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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Explainer: What Is a Smart City?

A smart city is a concept that sees the adoption of data-sharing smart technologies including the Internet of Things (IOT) and information communication technologies (ICTs) to improve energy efficiency, minimise greenhouse gas emissions, and improve quality of life of a city’s citizens. 

When we talk about smart cities, we may think of concepts like self-driving electric cars, renewable energy, or images of automated technology from films such as The Minority Report and Blade Runner . Yet, smart cities are already among us. So what is a smart city? It is in fact not about being futuristic, but something much more fundamental – information and efficiency. 

Smart City Definition

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) jointly made a definition of smart sustainable cities. They defined a smart sustainable city is an “innovative city that uses information communication technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, the efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects.”

We are all familiar with the term information technology (IT), which refers to the use of technological infrastructures for storing, retrieving, and sending information. But most are less so of the term ICTs, which is more than just the collection and transmission of information, but also includes the sharing of information between stakeholders through communication with the help of technology.

In other words, a smart city ultimately aims to create a place in which the information is near perfect. Perfect information, which is often seen as a non-realistic theory in economics, is believed to greatly improve the quality of life. For example, if all consumers and producers know every information about the market, including the price, the quality, and the carbon footprint of every single product, consumers can better decide what they should buy, and producers must compete on price or quality, which will overall lead to better products in the market.

You might also like: Top 7 Smart Cities in the World

Smart City and The Environment

Smart city concepts have been increasingly adopted as a way for cities and urban environments to reduce their carbon footprint, energy consumption, and pollution. So for a city to be more environmentally-friendly, we must, first, collect data about the environment. For example, having sensors measuring air quality around a city can provide information that we need to identify the causes and consequences of air pollution. Then, the next step is to analyse the data in order to come up with practical solutions and evaluate the action plans. 

In the past, evaluating the effects of a solution can be costly and time-consuming. If the result is not satisfactory, you will need to modify the solution and go through the same process until it can meet the requirements. However, with the emergence of big data, things become much simpler since evaluation can be made through simulation, which can greatly reduce the use of resources and time. For instance, relying on geographic data can be far more straightforward to decide the most suitable and efficient renewable energy for a city and to find the best spot to run it.

Data associated with the environment is not limited to objects, but also applies to humans. City planning can be much more efficient if data on civic behaviours is retrieved and examined. For instance, transportation companies can modify their schedules, such as routes and the number of shifts based on the needs of citizens. Having such data, we can efficiently allocate resources and prevent significant amounts of waste. It is estimated that each person will generate 10-15% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 30-130 fewer kilograms of solid waste per year, and consume 25-80 litres less water per day by optimising the use of energy, and tracking the carbon footprint of electricity, water, and waste.

Smart City Privacy Issues

Ultimately, how smart should a city be? This is the question that we must answer eventually.  In the West, where societies are more capitalist and individualistic in nature, the free access and sharing of confidential information related to the privacy of individuals and corporations are in many ways in contradiction to the concept of ICTs that is intrinsic to a smart city. 

While most people would unlikely object to deploying sensors to detect and measure air quality, it is another story if it infringes our privacy. Is every citizen and company obliged to be a part of a smart city? Or is it voluntary? What kind of information will go public and what will be kept confidentially? To this day, none of these questions have been addressed adequately despite more places to implement smart cities initiatives around the world. 

According to John Gage , computer scientist and former director of the Science Office for Sun Microsystems, Inc., in order to develop a city truly smart and truly free, it needs to be decentralised and replace existing applications with peer-to-peer applications, in which peers are equally privileged and have the access to the same information. Nevertheless, decentralisation is theoretically difficult as it involves national sovereignty. For instance, in recognising the potential threat of Bitcoin, a decentralised digital currency that competes with the US dollar, the United States government made the decision to tax it. The decentralisation of applications created for a smart city is very difficult because city planning is exactly the job of the government. We do not know what data will be revealed or concealed.

Despite the enormous environmental benefits that will be derived from the development of a smart city, questions regarding privacy must also be addressed. For a transparent country, free access to data can improve the quality of life, but for an authoritarian regime, a smart city can be used as a tool to manipulate information and control its citizens.

