Are smart cities sustainable?

The short answer is: yes, they can be (even more sustainable than non-smart cities). The longer, more complex, answer is: Smart cities have the potential to make a significant contribution to urban sustainability, by using information and communication technology (ICT) to gather urban data and improve performance and management.

How? By applying smart solutions such as smart parking, smart lighting, smart building, air quality monitoring, refuse collection, renewable energy, water infrastructure, and energy grids. In fact, smart parking has turned out to be one of the fastest and easiest solutions to achieve sustainability in a city.

But what do we mean exactly by the term “smart solutions”? A smart solution is a general term commonly used to describe systems that combine innovative information and communication technologies (e.g. Internet of Things), and apply them in all aspects of life, such as smart devices (TVs, phones), but also smart offices, cars, or even complete cities. It is possible to apply smart solutions in such a wide range because most smart solutions are based on the use of sensors. Sensors come in all shapes and sizes and can be installed almost everywhere and in/on anything.

A concrete example of a smart solution that helps cities control their carbon footprint and reduce their CO2 emissions is air quality monitoring. Monitoring air quality in cities helps in assessing the level of pollution in relation to the ambient air quality standards. It can provide cities insights on how to actively reduce their emissions. A solution like this can lead to 10-15% fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In order to build successful smart city solutions, three key steps are necessary (Source):

1. The technology base has to include networks of connected devices and sensors, such as smartphones connected by high-speed communication networks.
2. Smart applications and data analysis capabilities are used to translate the raw data gathered from these devices and sensors into alerts, insights, and ultimately, actions.
3. A wide adoption of applications and usage by cities, companies, and the public, together with the effective management of data, is needed to inspire better decisions and behavior change.

In a study from June 2018 on smart cities, McKinsey Global Institute investigated how technology can deliver a better quality of life, including an analysis of smart applications that will be relevant for cities through 2025. Findings indicate that smart technologies could improve key indicators such as health, security or cost of living by 10–30% once introduced and that using the current generation of smart city applications could effectively help cities make significant or moderate progress toward meeting 70% of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Another great example of a smart solution that helps cities improve their environmental impact is smart parking. Did you know that 30% of all emissions that are caused by traffic are due to parking search traffic? Can you imagine the amount of emissions we would ‘save’ if we are able to guide drivers to the nearest parking spot, without having to circle around the block over and over again?! This is why we came up with a variety of smart parking solutions, such as a smart parking guidance system that uses overhead sensors that can be mounted onto existing lampposts, or a curb management system that helps cities manage the curb effectively.

Smart parking is extremely important for the development of smart cities and part of the reason why smart cities tend to be more sustainable than non-smart cities.

To us at Cleverciti, it is perfectly clear that smart cities are the future and we are eager to contribute to a better and more sustainable future by developing the best smart parking solutions for our customers around the world. Curious to see how our smart parking systems can be applied in your city? Schedule a demo below and talk to one of our smart parking experts now:

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By Thomas Hohenacker, CEO and Founder of Cleverciti

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming how we live. From interactive entertainment and cloud-based services to self-driving cars and home automation, we’re all increasingly taking part in the connected world. And why wouldn’t we be? The IoT delivers many benefits (I know I’m not the only one who has asked Alexa to do the laundry, for example) for various aspects of life.

Cities are particularly well-positioned to experience significant benefits from the IoT. According to recent research from IoT Analytics on 1,600 real IoT use cases, the largest amount of projects were part of Smart City initiatives. The myriad use cases (from air quality monitoring to smart parking to real-time gunshot detection) can help citizens and visitors achieve better lives and help cities to stay reliably within their budget.

Even though the promise of the connected world is still in its infancy, there are already many proven IoT technologies today that are quickly gaining adoption across the world’s leading cities. The accessibility of these technologies makes it possible for any city to jump on the digital transformation bandwagon and deliver improved services for its citizens. New York City’s Smart City efforts, for example, include energy conservation through smart lighting and air quality monitoring. The city of Bad Hersfeld in Germany uses sensors to guide visitors quickly to available parking areas, significantly reducing CO2 emissions and pollution in the city.

IoT-powered Smart Cities: Now accessible to all

Thanks to extraordinary innovations from the global startup ecosystem, IoT devices have reduced substantially in cost while increasing in processing power. With this change, previously unthinkable potential is available at costs that are now accessible to nearly any city. I speak with cities every week who previously thought advanced IoT solutions were out of reach but are amazed to see the value they can generate for their citizens with a positive benefit to the overall financial position.

When considering a smart city solution, it is of course important to consider the financial impact. Many of the best solutions generate revenues or cut existing expenses, yielding a positive ROI very quickly. In addition, instead of large, up-front capital expenditures, some of the best solutions are available with a regular monthly fee structure, enabling cities to experience that positive ROI immediately rather than having to wait years for large up-front costs to pay off.

