Each city has a distinct personality, so no smart project is alike. “Smart cities in various parts of the world need different approaches and solutions as the issues they face are quite unique,” said Faiyaz Shahpurwala, Senior VP of Advanced Services and Emerging Solutions, Cisco Systems. “Urban areas in developing countries are dealing with massive scale, and, therefore, there is a need for sustainable access and availability to community resources, including basic access to education, health care, energy and utilities. Although developed countries face similar problems, they are more focused on green-energy sources, better education and health care, easier and more productive commutes, and citizen services.”
Each city has a distinct personality, so no smart project is alike. “Smart cities in various parts of the world need different approaches and solutions as the issues they face are quite unique,” said Faiyaz Shahpurwala, Senior VP of Advanced Services and Emerging Solutions, Cisco Systems. “Urban areas in developing countries are dealing with massive scale, and, therefore, there is a need for sustainable access and availability to community resources, including basic access to education, health care, energy and utilities. Although developed countries face similar problems, they are more focused on green-energy sources, better education and health care, easier and more productive commutes, and citizen services.” .jpg)
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As there is no universal definition for what a smart city looks like, connectivity is the common theme. The basic idea of a smart city is enabling the city administration to get access to information, turn that information into knowledge and to apply that knowledge to real-life implementations of policies and systems, said Maarten Mijwaart, GM of Automatic Vehicle Identification, Nedap. These responses will improve city performance on important themes such as mobility, health care, energy, education and safety.
Smart-city activity is underway in certain parts of Europe, such as Eastern Europe, said Dave Gorshkov, CEO of Digital Grape. South America is buoyant, along with India and Africa.
There are currently 102 smart-city projects worldwide. Regional projects are listed 38 in Europe, 35 in North America, 21 in Asia Pacific, 6 in the Middle East and Africa and 2 in Latin America, according to ABI Research.
APAC
China plays an leading role on the global stage, with rapid growth driving city development. As the largest metropolises on the coast are developed, inland Tier-3 cities are the focus of upcoming government investments, such as ones in Xinjiang and Heilongjiang provinces. .jpg)
Chinese “Safe City” initiatives now emphasize green benchmarks with a pollution index. “Green inspectors look at pollution reports, such as illegal dumping, and then are dispatched to sites with location data sent to smartphones,” said Weifeng Yang, VP at ZTE NetView, a Chinese network communication solution provider. “Once they arrive, they send a photo and confirm if there has been an incident. They can add if someone was responsible and should be arrested.”.jpg)
New cities can take the Greenfield approach. “New high-tech cities in China have the opportunity to implement the latest technology that's far more efficient,” said Dave Bartlett, VP of Industry Solutions for Smarter Buildings, IBM. “Today, wireless-sensor technology is much less expensive and easier to deploy in more infrastructure applications. That provides greater flexibility for applying sensor networks to various processes, including security, heat and humidity, corrosion and air quality. This type of data streaming from our physical infrastructure can be analyzed to drive more efficiencies, lower costs and reduce energy requirements.”