If you’re in-tune with new technologies, you’ve probably grown used to the term “smart” being applied to almost everything: smartphone, smart watch, smart lock, smart toilet, smart thermostat, smart refrigerators... it’s a fairly long list. In the midst of all this “smart” technology, though, you may or may not have heard the term “Smart City” at one point or another. Many of us might understand that it’s the internet connectivity and software capabilities that lend the smart-ness to a smartphone, but what makes a city so “smart”? This week we’ll take a look at what a Smart City is, some of the current technologies and ideas that operate within Smart Cities, new technologies and ideas on the horizon, and some concerns when it comes to Smart Cities. Don’t be fooled by the name... these technologies and ideas can frequently be applied to smaller towns and municipalities as well, so this isn’t just for you city folks.
What is A Smart City?
Well, it’s somewhat difficult to chase down a unified definition of a “Smart City”. The Smart Cities Council even states the following...
“The smart city sector is still in the ‘I know it when I see it’ phase, without a universally agreed definition. The Council defines a smart city as one that has digital technology embedded across all city functions”
Personally, there seems to be an overuse of the word “smart” here.
Pretty vague, right? In general, discussions of Smart Cities do seem to center around the use of digital technologies and computer systems, as mentioned in the Smart Cities Council definition.
It isn’t necessarily just a bunch of cool new gadgets and gizmos strewn about the city, though. A key idea for Smart Cities is interactions and communication between technology, people, and resources. The technology could include various sensors, monitoring equipment, or software that’s used to collect data or automate things. Smart City technologies are commonly considered information and communication (ICT) technologies. The people could include ordinary citizens and government officials. The resources could include energy, water, money, building materials, public services, et cetera. The goals of these interactions among technology, people, and resources could include environmental sustainability, citizen participation in government, and better quality of life. This is all still very vague, so I’ll get into some examples to shed some more light on what makes a Smart City. For each of these Smart City examples, I try to highlight interactions between technology, people, and resources.
The Connected Citizens Program based on the Waze app is an excellent modern example of a Smart City development. If you’re unfamiliar with the Waze app, it provides GPS navigation for drivers while also incorporating real-time comments from other drivers in the area, such as where road hazards are located. A number of cities have partnered with Waze as part of their Connected Citizens Program to use driver-submitted information and data in order to improve roads and address transportation issues. For example, a city could use data from the Waze app to identify where road improvements need to occur, and in return, the city can send more accurate and up-to-date road closure alerts to drivers through the Waze app. With this example, you can see interactions between technology, people, and resources. The Waze app (technology) is used to connect government officials and drivers (people) while also guiding decisions of where to implement road improvements (resources).
You can also check out this video provided by Waze as part of what they call their “Connected Citizens” program:
In Paris, the city has experimented with participatory budgeting. This program is one where citizens may submit city project ideas, and then others can go online to vote on which projects they would like to see implemented. With a limited budget, the projects with the most votes will actually get funded. Projects selected through Paris’ participatory budgeting program have included improvements to elementary school bathrooms, installation of flower boxes in public areas, and sidewalk repairs among many others. You can check out the participatory budgeting website and view projects here (you can use Google translate if you can’t read French): https://budgetparticipatif.paris.fr/bp/
Here, the online website (technology) provides a platform for the Parisian government to gather input from citizens (people) on how money (resource) should be spent.
Basic diagram of a Smart City water system.
One general example of a Smart City development is the use of internet-enabled sensors installed on drinking water distribution systems. Various sensors might be used to monitor water quality or track water consumption throughout the day. By monitoring water quality at various points throughout a water distribution system, the water utility can better identify any sources of water contamination. Monitoring water consumption in real-time would allow the water utility to respond to spikes in water use and regulate water pressure more effectively. The sensors (technology) provide information to the water utility (people) so that they can better manage drinking water supply (resource).
In Singapore, a large number of security cameras are located throughout the city in order to aid law enforcement, with over 15 security cameras per 1,000 people. In 2018, Singapore also announced a pilot project where facial recognition software is integrated with surveillance cameras attached to over 100,000 lampposts throughout the city. The facial recognition software could be used to detect persons of interest and aid anti-terror operations. The data could also be used for a variety of other purposes such as tracking foot traffic throughout the city. The United States company Amazon rolled out its own facial recognition software and services (called “Rekognition”) which it has marketed to cities in the United States. There are certainly privacy and other concerns that come with these security technologies which we’ll talk about later.
A few examples of Smart City ideas provided by Surbana Jurong (a Singapore consultant group).
While this idea of interactions among technology, people, and resources might provide a good framework for identifying a Smart City technology or development, remember that the Smart City concept still has a fairly loose definition.
Many of these technologies and programs can also be applied to smaller municipalities, so perhaps the name “Smart City” can be deceptive as well. In Valmiera, a small Latvian city with a population of just under 25,000 people, a smartphone app was created for citizens and tourists to keep up-to-date with local news and events, get notified of local business offerings, participate in community surveys, and submit suggestions to the local government. If you plan to visit Valmiera in the future, you should definitely download the smartphone app, called Mana Valmiera (“My Valmiera”). A similar city app has also been created for an even smaller city called Seat Pleasant, Maryland in the United States, which is home to around 5,000 people. Simple smartphone apps such as these could easily be implemented in small towns to help keep citizens connected and informed.
Screenshots from the Mana Valmiera smartphone app.
What’s Next?
As we look ahead to what a Smart City might look like in the future, there are a few developments to watch for.
