A short introduction to the challenges that cities must face nowadays due to climate change. There is also an overview of how to better manage essential infrastructures in cities, such as electric power, water and waste, to minimize their impact on environment.

1. Slicing Smart Cities
A short introduction to the urban spaces of
the 21st
century
Slice 5. Environment
Created by Joan Manuel Lopez
@TheBitCity
Under CC BY-SA 4.0 License

2. 2
➢ Environment
✔ Overview
✔ Climate change
✔ Urban environment
✔ Management of resources
✔ Energy
✔ Waste
✔ Water

3. 3
Overview
➔ New challenges caused by climate change
➔ Deterioration of urban spaces
➔ Cities as big consumers of resources and
generating waste and pollutants
➔ Efficient management of resources
➔ High dependency on fossil energies
➔ Use of new renewable sources of energy

4. 4
Climate Change
Caused by:
➔ Emission of polluting gases (mainly CO2) to the
atmosphere
Effects:
➔ Increasement of the average temperature (global
warming)
➔ More frequent and more extreme weather events
(storms, drought periods, etc.)

5. 5
Urban Environment
Conformed by all those conditions surrounding the
development of social and economic activities in
cities
Air quality
Drink water Wastewater
Continuity of
energy supply
Noise pollutionLight pollution
Urban mobility
Conservation of
buildings
Conservation of
urban spaces
Maintenance of
urban elements
➢ Lampposts
➢ Benchs
➢ Litter bins
➢ Traffic lights
➢ etc...

6. 6
Urban Environment
Actions to be considered for improvement:
➔ Limit the use of vehicles based on combustion
engines
➔ Public lighting systems using LED lamps
➔ Public programs to encourage maintenance of
buildings
➔ Campaigns for citizen awareness on these topics
➔ Apps to report street problems (i.e. fixmystreet)
➔ ...

7. 7
Management of resources
Essential urban infrastructures
Icons made by Freepik from flaticon.com under CC BY 3.0 license

8. 8
Management of electrical grid
The electrical energy is essential for making
urban spaces properly work
➔ It is not possible to store big amount
➔ It must be assured the continuity of the service
➔ Balance in real-time the offer and the demand
Challenges:
➔ Satisfy the growing demand
➔ Manage new decentralized sources

9. 9
New sources of energy
Autonomous generation (microgrids)
➔ Small installations able to supply energy to a
building, a factory, a lamppost, ...
➔ They take energy from the grid if they do not generate
enough, they give their production excedents
➔ Aparition of prosumer, producer and consumer
Incorporation of renewable sources
➔ Alternative to fossil and nuclear
➔ Generation with intermitencies
➔ Solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, etc...

10. 10
Smart Grid
More control over the distribution grid
through the use of ICT technologies
➔ Real-time knowledge of the state of the grid
➔ Encourage efficient consumption patterns
➔ Encourage the use in lower-demand hours
➔ Smooth incorporation of the information from
distributed new generation sources
➔ Optimal management of the intermitencies of
renewable sources (big data, predictive computing)

11. 11
Management of waste
➔ Avoid uncontrolled dumps
➔ Contamination sources
➔ Atmosphere, waters, soil
➔ Encourage recycling
➔ Different processing depending on type
➔ Reuse of resources Circular Economy→
➔ Optimization through the use of ICTs
➔ Smart Waste

12. 12
Smart Waste
➔ Sensorization of garbage containers
➔ Geolocated fleet in real-time
➔ Dynamic design, in real-time, of the optimal
routes for garbage collection

13. 13
Management of water
Water is an essential element for life
➔
Scarce resource  optimize and maximize its use
Two management levels:
➔ Urban Service (utility)
➔ Drink water for human consumption
➔ Wastewater
➔ Environmental
➔ Quality of rivers, lakes, seas and oceans as well as
bathing waters or port areas

14. 14
Smart Water (utility)
Challenge: Innovative ways for using and reusing
the resource
➔ Automatized and efficient maintenance of the
distribution and sewage networks
➔ Early detection of leaks
➔ Detection of abusive uses
➔ Real-time quality controls
➔ Include water in the circular economy
➔ Use of treated wastewater for garden irrigating or street
cleaning

15. 15
Smart Water (environment)
Challenge: Mitigation and adaptation to climate
change
➔ Situations of excess of water
➔ Storms, hurricanes, rising sea levels
➔ Flooding parks on river basins
➔ Situations of lack of water
➔ Long drought periods, desertification processes,
overexploitaition of aquifers
➔ Collection and use of rain water, using different networks
than wastewater

16. Thank you!
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