Top 5 smart cities and how they can affect your business

SEM/PPC

Leandro Benítez

Director General

We are increasingly connected. Both users and machines as well as businesses or cities. That's why if cities evolve, so should your business to take advantage of potential opportunities.

In recent years, the term Smart City has been gaining strength, but do we really know what it means? Can you tell us which are the smartest cities?

What is a Smart City?

Una Smart City or Smart city it is an advanced urban area that creates sustainable economic development and high quality of life by excelling in multiple areas. According to Rudolf Giffinger, professor in the Department of Territorial Development, Infrastructure and Environmental Planning at the Technische Universität Wien, Vienna (Austria), smart cities can be identified according to six main criteria: economy, mobility, environment, inhabitants, way of life and administration.

Excellence in these key areas can be achieved through a strong human capital, Social capital and/or ICT infrastructure. The general objective of a smart city is improve quality of life of its citizens through a Smart technology.

According to Anthony Mullen, research director at Gartner, the next two years will be crucial for smart cities as people will increasingly use new technologies and social networks to organize their lives. We will also see how companies and governments increase their investments in technological infrastructure and governance.

How does a smart city work?

There are several devices placed in different parts of the city, as well as several IoT devices (Internet of Things) that communicate with each other and that serve to collect data from daily life. Then, cities use this data to improve infrastructure, public services, and other aspects. Use these technologies can help make people's lives easier. For example, we can find out which streets have the lowest traffic density. It should be noted that smart cities also depend on people who voluntarily share their data.

Examples of Technology that we can find in a Smart City

Smart cities are saving millions of people time and money every day, and the trend seems to be increasing. Research firm Gartner states that in 2019, 50% of citizens in cities where millions of people live will benefit from smart city programs by sharing their data personal and conscientious.

For example, we can see how some streetlights collect and send information. When we leave the house, the moment we go under the streetlights, they can be turned on thanks to the sensors they have implemented.

There are already applications to know where to park and not spend time wandering around until we find a place, the phone can tell us where to find an empty space. You can even tell us where there are chargers for electric cars.

In large cities there are already intelligent traffic lights that are regulated depending on the intensity of traffic, thus preventing major traffic jams.

In terms of sustainability, landfills will be able to know in real time when a container is full or not without having to open it thanks to intelligent markers.

What are the 5 smartest cities in the world?

According to a study by Juniper Research, the Ranking of the 5 smartest cities would be as follows:

1- Singapore
2- Barcelona
3- London
4- San Francisco
5- Oslo

The study evaluated some 40 metrics which covered the technology, the transporting, the energy, the Open Data And the economy.

1- SINGAPORE
Singapore is one of the smartest cities of the moment and intends to become the world's first intelligent nation. City data is monitored by Virtual Singapore, a program that allows authorities to find the most effective ways to manage the city. For example, parking monitors, efficient lighting and waste disposal stand out, and they even have a telehealth system that allows patients to see their doctor through a screen without having to leave home.

2- BARCELONA
Barcelona stands out for its energy efficiency, the cleanest public transport systems in the world with its hybrid bus fleet and the Open Data BCN service. The city will continue to bet on new intelligent technologies thanks to the Barcelona Urban Lab.

3- LONDON
The problems with London's infrastructure are quite visible, for example, they have enormous congestion, an outdated subway system and a major emissions problem. Currently, in London, they are betting heavily on shared electric bike systems and smart parking, and they plan to invest in renewable energy.

4- SAN FRANCISCO
Known as the City of the Hills, San Francisco will rely heavily on intelligent technology to solve congestion problems. Some of the highlights of this great city related to ICT are the intelligent payment systems, intelligent parking. We cannot forget to mention that they have one of the highest concentrations of LEED certified buildings in the world and that the vast majority of buildings use solar panels on the roof.

5- OSLO
The Norwegian capital is considered one of the most sustainable smart cities today. The city is currently using 65,000 smart LED lights connected to 650 processing stations. One of the most notable aspects is the use of waste as primary fuels. They use so much waste that in 2013 they had to import garbage from abroad because they ran out of stock.

As technology providers, we would like to define Smart City as a city that incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the quality and performance of urban services, such as energy, transport and public services to reduce resource consumption, waste and general costs. But this definition will surely vary over time since it is an emerging and dynamic concept.

In Novicell we follow very closely all the technological news and applications, especially those related to IoT (Internet of Things) because they offer us endless opportunities to listen and to respond to the needs of both users and companies, as well as to know their behavior.

If you want to be up to date in Technology and Marketing, we invite you to subscribe to our Newsletter.