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Despite the global smart city hype, with daily headlines about new smart city projects, cities competing to be the smartest and governments around the world investing billions in smart cities, I frequently hear someone say \u201cBut what the heck is a smart city?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Today, many of us turn to Google to find quick answers, and when googling this specific question, one of the first results is from Wikipedia, which currently summarizes a smart city as \u201cA smart city is an urban area that uses different types of electronic data collection sensors to supply information which is used to manage assets and resources efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another online dictionary defines a smart city as \u201cA developed urban area that creates sustainable economic development and high quality of life by excelling in multiple key areas; economy, mobility, environment, people, living, and government.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are a wide range of definitions for \u201cwhat makes a smart city\u201d. As the diagram below shows, there are a lot of potential factors that can contribute to a city being considered \u201csmart\u201d and the below list is not exhaustive, a little searching online and you will find several similar diagrams each with a slight tweak on the smart city ecosystem.<\/p>\n
India is one of the countries that has taken a national approach to smart cities. The government in India has chosen a humble, objective approach when answering this delicate question by stating \u201cThe answer is, there is no universally accepted definition of a smart city. It means different things to different people. The conceptualization of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents.\u201d (Source: Smart Cities Mission)<\/p>\n
To make this topic more tangible, I prefer to focus on some of the key objectives that most smart city projects are designed to achieve. I initiated this approach about a year ago, when I was asked to talk about smart cities to system integrators and city representatives in Glasgow, Scotland. Based on their response, I have continued to share this objective-based explanation of a smart city with city officials, journalists, technology partners and colleagues around the world. Often with the same result \u2013 \u201cNow it makes more sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
So instead of talking about smart parking, smart healthcare, smart agriculture, smart transportation, smart government, smart energy or smart this or that, one can look at how smart city initiatives are initiated to achieve one or more of the following objectives:<\/p>\n
Successful smart city projects, regardless of their core objectives, will help cities get closer to their ultimate goal to improve the overall quality of life, or in smart city terms, \u201cLivability\u201d.<\/p>\n
Smart city projects also share three common technology cornerstones \u2013 IoT sensors, connectivity, and data. The sensors are represented by any connected device that supply information to the network, connectivity is provided by fixed or wireless networks, and data represent the storage, analysis and presentation of real-time and historical data. By connecting these three cornerstones, cities are provided with a powerful platform for new and more efficient ways of creating more livable cities. This is well demonstrated by the following smart city use cases:<\/p>\n
Each of these use cases addresses more than one of the six key smart city objectives listed above, and are based on different combinations of sensors, connectivity and data. And next time you hear about a smart city project, it can be helpful to ask yourself which of the six key smart city objectives the project addresses and how it uses sensors, connectivity and data to improve the overall quality-of-life \u2013 or livability \u2013 in the city. If you do this, it is likely that you soon will be much closer to having an answer to what the heck a smart city really is.<\/p>\n