The concept of using technology in the urban environment has been around for quite some time.
- creating an efficient and sustainable economy;
- improving the living conditions of citizens;
- environment protection.
Curiously, not so long ago, smart cities were associated exclusively with the introduction of information technology, but now the focus is onIn 2023, the trend towards the creation and development of smart cities is still relevant, despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis have slowed down its growth rate.Innovation is no longer introduced for the sake of innovation, but comes where it is really needed.
According to the Smart City Index, Singapore is the most technologically equipped city in the world and the undisputed leaderA few years ago, the city adopted the Smart Nation development program, in fact, a "living laboratory", a kind of testing ground for technological solutions.The main goal of the project is to simplify the life of citizens with a high population density.Within the framework of the program, several strategic projects are already successfully functioning: froman analogue of the Russian Public Services — the CODEX digital platform — to the Virtual Singapore 3D simulation, which can be used to simulate various situations in the city and predict possible changes.
The rating was developed jointly with the SingaporeUniversity of Technology and Design and is designed to measure how close any other city is to Singapore. Below in the ranking were Zurich, Oslo, Taipei and Lausanne.
It is noteworthy that in the ranking of smart cities in the CIS and Transcaucasia by Kept, Moscow occupies an honorable second place, and St. Petersburg closes the top five.
The concept of “startup city” is not a figure of speech:in tech-savvy metropolises, changes are structured similarly to digital product development cycles. First, a hypothesis or request from citizens arises, based on this, an MVP is built, indicators are assessed, and only then changes are introduced into the urban environment.
Nevertheless, certain trends in the technologization of cities in recent years can be traced.
Unified city data platform
It is an integrated information systemwhich combines data from various sources - sensors, IoT devices, government databases, social networks. Such an ecosystem is becoming a new form of managing bureaucratic (and not only) processes. The unified city data platform contains information about citizens, city infrastructure, public administration systems and the business environment. Big data is open for use by both businesses and residents themselves.
An example of such a platform is the Smart City Platform in Barcelona, which integrates more than 20 different tools and services to manage the urban environment and improve the quality of life of residents.
Public safety monitoring
AI manages security systems based onprocessing data coming in real time. Big Data facilitates the deployment of important urban solutions, such as smart street lights, crime mapping and smart police (high-tech patrol cars with an embedded IT system, interactive map screens).
An example of monitoring is the Safe City project in New York, which includes more than 6,000 CCTV cameras and facial recognition systems to ensure the safety of citizens.
Green solutions are a priority
The effects of climate change are being felt by everyoneworse: wildfires, droughts and record rainfall affect almost all regions. Key smart city technologies such as digital twins, IoT sensors can be used to make cities more resilient, reduce emissions, and more.
An example of the implementation of green solutions isBarcelona, which uses smart building heating and cooling control systems, automatic city transport control systems, green spaces to ensure the comfort of residents and the use of renewable energy sources.
Transport intelligence
There is a growing need for new transport in citiesdecisions - they rely on the speed of movement of passengers and the coordinated work of transport. There are projects in the field of transport intellectualization in every region of the world, including Russia. For example, Seoul is actively investing in Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) solutions. The technology "establishes" communication between vehicles and other objects - from traffic lights to pedestrians' smartphones.
And in Singapore, despite the high densitypopulation, there are rarely traffic jams - and also thanks to ITS solutions. Thus, drones are actively used in the country (autonomous buses, shuttles and taxis). The government has even developed usage standards for them. The streets are equipped with smart traffic lights that minimize congestion, and road sensors that measure traffic density.
Growing demand for digital out of home
According to Research and Markets, the volumeThe digital media advertising market will grow to $35.1 billion by 2027. This is due to several reasons, but the key one is the development of programmatic, automated advertising purchases through platforms. Recently, more and more advertising launch platforms have appeared that integrate with each other through a single system and greatly simplify the process of buying advertising. Instead of a lot of actions that were previously performed manually, there is a fully automated system. Among other things, programmatic removes local restrictions: a company can buy impressions both at home and in any other city.
What is going on in Russia?
In Russia, since 2018, the project "Smartcity”, which is aimed at creating safe and comfortable conditions for the life of citizens. Of course, the most advanced city in the Russian Federation in terms of the Smart City concept is Moscow and the Moscow Region, which are at the stage of transition from pilot projects in individual segments to integrated development. One of the most successful decisions of the Smart City project in Russia was the launch of the mos.ru portal with 380 electronic services and services for Muscovites — in 2021, Moscow entered the top three megacities in the world in the UN rating.
Other Russian cities also take part inprogram. To date, 213 cities have already been involved in the project, among which 82 regions are implementing measures to digitalize the urban economy.
In Tula and South Sakhalinsk, for example, alreadyDefects in urban infrastructure and amenities are promptly eliminated using neural network video analytics. When a vehicle moves along the road, machine vision cameras carry out continuous shooting, automatically recognizing the target objects of control, after which they record their condition, location and send the data to the cloud management platform.
A digital water utility project was launched in Glazov,which optimizes the delivery of purified water to the consumer, including equipment operating modes and leak detection. In the city, the amount of resource loss and the number of emergency situations decreased by 25%, and the rate of repeated damage dropped to 60%.
In Vladivostok, Kazan and Khanty-Mansiyskoperates SIRIN, an artificial intelligence service for creating a smart yard, city and region. For example, the service recognizes the car of a resident of the house and the barrier opens itself, without the need to get a pass card. The same thing happens with the intercom door - it opens without keys, recognizing the face of a resident. SIRIN has increased the level of safety and comfort of residents by more than 10 times.
And in Chelyabinsk there are 160 local doctorsOn a regular basis, they save their time with the help of keyless access to the entrances - the development of the Intersvyaz company. Specialists authorized in the system can view the list of current calls, which is automatically updated in real time. Opposite those addresses where the system is already installed, the button to open the intercom is active in the mobile application.
The pace of development of smart cities in Russia is still lower than in other countries of the world. And if in Moscow the introduction of technologies is in full swing, in the regions the process is greatly slowed down for several reasons:
- Lack of large funds for financing.The main investor in such projects is stillremains the state. According to the current project passport on the website of the Ministry of Construction, it was planned to spend about 13 billion rubles on the Smart City in the period from 2018 to 2024, allocating more than 2 billion rubles a year.
- Lack of qualified personnel,ready to develop projects from scratch and manage them after implementation.
From a technological experiment: smart citieshave become a necessity. Every year the urban population is growing - by 2045, analysts predict a 1.5-fold increase in the city's population to 6 billion. If states and private companies do not optimize urban space, problems with water consumption, air pollution, garbage and electricity will only increase.
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Cover photo: Image by Freepik