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How IoT is helping cities become more sustainable and smarter

Products such as smart meters, smart lightning, HVAC systems, IoT air quality monitoring, water monitoring, and smart agriculture are examples of how IoT helps cities become more sustainable.

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Vaishnavi Desai
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IoT

Ramneek Kalra, IEEE Member discusses the top elements of a smart city, and the role of IoT in making a city sustainable and smarter for the future.

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What are the top elements that make a city smart?

A city is considered to be ‘smart’ when it can collect and analyze a humongous amount of data, structured or unstructured from across the industries - from urban planning to garbage collection. A smart city constitutes a complex network of interconnected sensors, devices, and software that must be built and maintained.

Likewise, ensuring that the devices are secure is imperative. This allows the city to create an environment that is more sustainable and efficient for its residents. Undoubtedly, technology has now taken city infrastructure to the center of our priorities, and progressively people are adopting smart homes. Moreover, government bodies are also encouraging smart technology projects - from smart streetlights to autonomous vehicle transportation systems.

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Smart cities are no more a thing of the future, it’s a part of reality already. Thus, the top elements that are vital and constitute a smart city are Green Energy, Reachable Healthy Food, Shelter for all, Fundamental Rights, and Internet Connectivity.

Tell us about the role of IoT in Smart City

Smart City Smart Future can be perceived in two ways - one from the basic requirement such as Green Energy, Reachable Healthy Food, Shelter for all, Fundamental Rights, and Internet Connectivity, and the other from the technological requirement. From the technological end, the Internet of things (IoT) will surely play a vital role in distributing proper needs in a smart and manageable way among the citizens. Smart transportation with the use of Beacons, Wi-Fi Nodes for quick and less-latency response applications, Smart Management for Citizens Security and Smart Lights some of the ways. A recent IEEE CIO/CTO survey highlighted that 14% of those surveyed believe IoT will be one of the most important technologies in 2021.

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What are the challenges associated with IoT for Smart Cities

Challenges will always be everywhere. With IoT specifically, it comes with bandwidth requirements and the adoption of the same devices by citizens. With that, installation is also one of the key challenges that many organizations may face due to changing the existing infrastructure of the city.

Tell us about the need for smart city platforms and how we can break down data and functional silos in a smart city

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When there is a need for development, the tools and methods will definitely come with the chaos of deploying them. This will surely bring the challenge of breaking down data & functional silos by innovating dashboards for all applications of Smart City for a better commute and usage. Further, this will help in inventing dashboards for different operational departments.

What is the importance of connected cities and role of security?

Connected Cities will always bring new opportunities for trade, education, and different types of industries. It can help to balance the economic status of each state/country together if all countries are united in this model of Smart City. But as we already know, Security is an advantage as well as a limitation, and this makes the role of security on top of all the industry domains. It will bring new opportunities for innovation and also give back to society to become more secure.

How IoT is helping cities become more sustainable?

IoT can be an overwhelmingly sustainable technology in smart cities. Products such as smart meters, smart lightning, HVAC systems, IoT air quality monitoring, water monitoring, and smart agriculture are examples of how IoT helps cities become more sustainable. These solutions are very promising for smart cities and different organizations are using IoT technology and working together to become more sustainable.

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