Essay Sample on Smart City Dimensions

Introduction

Local government is the closest leg of government to the citizen of any country in the world. Therefore, it is expected that citizens are serviced by a local municipality that is resilient, inclusive and whose citizen enjoys high quality of life. A municipality that offers infrastructure and services that promotes economic development and growth, a city that also promote sustainability for its people and environment.

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The advent of rapidly changing technological advancement and emergence of the era of the Forth Industrial Revolution which is also referred to as Digital Revolution puts an added pressure to governments and public institutions to also respond with requisite technologies and advancement that are aimed at improving the lives of their people. In response to this digital revolution, cities around the world are embarking on the concept called Smart City (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

The concept behind smart city means that the place at which there are many electronic devices that are used with one another in order to ensure the safety, efficient, reliable, predictable service delivery for the betterment of the citizens, improved quality of lives and to ensure that there is inclusivity in the governance of these cities. At is known that the forth industrial is driven by certain technological advancement such as Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Additives (3D printing), Big Data, Cyber Physics, Internet of Things, Sensors, etc. It is not a coincidence that technologies which are used in furthering the aspirations of the fully-fledged Smart City.

With the help of technology, data is collected from the citizens, public systems and assets and it then used to analyze and calculate variations and patterns in areas such as traffic management and transportation systems, power plants, water networks, waste management, urban planning public safety & policing, including in areas such libraries, health facilities. Technology is then applied to improve efficiencies, increase productivity, reduce costs, reduce downtime and hugely improve accuracy.

Smart City develops a concept of getting the information merged together with the help of information and communication technology and even various different devices that work simultaneously through internet in order to increase efficiency of the city operations as well as to connect citizens with one another in order, through investments made by the City and various other stakeholders.

Smart City technologies in easier sense grants access and allows the city officials to interact directly with the community as well as the infrastructure of the city in order to monitor productivity and their service response.

There are many different terms used within the world for smart cities like they are also similar concepts of the work, e.g. digital city, knowledge-based city, cyber Ville and etc.

There is a huge difference between a smart city and a regular one there could be many advancements within the city which are essential to the surroundings. The economic and environmental changes have generated a chain of changes within smart cities which could include climate changes, economic restructuring, rapidly changing business models as a result of technology and entertainment, aging populations, unprecedented urban population growth, all these create pressure on the public infrastructure and consequently finances as well.

The European Union has developed a plan and strategy to create its metropolitan cities as smart cities. Although they have developed a vast range of programmes for their digital transformation agenda to assist their cities and also attain uniformity. Part of this ambitious programme is to improve the safety of the citizens and public infrastructure as technology gets ubiquitous and easily available to anyone, it becomes more critical that those who may want to use it for terror and crime are also countered for the safety of everyone in the cities and beyond.

The "Europe's Digital Agenda" is aimed at institutionalizing excellence, agile and resilience cities that will move management of their cities to another level through the adoption of the standard and similar technology framework. Investment in innovation would enable them to surely move ahead and get more reliability and service their citizens and tourists more economically and efficiently.

Smart technological cities concept has been implemented in cities around the world including in Singapore, Dubai, Milton Keynes, Boston, Southampton, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Stockholm, Edmonton, New York, etc. All these cities have many things in common; the most important one is that they have embraced automation and innovation for their people, therefore, information of the citizens is shared within the city and stakeholders so that they could generate programs that aimed at benefitting citizens without compromising their safety.

In 2015 India's Ministry of Urban Development embarked on an ambitious 5-year mission of creating 100 Smart Cities. The project was started with a seed capital of US$14 billion from their national department.

Smart Technology Application Across Municipal Functions

Water ManagementWater use and management is one of the key determinants of sustainability for any city or community. It is crucial that water that is used for sanitation, agriculture and industrial production is managed and accounted for. To limit unnecessary water loses as a result of leaks, maintenance of bulk water supply, storage and spillages into streams and rivers that affects the ecosystem negatively. Accordingly, appropriate technology should be implemented to monitor, evaluate, analyze the use and consumption of this scarce resource.

