Cities of the Future - technologies that will change the way we live and work in a smart city.

I often get asked, so what is a SMART CITY???While the exact definition varies, the principal aim of a smart city is to optimize city functions and drive economic growth while improving quality of life for its citizens using smart technologies, AI and data analysis.

So in broad terms a?“smart city”?is a regional area (a city, county, metropolitan area, or a mega city) that uses electronic and technology-based infrastructure such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to collect real-time data and insights, provide certain important services, and solve city problems.

Smart cities?are also used to improve the city’s day to day operations, such as public transportation, power and water supply, and sanitation systems.?Using this data, Internet of Things (IOT), and Artificial Intelligence, local government can then make informed decisions on creating effective solutions to rectify these prevailing city problems.

What city residents may not realize is just how big an impact combined smart city technologies could have on the ways we live and work in the coming years. From easier-to-access, more efficient services, better healthcare that pre-empt illnesses, to reducing citizens’ overall carbon footprint, smart city technologies will reduce costs, enhance safety, better protect the environment and improve our quality of life.

For a truly smart city to thrive, the systems and the data they generate need to be connected and integrated. Smart cities will create billions of data points, so handling this information in a way that enables it to be useful is critical.

Following are 10 x Smart City technologies that will vastly improve the way urban areas function.

1.???Smart Parking

Parking Data?can be pretty insightful, letting us know how busy and crowded certain areas or businesses are an heavily impacting how we plan out our day. Smart parking spots offer a viable solution to parking management problems in urban areas with a scarcity of available parking spaces. Innovation in parking will allow residents to book parking reservations via a mobile app, reducing the time spent searching for parking spots, minimizing urban traffic, lowering our carbon footprint and saving fuel.?

Researchers found that 30% of emissions from road transport are caused due to traffic congestion instigated by people searching for parking. AnyPark.pl for example, is using BIG DATA?and?AI from Parknav to provide both?on-street and off-street?parking availability along with payment for residents across Poland.

2.???Smart Traffic System Management

Smart Traffic Management Systems are technology solutions that municipalities can integrate into their traffic cabinets and intersections today for fast, cost-effective improvements in safety and traffic flow on their city streets. Deploying these systems today, or upgrading your city's existing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) infrastructure can create huge efficiencies and cost savings.

Israel's Transportation Ministry approved the adoption of LISA (a German acronym for traffic signal controls simulation and analysis) for?traffic ?planning in Israel. The software will be used to implement a master plan to revamp transportation in Jerusalem. LISA will be used as the planning tool for changes to various transportation systems, including buses and light rail.

3.???Water Conservation Technology

The average American family of four uses about 400 gallons of water per day.?80% of the country by region, anticipate water shortages in the coming years. Worldwide, clean water shortages are among the most pressing humanitarian issues. Reducing household water consumption can not only lower multi-tenant landlords' utility bills, but can also have a significant impact on the environment.

Water in buildings is wasted at an average of 25 percent. So whatever goes into your building, the quarter typically goes to waste. This is mostly because current building infrastructure is not conceived to meet the required standards of water conservation. WINT Water Intelligence ?from Israel, utilizes artificial intelligence to detect and stop leaks in buildings. WINT customers also get deep data insights about wastewater and their water own levels of water consumption. The technology has been adopted by companies like Microsoft and Mastercard in the US.

Some?4 billion people , two-thirds of the global population, now experience extreme water scarcity for at least one month out of each year due to the climate crisis. Leveraging live weather data and IoT to optimize water use will go mainstream. Water conservation is critical.?Cities will need to leverage technology to maximize water conservation

4.????Self-Driving Cars

Self-driving cars that reach full autonomy will fundamentally change how smart cities function. With self-driving cars, smart cities will be able to automate all aspects of transportation, which will have profound effects on access to food, medicine, shelter and other necessities.

Self Driving vehicles will maintain a safe and consistent distance between vehicles, helping to reduce the number of stop-and-go waves that produce road congestion. In addition, fewer crashes or fender benders mean fewer roadway backups.

Higher levels of autonomy have the potential to reduce risky and dangerous driver behaviors. The greatest promise may be reducing the devastation caused by impaired driving, drugged driving, unbelted vehicle occupants, speeding and distraction.

5.???Adaptable Buildings

Smart buildings?are more than tech-enabled structures.?They are living, connected ecosystems of architecture, design,?and operational efficiency.?

Done right, these ecosystems enable a truly connected environment — helping businesses improve both sustainability, as well as the health and well-being of their employees.?digital systems play a key role in connected environments

One pioneering example of smart buildings is?The Edge?in Amsterdam. According to?Bloomberg , the Edge is the smartest and greenest building in the world, with the highest sustainability score ever awarded: 98.4%. With some 28,000 sensors equipped inside, every individual inside the construction is connected through a mobile phone application. The most avant-garde feature is that smart buildings can memorize a schedule for every employee, providing them instructions on where to go to make sure they are in the right place at the right time.??

