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Smart Cities
By Dr. Solmaz Rezan
D-tower is a 12-meter tower that was designed and built in 2003 in the city of Doetinchem in the Netherlands and has a very interesting philosophy and structure. This tower, through a coherent computer network that is connected with all residents of the city, as well as a questionnaire that everyone can respond to completely safe and private, measures different feelings and changes in the mental states of individuals based on material and spiritual values by changing its color in four different modes: yellow (fear), green (hate), red (love) and blue (happy). Perhaps such intelligent structures are initially something fancy, but from another glance, it is a beginning to moving to cities that understand the needs and feelings of their citizens and respond appropriately to these needs; because human beings are intelligent and can only achieve their goal in a smart infrastructure, which is called “smart city”.
So far, numerous and somewhat complex definitions of “smart city” have been presented. But what city is a smart city? The answer to this question is exactly the function of the audience who poses this question, and it can be viewed from different angles. But in a general statement, Smart City is a city that uses smart technologies and data analysis to optimize city performance, share information with people, increase economic growth and improve life quality and well-being of citizens. In other words, when we speak of a smart city, we describe a city environment that is capable of properly responding to the needs of its inhabitants in a timely manner.
In order to meet the standards of a smart city, the city needs to obtain the necessary information from its surroundings just like a living creature so that it can make the right decisions by analyzing them. Sensors are the eyes and ears of a smart city and citizens are its brain. That is, the citizens’ need determines how data can be used optimally through smart city observation tools.
The concept of smart cities is relatively new. Experts believe that moving along the creation of sustainable cities and the constraints that have come about in traditional ways have led to the emergence of a new concept called Smart City. In other words, Smart City will have the goals and aspirations of a sustainable city, but it will use smart-tech solutions in pursuit of these goals.
What should be seen is the importance of moving towards the creation of smart cities, and which citizen needs are these cities supposed to address.
According to the World Health Organization, 54 percent of the world’s population is allocated to urban population in 2014, and this figure will increase about 2 percent by 2020.
This growth means that cities will face a lot of challenges in the future, including traffic and urban transport issues and the need to provide adequate energy to meet the demand of growing populations. The research conducted by Juniper Research group shows that in the near future, the city’s ability to provide renewable energy, along with energy saving tools, will become increasingly important.
Also, due to the increasing trend of urbanization around the world, cities have become massive economic collections where residents have acquired the range of specialties and skills needed to achieve a sustainable economic development. The smart city can lead its inhabitants to play their part in a sustainable economy.
But there are many challenges for cities to become “smart cities”. Large costs to improve the necessary infrastructure and software will force many governments to public and private partnerships.
According to on the latest theory of urban management based on ICT, the six main areas of smart city include:
۱- (Smart Governance)
۲- (Smart Citizen)
۳- (Smart Environment) and (Smart Home)
۴- (Smart Economy)
۵- (Smart Mobility)
۶- (Smart Energy)
In addition to the smart city concept, the expression of a concept called “Internet of Things” (IOT) is necessary because these two have interdependencies. The Internet of Things term was first used by Quinn Ashton in 1999. He described the world in which every living creature, like all objects, can send information and data through the global Internet network or internal networks. This concept could simply be the connection of a smartphone to the TV, or the complexity of monitoring urban infrastructure and traffic. This network contains many devices around us. Thus, given the expectations of a smart city, the use of such a network is inevitable.
Smart cities can possess many characteristics which we refer to 10 examples:
۱٫ Smart Parking Management System: The future city brings a lot of comfort to its citizens thanks to smart parking lots. There will be systems that with their help, citizens will not spend time looking for a place to park anymore, and the city will be less polluted. For example, reducing the average time needed to park a vehicle from 15 to 12 minutes can reduce the amount of CO2 in a city like Barcelona by 400 tons.
۲٫ Smart Transport Management System: there is probably no need to wait to use this feature. Because public transportation systems are connected in many cities nowadays. This feature will allow you to use various types of public transport simultaneously and obtain the necessary information instantly.
۳٫ Smart Medical Care System: Some medical advice is not necessary anymore. There are monitoring systems for patients, which the physician receives information instantaneously from the patient on issues such as blood pressure or blood sugar.
۴٫ Smart traffic management system: Systems and procedures monitor the roads and provide drivers with useful information about the best routes. Also, traffic lights management in order to reduce the traffic volume in certain hours of the day based on received data will be the outputs of such a system.
۵٫ Smart Energy Transmission Networks: These networks provide the required amount of electricity based on consumption demands. In this way, the power efficiency is maximized. Some cities like Malaga in Spain test these systems.
۶٫ Smart urban lighting management system: Why waste energy when there’s no passage in a street? Such systems regulate the intensity of urban lighting depending on the mobility around.
۷٫ Smart Urban Waste Management System: All locations in the city do not produce the same amount of waste. With smart containers and a good fleet management system, garbage can be deployed more efficiently.
۸٫ Smart city maintenance system: Citizens are now able to rely on systems to notify city managers of any damage to urban elements through their smartphones. In this way, everything is repaired faster.
۹٫ Smart Taxi Management System: By connecting taxi fleet management with passengers, citizens can book their taxi using an application. Localization system without the need for human interaction will informs the nearest taxi for customer service.
۱۰٫ Smart digital sign systems: Urban advertising designed for citizens can be a chance to provide services. In the future, customers will have the opportunity to purchase goods and services from billboards.
