SensNews May 2016

17 / 28

17 Sensor100 May 2016
Environment
What makes a smart city intelligent?
The city of the future already exists. It’s called Songdo, or Songdo International
Business District in full, and is situated 65 kilometres to the south-west of the
South Korean capital city Seoul. Boasting a population of some 90,000, this
futuristic city proudly claims to be the ‘world’s smartest city’.The inhabitants of
Songdo, for instance, never have to place a rubbish bag outside on the street.
All homes and offices are connected to a vast network of underground tubes
which suck in the waste and transport it to processing centres for sorting and
recycling. The city is also packed full of sensors and cameras which continuously
monitor traffic movements, air quality, energy consumption and other human
activities.
According to Gerhard Schmitt, professor in Information Architecture at the
Swiss university of ETH Zürich and director of the ETH Future Cities Laborato-
ry, cities like Songdo that are built from scratch (greenfield developments) with
technology companies driving the agenda are no longer the way forward.“Busi-
nesses came up with solutions to problems that hadn’t even been defined yet.
The result is cities that are high-tech, but not smart,” says the Swiss professor.
“There is also an alternative approach to smart cities that is increasingly gaining
ground.The first step involves trying to identify the problems that the inhabit-
ants really face in their daily lives.We do this using big data wherever possible
– for instance, by gathering information on such issues as traffic flows, crime and
air pollution, and then looking to see what technological solutions are available.”
Full report at 1Q 2016