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The concept of a smart city is not new, but it is still nascent and the definition remains quite heterogenous. Broadly, a smart city is connected, intelligent and optimized by a municipality to reduce costs, increase safety, attract investment, be sustainable, and enhance livability. To get there will require smart governance, the education of a smart workforce and smart citizens, the digital transformation of assets, and the deployment of sensor networks with ubiquitous multimodal connectivity. As we conclude our 21st annual industry forum “Industry in Transition: Realizing the Digital Enterprise” today, there aren't many lessons from industry that can help cities make informed decisions on their journey to becoming “smart.” The following infographic identifies core concepts and enabling technologies needed to digitally transform a city.
Smart cities present tremendous opportunities for industrial IoT, but challenges abound. The fact that technology innovation often outpaces policy, including standards for data privacy, and the bureaucratic red tape involved with government contracts remain major obstacles. Startups with novel solutions are shuttered out of the contract process and the transition to service-based models does not compute with their archaic thinking and processes.
Interoperability problems and the slow adoption of open standards are also delaying market adoption and the portability of applications. The vast number of players in this ecosystem which bridges private, public, and consumer realms only increases the complexity. Even if they wanted to proceed with their transformation process, the foundational element of connectivity bandwidth and redundancy has not been met. Inadequate communications infrastructure and funding limitations means many cities have so far been limited to ad-hoc pilot projects. Considering studies have shown that cities data bandwidth needs will grow six-fold due to urbanization and the exponential growth in device connectivity, cities need to plan accordingly.
Singapore’s redundant broadband network, smart governance, and smart citizens have enabled it to progress faster than its peers in what it dubs the “city brain” approach which provides other cities with a centralized model of smart city development. Singapore intends to connect 100 million smart objects in the next five years including every traffic light, lamppost, sensor and camera. It is also considering connecting its citizens 5 million smartphones so it can use GPS information to help deploy public transit buses based on crowd analytics in a city where half of its residents commute to work using public transportation. The city has already begun connecting cars with intent to use GPS to advise drivers for rerouting optimization based on traffic congestion in real-time. Using financial incentives, drivers who follow advice are rewarded and those that do not are fined. These are just two examples of how a city can utilize IoT to operate in powerful and new ways.
Knowledge from industrial operations, engineering, can translate to smart grid, smart water networks, smart buildings, transportation management systems, industrial cyber security, operations centers, analytics, cloud computing, industrial gateways, networks, and platforms.
Smart cities present tremendous opportunities for industrial IoT, but challenges abound. The fact that technology innovation often outpaces policy, including standards for data privacy, and the bureaucratic red tape involved with government contracts remain major obstacles. Startups with novel solutions are shuttered out of the contract process and the transition to service-based models does not compute with their archaic thinking and processes.
Interoperability problems and the slow adoption of open standards are also delaying market adoption and the portability of applications. The vast number of players in this ecosystem which bridges private, public, and consumer realms only increases the complexity. Even if they wanted to proceed with their transformation process, the foundational element of connectivity bandwidth and redundancy has not been met. Inadequate communications infrastructure and funding limitations means many cities have so far been limited to ad-hoc pilot projects. Considering studies have shown that cities data bandwidth needs will grow six-fold due to urbanization and the exponential growth in device connectivity, cities need to plan accordingly.
Singapore’s redundant broadband network, smart governance, and smart citizens have enabled it to progress faster than its peers in what it dubs the “city brain” approach which provides other cities with a centralized model of smart city development. Singapore intends to connect 100 million smart objects in the next five years including every traffic light, lamppost, sensor and camera. It is also considering connecting its citizens 5 million smartphones so it can use GPS information to help deploy public transit buses based on crowd analytics in a city where half of its residents commute to work using public transportation. The city has already begun connecting cars with intent to use GPS to advise drivers for rerouting optimization based on traffic congestion in real-time. Using financial incentives, drivers who follow advice are rewarded and those that do not are fined. These are just two examples of how a city can utilize IoT to operate in powerful and new ways.
Knowledge from industrial operations, engineering, can translate to smart grid, smart water networks, smart buildings, transportation management systems, industrial cyber security, operations centers, analytics, cloud computing, industrial gateways, networks, and platforms.