‘Smart’ Technologies Will Create ‘Intelligent Cities’

New technologies, open platforms, and better governance are helping to create cities that are both environmentally responsible and economically attractive. We are increasingly witnessing the growth of intelligent cities – cities which increasingly deliver services with the aid of so-called smart technologies.

At the forefront of this are cities like Amsterdam and the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, but many others now boast key attributes that help create the infrastructure necessary to deliver better and more efficient services to the population.

This week, Barcelona will host a global congress to discuss the impact on society that smart and sustainable cities can and will have. Discussions of issues such as mobility, energy, the environment, planning, government and funding will all be underpinned by the role that technology is now playing. Technologies and platforms embed intelligence in a city's infrastructure to extend the effectiveness of services at a lower cost.

This kind of capability can now stretch across a city's services, from monitoring power generation so as to optimize electricity and water usage, to open (or gateless tolling on urban roadways.

In addition to these kinds of "machine-to-machine" capabilities enabled by telematics and radio-frequency identification tags, other important technologies include smart grids to encourage better energy production and delivery; intelligent software and services; and high-speed communications networks connecting all related city, citizen and business services.

These are all parts of the overall technology environment of a city, something we call an "intelligent infrastructure".

Many cities currently face difficult challenges in harnessing and integrating these leading-edge technologies. They struggle with legacy systems that often hamper their integration efforts. Systems are often based on proprietary, closed infrastructures and technologies.

Over time, information systems take on lives of their own and become costly to maintain; those within one city department such as public transport cannot easily be integrated with those from other departments. The negative impact of this fragmentation can be felt in excess costs, diminished services and an infrastructure that is not agile enough to adapt to the needs of the future.

This technology-centric perspective alone does not get at the full challenge of making a city both sustainable and attractive, primarily because what needs to be integrated is more than just the technologies. The integration challenge includes the entire suite of city services and capabilities: natural resource management, transportation, office and residential buildings, health and safety, waste management, education, culture, tourism and public administration.

At the heart of discussions in Barcelona will be the need for integration which extends to everything that ultimately makes a city worth living in, like the organizational structure of the city and the way it is planned and managed. The real pioneers are doing more than just one-off initiatives; they are trying to coordinate technologies, services and management more effectively, in a more open environment.

Intelligent cities in the making are also pursuing the best way to integrate intelligent infrastructure initiatives across service domains, including energy, water, transport and buildings. Enabling technology capabilities across city departments is also essential; this integration includes communications and data, sensing and control, plus customer-facing hardware and applications.

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