Water systems are often overlooked yet are critical components of energy management in smart cities, typically comprising 50 percent of a city's total energy spend. Energy is the largest controllable cost in water/wastewater operations yet optimizing treatment plants, and distribution networks has often been overlooked as a source of freeing up operating funds by cash-strapped municipalities. Once facilities are optimized and designed to gather meaningful and actionable data, municipal leaders can make better and faster decisions about their operations, which can result in up to 30 percent energy savings and up to 15 percent reduction of water losses.

Water loss management is becoming increasingly important as supplies are stressed by population growth or water scarcity. Many regions are experiencing record droughts, and others are depleting aquifers faster than they are being replenished. Incorporating smart water technologies allows water providers to minimize non-revenue water (NRW) by finding leaks quickly and even predicatively using real-time SCADA data and comparing that to model network simulations.

One of the biggest obstacles to any capital-intensive project is access to funding. As cities and municipalities look to achieve smarter water, there are a number of options available to help them get started. One very effective path is through leveraging energy-saving performance contracts (ESPCs).

ESPCs are a form of a public-private partnership (PPP or P3), a financial model that capitalizes on the flexibility and resources of the private sector to pay for energy-saving capital upgrades using future energy savings. The initial investment is provided by the private financial community, and services are delivered by energy service companies (ESCOs). The financier is paid from the accrued energy savings, with the ESCO guaranteeing the savings amount.

An ESPC starts with an energy audit. After identifying opportunities and quantifying the potential savings, the ESCO recommends any number of energy conservation measures, such as equipment retrofits, pumping optimization, demand monitoring and control, and/or load-shedding and cogeneration which will save energy through more efficient operations.

Smart Water Supply

One of the most important source of life is water, but unfortunately it fast becoming a scare resource around the world. Water loss created by leakages that can be avoided in the urban environment is one of the biggest problems. The challenge is not only economic but has dire consequences for the environment and the future of its people. It is there critical that innovation to deal with this aspect is heightened, and technological advancement are made to curb it. One of the technologies developed recently is a sensors technology.

Therefore there are metric sensors that record the flow of the liquid and they are planted into the pipeline at regular intervals because of which if there is a leakage between any of the two sensors it can be recorded because the pressure and the flow of the liquid flowing would drop and then it would be easy to manage small portion of the pipeline and fix it easier and quicker. Sensus smart water is an example of this technology. It is cahracterized by Advanced metering technology, software, and proven service with the FlexNet communications system. Water utilities can account for every drop and turn water into revenue through our enhanced leak detection and unparalleled data acquisition.

Smart Technology Description Use Case Smart City Dimension Technology Enabler Class Architecture Layer

Sensus smart water Advanced metering technology, software, and proven service with the FlexNet communications system. Water utilities can account for every drop and turn water into revenue through our enhanced leak detection and unparalleled data acquisition. Waste Water ManagementSmart Sewer and Sanitation

Municipalities, as the managers of wastewater treatment processes, are increasingly confronted with waste discharges of hazardous substances and chemicals into sewage water. Since the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have not been designed to remove such (volumes) of hazardous waste from the stream, the result might be that it ends up in surface water and pollutes the receiving water system (a river or water streams). This concerns a wide spectrum of hazardous substances, such as acids, lye, and used motor oil, etc.

To address these challenges, an advanced sensor system can be a solution. A sensor and monitoring system provides insight into the frequency, extent, and consequences of (direct) discharges into the sewer system. This project will test new sensors that can detect the presence of hazardous substances in real-time. This will make it possible to limit the damage to the sewer system, environment and public health at an early stage - for example, by closing the WWTP's main basins in time.

The intended technology involves three elements:

• placing (previously lab-tested) sensors,
• sampling and analysis of sewage water using high-resolution mass spectrometry, and
• advanced data processing techniques

Manhole Covers

These manholes have a box underneath that has a microprocessor and a radio and a battery, and they have a sensor. So these are intelligent manhole covers that are looking down in the sewer, and they're broadcasting every five minutes the data.

That sensor helps city workers to better direct sewer water to specific pipes. These recognize which parts of town have - their pipes are sort of congested with water - there's too much water going through - and which parts of town perhaps have more capacity to allow more water to get to the treatment plant instead of overflowing into the river.

A sensor and monitoring system provide insight into the frequency, extent, and consequences of (direct) discharges into the sewer system. This project will test new sensors that can detect the presen...