This document discusses the challenges facing cities and the potential for smart city solutions. It notes that urban populations now account for over half of global GDP and CO2 emissions. Climate change is forcing cities to take action to reduce emissions. Earth's population growth will be increasingly urban, putting pressure on cities to do more with less. The internet of things and big data analytics can help cities operate in smarter, more efficient and sustainable ways across areas like buildings, energy, mobility, water, public services and integrated systems. However, most cities are still in the early stages of exploring and piloting smart city concepts due to the high costs involved.

1. The City of Tomorrow.
Facing challenges with
data.
Jonas Beullens – April 2015

2. Urbanization.
Anno 2014 the 600 biggest cities account for:
 + 50% of Global GDP
 45% of global population
 66% of the world’s energy consumption
 60% of its drinking water consumption
 70% of its CO2 emissions
These facts already pose major
challenges on today’s cities.
Data: McKinsey

3. Urbanization.
Population growth in emerging markets mega cities 2010-
2025 in % and absolute (in millions)
Huge population growth will ask for new smart concepts to cover the needs of the newcomers.

4. Environmental push.
Climate change forces cities to take action.
• Convenant of mayors (Europe)
• 4000 cities (146 mio inhabitants) agreed to meet and exceed the 20% CO2
reduction objective proposed by the EU.
• The C40 group combines 75 megacities and 25% of global GDP.
Together they have already taken more than 8000 actions in order to
tackle the emission of greenhouse gasses.
Cities, especially dense city centers, represent our best chance to improve
quality of life for the greatest number of people across the world.
– The world bank: Cities and climate change-

5. Earths population will increase significantly
with the urban population accounting for
almost the entire increase.
CITIES WILL HAVE TO DO MORE WITH LESS
A challenging combination.
Dense cities can emit less greenhouse gasses per
inhabitant. Cities are key to control global warming.

6. Smart cities.
The internet of things.
 In a very near future, the human driven computers (tablets, smartphones, pc’s etc.) will be a
minority on the internet.
 Nowadays, ‘embedded systems’ (= everyday systems with sensors and software who are
connected to the internet) do already generate billions of new data streams.
 New technologies offer ways to interpret the data and change the data into usable
information. This is what is called the new ‘big data’ revolution.

7. 6 features of smart cities.
waterworld.com
Smart cities share six important sectors
that need to work together to achieve a
common goal of making a city more livable,
sustainable and efficient for its residents. Many
cities are setting the first steps to become a
smart city. While excelling in one sector can
already bring huge improvements to a city, it
takes all six features to become a real smart
city. In the following slides some examples of
each feature are presented.

8. Smart buildings.
The smart buildings of tomorrow will connect their various pieces in a dynamic,
integrated and functional way. The smart building will be a building fulfils its
mission as a house, a factory or an office while minimizing energy cost,
supporting a robust electric grid and migitating environmental impact.
The institute for building efficiency

9. Smart Energy.
City-zen intelligent net - Amsterdam
Smart electricity grid equipped with sensors and connected to the internet. This enables the
steering and monitoring of the electricity supply on-distance. This can lead to multiple benefits:
 Shorter and less disruptions.
 Easier to supply self-generated energy back to the grid.
 Easier to incorporate charging stations for e-cars into the network.
 Prevent large price increases for electricity transmission thanks to improved efficiency.
Other possible examples: Dim street lightning when no-one is around. Less need for transportation thanks to on-distance monitoring with
sensors.
amsterdamsmartcity.com

10. Smart Mobility.
The bicing initiative offers more than 420
stations spread round the city where one
can use a bike. The bike should be dropped
of at another station. This environmental
friendly way of transport can be an
efficient way of transportation, especially
in cities that suffer a lot of traffic jams.
Smartphone applications make it possible
to track available bikes and parking spots.
Bicing and smart traffic lights- Barcelona
The smart traffic lights can provide green corridors for fire brigades and other emergency
vehicles. This can save lifes as todays traffic congestion in big cities reaches enormous heights.
smartcity.bcn.cat
Other possible examples: Optimization of public transportation routes and schedules, life parking information, automatic e-cars charging
stations availabilty updates etc.

11. Smart Water.
.
Waterwatchers- Johannesberg
The Waterwatchers application developed by
IBM encourages everyone to collect and report
issues on local waterways and pipes to a
centralized portal. One has to take a photo and
answer three simple questions concerning the
issue. Afterwards, one can upload the data in
real-time to a central database. Every month,
the data will be analyzed and aggregated into a
meaningful “leak hot spot” map for South
Africa.
Ibm.com
Other possible examples: optimization of irrigation systems, presure sensors in waterpipes to observe leaks etc.

12. Smart public services.
Fighting crime
IBM.com
Other possible examples: sensors warning the waste disposal services when dust bins are full, direct online connections between
authorities and citizens, quick warnings in case of emergencies etc.

13. Smart integrated systems.
Smart Systems are autonomous and collaborative systems.
They bring sensing, actuation and informatics together to get a complete vision on the situation.
They combine their functionalities in order to satisfy a certain need together. Systems not only unite
multiple technologies, they are strongly tailored to application sectors such as energy, transport,
healthcare, security and safety, manufacturing.
Europa.eu
Self-driving car – Mercedez Benz
These futuristic cars will drive autonomously to your destination. Thanks to sensor and gps technology they will
bring you wherever you want following the fastest path while avoiding traffic jams and without violating speed
limits. Through other smart applications they will even be able to locate the nearest available parking spot.
Furthermore, the car will drive itself in an environmental friendly and comfortable way. When the car knows
about severe traffic jams in the city center, it will even propose to bring you to the nearest subway or train
station. It is clear that the autonomous car of the future integrates information from various resources.

14. A promising future.
How smart are cities today?
 62,2% is studying the possibilities and the costs of smart city concepts.
 18,7% initial pilots set-up.
 13,9 full deployments implemented.
 5,5% follow up projects deployed.
Based on Cisco and Smart City Counsel November 2014 Survey
All cities are at least considering smart concepts, but the
high cost price is the biggest barrier.

15. “A city is not gauged by its length
and width, but by the broadness of
its vision and the height of its
dreams”
Herb Caen

16. Personal note.
A smart city is a city where technology makes life easier for its citizens in an
environmentally responsible way. Every city is the sum of all its inhabitants and as
such a smart city should be to the benefit of anyone, either rich or poor. As an
enthusiast backpacker who always tries to mix with the locals it always strikes me
how proud people are of their own city, no matter what part of town they live in.
While doing my research for this program, I noticed that the many fancy websites
did not mention the social function smart cities should play, neither is it even one
of the 6 features. Nevertheless, smart city projects should incorporate anyone and
should let anyone contribute to the project.
Jonas Beullens