Cities globally have constrained finances and outdated infrastructure due to urbanization. Modern city administrators use sensors to create smarter, healthier, more robust, efficient, pleasant, engaging, and resilient cities.
Cities have many interrelated parts and concentrated threats. Cities are fragile due to their size and complexity. Bottlenecks and catastrophic calamities can quickly increase economic losses.
Resilient City Technology
Smart technology helps cities manage growth and shocks. Innovative technologies help municipal authorities tackle urban difficulties by offering preventive measures, emergency response tools, and sustainable growth strategies.
McKinsey Global Institute’s new paper outlines several digital options that might improve infrastructure system resilience and flexibility.
Transportation, traffic, electricity grids, and other essential services are disrupted in cities. Smart technology helps maintain these systems. Predictive infrastructure repair using IoT sensors can reduce commuter delays, water main breakdowns, and blackouts.
Intelligent technologies make the utilization of data collection cheaper, giving authorities and the public real-time knowledge to optimize services. To minimize healthcare costs, certain technologies encourage off-hours transit usage, route adjustments, energy and water saving, and preventative self-care.
Dynamic electricity pricing uses smart meters to track use and charge more during peak demand. Detailed reporting on current consumption helps consumers conserve power and transfer loads to off-peak hours.
Digital monitoring and consumer updates can improve trash, recycling, and water conservation in cities.
Sensor-Based Emergency Response
Cities handle daily activities and crises. From call centers to hospital admissions, emergency phases require technology.
GPS-enhanced emergency call systems are more responsive and resilient. They let callers send dispatchers video, photos, and text to let first responders see the emergency scenario.
Residents need warning before natural catastrophes to prepare or flee. Storm-tracking satellites and weather-prediction models have advanced greatly. Early-warning devices are being developed to stop natural gas pipelines and warn of tornadoes.
Social media and smartphone applications are helping news organizations assess damage and allocate resources by crowdsourcing data.
Lack of agency-wide information sharing can hinder emergency response operations. Command centers can use big data dashboards and visualization tools to coordinate resources and agencies.
Drones and robots are helping with damage assessments and search-and-rescue. Optimizing emergency call dispatching and synchronizing emergency vehicle traffic signals can improve city emergency response times, analysts say.
Data-Driven Long-Term Planning
Cities face short-term and long-term difficulties that demand real-time response and long-term planning. Data analysis and GIS mapping technologies can help municipal planners make better infrastructure expansion decisions to support development.
Smart solutions are faster and cheaper than traditional infrastructure initiatives, making cities more flexible.
Climate change is cities’ most long-term problem. Over two-thirds of global energy use and 70% of greenhouse gas emissions come from cities. Smart transportation alternatives that minimize traffic congestion and private car use, intelligent building management systems, and smart meters can cut emissions.
A McKinsey Global Institute analysis found that smart cities might cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10-15%. Big data, climate models, and predictive analytics may help officials map flood hazards, change zoning, and build levees and seawalls.
Cities must increase operational capacities and future-proof their infrastructure to meet current and future problems. Digitizing cities requires cybersecurity, but smart technology may make cities more responsive and adaptive. Cities can prepare for development and shocks by investing in robust and flexible infrastructure.
City Resilience Quantum Sensing
UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing is creating quantum sensors to strengthen UK infrastructure. GPS reliance is overestimated, with 7% of UK GDP at risk from GNSS failures, costing £1bn per day for the first five days.
The Hub is working with industry partners to develop quantum sensor technologies for real-world applications including a GPS-free navigation system and real-time subsurface mapping using quantum gravity sensors.
These sensors can detect unseen events, boosting mental wellness and minimizing train delays. Quantum sensing may help us comprehend the universe by detecting previously undetected occurrences.