The future of Smart Cities

The heralded rise of “Smart Cities” was expected to bring data-centric solutions to urban challenges. Whilst Asia remains ahead of the curve, legacy cities (particularly in the West) are now feeling the pressure to upgrade ageing infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic, mounting sustainability commitments, resource constraints and continued urban growth are making a new case for investment. It has never been more crucial to make cities smarter, more efficient, and sustainable for their residents. 

Smart Cities have the potential to generate $20 trillion in economic benefits by 2026.¹ Companies are being incentivised to fund Smart City projects through green stimulus packages and strategies that help reduce their financial risk whilst also providing potential for ancillary income. Our analysts argue that prioritising changes to urban infrastructure is central to Smart City development, ensuring the foundations are in place before additional solutions and services can arise. They expect four key investment areas to rise to the top.  

 

Smart Cities: Four infrastructure investment opportunities

Enabling technologies

Buildings & construction

Energy

Water & waste management

Enabling technologies

The accelerated development of new technologies including 5G, AI, cloud, and edge computing is helping to drive the evolution of Smart Cities. We are in the early stages of an edge computing revolution and it is critical to support the exponential increase in the number of connected devices, and vast growth in data collected. Approximately $20 billion of opportunities across hardware, software, and services could be deployed at the edge by 2023,² with a significant upside to those numbers in the long term.

Investment in reliable technology and high-speed connectivity is central to Smart City buildout. The expedited shift to work from home in 2020 is driving the need for reliable and secure high-speed connectivity. As vital infrastructures become connected, cities must be aware of vulnerabilities to adversaries. Telecom and technology companies must increasingly collaborate with governments and invest in reliable networks, cybersecurity and backup systems.

Buildings and construction

Decarbonising the sector is one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate climate change. Commercial buildings account for 20% of energy use in the US, 30% of which is wasted.³ Smart solutions can transform them into energy-efficient and sustainable buildings whilst also automating the way they are managed.

• Intelligent Building Management Systems (IBMS)

• Digital twins

• Match energy use to occupancy

• Dynamic power consumption

• Seasonal thermal energy storage

With all buildings required to be net-zero carbon by 2050 to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, the demand for smart buildings is only increasing. Government policies, teamed with financial incentives for companies to invest in smart buildings, are crucial to help transition toward accessing major energy savings whilst improving energy services.

Improved energy sourcing, management and deployment

With cities consuming over two-thirds of the world’s energy,⁴ there is immense pressure to transition to lower-carbon energy systems. Our analysts believe investment in smart technology can speed the transition, whilst bringing economic growth and competition. They expect to see significant investment in smart grids, next-generation energy transmission, and distribution networks that can automatically monitor energy flows and adjust to changes in supply and demand accordingly.

Other systems driving the adoption of low-carbon energy will include smart meters, which allow utility companies to introduce price differentiation, microgrids for local sources of energy, gamification apps to encourage lower consumer usage, and cooperation between companies and governments to maximize the benefits from smart systems.

Smart water and waste management

Access to clean water and the ability to treat wastewater are growing concerns for cities, along with how to better manage waste. Water losses and flooding are also an increasing threat, with the impacts of climate change and rapid urbanisation. Urban planners are being forced into upgrading ageing drainage systems. That need is bringing smart solutions to the fore, including leakage and pollution detection and predictive maintenance planning.

On the waste side, our analysts expect investment in just-in-time waste collection, which uses sensors to optimise the collections. The traditional waste management model of bin to landfill is being overtaken by circular waste management, which emphasises decreasing waste at the source through improved use of packaging, strategic collection methods and distributed waste-to-energy solutions.

Sustainable, resilient cities bring benefits to residents and investors

The volume of stakeholders in cities has served as a barrier to progress. But thanks to new business models and pressure to meet sustainability commitments, these public infrastructure projects should attract private investment. Our analysts also take a wider view of what has typically been considered ‘smart’, shifting attention away from consumer-facing smart technologies and prioritising changes to urban infrastructure. With this approach, cities won’t be just smart – but sustainable and resilient for the people liv

Public-Private Collaboration Imperative to Deliver Modern Connectivity

 

Connectivity is a necessity in today’s digital world. Economic opportunity, educational advancement, health and safety, social mobility, and civic engagement are increasingly tied to the widespread availability of high-speed digital communication.

