Smart Cities; a Combination of Smart Environment and Advanced Technologies

 The purpose of smart cities is to accelerate economic growth and improve the quality of life by developing local area and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to smart outcomes. A smart city is an urban community that utilizes various forms of sensors and electronics to gather data in the form of intelligence. Such insights gained from this data are then used to effectively manage resources, assets, and services efficiently; and in turn, this information is used to enhance the overall operations across the city.

Smart Cities


Data is collected from assets, devices, and citizens, which is further analyzed and processed to manage and monitor school, libraries, hospitals, water supply networks, waste management, crime detection, power plants, traffic and transportation systems, and other community services. Smart cities can be built using a number of techniques and technologies. These technologies help collect, analyze, and process real-time data to provide essential management services. Smart city applications include; smart transportation; which helps enhance safety and environmentally friendly transportation with the help of intelligent transport system (ITS).

Smart security solutions, which refers to protection against crime, civil unrest, and terrorism. Smart solutions monitor smart cities and their law enforcement activities 24x7 in public areas by analyzing patterns and tracking incidents and suspects that facilitate a quick response. Smart cities deploy smart solutions or IoT devices to develop smart infrastructure of the city, which includes facilities such as smart energy, smart water, smart governance, smart health, smart electricity, smart security, smart building, smart education, smart transportation, etc. Smart cities also ensure environmental conservation through sustainable infrastructure development.

Thus, governments of different countries are taking proactive initiatives to develop smart cities within their countries. For instance, Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative that aims to digitally collect information from throughout the city using sensors linked to aggregation boxes. The city's transit networks are highly accessible, affordable, efficient, and ecologically sustainable.

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