Getting smart with infrastructure

The infrastructure of a city is what makes it, in many ways, a good or bad place to live and work. Cities around the world need to better understand and manage their core operational systems such as transport, communication, water and energy. Replacing the actual city infrastructure is often unrealistic in terms of cost and time. However, with recent advances in technology, we can infuse our existing infrastructure with new intelligence, since vibrant and creative cities drive economic , social and cultural development.

Next time you’re stuck in traffic, think about this: as smart as our cars have become, our roadways are about to get a whole lot smarter. Building new roads and new lanes often just isn’t possible any longer, but building intelligence into the roads and the cars — with roadside sensors, radio frequency tags and global positioning systems — certainly is.
Rethinking how we get from point A to point B means applying new technology and new policies to old assumptions and habits. It means improving drivers’ experience, not just where and when they drive. It could lead to advances in the cars we drive, the roads we drive them on and the public transit we might take.

A smart city requires an ultra-high-speed network that allows people, business and government to connect with each other and systems that seamlessly manage infrastructure and services. Urban infrastructure decisions over the next three decades will determine whether cities will be a major driver for environmental destruction or a sustainable future.

Almost 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. This dramatic shift from rural to urban is accelerating at rapid speed towards unprecedented urbanisation. According to a recent study by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, A vision of smarter cities: How cities can lead the way into a prosperous and sustainable future, city leaders need three things to transform their region into a smarter city:

Assemble a team:City administrators need to work seamlessly across their own organisational boundaries and partner effectively with other levels of government in order to tackle issues that require significant collaboration among city, state or provincial leaders, as well as national levels of government. In addition to formulating new policies themselves, cities must be able to articulate challenges they may face when policies are made elsewhere.

Think revolution, not evolution: Building a next-gen city requires a municipality to be more than focused or efficient. City leaders need to look at systems, most of which are interconnected , and enable people and objects to interact in new ways. These systems can use instruments to analyse and report on the exact condition of individual parts, such as city traffic systems that re-route vehicles around accidents. By using intelligent systems, cities can respond to changes quickly and accurately, along with the ability to better predict and plan for future events.

Target all city systems, not just one:The inter-relationships between the various systems operating in a city mean that while cities obviously must prioritise their challenges, solving problems in just one system is not a viable long-term option. A holistic strategy that looks at all of a city’s systems, and builds in system-wide feedback mechanisms, is a better way to deliver sustainable prosperity to its citizens.

It is estimated that 1.7 billion people will become urban dwellers in Asia and Africa alone over the next three decades, posing immense challenges to surrounding environment. Therefore, it becomes imperative that future investments are made in sustainable solutions. Efforts are underway in countries across the world towards creating a true smart city.

Scandinavian nations invest heavily in their clean environments, and Sweden tops the list in northern Europe. Count clean energy sources, efficient public transportation — like green rail networks — and top-notch healthcare as reasons for the high ranking. Singapore, Brisbane and Stockholm are working to reduce both traffic congestion and air pollution through intelligent solutions, including predictive tools to route vehicles around traffic accidents.

In New Mexico, Albuquerque is using a business intelligence solution to automate datasharing among its 7,000 employees in more than 20 departments. As a result, it has realised cost savings of almost 2,000%. A smart grid is just the beginning; a platform on which urban centres can build brighter futures.

China is spending billions of dollars to introduce high-speed trains and expand its rail network , adding 25,000 miles of track between now and 2020. The goal is to move people and goods in a transportation system that can fuel economic development without increasing automobile or truck traffic. China expects to have more high-speed passenger rail than the rest of the world combined in the next five years.

The future is smart cities: using intelligent grid technology in connection with city planning . Here in India, we have quite a few of these smart applications being built — however, the scale and pace of deployment can be stepped up. We can create greener, more efficient municipalities if we can understand and utilise the bigger picture of smart cities. The need for change is a need for smart.


(The author is director of software group at IBM India/south Asia)