You might also like: How Urban Planning and Smart Cities Can Help in the Fight Against Climate Change

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Argument: ‘Smart’ Cities Are Surveilled Cities

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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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Study Today

Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

Essay on Smart City for Children & Students

June 1, 2018 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

“Build the future you envision, for your creation will one day live up to inspire others to the idea and hard work put in to achieve that pedestal of what we call a SMART CITY.”

A smart city is a technologically equipped city with sophisticated equipment’s and infrastructure so as to serve the citizens in a better and a convenient manner. The concept of Smart city was coined towards the end of the 20 th century when the world was just stepping into a digital era; an era of advancement.

Since then, this vision has been gaining popularity by leaps and bounds among the governments of the world who aim to make their cities smart as well as green to achieve sustainable development.

Smart cities are characterized by numerous features but according to me what is most important is a progressive mindset, irrespective of any bias or prejudice.

Only when we broaden our horizons to accommodate all faiths and views around us so as to articulate a peaceful environment, the city will itself become smart in no time as people become more focused and happy in a stress-free and violence-free environment.

Happiness index of the city also tends to rise when people become tolerant due to increase in personal satisfaction.

The city should be mapped out and with the help of architects and technicians; developments in infrastructure and public amenities should be carried out keeping in mind the resurrection of nature.

The city should come across as trustworthy and appealing to the business hours, entrepreneurs, foreigners so as to provide boost to the business.

Climatic change is one of the most worrying issues we are currently faced with. In the race of development, care for nature is left behind. Carbon dioxide emission must be reduced in the times to come. Cities are responsible for almost three-fourths of green-house gases produced worldwide. Thus, being major polluters they are called upon to provide solutions as well.

Cities are known to use up a lot of electricity and raw material to meet their day to day operations. Thus, they are expected to shift focus from non renewable sources of energy to renewable sources of energy so as to conserve thermal energy. Cities like Delhi and Chennai which receive a lot of sunlight should work on efficient use of sunlight to generate electricity.

Smart cities are bound to revolutionize the transport and communication facilities so as to provide smooth flow of networking on both roads and mobile networks. Better ways to manage traffic should be devised through advancements in technique, infrastructure and research and developments.

Education and health sectors should be prioritized. The entire education system prevalent should be scrapped and an innovative, books-free, children-friendly system should be adopted so as to ensure all-round growth of children.

Advancements in the health sector goes a long way in increasing the average life expectancy, boosting the health index of the population and increasing productivity of goods and services .

Government should also work on getting almost all its data and processes online so as to gives a whole new dimension to the term e-governance. This will ensure convenience to the public and the government as well. Moreover, this will ensure transparency and corruption can also be checked easily.

A smart city is the need of the hour today. Nonetheless, a smart city projects an image of development in front of domestic and foreign public.

The investments made to develop state of the art infrastructure bears fruit in short term, in the form of increased incomes i.e. GDP and in the long run, it increases the skill of human and material resource.

Also, a smart city is expected to take into consideration social and environmental benefit as well. This helps in the protection of the environment and conservation of our resources as well.

The government, in 2016 launched the SMART Cities mission at a budget of Rs. 98,000 crores with an objective of up gradation of urban areas and retrofitting program. The mission aims to develop 100 cities all over the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable. Financial aids will be given by the central and the state government to the cities or the territories nominated.

This mission is expected to show results by 2022. What is different about this scheme is, core competency. Earlier, when schemes were implemented, funds used to be allotted but people did not work on using those funds efficiently so no development was visible to the naked eyes.

But this scheme makes cities compete with one another to take hold of the financial grant and acquire the status of smart city. This ensured that even when the funds are allotted, work is being carried out at an ideal-pace without any wastage of time and funds.

But with smart city comes smart responsibilities on smart citizen. Before the introduction of this concept of smart city, people should be made aware of the project and its meaning so as to equip them with latest technology. Without the cooperation of citizens, a city can never become smart.

But the catch here is that the concept of Indian smart city seems to create very expensive and localized development, with concentration only on core infrastructure with limited citizen engagement.

Also, when we read about the ‘Smart cities mission’ on the government’s portal, they introduce the subject as ‘….there is no way of defining a smart city…..’ and ‘……a smart city might mean different things to different people…..’

This ambiguity in the mission is terrifying as one can clearly see that it can potentially develop into a major loophole which will let officials get away from the jurisdiction for non-compliance.

Without a standard definition or a guide to follow, the success of this mission is impossible because without a definite goal, no mission can ever be accomplished.

