SMART CITIES: FROM THE
FUTURE TO THE PRESENT
But… Do we know what a smart city is?
And who has not heard the term smart cities, but do we really know what that is and what is it about?
“Smart Cities” are a technological megatrend that seeks, in a simple and summarized way, that all services and processes related to cities are carried out in an interconnected, intelligent and autonomous way, through learning and continuous communication with the patterns of coexistence of citizens who ultimately are the ones who make up the cities.
“Smart Cities” are not a new thing, they have come as a technological trend since the 90s, only that current scientific advances have given us a strong impulse that made us go from seeing them as a futuristic dream to having them as a concrete and current reality.
According to Mario Vaquero, Commercial Director of Panels ACH, smart cities are “the combination of people, technology and creativity to make more sustainable and efficient any city in the world, and that is where the two keywords come into the definition of this technological megatrend, the sustainability of human and natural resources as the foundation of cities, and the efficiency in the processes that are carried out within cities.
And now… Why are smart cities important?
Cities are growing more and more, we have a greater real estate, economic and social expansion, we are facing problems of mega traffic jams, sewerage, lighting, road conditions, among others. According to figures from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), every day more than 150,000 people move to live in an urban area or city. We can also see that the towns closest to our big cities are also becoming cities, which shows the primary need to optimize resources and to bet on the generation of strategies that helpimprove coexistence and lifestyle within the cities.
Thanks to the great masses that live together within the current cities, we have been forced to generate solutions to the great challenges we face, such as water distribution, energy efficiency, waste management, traffic and mobility problems, social security , and I could list many more. For this reason technology comes to play a leading role in the generation of solutions to these problems. We have challenges that cannot be solved using a greater amount of human resources. These are challenges that can be solved through the use of technological innovations, that work autonomously, that detect patterns of coexistence and modify their actions coherent with this learning, that work 24/7, that give us remote access to decision-making wherever we are, that reduce and improve waste treatment, that manage to reduce energy consumption and produce renewable energy, that generate mobility alternatives other than combustion vehicles, and many more.
So, if I were asked to answer, in a clear and summarized way, the question, Why are smart cities important? I would say that they are the only way to improve lifestyles under the pressure of population growth within the urban centers, maintaining a correct use of human resources and enjoying the benefits that science gives us in the form of entertainment and fun.
And… What does a smart city look like?
We have already talked a lot about what a Smart City is, about why we need it and other generalities of this megatrend, but I want to take advantage of this small space so that we can talk about some examples that show the inclusion of smart cities through specific solutions.
Let’s imagine that a city places garbage containers equipped with sensors within neighborhoods, residential units, and companies that manage to determine the filled up status of each container. This information is reported to the cloud, and
through the use of a platform, equipped with artificial intelligence algorithms, automatically and intelligently, the ideal route that the garbage collection truck must take in order to optimize gasoline with an ideal route, collect the garbage that it has the capacity to store and determine the hours in which it will be carrying out said collection, container by container.
Another example is being given by public lighting remote management solutions, where by means of smart photocells I can turn on, remotely and under artificial intelligence patterns, the luminaire. I can reduce consumption if there is no traffic of people or vehicles. I can generate visual alerts about social security phenomena such as thefts. I can include a massification network system in order to spread a Wi-Fi network throughout a city and much more.
We have also known of the implementation of smart stores and supermarkets such as Amazon Go, “Amazon’s smart store where you don’t have to go to the checkout.” This is a store launched in 2017, where the customer can enter the store, being already registered as an Amazon customer with their respective registered credit card, head to the aisles, select the products of their interest and leave the store without going to a checkout. All the charge is done virtually, avoiding queues, reducing logistics costs and facilitating the life of the user or citizen.
What do we conclude from this megatrend?
Smart Cities are the evolutionary present of cities as we currently know them, every day we grow more in trends and technologies. We are seeing more and more coverage of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN), such as LTE, Cat M1, NB IoT, Sigfox, Lora, BLE, and many more; therefore, it is we, the ones who make up the cities, who are obliged to develop intelligent solutions that contribute to improving and optimizing:
Sustainability
Manage to maintain our productive and life processes, while we are consequent with the natural resources of our environment.
Efficiency
Achieve a reduction in the energy and natural consumption of the processes that we currently carry out and are necessary for the correct performance of our daily activities.
Information security
Protect the large amount of information that will be deposited in the cloud and is part of the privacy of citizens and organizations.
Coexistence and lifestyle
That the increase in the number of people who live in the city does not generate a continuous affectation of coexistence, achieving solutions that contribute to the improvement of our adequate way of living.
Wealth increase
Ultimately, and as a consequence of the above factors, increase the economic and natural wealth of our planet.
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