Broadband is often discussed as a “common good,” which is defined as something that a community provides to all members in order to fulfill a collective obligation to care for certain interests that all members have in common. Examples of common goods include roadways, public safety services, a judicial system, public schools, parks, cultural institutions, and public transportation, as well as clean air and water.

Whether through ubiquitous broadband or the promise of 5G mobile connectivity, these networks are underpinned by the fiber optic infrastructure that serves as the necessary communications backhaul.  This infrastructure investment is capital-intensive and complex, given the intermingled business and physical network landscape of incumbent mobile carriers, third-party dark fiber organizations, publicly-owned fiber assets and right-of-way access.

Historically, telecommunication service providers have funded fiber-network construction based on their ability to generate a return on investment (ROI). While this funding model has worked for decades to expand high-speed broadband and cellular connectivity to their current levels across the U.S., shifting public expectations have born the questions of whether this model can continue to meet the growing demand for service and who is responsible for this common good.

 

Read More

Smart city technology revolutionizes infrastructure

Hybrid cloud and AI are at the heart of the latest innovations to modernize public infrastructure and help governments support citizens sustainably. Build smarter cities and realize new efficiencies with the latest smart city technology innovations in transportation and facilities management. Discover how IBM pioneered advancements and continues to help the government modernize public infrastructure within communities.

Read More

 

DIGITALIZED WATER AND SMART CITIES – HOW CAN TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS BE USED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE?

Water is a prerequisite for life. Water can also be a problem through heavy rain causing floods and destruction. In this paper we will describe two ongoing projects where Ericsson is participating to develop digitalized water-related monitoring solutions. One project relates to real-time rain detection through telecommunication microwave networks and the second project is the development of an IoT-based real-time water quality monitoring solution for smart cities. We will also elaborate on the opportunities and positive impact, as well as challenges and needs for the full integration of such solutions in cities. 

 

Read more

Cellular IoT in the 5G era

 Realizing cellular IoT for industrial transformation

Almost every industry can be transformed with cellular IoT. The connectivity needs of all industries can be addressed by four multi-purpose IoT segments, which efficiently co-exist in one 5G network. These segments are Massive IoT, Broadband IoT, Critical IoT and Industrial Automation IoT.

This paper presents a clear evolution plan for addressing all 5G-IoT use cases, from basic to the most complex, in a cost-efficient, smooth and future-proof way.

Introduction

The 3GPP-based global cellular networks are connecting things-to-things and things-to-persons across borders. Many industries are experiencing the benefits of cellular IoT, for example in the consumer electronics, automotive, railway, mining, utilities, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation sectors. There are over 1 billion cellular IoT connections today in 2020, and Ericsson forecasts around 5 billion connections by 2025.[1] With 5G in the market, almost every industry is exploring the potential of cellular connectivity for fundamentally transforming businesses. In some regions, governments are encouraging adoption of IoT via direct and indirect incentives to promote sustainability, innovation and growth.

Mobile network operators (MNOs) have long been successful in the mobile broadband (MBB) market and are also best positioned to create and capture value in the emerging IoT market with their regional and global footprint. Unlike MBB, the IoT usage scenarios have extremely diverse requirements. For maximizing returns on investments, MNOs will have to systematically evolve cellular networks for addressing the needs of the rapidly increasing IoT use cases across multiple industries. This paper shows a clear evolution plan for addressing all 5G-IoT use cases, from basic to the most complex, in a cost-efficient, smooth and future-proof way.

The wireless connectivity across various industries can be grouped into four distinct sets of requirements. To address these requirements, Ericsson has defined four IoT connectivity segments:[2] Massive IoT, Broadband IoT, Critical IoT and Industrial Automation IoT, as illustrated in Figure 1. Each IoT connectivity segment addresses multiple use cases in multiple industries.

