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SMART CITIES ON THE RISE.

If you haven't heard about the smart city phenomenon yet, you will soon, if IHS Technology's report  about potential smart city growth proves accurate.The smart city trend is evolving quickly from one off-projects impacting single-function applications, such as street lighting or traffic flow, to large-scale, municipal capital investments integrating multiple city services and departments.



IHS expect the number of  smart cities worldwide to quadruple within a 12-year period spanning from 2013 to 2025.Under IHS' definition, there will be at least 88 smart cities globally by 2025, up from 21 in 2013.Annual investment on smart city projects, which reached slightly more than one billion Dollar in 2013, is predicted to surpass twelve billion Dollar in 2025.

Smart city definition vary, but IHS thinks of smart cities as those that have deployed-or are piloting-the integration of information, communications and technology (ICT) solutions across three or more different functional areas of a city.
The main function areas typically targeted include mobile and transport, energy and sustainability, physical infrastructure, governance, and safety and security according to IHS.





Making Smart Synonymous With Secure

As IoT connected devices become more commonplace, security becomes an increasingly important challenge.While it's unlikely that hackers would target your new robotic vacuum, blacking out a city that utilizes smart lights or shuting down automated transit systems could grind vital infrastructure to a halt.

For decades, hackers have exploited the security weaknesses of IP addresses, but ingenu, a machine-to-machine connectivity solutions provider, has created an IoT solution that shifts away from IP-addressed devices to bypass that security risk.The innovative security features built into the San Diego-based company's Machine Network are part of the reason that the Las Vegas Innovation District recently selected it to provide its IoT connectivity.


Sensors on everything

Just as individuals are flocking to Fitbits and other wearables to monitor their health, cities, too, are turning to sensors to track their own vital signs. Through this Internet of Things, sensor-equipped water pipes can identify leaks,electric meters can track power use, and parking meters can automatically flag violations.

As part of a smart-city initiative, Kansas City, Mo, has installed computer-equipped sensors on streetlights along a 2.2-mile light-rail line that opened in March of last year. The city uses video from the sensors to gather information about traffic and available street parking along the corridor.The data then made available on public website that shows the location of street cars, areas where traffic is moving slowly, and locations with open parking spots.It also provides an hourly traffic count in the corridor for the past day.

The sensors can even count foot traffic, which could assist entrepreneurs looking to open a new coffee shop or retail outlet, and help city officials estimate the size of  crowds, which is useful in responding to public disturbances  or in assigning cleanup crews after events like the city's 2015 World Series parade.Their ability to detect motion also can be used to adjust the LED streetlights so that they dim if no one is around and automatically brighten if cars or pedestrians pass by.The goal is to use data to ''improve our efficiency of service and ascertain what services we ought to be providing'' says Bobb Bennett, Kansas City's chief innovation officer.

Cities are also putting sensors in the hand of citizens.In Louisville, Ky, a coalition of public, private and philantropic organizations has provided more than 1,000 sensor-equipped inhalers to asthma sufferers to map where in the city poor air quality is triggering breathing problems.The tiny sensors, from Proppeler Health, a Madison, Wis, medical-device company, have built-in GPS that collects time and location data with each puff of the inhaler.

The city is still completing its analysis of the data, but early findings were impressive, says Grace Simrall, Louisville's chief of civic innovation.For one thing, patients in the program saw measurable improvement, in part by giving them a better understanding of their disease, and their physicians more informations to devise treatment plans.And as expected, the data made it possible to show clusters of inhaler use and link it with air pollution.

In one case, censor data spotlighted a congested road on the east side of town where inhaler use was three times as high as in other parts of the city.In response,the city planted a belt of trees separating the road from a nearby residential   neighborhood; the plantings have resulted in a 60% reduction in particulate matter (which can aggravate breathing problems) behind the green belt.


-Frédéric Betta-Akwa

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