As of now, this mission stands on dangerous grounds. Though it seems like that the government is working hard to bring about a transformation yet we cannot envision a smart city before us due to the vagaries involved.

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

Smart Cities Concept

• Categories: Urbanization

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Published: Oct 31, 2018

Words: 427 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

• 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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​secure, sustainable smart cities and the iot.

Smart cities aren't just a concept or a dream of the future.

Many are already active and expanding rapidly thanks to the wildly innovative Internet of Things (IoT) solutions .

Municipal governments are leveraging cellular and Low Power Wide Area (LPWAN) wireless technologies to connect and improve infrastructure, efficiency, convenience, and quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Let's dive in.

What is a smart city?

A big part of this ICT framework is an intelligent network of connected objects and machines (a digital city ) transmitting data using wireless technology and the cloud. 

Cloud-based IoT applications receive, analyze, and manage data in real-time to help municipalities, enterprises, and citizens make better decisions that improve quality of life.

Citizens engage with smart city ecosystems using smartphones, mobile devices, and  connected cars and homes. Pairing devices and data with a city's physical infrastructure and services can cut costs and improve sustainability. 

Communities can improve energy distribution , streamline trash collection , decrease traffic congestion, and improve air quality with help from the IoT.

Smart cities are examples of massive IoT use cases.

For instance, 

• Connected traffic lights receive data from sensors and cars, adjusting light cadence and timing to respond to real-time traffic and reducing road congestion. 
• Connected cars can communicate with parking meters and electric vehicle (EV)charging docks and direct drivers to the nearest available spot. 
• Smart garbage cans automatically send data to waste management companies and schedule pick-up as needed versus a pre-planned schedule. 
• Citizens' smartphones become their mobile driver's license and ID cards with digital credentials, which speeds up and simplifies access to city and local government services. 

These smart city technologies are optimizing infrastructure, mobility, public services, and utilities.

MORE :  How smart is your city? (January 2023) (Infographic)

Why do we need smart cities?

Urbanization is a non-ending phenomenon. 

Today, 54% of people worldwide live in cities, a proportion that's expected to reach 66% by 2050 . 

With population growth, urbanization will add another 2.5 billion people to cities over the next three decades.

Environmental, social, and economic sustainability is a must to keep pace with this rapid expansion taxing our cities' resources.

One hundred ninety-three countries agreed upon the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda in September 2015 at the United Nations.

But we all know how centralized decisions and actions can take time, and the clock is ticking.

The good news?

Citizens and local authorities are more agile in launching swift initiatives, and smart city technology is paramount to achieving these goals.

How is IoT technology making cities smarter and better?

Secure wireless connectivity and IoT technology are transforming traditional elements of city life - like streetlights - into next-generation intelligent lighting platforms with expanded capabilities. 

The scope includes integrating solar power and connecting to a cloud-based central control system with other ecosystem assets.

These solutions shine far beyond simple lighting needs. 

• High-power-embedded LEDs alert commuters about traffic issues, provide severe weather warnings, and provide a heads-up when fires arise. 
• Streetlights can also detect free parking spaces and E.V. charging docks and alert drivers where to find an open spot via a mobile app. Charging might even be possible from the lamppost itself in some locations! 

Exciting stuff!

But how does it all fit together?

What makes smart cities successful

In addition to people, dwellings, commerce, and traditional urban infrastructure, there are four essential elements necessary for thriving smart cities:

• Pervasive wireless connectivity
• Security you can trust in
• Flexible monetization schemes

Let's break it down.

What's the best wireless technology for smart cities?

The first building block of any smart city application is reliable, pervasive wireless connectivity. 

While there's no one-size-fits-all, evolving Low Power Wide Area Network ( LPWAN ) technologies are well suited to most smart city applications for their cost efficiency and ubiquity. 

These technologies include LTE Cat M, NB-IoT, LoRa, Bluetooth, and others that all contribute to the fabric of connected cities. 

The advent of 5G technology  is expected to be a watershed event that propels smart city technology into the mainstream and accelerates new deployments. 

But only with a few more elements…

Opening the data vault

Historically, governments, enterprises, and individuals have held their data close to their pockets, sharing as little as possible with others. 

Today, open data is redefining the digital city.

Privacy concerns and fear of security breaches have far outweighed the perceived value of sharing information (see  Portland and privacy ). 