 

Read more

 

Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021

 

Change in the digital age is commonplace, but few could have predicted the changes 2020 has brought. As a CIO and IT leader, you must create the future for your organization in these unprecedented times. Gartner's Top Strategic Tech Trends for 2021 highlight nine trends that have transformational potential.

Trend Highlight: Internet of Things (IoT) Applications

A key trend coming out of this year's list is the need for location independence. Right now, many people work remotely in a digital-first mode. IT leaders must provide location-independent services. IoT edge cloud -- which includes Internet of Things consumer and industrial capabilities -- is one example of how to get there.

For those who are not working remotely, workplaces of the future will evolve in response to the pandemic regardless of whether they’re offices for knowledge workers or automobile manufacturing plants. The changes will include the adoption of remote support technologies using mobile devices. Contactless and passwordless interactions using Internet of Things sensors, smart cards enabled by NFC and wearables will become the norm for mundane transactions such as unlocking physical access to restricted spaces, and operating elevators or vending machines.

 

Read More

Source: Gartner

 

The State of the Art for IOT

The term “Internet of Things” was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999. After a lot of hype, we are finally seeing it come to fruition, in part due to advances in cloud and edge computing.

The principles of Reactive Systems really shine when applied to the Internet of Things (IoT). I worked for over a decade in the somewhat related field of industrial automation. We naturally converged on many of the same patterns, but in a largely pragmatic way. When I discovered the Reactive Manifesto and toolkits, like Akka, that formalised and extended these principles and patterns, I was excited to use these superior technologies, combined with cloud computing and IoT, to solve problems related to renewable energy.

I will describe why I think Reactive Systems are such a natural fit for IoT. Then I will enumerate the elements that define a state-of-the-art IoT platform. I will conclude with speculation on where I think cloud and edge computing platforms for IoT are heading in the near future.

 

Read More 

 

By Colin Breck

 

 

How Standards Help Make Smart Cities a Reality

Role of Standards in Smart Cities

One of the key problems in smart cities is that cities are managed by a multitude of service providers and government organizations. Component systems are acquired by separate program offices and run by separate operation units. These organizations are not even connected by common membership or any structure. Component systems of the smart city ecosystem are independently managed and evolve on their own.

For example, the digital evolution features of a surveillance system deployed by city police, ambulatory services system deployed by hospitals, and e-governance systems deployed by municipalities are independent and based on business process changes in the managing organization. The city command center has no role to play in the evolution of the individual systems managed by these organizations.

Let us look at an example scenario of citizen safety and see how multiple physical, digital, and human systems need to come together.

Citizens utilize social networking platforms to reach out for help or assistance. A proactive citizen safety solution would require integration of different component systems and automation of workflows between these systems. In the example scenario, a citizen tweets that he/she is in danger via public social networking platforms using key hashtags. Collaboration systems orchestrate this information by creating tickets to be resolved in appropriate e-governance systems. Systems controlling the digital infrastructure employ digital twin systems and utilize a geospatial system for identifying the appropriate assets to control and to notify service providers about the tickets.

It is apparent that though city command centers do not play a role in the evolution of component systems. They do specify common operational goals and constraints for all the component systems which are part of the smart city ecosystem. These operational goals and constraints differ during various time periods based on the needs of the city.

Component systems should have the ability to negotiate autonomously to meet the operational goal within the specified constraints. There is a need to discover component systems deployed in a city, identify the entities managed by component systems in a standard way, and communicate the goal and constraint across component systems in a standard data exchange format by invoking a standard set of interfaces.

List of IEEE Standards for Smart Cities

The IEEE SA Foundational Technologies Practice is committed to smart cities standardization and offers a portfolio of standards and programs to address key aspects of the smart cities’ framework:

