Cities worldwide will soon have the means required to fully integrate smart technology to help remove cross-departmental silos. Digital platforms that help to manage civic services will be key to achieve smart cities, explains Matthew Britt, general manager, Smart & Sustainable Cities, Honeywell
In 1798, English economist Thomas Malthus theorised that populations tend to increase exponentially in areas of abundant resources, primarily food supply. His theory was that this exponential population growth ultimately reaches a tipping point at which resources are strained, and living conditions deteriorate. Living standards have generally improved since the pre-industrial time of Malthus’s theory. Still, there remains a truth in theory: greater populations can create more strain on resources, which needs to be managed effectively by local governments.
This is particularly pertinent as more people than ever before have begun moving into cities. As a result, cities worldwide are continuously evaluating how to improve residents’ quality of life amidst increasing demand for services and resources.
Population growth is far from the only challenge faced by cities globally. Environmental concerns have increased in recent years, with more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions being produced by cities.
According to the official UK Government transport and environment statistics from 2021, 27% of greenhouse gas emissions were estimated to be from the transport sector, 17% from businesses and 15% from the residential sector. As urbanisation shows little signs of slowing down, it is perhaps time for cities, large and small, to integrate new technologies and establish themselves as smart cities.
The rise of smart cities
A smart city uses information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve the quality of city services and citizen experience.
In the UK, many cities have engaged smart city projects to help solve both environmental challenges and population-driven resource overextension. The city of Hull, for example, is developing a smart city project to deliver benefits to communities, businesses and its visitors.
Other cities, from Belfast to Bristol, have also started implementing smart city projects. While each city has its own approach in development, they share the common goal to use technology to increase safety, meet sustainability goals and improve quality of life for residents and visitors alike.
To achieve these goals, it is important that cities create transparency between city services. Today’s cities often operate in silos with separate teams that manage needs like traffic, utilities, electric supply, water, parking, etc. Each of these departments generates massive amounts of data each day, but most cities don’t have the capabilities to understand and leverage this data fully.
Smart city technologies can help make each area more productive and leverage the data generated to allow for better decision-making and cross-departmental collaboration.
Smart city technology can aid in creating community resilience
Let’s consider a few potential scenarios in a city. When there’s a big sporting event or concert in the city centre, traffic lights and public transport can be coordinated with the end of the event to help manage and disperse the crowd in a safe and efficient manner. When citizens are looking for a parking space, sensors could inform an app used by drivers to show where parking spaces are available to help ease frustration and integrate cashless payment once parking is secured.
In extreme weather, smart technologies can help create community resiliency to properly power water distribution and wastewater treatment plants or community centres so that citizens can access fresh water and climate-controlled facilities even in the wake of disasters. These are scenarios that cities face daily or need to be prepared to manage. Smart city technology can help with these scenarios and more.
Not only can technology improve citizens’ experiences and quality of life but it could also positively impact sustainability goals. By helping to reduce carbon emissions and energy use, smart cities could help play a major role in creating a more sustainable future.
Connecting infrastructure using new technological advancements
Helping cities integrate systems can be difficult, especially for local governments or cities with limited resources. Cities that use a ‘systems of systems’ platform can overcome these challenges by integrating data from critical city infrastructure systems across departments. Whilst these features differ from each other, it is important that there is reliable connectivity and compatibility across them all.
New technological advancements like 5G communication will make this much easier, with its increased bandwidth for data transmission and ability to connect multiple devices simultaneously. This will allow not only smart devices but also objects and sensors to share information with one another, which is essential for a smart city to function.
To create a successfully run smart city, it is important for developers to implement easy-to-use solutions that integrate systems.
Honeywell City Suite works to make smart cities more manageable and sustainable
Honeywell’s solution, Honeywell City Suite, works to make smart cities more manageable and sustainable. The solution can seamlessly aggregate information from traffic, environment, parking, emergency services, safety and security and utilities – among other areas – in a single, unified view. The digital platform can help meet the increasing demand for city services and resources.
In fact, City Suite is central to Egypt’s New Administrative Capital. Honeywell City Suite aggregates information from different departments in the New Administrative Capital to make it easier for its citizens and businesses to operate. It also integrates with Mastercard to facilitate electronic payments.
Honeywell and Mastercard recently teamed up, as part of Mastercard’s City Possible initiative, to help make the New Administrative Capital the first integrated smart city and first cashless city in Egypt. Mastercard’s City Possible is a network that brings cities, companies and communities together to advance sustainable urban development. With this collaboration, it’s easier for communities to replicate the framework built by Egypt’s New Administrative Capital by accessing the Honeywell City Suite.
Mastercard’s City Possible facilitates a framework where members can draw on the collective expertise and resources of all stakeholders involved to replicate innovative solutions that address urban challenges. The network has grown from 16 founding members in 2018 to more than 330 companies, city members and candidate cities globally, including AT&T and Citi Bank and cities like London, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires.
With hundreds of communities already connected to the City Possible network, new solutions will make it easier for citizens to interact with the city services they use from parking to paying utility bills, with seamless transactions.
Well-integrated features are critical to the effectiveness of smart cities
If cities want to support a growing population and reduce strain on resources, as Malthus theorised, developing well-integrated features will be of upmost importance to the effectiveness of each smart city.
Overcrowding, traffic congestion, security concerns, as well as rising water levels and demand for utilities, are driving the market for intelligent solutions and investment in smart city technologies.
The shift in philosophy and focus towards being more people-centric has become critical to developing smart city frameworks. As cities continue to grow, new technology solutions are needed to help meet the increased demand for services and resources. A city’s quality of life, resilience and sustainability will depend on it.
