notice the terminology: “rush-hour”: everyone is in a rush to get from here to there. The transport systems that have evolved over a couple of centuries of commuting cope – more or less – with the influx every working day by employing refined procedures, complex timetables and a lot of clever engineering. All the dozens of systems that are needed to cope with this mass movement are continually being enhanced and their efficiency increased by ever more data gathered from sensors built into roads, office and residential buildings, the utilities and security systems, even in schools and hospitals. The Covid pandemic has caused many city administrations to sharpen their investment focus onto cost-saving and efficiency-increasing technology, so every new initiative must have a clear, relevant purpose and be as cost-effective as possible. In other words, smart cities are a dynamic and fast-growing technology market.

If there is one bold message in the book, ‘Brave New World’ warns of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technology. There can be long and passionate discussions about how much ‘control’ a state, or a city, should have over our movements and actions, but for the sake of everyone’s safety and efficiency, a certain level of control must be granted. Control, for example, over which routes are used getting from A to B; over where we park our car, gyrocopter, or other future method of personal transport; overheating and lighting, both inside and outside; over investment in facilities and infrastructure.

Information and Communication Technology

Politics and philosophy aside, the aim of implementing this ‘information and communication technology’ (ICT) is ultimately to make life more pleasant for the residents of a city: less transport system breakdowns, fewer roads with clogged-up traffic, efficient infrastructure and resource management, lower energy consumption and harmful emissions, easier and more punctual public transport that is also safe to use, and better inner-city security are among just some of the benefits. In the background, gathering and making intelligent use of the data helps to increase the efficiency of road repair teams, building maintenance engineers, water supply, drainage and electricity companies, town planners and the transport authorities, amongst many other city stakeholders. Meeting both their own as well as nationally imposed ecological and sustainability targets is of course a significant motivator not to postpone decisions on smart city investment.

Making Use of Collected Data in the City

The data about how a city ticks is already there for the taking, every day – it just needs to be collected and assimilated. Providing the overarching systems that makes sense of all the ‘big data’ flowing in from these diverse sources 24/7 are a small number of companies who work closely with many departments of a city’s administration, the police and other security authorities to provide enlightening information that is clearly presented, accurate and up-to-date. This data is then used in the first instance to control transport, utility and environmental systems, to influence movement trends, and to provide information to residents and commuters, also via online portals. It is then also used in the mid and long-term to support strategic decisions on investment, (re)development, restyling, and city planning.

Getting all the stakeholders to work together and implement a smart city can be a challenge, with many, sometimes conflicting, opinions from residents, city authorities, sub-contractors and security authorities on the details of where what should be done and when. The lead project coordinator should arguably be the city administration itself, although there are often political and available resource reasons why the task is sometimes grudgingly outsourced to a large commercial organization after complying with national and supranational tender regulations. Experience of implementing such a comprehensive and complex solution though is invaluable, and the track record of successfully handed-over projects must be a convincing reason to choose a particular partner.

The implementation of smart cities began a long time ago, probably without you even noticing it. Each electronically-controlled system that has been installed in and around many cities in recent years has had its interfaces connected up to (tele)communications routes back to one or more reception hubs. Various wired and wireless technologies provide the local link to multifarious IoT devices, to mobile phones, to connected vehicles - private or public - and indeed to intelligent buildings and the systems therein. This fast connectivity is crucial to the correct and secure operation of a smart city and must, unfortunately, be viewed as a potential target for misuse, hacking and data theft, or even blackmail, so we’re talking cybersecurity and strong, complete encryption here. Planning and implementing a parallel and totally independent backup transmission method is therefore essential right from the start.

Companies in the Smart City Market

City administrations obviously do not have all the skills necessary to implement their own particular vision of what their city needs. So the contributors to the final result include external system designers, data analysts, electricians at all levels, HVAC specialists, software developers, infrastructure and network providers, as well as an almost invisible group of coordinators who ensure the right people and things are where they should be, and on time.

There are some heavyweight international players in the smart city market who are broadly positioned and able to provide, or at least to project manage, a sort-of ‘one-stop shopping’ for city administrations. Siemens and Cisco, IBM and Microsoft, Hitachi and Huawei, GE and Ericsson are already heavily involved. NEC and Bosch are both increasing their market presence, while a plethora of other companies are nibbling away at obtaining a share of this already large and rapidly growing market. Of course, Aristotle’s observation that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts” applies perfectly to smart city projects where dozens of sub-contractors provide and commission the sensors and other peripheral equipment ‘at the edge’. Each project is highly individual and specifically tailored to the requirements of that particular city with more or less emphasis on certain aspects, so there is a slice of this large cake for every sub-contractor somewhere.

Cost-Savings with Intelligent Energy Usage

On all five continents, the number of cities that can rightfully call themselves ‘smart’ is growing annually and will continue to grow for many years yet. Singapore, perhaps unexpectedly, is considered by many to be the furthest forward in smart city implementation. It is based on a data platform known as ‘E3A’, which stands for “Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, All the Time.” It is primarily used to solve the headache of public transport in a city of over 6 million inhabitants where individual car transport is frowned upon. A public-private partnership in Vienna started in 2014 is applying smart building technology to minimize energy usage generally, and has an initiative to capture ‘spare’ electricity for heating. Stockholm revised its environmental program in 2016 to prioritize sustainability, environmentally-friendly transportation, responsible land use, recycling and improve in air quality. The aim is to not use any more fossil fuels by 2040. San Leandro in California is strong on IoT networking, with intelligent street lights, parking, and waste management all benefiting from a very high speed 10-gigibit city network. Melbourne in Australia has long been activating smart city sub-projects that nowadays extend to waste management, pedestrian movement analysis and assistance for the deaf and blind. With a population soon reaching 5 million people, the benefits of this early implementation are already clear. Bhubaneswar in India has focused on improving city administration efficiency by using e-governance. Waste disposal, water and energy management, and traffic management through connected signals and parking spaces are also showing benefits and cost-savings.

Dig into the publications of hundreds of towns and cities worldwide and you will find aspects of ‘smart’ digitalization and data-gathering that, in time, constitute a beneficial overlay for all who live and work there. Look around - there is a smart city near you.

Finding Funding for Renewable Energy

The European Commission website (link below) provides a very good starting point for more research into the broad subject of smart cities. The EU’s IRIS project that started in 2016 involved seven cities who have now implemented measures for the benefit of both the residents and environment that fell under the headings of renewables and energy positive districts, flexible energy management and storage, intelligent mobility solutions, digital transformation and services, and citizen engagement and co-creation. There are currently 231 smart city project sites in the EU and just beyond, from Trondheim to Türkiye, and with more cities in the pipeline to obtain EU funding.

Further Information in Whitepapers

Siemens offer a white paper to be downloaded within the digital city solutions special focus area on their website. Johnson Controls offer a white paper on cybersmart-buildings, while the Danish view on the subject is wonderfully presented by State of Green with examples of implemented projects that could well serve as inspiration elsewhere. If your grasp of the Italian language goes beyond just being able to order a cappuccino, the A2A group explain their strategy on city infrastructure with informative graphics on their website. And to get up close and personal, an early November trip to the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona would certainly increase your knowledge on the subject significantly.