• IEEE P1951.1 Standard for Smart City Component Systems Discovery and Semantic Exchange of Objectives – This project is focused on solving the discovery of the systems deployed in a smart city and enabling the sharing of objectives between these smart city systems to make them work towards a common goal.
• IEEE P1950.1 Standard for Communications Architectural Functional Framework for Smart Cities – This standard specifies the architectural and functional framework for smart cities aiming to enable communications within and across smart city ecosystems.
• IEEE P2413.1 Standard for a Reference Architecture for Smart City (RASC)IEEE P2850 Standard for an Architectural Framework for Intelligent Cities Operation System – This standard defines an architecture framework for a computational operation system, which is designed to enable intelligent cities.
• IEEE P2784 Standard for Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture and GovernanceIEEE P2872 Standard for Interoperable and Secure Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Infrastructure and Architecture – This standard describes a protocol that enables interoperable, semantically compatible connections between connected hardware (e.g. autonomous drones, sensors, smart devices, robots) and software (e.g. services, platforms, applications, AIS).
• IEEE SA Industry Connection Program on AI-Driven Innovation for Cities and People – This program is focused on providing cities a governance mechanism to support responsible artificial intelligence systems (AIS).
• IEEE SA Industry Connection Program on Alliance for Best Practices and Standards in Smart Cities – This program aims to develop close collaboration between the technology industry and city leaders and stakeholders towards smart city solutions across cities and regions.

 

IEEE Standards for Smart City

 

 

Read More

The vital role of smart buildings in the evolution of sustainable smart cities

 

2021 looks to be a pivotal year in the fight against climate change. With many global economies setting mid-century net zero carbon reduction targets, the pressure is on to develop strategies to bring down emissions in our cities, save energy, and speed up the transition to renewable energy.

Against this backdrop, demand for urban space will continue to grow – according to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), 55 percent of the world’s population live in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68 percent by 2050.

So, how can this demand be met, without compromising on sustainability?

With cities and their buildings currently accounting for 65 percent of global energy demand, the growth of smart cities is seen as a crucial way to tackle the climate challenge. A modern city demands intelligent combinations of data, people and technology to create inclusive and sustainable solutions.

As such, smart buildings are increasingly taking a leadership role in the development of smart cities and are widely recognised as essential tools in meeting the many challenges that we face today and in the future, including achieving net zero targets, security and demand for greater interoperability.

The convergence of AI and IoT technology will be crucial to enabling connected buildings systems to keep people safer and more secure, while supporting the aim to be more energy efficient and protective of our communities.

Therefore, the buildings constructed today are essential for smart city evolution – cities that are truly sustainable, that have cleaner transportation, optimise resources including water and energy, with more intelligent buildings and infrastructures that serve essential human needs such as security, comfort and connectivity. Ultimately, by building smart structures we make our cities more liveable, workable and sustainable.

Building towards a smart and sustainable future

Smart building technology is already ensuring buildings and homes consume energy more efficiently. Buildings are complex systems, involving the circulation of air, water and electricity, so the use of smart sensors and IoT-based technologies helps to ensure these resources are delivered cleanly and efficiently.

However, it is not just about using new technologies – smart thinking and the optimisation of existing buildings are key factors when it comes to accelerating the sustainable development of smart cities globally.

By upgrading older buildings to smarter, more intelligent buildings, Smart Quarters within a city can emerge, which in turn promote smart communities and eventually smart cities. Therefore, smart buildings really are the foundational building blocks when it comes to scaling your smart city vision from the ground up.

Connectivity and interoperability key to reducing emissions

Using AI and IoT to connect buildings, transport and infrastructure, we can create a new ecosystem that can rely more on renewable energy, minimise energy waste, and slash carbon emissions.

For example, buildings use 30 percent of the world’s energy and contribute 40 percent of global carbon emissions. Thanks to the convergence of IoT – with sensors, smart data, and cloud computing – and AI, we now have buildings that talk to us, the cloud and to each other, to protect us and make us comfortable, while saving energy and cutting emissions.

For example, in cities like Hanoi, which are densely populated and rapidly growing, smarter buildings are of vital importance. The Viettel building in Hanoi used technology from ABB to save up to 20 percent in energy costs while ensuring a comfortable and secure work environment.

The future of cities is smart

Intelligent buildings that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago are now a reality and will be crucial to the development and success of sustainable smart cities.

From home and office to transport and utilities, 2021 is the year that smart cities will begin to take shape, as advances in IoT and AI bring together smart buildings, smart power grids, and EV charging to form a new smart society ecosystem that is increasingly interconnected and efficient.