Some solutions can even be revenue generating. For example, curbside management solutions provide ridesharing and delivery drivers with a safe and efficient means to stop curbside, and also open the possibility for a city to charge a small transaction fee for each curb access event. Smart parking systems both increase utilization of paid parking spaces by more efficiently guiding users to available spaces and encourage more citizens to pay for the parking they use, thereby increasing parking revenues. Smart traffic management systems can automatically adjust traffic light timings to improve traffic flow and consequently improve timeliness of on-street public transit, leading to increased ridership and higher revenues.

The primary goal of these systems is always to improve city life for residents and visitors. The additional benefit of revenues or cost savings coupled with low recurring fee structures from IoT smart city vendors (versus large up-front capex) allows for cities to realize an immediate ROI and ease budgeting for future investments.

Data Privacy: Benefits of edge computing

As our world becomes more connected, data privacy issues make headline news nearly every week. Citizens place an enormous amount of trust in city officials to ensure that their data is protected, and that their security will not be compromised by living in the city. While technology has created some of these problems, technology will also help to solve them.

Today, sensors have become extraordinarily advanced. Power that was previously only available to super-computers can now be fit inside a low-energy consumption sensor. The term “edge computing” refers to sensors that don’t just sense data, they make sense of the data. With an edge computing model, sensors run its own advanced machine learning model in real-time, only sending data when certain user parameters are met. This approach ensures that no identifiable data is sent over the network.

Artificial Intelligence: Making sense of the deluge of data

The primary reason cities want to collect data is to improve situational awareness. However, they need to identify the right data to experience the most profound benefit. Smart city solutions generate millions of data points per day in any one city, and if implemented improperly can simply lead to confusion and data overload. That is why, now more than ever, artificial intelligence (AI) is part of the conversation regarding data collection. AI can be used to automatically pinpoint the data that is most important to a city and transform that data into useful, accessible information that enables quick and informed decision-making.

The best smart city solutions include dashboards and mobile apps that hide the complexity of millions of data points and instead present highly actionable information to the users. For example, video analytics can be used to identify and then manage traffic chokepoints. If a traffic jam is detected, users are notified and can take the proper action, such as opening up new lanes for travel or changing the current timing of traffic lights. These innovations are a valuable tool in data management and capture where vast amounts of raw data are uncategorized.

The digital ecosystem: Easing communication

Before the digital revolution, technologies were siloed and didn’t share a common language, and therefore didn’t “speak” to one another. Cities had to manually extract data from one system and then try to see how that information related to other events. This was a timely and complex process, to say the least. Today, we live in a much different world.

Open application programming interfaces allow for one system to communicate with another system, sharing data in a structured format. Through open APIs, different systems from different vendors are able to speak to one another, thereby eliminating manual work to gain insights that require looking at multiple types of sensor data together. Connecting information from multiple systems in one place provides myriad benefits to cities, allowing for the delivery of streamlined event-based information that enhances decision-making and accelerates response times.

IoT: The future of Smart Cities

There is no doubt that the IoT is impacting modern-day cities in a significant way. A combination of AI, advanced computing and contextually rich, real-time data streams delivered by IoT sensors and networks is makes smart city development affordable, accessible, and compelling moving forward. The IoT is the cornerstone of the digital transformation because it allows cities to optimize existing operations and excel at creating and pursuing exciting new business models. How will you grab hold of this opportunity?

Thomas Hohenacker is the Founder and CEO of Cleverciti Systems. Founded in 2012, Cleverciti develops a comprehensive suite of intelligent solutions designed to ease the parking experience and enhance driver communication.

A shopping trip to one’s favorite retailer should be full of excitement and fulfillment; whether gathering the week’s groceries, picking out new outfits or searching for upgraded appliances, a successful outing is typically an enjoyable time.

But because shopping can also be stressful, customers are always hoping to arrive at a location that provides a hassle-free experience. This can be impacted by a number of factors, with one occurring before even entering the facility: parking. It probably wouldn’t take long for someone to think of a store in their city that gives them a major headache when it comes to navigating its parking situation and finding an open spot in a timely manner.

Because there are often large amounts of people trying to enter and exit the establishment at the same time, it’s understandable that parking might be complicated — but it doesn’t have to be. Retailers can ensure a seamless parking experience for customers by leveraging intelligent solutions that simplify the parking management process and increase satisfaction.

Deploying these systems can enable parking managers to enhance operations through 4 key areas:

• Parking displays, such as Cleverciti’s CIRC360™, an omnidirectional floating LED sign, can be mounted on light posts to show live parking information and messaging.
• Innovative technologies that leverage the power of interconnectivity, edge computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) can deliver real-time identification of free and occupied spaces within outdoor parking areas.
• Drivers are dynamically guided to the free parking spaces through an LED sign’s intuitive communication platform, easing the search while reducing environmental impact.
• Signage, such as CIRC360™, provides the opportunity for shopping centers to display marketing messages and paid media sponsorships that drive branding and visibility, as well as emergency notifications and public safety alerts to keep drivers informed.

Parking operators can also take advantage of smart parking solutions to increase revenue by gathering intelligent data on parking habits and trends, allowing the facility to use its parking space more efficiently and adjust pricing according to occupancy dynamics.

By providing a powerful combination of precise parking data and instant local guidance in a single solution, Cleverciti helps shopping centers ease their parking challenges and improve customer service.