However, a key enabler of sustainable smart cities is that all participants in the complex ecosystem  share information and combine it with contextual data analyzed in real time.

This is how informed decisions are made in real time. 

Multiple sectors must cooperate to achieve sustainable outcomes by analyzing real-time contextual information shared among sector-specific information and operational technology (O.T.) systems.

The conclusion?

Data management (and access to this information) represents the backbone of the digital city.

Stay with us. Here is what we mean.

Examples of smart cities

New york city.

Below are helpful links to some of New York City's significant initiatives mentioned in the video above.

• The New York City Department of Transportation's Midtown in Motion  is a congestion management system that has improved travel times on Midtown's avenues by 10%.
• The NYCx Challenges initiative from the NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer invites entrepreneurs, technologists, and tech professionals to participate in open competitions and propose bold ideas that solve real urban needs such as pollution, income inequality, and transport (site closed).
• LinkNYC provides free super-fast free Wi-Fi , phone calls, device charging, and a tablet to access city services, maps, and directions. It's a unique communications network replacing payphones across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. 
• Cyber NYC is the city's strategic investment to dominate cybersecurity . It aims to grow New York City's  cybersecurity workforce , help companies  drive innovation  and build networks and community spaces . 
• MyNYCHA mobile app and web portal allow public housing residents to manage services online. It addresses over 300 public developments across New York City. Launched in 2015, MyNYCHA is a free service that puts the repair process in residents' hands. Residents can submit, schedule, and manage work tickets online. They can also subscribe to alerts for outages in their developments, view inspection appointments, and pay their rent.
• Biking in New York City : read the J uly 2019 plan for cycling in the city.
• Automated water meters in NYC: Automated Meter Reading systems consist of small devices connected to individual water meters. They send daily readings to a computerized billing system.
• The  My DEP Account  lets New Yorkers track consumption from home. The system eliminates the need for a water meter reader to visit the premises. It allows the Department of Environmental Protection to monitor citywide consumption more closely and manage the city's water supply system more effectively.
• New York's data report - Open Data for All - provides free public data published by various local agencies. This tool opens data for people to make a difference in their communities—including educators, students, artists, builders, small business owners, advocates, reporters, and community board members. It also means open data for the 300,000 workers who make New York City safer, cleaner, and more equitable.
• More on the New York City Internet of Things strategy and IoT progress report (December 20 2021.)

Amsterdam Smart City

Amsterdam is a shining example of a well-connected smart city reaping the rewards of opening the data vault. The Smart City initiative began in 2009 and included over 170 projects.

It also shares traffic and transportation data with interested parties, such as developers, who then create mapping apps connected to the city's transport systems. 

Now, navigating the city is a snap for all. 

There's more.

The city built autonomous delivery boats called ' roboats ' to keep things moving in a timely fashion. 

It also supported a floating village of houses, solving the city's overcrowding problem with a sustainable, energy-efficient alternative. Power is generated within communities, and homes receive water straight from the river and filter it within their tanks. 

None of this is possible without shared data.

City data is available online for all.

• Lessons from Amsterdam's Smart City initiative from the MIT Sloan Management Review

Here is another example.

Antwerp and the city of things

Antwerp is a partner in the E.U.'s CITADEL project. It explores the role of technology in a collaborative government.

The city is also about to create Europe's largest smart zone.

Copenhagen Smart City

Copenhagen is known as one of the smartest cities in the world and mobilizes expertise worldwide.

The city is leveraging open data to collaborate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an innovative intelligent bike system . 

Embedded with sensors that provide real-time information to riders and administrators, data is shared to monitor and manage air quality and traffic congestion.

• Technologies to create data-driven solutions that suit Copenhagen and its citizens
• Singapore has been ranked the world's smartest city. What does a smart city look like on the streets and in the homes of Singapore?
• In India, Bhopal is ranked #1 in the new ranking released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (Times of India, February 7 2021.)
• Dholera smart city : One of the first smart cities in India

While data sharing is essential, opening the vault also expands the cyber-attack surface area. 

So, how do we keep data private from the masses while sharing it among stakeholders?

Can smart cities be secured and trusted?

In digital cities, connected cameras, intelligent road systems, and public safety monitoring systems can provide an added layer of protection and emergency support to aid citizens when needed. 