How connected cars are driving the IoT network

By the year 2020 there will be 250 million connected cars on the world’s roads, with over 25 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices globally, according to the research firm Gartner.

And in many ways it will be the connected car – and, ultimately, the self-driving (or autonomous) car – that will drive the rapid growth of the IoT over the next decade and beyond.

While it can be difficult to foresee how new IoT smart devices, applications and infrastructure might impact on our lives in five or 10 years’ time, it’s relatively easy to imagine our smart automotive future.

The connected car is already a reality for millions of drivers, with today’s 4G networks powering navigation devices, traffic alerts and streaming terabytes of video and music to in-vehicle entertainment systems.

In addition to improved navigation and driver-assist features, new in-car gaming and streaming technologies will soon offer passengers their own unique interactive entertainment systems, streaming music, movies and connected, multiplayer games, apps and web content.

A recent IDC study predicts the global annual data volume will reach 44 zettabytes (44 billion terabytes) by 2020, with connected in-car services and entertainment streams a major contributor to this growth.

A digital revolution in car entertainment

We are genuinely on the verge of a digital revolution that, as Gordon Wagener, Head of Design at Daimler AG, recently noted will: “change the car more in the next couple of years than ever today’s 4G networks powering navigation devices, traffic alerts and streaming terabytes of video and music to in-vehicle entertainment systems.

In addition to improved navigation and driver-assist features, new in-car gaming and streaming technologies will soon offer passengers their own unique interactive entertainment systems, streaming music, movies and connected, multiplayer games, apps and web content.

A recent IDC study predicts the global annual data volume will reach 44 zettabytes (44 billion terabytes) by 2020, with connected in-car services and entertainment streams a major contributor to this growth.

A digital revolution in car entertainment

We are genuinely on the verge of a digital revolution that, as Gordon Wagener, Head of Design at Daimler AG, recently noted will: “change the car more in the next couple of years than ever before. In the future, the way you will be watching movies in the car is a much more immersive experience.

"You will be watching 360-degree movies, your car is perfect for that, as it will be a room on its own.”

Imagine, for example, that in December 2019 you are setting off on a long drive from London to Inverness, for a family Christmas break to see the in-laws.

Your partner in the passenger seat might don his or her headset and enjoy the latest award winning movie, whilst the kids keep themselves entertained with the latest multiplayer gaming streams in the back - IoT’s promise of ubiquitous connectivity is perhaps nowhere more appealing than it is to bored children and irate passengers on lengthy car journeys.

Our on-the-road media consumption habits are set to change drastically over the next five years, as we see new partnerships between content creators and automotive technology businesses.

Spotify, for example, has recently hired an automotive strategic partnership manager in Detroit: a weathervane of where the music industry sees the connected car of the future heading.

After all, if the latest forecasts coming out of Juniper Research are anything to go by, data intensive services such as internet radio, music streaming applications and information services will generate arund 6,000 petabytes per annum by 2021.

That equates to an astounding 300 billion hours of music streaming a year.

Autonomous cars: IoT icons driving network growth

The autonomous car, typified by Google’s Self-Driving Project, has become something of an IoT icon due to the many mainstream consumer technology and news sites that use the image of Google’s quirky self-driving bubble car to illustrate any IoT news or 'connected future' features.

All great publicity, for sure, but the reality is also that one in five cars worldwide will have a digital imprint by 2020, with Gartner predicting that connected car production will break 60 million new vehicle shipments per annum by 2020.

Currently, most in-car connectivity is still tethered to a smartphone, though next year will see an important turning point, with the number of ‘embedded’ systems from car manufacturers finally overtaking tethered models.

And by the year 2020, Gartner expects to see 43 million embedded connected car models rolling off the production lines, compared with 18 million tethered vehicles.

With those figures in mind, if you also consider that the current batch of autonomous cars in testing (at technology and car companies such as Google, Apple, Uber, Volvo and Ford) produce up to two gigabytes of data per second to safely navigate the smart city and road network, the challenge to the overall networking infrastructure becomes even clearer.

