Internet of Things: An instrument for A Smart City
The standard of lifestyle is upgrading to a greater extent as connectivity is enhanced with the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT). Life and its activities are becoming smarter owing to the augmentation of the technology like Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and security technologies. With the enhancement of these emerging technologies, it is possible to leverage the city’s network together for a smart city. Nevertheless, to say, it leads to a lively and better-connected society.
A smart city concept refers to a layered framework that addresses the multiple needs of the city. It encourages enhanced quality of life, economic competitiveness, creates an effective and workable solution. It could be as simple as adjusting the waiting period owing to traffic congestion proactively; find a free parking space; switch on/off street lights as required through sensors; centralization of utilities, reduction of energy consumption, and so forth.
In brief, a smart city is a perfect mix of people, technology, governance, and, environment. The IoT services for a smart city involves
- Monitoring of the assets,
- Manage the natural resources,
- Collecting and analyzing the data,
- Connecting people with technology for an advanced lifestyle.
Let’s have a brief idea about exploring the challenges to create a smart city:
Traffic Management
In traffic system, a centrally managed traffic signal and sensors regulate the traffic flow. The traffic lights will have the communication equipment to transmit data either through the Bluetooth detectors, CCTV feeds, or the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras. Integration of this system in all the main roads of the city would reduce every hour congestion and smoothens the traffic flow. As a result, pollution is reduced to a greater extent throughout the city owing to detailed traffic data.
Public Safety
Public safety is an essential thing without a second thought. As a means of public safety, video surveillance to monitor the public; hovering drones as alarm sensors; intelligent street lights that are able to detect gun fires and alerts the concerned authorities; sensor embedded subway platforms to flag overcrowding; directing the city first responder to emergency response; dynamic security system; and action team dispatch make the city traceable and safer.
Waste Management
Reduction in waste production, proper disposal of waste, recycling and reuse of disposing products in an effective manner is needed for having a sustainable environment. ‘Save the earth’ has been the slogan of the active environmentalist for years together and IoT in the smart city is the booster for environmental sustenance related activities.
Moreover, waste management is an integral part of ‘Clean India Mission’ and the role of IoT could be emphasized positively here. Smart dustbins effectively would increase the waste holding capacity and thus eliminate overflows; alerts through sensors leads to efficient logistics and cleanliness; proper disposal of e-waste leads to an escape from the environmental degradation.
Communication
It is necessary to provide smart and green solutions in daily. Further, there is a need to build a digital infrastructure to exchange data, information, services, applications, and, other necessary data between the governing bodies and the citizens.
Energy utilization
Conservation of energy in an efficient manner could be achieved by installation of sensors in destined places, setup cloud, and a centralized system for management. Some of the steps involved are smart meters for energy consumption, balance demand against supply; building of smart homes; data analytics for electronics and industrial equipments; detection of fault at an early stage, preventing loss; Smart grids embedded with sensors for managing water, gas and electric services; smart energy monitors and controllers. With these, having a smart and greener planet is not a day too far.
To wrap up, by focusing on these factors we are able to build a smart city that would further graduate with solutions for health, education, and envelope all the sectors in due course and thus a smarter planet.