• But what about protecting smart cities themselves from vulnerabilities? 
• How can we defend against hacking, cyber-attacks, and data theft? 
• In cities where multiple participants share information, how do we trust that participants are who they say they are? 
• And how do we know the data they report is true and accurate? 

The answers lie in physical data vaults, strong authentication, and I.D. management solutions.

Smart cities can only work if we can trust them. 

Four core security objectives for smart city solutions

All ecosystem partners - governments, enterprises, software providers, device manufacturers, energy providers, and network service providers - must do their part and integrate solutions that abide by four core security objectives:  

• Availability: Without actionable, real-time, and reliable data access, the smart city can't thrive. How information is collected, distilled, and shared is critical, and security solutions must avoid adverse effects on availability.
• Integrity: Smart cities depend on reliable and accurate data. Measures must be taken to ensure that data is accurate and free from manipulation.
• Confidentiality: Some of the collected, stored, and analyzed data will include sensitive details about consumers. Steps must be taken to prevent unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information.
• Accountability: Users of a system must be responsible for their actions. Their interactions with sensitive systems should be logged and associated with a specific user. These logs should be difficult to forge and have reliable integrity protection.

Strong authentication and I.D. management solutions must be integrated into the ecosystem to ensure data is shared only with authorized parties to achieve these core security objectives.

The solutions also protect backend systems from intrusion and hacking. 

Thankfully, legislation is being introduced to address threats and potential market failure due to growing digital security concerns.

Like the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act in the U.S. , signed on December 4 2020, or the U.K. IoT security law (not passed yet in June 2021), legislation will help establish minimum security requirements for connected devices.

Show me the Money: how do we monetize smart cities?

Data is the new oil in the age of IoT and smart cities. 

For smart cities to thrive, we must establish sustainable commerce models that facilitate the success of all ecosystem players.

The software must be woven into the fabric of IoT solutions to benefit all ecosystem contributors; this includes OEMs, developers, integrators, governments, etc.

Each member's intellectual property needs to be valued and rewarded. 

Subscription software capabilities enable new business models that allow each contributor to extract value from their contribution to the ecosystem. 

Subscription-based models offer a way to monetize hardware and software to build smart infrastructures and spread out expenses, moving away from substantial one-time CAPEX spending. 

• For example, expensive medical equipment like MRI scanners can be sold on a cost-per-scan basis rather than as a one-time upfront expense for hospitals. This creates a win-win situation for hospitals and suppliers alike. 
• And one day soon, cities will offer affordable subscriptions to fleets of vehicles shared between owners who may choose from an array of custom options. This move could radically reduce traffic and optimize traffic patterns and ride-sharing.

As urban areas continue to expand and grow, smart city technology is developing, enhancing sustainability and better serving humanity. 

By leveraging pervasive connectivity, open data, end-to-end security, and software monetization solutions, we can align evolving smart city needs for a much-improved experience for all ecosystem partners.

More resources on smart cities

• Top 50 Smart City Governments in 2021 ( Eden Strategy Institute - March 31 2021)
• Top 10 smart cities in the world : London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  Forbes July 8 2020
• Top 10 smart cities in the United States : New York, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, San Diego, Miami, and Houston. IESE business school.  Cities in motion 2020 .
• The top 3 smart cities in Canada (Cities in motion - October 2020) are Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. 
• India's Smart Cities Mission : The Indian Government's program for smart city development
• Smart cities in India : India's smart cities challenge nominees
• Is Singapore the world's smartest city ? by Thales
• The European innovation partnership on smart cities and communities ( the European Commission )
• Six essential technologies make smart cities : smart energy, transportation, data, infrastructure, mobility, and devices. TechRepublic August 2016
• Impact of the Internet of things on smart cities  KPMG May 2019

Intelligent infrastructure pilot launched in Texas (March 11 2021)

• Seven ways cities are getting smarter  by Thales
• The pandemic accelerates the rise of digital cities (April 1 2021)
• Sidewalk Labs in Toronto : what's next? (May 2020)
• Smart ports : Examples around the world

What does "smart grid" mean?

IoT regulations (July 2021)

Now it's your turn

Indeed, we can't claim to list all the critical concepts and issues related to smart cities and the IoT and those that will emerge in the years to come. 

Can you fill in some of the gaps?

If you've something to say on smart cities, share best practices, have a question to ask, or have found this article useful, please leave a comment in the box below.

We'd also welcome suggestions on improving it or proposals for future papers.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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