What you should know about smart city technology

It’s not all our fault I am tempted to say, centuries ago, scientists had long predicted that the world as we know will one day be invaded by super intelligent beings from somewhere in the space. We lived in fear expecting scary human eating aliens, well, it’s fun to announce that the alien is here and it has invaded our world, gulping down the olden culture, thumping the world’s modus operand and showing us new things, new methods and a whole new universe; No I’m not talking about the short, ugly, little green man from star wars, I’m talking about technology. This is the dawn of a new age, from the Babbage Difference Engine of 1882 to the Black and white monitor, the desktop computer, the laptop computer and now to bigger things like the internet, the bespoke technology, electric cars, smart homes, Internet of things and now we are talking about smart city technology. Everything is getting smart and the city as we know it is about to get smart.

Smart City Technology

There is much confusion as to what makes a city smart, most times the concept is wrongly defined. Is it the functioning street lights, standard checkpoints or the speed limit checkers? The smart city technology is beyond those. “A smart city is an intelligent town that provides enormous possibilities for human growth through art, culture, social, architectural, economic, political, environmental, and scientific flowering with the optimal mix of nature, technology, humanity, and arts.”

 When cities become more efficient or more environmentally friendly and more socially inclusive through the use of digital technologies, we say that such a city has become smart. A smart city makes use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to create deploy and promote development practices aimed at addressing urban challenges hence creating a sustainable infrastructure. The introduction of Internet of Things (IoT) which resulted in creating smart homes has led developed countries into going farther from making home smart to making the whole city a smart one. The IoT which happens to be  a network of interconnected devices which can communicate and exchange data. Let’s say the clock at home rings its alarm and this alarm notifies the automatic coffee maker to start making coffee. IoT devices is playing a strategic role in making the smart city not just a folklore but a reality.  Not only the Iot devices aid this smart city development. other solutions include The Artificial Intelligence (AI),  The Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the machine learning, edge computing and mesh networks.

Let us make a short listing of some city services (A city service is anything being offered to the citizens by the city): electricity, public parking, traffic management,, traffic lightening and so on. When most of this city activities become automated by digital technologies, we refer to such as smart city technology.

The concept of smart cities kicked off some time in the 70s when the US Community Analysis Bureau started using databases, aerial photography and cluster analysis to collect data, direct resources and issue reports in order to direct services, mitigate against disasters and reduce poverty. This led to the creation of the first generation of smart cities.

The first generation of smart city was delivered by technology providers to understand the implications of technology on daily life. This led to the second generation of smart city, which looked at how smart technologies and other innovations could create joined-up municipal solutions. The third generation of smart city took the control away from technology providers and city leaders, instead creating a model that involved the public and enabled social inclusion and community engagement.

This third generation model was adopted by Vienna, who created a partnership with the local Wien Energy company, allowing citizens to invest in local solar plants as well as working with the public to resolve gender equality and affordable housing issues. Such adoption has continued around the world, including in Vancouver, where 30,000 citizens co-created the Vancouver Greenest City 2020 Action Plan.

SOME OF THE FEATURE OF SMART CITY ARE:

1. Smart Transportation: Smart transportation refers to the integrated application of modern technologies and management strategies in transportation systems.

This technology is aimed at providing innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer and ‘smarter’ use of transport networks.

Smart transportation includes the use of several technologies, from basic management systems such as car navigation; traffic signal control systems; container management systems; automatic number plate recognition or speed cameras to monitor applications, such as security CCTV systems; and to more advanced applications that integrate live data and feedback from a number of other sources.

The technology allows users make better use of the transportation network and also paves the way for the development of smarter infrastructure to meet future demands. The evolution of intelligent transportation systems is providing a growing number of technology solutions for transportation managers as they seek to operate and maintain the systems more efficiently and improve performance.  Hence smart transportation involves an automation process which can Use a navigation system to find the best route based on real-time conditions, Alert drivers of potentially hazardous situations in time to avoid crashes, Be guided to an empty parking space by a smart sign, Ride a bus that turns traffic lights green on approach, Detect and respond promptly to traffic incidents, Reroute traffic in response to road conditions or weather emergencies, Give travelers real-time traffic and weather reports, Allow drivers to manage their fuel consumption, Adjust speed limits and signal timing based on real-world conditions, Improve freight tracking, inspection, safety and efficiency, Make public transportation more convenient and reliable, Monitor the structural integrity of bridges and other infrastructure.

Connected vehicles have become something standing at the forefront when the issue of public transport is discussed. These connected vehicles are estimated to make p about 97% of all cars in the United States of America by the year 2035.