Smart cities and governments have to embrace the New IP to ensure the networks they have in place are fast, agile and scalable.

The New IP offers an automated, dynamic range of network capabilities based on software and virtualisation, hence it is fundamental to delivering on the IoT promise for the millions of drivers of connected cars in the near future.

Drivers of connected cars will require fast, automated and open networks to ensure the digital revolution of the connected car is smart, safe and fun for all.

To meet this requirement it’s imperative that network operators, car manufacturers, technology companies and content providers establish new collaborative partnerships, developing open, flexible, networks and cloud solutions to support the automotive future. 

What is Internet of Thing?

• From fitness trackers to smart heating systems, the Internet of Things (IoT) describes the growing network of internet-enabled devices.
• It's also enabling smart cities and, in future, driverless cars.
• Along with other emerging technologies such as AI, the IoT is part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
• COVID-19 has accelerated the use of IoT technologies, but questions around governance remain.

From soil moisture sensors being used to optimize farmer's yields, to thermostats and thermometers, the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the way we live and work.

Billions of networked 'smart' physical objects around the world, on city streets, in homes and hospitals, are constantly collecting and sharing data across the internet, giving them a level of digital intelligence and autonomy.

Around a quarter of businesses were using IoT technologies in 2019, according to McKinsey, up from 13% in 2014.

And already, there are more connected devices than people in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's State of the Connected World report, and it is predicted that by 2025, 41.6 billion devices will be capturing data on how we live, work, move through our cities and operate and maintain the machines on which we depend.

The digital transformation that is taking place due to emerging technologies, including robotics, the IoT and artificial intelligence, is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution - and COVID-19 has accelerated the use of these technologies.

How COVID-19 has sped up the adoption on IoT technologies.

Image: World Economic Forum

What is the World Economic Forum doing about the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the world’s attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will help—not harm—humanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

World Economic Forum | Centre for the Fourth Industrial R...

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, blockchain, data policy, digital trade, drones, internet of things (IoT), precision medicine and environmental innovations.

Learn more about the groundbreaking work that the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is doing to prepare us for the future.

Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

A brief history of the IoT

The concept of adding sensors and intelligence to physical objects was first discussed in the 1980s, when some university students decided to modify a Coca-Cola vending machine to track its contents remotely. But the technology was bulky and progress was limited.

The term ‘Internet of Things’ was coined in 1999 by the computer scientist Kevin Ashton. While working at Procter & Gamble, Ashton proposed putting radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips on products to track them through a supply chain.

He reportedly worked the then-buzzword ‘internet’ into his proposal to get the executives’ attention. And the phrase stuck.

Over the next decade, public interest in IoT technology began to take off, as more and more connected devices came to market.

In 2000, LG announced the first smart refrigerator, in 2007 the first iPhone was launched and by 2008, the number of connected devices exceeded the number of people on the planet.

In 2009, Google started testing driverless cars and in 2011, Google's Nest smart thermostat hit the market, which allowed remote control of central heating.

Everyday uses

Connected devices fall into three domains: consumer IoT, such as wearables, enterprise IoT, which includes smart factories and precision agriculture, and public spaces IoT, such as waste management.

Businesses use IoT to optimize their supply chains, manage inventory and improve customer experience, while smart consumer devices such as the Amazon Echo speaker, are now ubiquitous in homes due to the prevalence of low-cost and low-power sensors.

Cities have been deploying IoT technology for more than a decade - to streamline everything from water meter readings to traffic flow.

"In New York City, for example, every single building (so more than 817,000) was retrofitted with a wireless water meter, starting back in 2008, which replaced the manual system where you had to walk up to a meter read the numbers and generate bills that way," says Jeff Merritt, the World Economic Forum's head of IoT and Urban Transformation.

"Most cities now leverage license plate readers, traffic counters, red light cameras, radiation sensors and surveillance cameras to manage day-to-day operations."

A diagram of The Internet of Things.

Image: Pixabay

In medicine, the IoT can help improve healthcare through real-time remote patient monitoring, robotic surgery and devices such as smart inhalers.

In the past 12 months, the role of the IoT in the COVID-19 pandemic has been invaluable.

