IoT Smart City Initiatives

US SMART CITIES INITIATIVE

Big cities are growing rapidly, generating over 65 percent of global greenhouse emission, and are forced to urgently fix this and problems with transportation and energy infrastructure, water and waste management or urban design. Small cities have other things on their mind since they usually don’t have enough resources or staff for the fast implementations of the modernization projects.

So, they have to look for opportunities and grab every chance they get to upgrade. 

Big or small, communities have to find ways to speed up the reform to avoid chaos in public service.

The obvious solution to all these problems was introducing the Smart City projects in the USA.

A smart city is an urban area that uses technologies to improve functioning.

The idea behind smart cities in the United States was to use technology whenever and wherever it is possible, to organize public service activities and make them smooth, economical and eco-friendly.

The three primary goals of smart cities in the United States are to improve citizens’ quality of life, business conditions, and environmental sustainability. But, the crucial problem in many examples of smart city projects is finding the technology with the ability to cover all the bases.

IOT SMART CITY INTEGRATION

The system capable of making a city “smart” and meet all the requirements actually is an IoT system. By introducing this technology, cities will be able to digitize and gather valuable information, create smart infrastructure, buildings, properties, and industrial environment, and integrate government services into one system.

But first, there are some implementation challenges and other obstacles to overcome, such as connectivity and digital infrastructure. Cities have to invest in loT. Here, we are facing yet again the small cities’ problem, how to find resources.

Examples of smart city projects include Cedar Rapids, IA. This smart city project in the USA (with a current population of 128,829 citizens) was devastated by floods and tornadoes in 2008 but managed to bounce back in style.

Based on Livability.com “2019 Top 100 best places to live”, among 1000 examined cities, Cedar Rapids is currently taking 50th place.  The city government is a great example of a smart city project. They have worked with state and local partners in order to implement strategies for smart technology, especially with community-oriented projects on developing public transportation and healthcare.

Their latest achievement in collaboration with company Passport Parking is introducing a mobile application that allows users to pay for parking from their smartphones. 

SMALL AND SMART – WITH IOT

Every smart city project in the USA has a different budget and priorities, and although it might seem like a good opportunity to use templates, it usually isn’t. One thing remains the same in every city: citizens expect better services and responsiveness from their local governments, at the same cost. To achieve that, small and medium-size towns have to base their work on several points: focusing on local problems, optimizing investment capacity, using commercial models from the private sector and exchanging knowledge and template solutions with other small cities, when and where possible.

The most common area in which IoT has been implemented in smart cities in the United States to improve neighborhood safety is video surveillance, which allows police to monitor large city areas, detect crime and respond to these and other incidences on time and with less police force. Strategically situated cameras and sensors can record any suspicious activity on high-resolution security footage and even use face recognition if necessary. IoT combined with telematics has been used to help to monitor the roads and vehicles with automatic license plate recognition, changing driving habits with video and audio notifications, and avoiding accidents with vehicle-in-reverse detection, and collision avoidance system in smart cities of the United States.

Intelligent street lighting is another initiative for smart cities in the United States that can help make substantial energy savings for small cities. The old ways of keeping the roads and sidewalks safe were replaced by LED street lighting with network connectivity, remote intelligent control and communication features. Among other characteristics, this adaptive system can automatically adjust light levels or turn the lights on/off in some less populated city areas due to a lack of people on the streets, all based on sensor collected data.

Another practical use of technology highly recommended for smart cities of the United States is waste management. IoT applications with information received in real-time can rearrange garbage truck routes, modernize waste collecting with sensor-enabled bins and raise environmental sustainability to the whole new level with smart waste bins capable of identifying and sorting waste into categories. Smart city projects in the USA allow small cities to save on fuel, engage less labor force and protect the environment at the same time.

IoT can also be used to improve the work of utilities. Another example of a smart city project in the USA is Cary, N.C. (estimated population 164,000 citizens). City officials took an opportunity to implement Smart City initiative to benefit both citizens and the community.  Instead of just replacing old with new water meters, smart cities of the United States invested in water supply monitoring system which enabled better control of water usage for city residents by setting alerts. With the same system, a smart city project in the USA can pinpoint leaks and prevent floods and water wasting.

These are only a few examples of smart city projects. Some could argue that the smart city projects in the USA are too focused on technology and only help authorities to monitor citizens while watching over infrastructure. To others, current examples of smart city projects seem more focused on the citizen’s interest than on technology. One way or another, small cities do not have other choices but to become smart cities of the United States, while balancing with privacy and efficacy.