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What makes a city a “Smart City” as opposed to a city where some “smart things” happen?

Three obvious criteria for answering that question stand out:

1. Smart Cities are led from the top – they have a strong and visionary leader championing the Smart agenda across the city. 

2. Smart Cities have a stakeholder forum – they have drawn together a community of city stakeholders across the city. Those stakeholders have not only created a compelling vision for a Smart City; they have committed to taking an ongoing role coordinating a programme to deliver it. 

3. Smart Cities invest in technology infrastructure – they are deploying the required information and communication technology (ICT) platforms across the city; and doing so in such a way as to support the integration of information and activity across city systems.

It’s also important, though, to consider what is different about the structure and organisation of city systems in a Smart City. How does a city decide which technology infrastructures are required? Which organizations will make use of them, and how? How can they be designed and delivered so that they effectively serve individuals, communities and businesses in the city? What other structures and processes are required to achieve this progress in a Smart City?

Read on to learn about the design of the infrastructures and systems of Smart Cities and view  them visually represented in an accompanying diagram.

Smart Cities and the Smart Grid: There are natural parallels between the Smart Grid and smart cities in terms of concepts and deployments, though cities have much more experience at evolution than the traditional electrical grid. After all, they have been adopting new technologies that disrupt the status quo for centuries. The Romans created aqueducts and fundamentally changed how water could be controlled and distributed in cities. Discoveries in hygiene and disease transmission and control allowed people to healthily live in population densities with minimized odds of large scale epidemics. And then automobiles exerted their influences on cities. In each case, city systems, policies, and people changed to accommodate new technologies, new knowledge and new practices.

Now, ambitious goals such as zero net energy buildings will change the relationships that physical structures have within cities, and in turn change the relationships that occupants (full or part-time) have within buildings and within cities.

Read the complete article for more on the latest advances in the building industry, infrastructure and transportation, and how smart cities will interact with the Smart Grid...

Can citizen science clean up the air? Maybe, if it’s using Air Quality Egg: a small internet-enabled sensor designed to help crowdsource pollution maps.

Final designs for the Egg are still being tested, but it has already raised $120,000 on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and the first production run is planned for the late summer. It’s envisaged that an individual Egg will sell for around $100, with DIY kits from $40.

The hardware is described as ‘open source’, and uses off-the-shelf components to keep costs down and encourage owners to customise and improve upon it. Initial designs suggest it will be, as its name implies, a smooth egg shape, able to sit in the hand or be placed on a shelf or desk.

When complete, a series of passive sensors inside the Egg will analyse air as it passes through the device. These will use a variety of electromagnetic, chemical and optical techniques to detect concentrations of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, temperature and humidity, with optional extra sensors for ozone, particulates and radiation. Results are uploaded directly to data clearing house Cosm (formerly known as Pachube), where they can be viewed as an individual reading or as part of an area map...