"IoT applications such as connected thermal cameras, contact tracing devices and health-monitoring wearables are providing critical data needed to help fight the disease, while temperature sensors and parcel tracking will help ensure that sensitive COVID-19 vaccines are distributed safely," according to the Forum's State of the Connected World report.

Beyond healthcare, IoT has helped make COVID disrupted supply chains more resilient, automated activities in warehouses and on factory floors to help promote social distancing and provided safe remote access to industrial machines.

The future of IoT

The range of potential IoT applications is "limited only by the human imagination" - and many of these applications can benefit the planet, as well as its people.

A 2018 analysis of more than 640 IoT deployments, led by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with research firm IoT Analytics, showed that 84% of existing IoT deployments address, or have the power to advance, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

These include promoting more efficient use of natural resources, building better, fairer “smart cities”, and developing clean, affordable energy alternatives.

IoT smart roads that connect with self-driving cars could improve driver safety and optimize traffic flow, potentially reducing the average commute time by 30 minutes. Emergency responder times could also be cut significantly.

Real-time crime mapping and predictive policing tools could also help prevent crime. McKinsey estimates that using data to deploy scarce resources more effectively could save 300 lives a year in a city with the population and profile of Rio de Janeiro.

Weighing the risks

But for all the benefits, IoT technologies can also be misused and risks include security and privacy issues, cybercrime, surveillance at work, home or in public spaces and control of mobility and expression.

IoT has safety and security risks.

Image: World Economic Forum

The Forum's State of the Connected World report identifies a 'governance gap' that needs to be closed between the potential risks and society’s efforts to safeguard against them through laws, industry standards and self-governance approaches.

"Effective technology governance mitigates risks and reduces the potential harms to society while also helping to maximize the technology’s positive impacts."

Read more

How self-driving cars will make our cities more charming

Everyone’s trying to get ready for roads that will be filled with more and more self-driving cars. But just as the first cars were imagined to be like horse-drawn carriages without the horses, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a future with self-driving cars won’t be that different — except that we won’t have to drive.

As a scientist who specializes in imagination and human behavior, it’s interesting to me to try to figure out how technology will change our world.

It can be challenging to predict how things will change. But one thing that is important to think about is that self-driving vehicles will be able to go places without anybody in them. This is obviously useful for self-driving trucks. But it’s true for cars, too.

Specifically, they’ll be able to park themselves. This means that parking spaces won’t need to be anywhere near people’s destinations. The cars can drive people to where they need to go, and then go park somewhere cheaper. They can park densely, because people aren’t necessarily going to need their car, just some car.

 Where does a self-driving car park?

There are important ramifications for how this will affect the structure of our cities. There are currently about two billion parking spaces in the United States. Self-driving taxis or ride-sharing services will bring most people to where they want to go and make car ownership financially unattractive. Demand for homes with garages will drop, causing new houses to have no garages, and old houses to reclaim existing garage land for some other use.

Houses aren’t the only things that will change. Downtown cores of North American cities will be restructured, too. They now use a high percentageof geography for parking. A full 40 per cent of downtown Winnipeg, for example, is parking spots. Parking garages in downtown areas can also be reclaimed for other uses: housing, offices, retail, museums and public spaces — things for people, rather than people-movers.

I used to live in Atlanta, which has some really funky, cute neighbourhoods. Little Five Points, for example, is fun to walk around and has many interesting, independent stores right next to each other.

Once you drive out of Atlanta, in any direction, these neighbourhoods start to disappear. In their places are highway exit after highway exit of clogged artery roads featuring indistinguishable variations of the same retail stores: “This exit has the Taco Bell on the left side!”

Why are all of the dense, mixed use, walkable destinations — the kind that people read about in travel guidebooks — always downtown? Why doesn’t some random artery road in the burbs come up with its own Little Five Points?

 Minimum parking requirements

Part of the answer involves a zoning rule in many cities known as “minimum parking requirements.” Based on the assumption that people will be driving to a destination, zoning requires that stores have a certain number of parking spaces. An unintentional consequence of this is that buildings need to have some distance from one to the next, to make room for all the parking that the law requires.