A traffic monitoring drone being deployed.
With the use of drones (or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [UAVs], if we’re getting technical), Smart City technologies can become much more versatile. Drones can operate by having a multitude of sensors attached to them in order to capture data while flying around. Instead of having a large number of stationary cameras monitoring traffic, you could have a few drones flying around to detect traffic congestion or car accidents. Drones could also be used for tracking crime suspects to aid in policing. In addition to operating with sensors, drones can be used to carry supplies easily throughout the confines of a city in a way that ground transportation or larger air transportation cannot. For example, an “ambulance drone” could be dispatched to a heart attack victim to deliver a defibrillator with audio directions for use by bystanders. This ambulance drone could arrive at the site prior to paramedics in a densely populated city, giving the heart attack victim a greater chance of survival. Flying drones within a city does present plenty of challenges as well, since navigation between buildings and around large numbers of people brings about safety and privacy concerns.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also being implemented into Smart City technologies to a greater degree to identify room for improvement and make quicker decisions on-the-fly. While you could have designated people looking at data and identifying patterns, why not just have a computer do it? A Smart City is bound to have a massive amount of information being collected and transferred, so having AI to make decisions might make the system quicker at responding. As an example from this past decade, Carnegie Mellon University partnered with the City of Pittsburgh to develop traffic signals that ran on an AI system instead of operating on a pre-determined timer. The AI system could detect traffic and adapt to improve signal timing, which resulted in a 25% reduction in travel times for drivers. Use of AI in technologies such as the one developed by Carnegie Mellon will probably begin to increase as we collect more and more data and move towards automation in cities.
The development of 5G-enabled networks and devices would provide a number of benefits to Smart Cities. 5G technology is much faster than current 4G and can also accommodate a larger number of devices. These aspects of 5G will allow the various sensors and technologies to communicate more quickly and easily on a scale that’s more suited to the demands of a Smart City.
Smarter Might not always be better
As with anything, there is two sides to the coin here, and we must also consider the downsides to the development of Smart Cities. One of the main concerns here is with privacy and security in terms of data collection. With privacy, the idea of sensors and cameras capturing every aspect of life, from your water usage to your daily commuting habits, can call to mind the dystopian idea of “Big Brother” watching everything you do. This is certainly a valid concern with some of the policing technologies that allow facial recognition and tracking of individuals throughout a city.
An image from a Florida demo of Amazon’s “Rekognition” facial recognition software.
Many of the Smart City technologies would also create a massive amount of data for marketing and targeting purposes. Targeted advertising would basically have a field day using data to learn about people’s interests and habits. Ever talk about something and then see an ad for it on your phone a few minutes later? Well that would potentially be much more prevalent with even more data accessible.
Many people have brought forth ideas for decoupling personal information from data and implementing data security measures in order to address these privacy concerns. Despite this, cybersecurity threats would still pose an issue to Smart Cities. Cyber-criminals could potentially bypass these privacy protections and access citizen data. They could also cause software crashes through Denial of Service (DoS) attacks which might then affect energy and water utilities. Hackers might also be able to access and manipulate Smart City systems such as traffic lights or healthcare services. The risk associated with cybersecurity vulnerabilities would be much greater in a Smart City and is certainly an important issue that needs to be tackled.
Outside of privacy and security, a detached use of technology can sometimes result in issues of equity. While some people may benefit from a technology, the same technology may result in certain groups of people being disadvantaged. An example is from the implementation of AI traffic lights in Pittsburgh developed by Carnegie Mellon University (as mentioned in the last section of this article). Researchers found that more efficient traffic lights for drivers resulted in a disadvantaged demographic: pedestrians trying to cross the road. While researchers have since tried to address this inequity, it’s certain to arise in other aspects. Another consideration of equity is making sure everyone can fully access and use the technologies that enable a Smart City. The switch to virtual due to the COVID pandemic exposed some of these current issues associated with access to technology. For example, some students had difficulty staying connected to virtual classes due to poor internet connectivity and less familiarity with the technology. The same might be seen with Smart City technologies. While Smart Cities do provide solutions to address inequities, we should also consider their potential to create new ones.
Finally, the sheer initial cost of Smart City projects is relatively high and may be a difficult barrier for cities to overcome. Developing and deploying all of those technologies that enable a Smart City is usually not cheap. Installation of traffic sensors on only three major streets in Portland, Oregon along with the associated software cost the city just over $1 million.
One of the lamppost traffic sensors installed as part of the Portland, Oregon Smart City project.
In the long-run, the payoff of Smart City projects is usually well-worth the investment as cities can have substantial cost savings through more efficient energy systems, water distribution, and public services among other efficiencies. Having funding or financing options available to cities is an important step in lowering the that initial barrier to implementing Smart City projects.
As more information and communication technologies are developed and implemented in populated areas, we might expect to see the term “Smart City” applied more frequently, though the definition is still relatively loose. I think the biggest lesson learned here is that you can preface nearly any noun with the adjective “smart” and it suddenly sounds cooler.
To think about…
Are there any issues prevalent in your own community that might be addressed by Smart City technologies? (e.g., traffic, crime, water shortages, lack of community input, etc.)
How would the current industries, jobs, and infrastructure change if Smart City technologies were adopted? (e.g., more tech jobs)
Smart City projects usually require a large up-front financial investment. What other projects could cities or towns undertake with that kind of money? Do you think investing in Smart City projects is a good idea under today’s circumstances?
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