2. Smart Grids: A smart grid is a modern power generation, transmission and distribution system that can automate and manage the increasing complexity and needs of electricity in the 21st century. The technology aims to; integrate and support renewable energy sources like solar, wind and hydro, empower consumers with real-time information about their energy consumption and assist utility companies to reduce outages.

Just like traditional grids, smart grids have a number of moving components. However, smart grids have parts that are more efficient in terms of design and functionality. For instance, there are intelligent appliances that are capable of deciding when to consume power based on the pre-set user preferences. There are also smart substations that control critical and non-critical operational data, such as power factor performance, breaker, battery and transformer status.

Another critical component of a smart grid is the smart power meter that is capable of two-way communication between the consumer and power provider. This makes detection of power outages, billing, data collection and dispatching of repair crews easier and faster. There is also smart distribution characterized by automated monitoring and analysis tools, superconducting cables for long-distance transmission, self-healing, self optimization and self balancing.

Smart generation is another key component of a smart grid. The system is capable of “learning” the unique behavior of power generation resources to optimize energy production and to automatically maintain voltage, frequency and power factor standards based on feedback from multiple points in the grid. There is also universal access to affordable, low-carbon electrical power generation and storage solutions.

It is arguable that one of the greatest implementation of modern day architecture and infrastructure is smart grids because of the tremendous role it plays in the conservation of resources.

3. Smart Waste Management Solution: Smart waste management focuses on solving solid waste management problems using sensors, intelligent monitoring systems, and mobile applications. The first smart waste management solution to make the waste collection process more efficient is sensors. Sensors can measure the fill level of the containers and provide updated information at any time and notify waste management services to empty them when they are full or almost full. These devices help optimize the best possible route containing fully filled containers and create smart schedules for drivers. The selection of the containers also minimizes the need for trash collection staff because their duties are deduced. They can also alert the waste management companies or municipalities if an undesirable incident happens such as sudden temperature rise or displacement of the container by their GPS features. IoT solutions for solid waste management problems offer municipalities’ data intelligence and real-time insights. In that regard, the fill patterns of specific containers can be identified by historical data and managed accordingly in the long term. In addition to hardware solutions, mobile applications are used to overcome the challenges in the regular waste management system, such as keeping track of the drivers while they are operating on the field. This smart waste management solution as a feature of smart cities helps in reducing the collection and unnecessary fuel consumption cost, also it eliminates missed pickups.
4. Smart Utility Metering: A smart meter provides the objective tracking of utility energy consumption that occurs on the system or outlet it is attached to. For example, a smart meter connected to a natural gas line tracks the number of ther ms consumed by the facility. The “smart” feature of the meter lets it control the flow of the resource being used, such as natural gas, water or electricity. The smart aspect also allows the meter to be controlled remotely. Though smart metering is relatively new, there are already many applications for the technology. The internet of things (IoT) field has taken advantage of smart metering to expand a network of interconnected devices producing a massive amount of data. Many electric, gas, water and other utility companies have embraced smart metering as an efficient method of tracking usage across their customer bases to better determine costs and infrastructure needs. Smart metering can give both utilities and their customers better ideas of how usage affects their costs and help them determine new strategies to save money.
5. Smart Citizens: I believe this should be the most critical feature of a smart city. It is smart citizens that make a smart city to be most functional. If citizens do not know how to make use of ll the intelligent transportation, smart metering, smart grid, smart waste management then there is a tendency that they will consider shrinking back to the traditional methods of doing things.  Smart citizens is not just about the residents of the city being able to leverage information but also includes the contribution of citizens to further development of smart city initiatives. Building a smart city is not just the way forward but authorities should also integrate a program that educates citizens on how to use the smart technologies

It takes a little to arrive at a conclusion that this current trend called smart city is all for good; well it may be true but we won’t mention that there are likely disadvantages that a smart city might incur and here is a list of some:

• High Cost of Implementation: of all sincerity setting up a complete running smart city will cost a fortune, the amount it will take a city fit in sensors to sensors and IoT in buildings will squeeze resources from even the richest of countries.
• Lack of skilled workers: The many technologies required to make a functioning smart city are new to so many people so there are likely many people in the community who can’t find their way around those modern technologies hence the government need to channel another fund to training its citizens to understand how to handle the smart technologies that accompany a smart city.
• Cyber Attack: The setting of smart city means that everything in the city will go online that is everything must be connected to the internet and this makes the whole city prone to cyber attack and a good hacker could shut the whole city down, data security will stand at peril because as long as I’m concerned, online is not all safe.

There are quite many cities operating with a level of smartness although not 100%, cities like Singapore, Dubai, Oslo, Copenhagen, Boston, New York, London and maybe Barcelona. But with time, we will see many cities in the world attaining smartness and we hope it will be all for the best.

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