How Smart City and IoT Technologies are Making Cities More Livable
Smart cities and IoT technologies can provide a wide range of benefits to cities and their residents. These technologies can help conserve energy, reduce pollution, and improve public safety to create a more livable environment (See also: The Impact of IoT on Public Safety in Smart Cities).
Here are 6 ways how smart cities and IoT technologies are working today to make cities more sustainable and livable:
Facility Management
Cities are using smart cities technologies to reduce the energy consumption at city-run facilities. These technologies are used to manage heating, cooling and lighting systems to reduce energy consumption. These technologies can turn off lights and reduce the intensity of heating and cooling when facilities or spaces are not being used. This positively affects the environment and helps to reduce operating costs.
Waste Management
Cities are adopting smart city technology to monitor public trash cans to ensure they are emptied before they overflow. IoT-enabled sensors prioritize emptying cans to prevent waste from overflowing and prevent littering in public spaces. Not only does this help maintain a cleaner environment, but it also reduces instances where more resource intensive sanitation work is required. IoT technologies are also being used to sort waste and divert biodegradable and recyclable materials away from landfills, reducing the environmental impact of cities.
Transit fleet management
Smart city technology is being used to make public transport systems more efficient, reliable, comfortable, and environmentally friendly. Using IoT sensors, data on fuel consumption, vehicle speed and wear and tear of critical components is collected to optimize maintenance and ensure vehicles are running at peak performance. The technology can also be used to provide passengers with accurate arrival and departure times for vehicles passing through transit stops. By making transit more predictable and reliable schedules, this technology can make public transit a viable option for more commuters and reduces the number of vehicles on the road.
Smart Parking
Intelligent parking technology helps drivers find available parking spaces more easily. These systems are based on sensors that monitor parking in real time and report the occupancy of each parking space. Drivers can use a mobile app to quickly identify available parking spaces and use the app to navigate directly to them, reducing the time it takes to find a parking space. These systems also typically capture electronic payments, reducing the need for city employees to drive to individual meters to collect coins.
Traffic Management
Intelligent Traffic Management systems use real-time data to expedite traffic flow and reduce congestion. This technology adjusts the timing of traffic lights to minimize the number of vehicle stops, shorten travel times for commuters, and reduce emissions that would otherwise result from vehicles being stopped at traffic lights. These systems improve the quality of life for city dwellers by reducing commuting times and improving air quality.
Smart Lighting
Smart cities technologies are being deployed to improve the efficiency of public lighting. Smart lighting uses light and motion sensors to dim lights as needed. Instead of relying on timers, smart lighting can turn on lights when conditions call for it and dim lights when they are not needed. Smart lighting systems can be designed to adapt to changing light conditions, and to dim or turn off lights when an area is not in use. In this way, cities can ensure safety in public spaces while saving energy and reducing light pollution.
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