In destination communities, the retail is densely packed, and it’s because they don’t all need their own, dedicated parking spaces. In neighbourhoods that are already dense, there are different zoning laws. A store might need no parking spaces they can call their own, if it’s already in a walkable neighbourhood like Little Five Points.

Of course, once a neighbourhood is built in a spread-out way, people have no choice but to use cars to get around in it. Neighbourhoods become unwalkable, and you get the suburban problem we see everywhere. Each suburb looks indistinguishable from all the others and endless sprawls of franchises are surrounded by their parking lots, like moats, keeping pedestrians out.

Some have argued that these parking zoning laws are misguided in Canada, and we should change them — but it’s possible that autonomous vehicles will force the issue.

When cars don’t need to park near where their passengers are going, it will reduce or remove the need for businesses to have their own parking. This is good news for future neighbourhoods because they will have the potential to become dense and walkable.

Self-driving cars will likely bring about many changes to the way we move around, making travel a lot cheaper, safer and less stressful. And they might also reshape our cities for the better.

Source: The Conversation

7 principles for building better cities

 

Boston pilots free rides for commuters in Main Street districts

The programme aims to incentivise employees returning to work and workers who currently drive to work to use public transit and also seeks to lessen vehicular traffic.

The designated areas are served by Boston's Bluebikes. Photo courtesy: Bluebikes

The City of Boston is piloting a programme offering $60 of public transit credits for workers in five Main Street districts.

They are being offered to 1,000 employees who work in Three Squares in Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Nubian Square, East Boston, and Fields Corner, which are all served by the MBTA subway or Bluebike bike-share stations.

Return to work

The programme aims to incentivise employees returning to work and workers who currently drive to work to use public transit. With an expected increase in post-Covid-19 traffic, the City of Boston is piloting this incentive programme to help alleviate small business districts of congestion and free up kerb space for local neighbourhood customers. The pilot project also seeks to lessen vehicular traffic to help reduce its environmental impact.

“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, many essential workers have continued to utilise public transportation because they have been unable to work from home,” said Kim Janey, mayor of Boston. “I’m proud to launch this pilot programme with the MBTA and Bluebikes to learn more about the impacts on commuter patterns when the cost of public transit is covered. And as more workers begin to return to workplaces, making transit more accessible is critical to our equitable recovery from the pandemic.”

The programme, which will be managed by the City of Boston Transportation Department, is structured to measure how financial incentives for public transit impact commuting behaviour and will be phased over the next two months. Of the 1,000 qualified workers, some individuals will be randomly selected to get an MBTA pass with the full $60 credit loaded, and the remainder of the individuals will receive smaller stipends over time, which will end up totalling $60.

Bluebikes pass-holders will be able to take unlimited trips during the two-month period. Bluebikes trips must be completed within 45 minutes to avoid usage charges. There is no obligation to continue paying for the Bluebikes’ pass once the two months are over.

“And as more workers begin to return to workplaces, making transit more accessible is critical to our equitable recovery from the pandemic”

“We are excited to partner with our local Main Street districts to pilot free public transit options for those working in Boston’s neighborhoods,” said transportation commissioner Greg Rooney. “Creating incentives to use public transit or bike to work options helps our economy, our environment and our local businesses. As more workers plan on restarting their commute, the Boston Transportation Department is committed to exploring creative ways to reduce traffic, carbon emissions and support Boston’s workers.”

Results from the pilot programme will be used to inform the City of Boston’s long-term transportation demand management strategy. The pilot is run through a partnership between the Boston Transportation Department, including its Bluebikes programme, Boston Main Street organisations, the MBTA and the American Cities Climate Challenge.

The City of Boston has been committed to making transit, pedestrian, and bicycle improvements that promote the health, equity, and future of Boston’s communities. This includes installation of new bus lanes on high-ridership corridors and over seven miles of a connected network of protected bike lanes through the Healthy Streets programme, which was developed as part of the City’s Covid-19 recovery efforts.

 Reducing congestion is aligned with the goals of Go Boston 2030 to reduce drive-alone rates in the city and increase the use of public transportation.