6.???Alternative Transportation Systems

Infrastructure data empowers our smart cities and our modes of transportation. People use alternative transportation capabilities—such as electric vehicles and e-bikes—and benefit from the use of 5G and IoT sensors to better understand traffic patterns, trends and impacts via AI, shortening commute time, mitigating wasteful idling and reducing climate impact overall.??Established alternatives to car use include?cycling, walking, kick scooters, rollerblading, skateboarding, Segways (see mine in the pic) and electric motorcycles. Naturally, other alternatives are critical for the functioning of an efficient city such as public transport vehicles, buses, guided buses, trolleybuses, trains, subways, monorails, and tramways

7.???Pollution & Noise Control Sensors

To reduce noise, cities need new sensor technology that can tell the difference between a dog barking, a garbage truck and?a revving motorcycle engine.?Any city dweller is no stranger to the frequent revving of motorbikes and car engines, made all the more intolerable after the months of silence during pandemic lockdowns. Some cities have decided to take action.?Paris police for example,?set up ?an anti-noise patrol?in 2020?to ticket motorists whose vehicles exceed a certain decibel level, and soon, the city will start?piloting ?the use of noise sensors in different neighborhoods

The device installed in Paris, called “Medusa,” use a combination of four microphones and two cameras to maps noise levels when sounds exceed a certain decibel level, like a motorcycle backfiring or an engine revving. It triangulates the sound and, similar to a red-light camera, uses closed-circuit television to automatically take a picture of the license and fine the driver.

8.???5G

5G is not only a wireless standard; it also has the potential to transform the future of communications, powering the next generation of augmented and virtual realities and the metaverse, which lead us to richer, more connected and collaborative digital lives.?5G, moves the construction of smart cities from the theoretical to the practical and paves the way for the development and deployment of new applications ranging from monitoring air quality, energy use and traffic patterns to street lighting, smart parking, crowd management, and emergency response.?This presents new business opportunities for the companies providing services and applications to manage complex IoT ecosystems and convert data into smart insights.

9.???Automated Order Fulfillment

According to many industry experts,?one of the biggest challenges ?in an e-commerce business is always Order Fulfillment. There will be more automation for the fulfillment of last-mile delivery, from e-commerce to food delivery to pharmaceuticals.?With automated order fulfillment, businesses can take some of the repetitive tasks necessary to ship goods and automate them partially or fully. Work like demand planning, carrier selection and order assignment can often be handled automatically with the right software or order fulfillment solution.?

As we see more strain on our labor pool and limited space in the cities for delivery vehicles, look for smaller-form, automated robots to fill the gap.?

Urban sustainability is a vital component of smart cities. To achieve it, it is imperative to invest in an efficient and environmentally-friendly energy management.?

10.???Smart Energy

With rapidly growing urban clusters in recent decades, demand for energy supplies has skyrocketed. It is sometimes so high that it exceeds the availability of their local resources. A long-term solution to meet the rising energy demand is the so-called?smart energy chain , which relies entirely on renewable energy sources such as?solar and wind power. This system allows to transmit decentralized clean and sustainable energy to every corner of the urban area through an intelligent digital-based system.

Dr. Daniel Farb, inventor of the Israeli-developed Flower Turbines designed a unique combination of beauty & power. The "Tulips" provide renewable energy solutions to reduce greenhouse gases. Shaped like sleek flowers in assorted colors and sizes , 1-meter, 3-meter, and 6-meter high, for small-scale installations, Wind Tulips are designed to do double duty as eco-art on the roof of a house, shopping mall, school or skyscraper.

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Smart cities are still in their early stage.?To ensure that cities are ready to handle the value of data IOT sensors generate, city planners need to get the right technology infrastructure in place now to enable data to be collated in real-time and allow future advanced tools, such as AI powered analytics, to be used.

Besides the economic rationale to either save costs or increase revenues, other reasons why cities would like to become “smart” include environmental concerns, augmenting a city’s social inclusiveness, and increasing a city’s business attractiveness.

Whatever the motivation, the Smart City market will only continue to grow and how we classify them will also evolve.

Igal Elon is a global Sales & Marketing executive with 25+ years of experience in C-level positions with early-stage and growth startups. He has a natural curiosity for everything technology. Proven ability to assess and penetrate new markets, structure channels, partners, and sell directly to enterprises. Multicultural & Multilingual, Igal traveled and worked across multiple regions from North America, Emea, Latam, and APAC.

You can access more of my info and blog articles @startapist.com