Understanding the notions of Smart Mobility, Smart Energy and Smart Data in the context of the Smart Cities means to enter into a reality that already appears: that of the enormous challenges that represents for the cities the growing urbanization, without this supposing a loss of the Quality of life and poor management.
In the same way that urbanization is a problem, it poses great opportunities for the creation of Smart Cities, in which the binomial quality of life and efficient management are really possible.
Today’s article is intended to introduce us briefly in these concepts, as well as to review their role in the framework of intelligent cities, created in the shadow of the revolutionary evolution that the new information technologies are having.
Smart Mobility and Smart Energy in Smart City
Not in vain, Smart Mobility, Smart Energy and Smart Data are notions that give a name to a new unprecedented reality in the history of mankind, closely linked to the spectacular growth that the great data has experienced, as well as the technologies that allow us to take advantage of them.
The European Union’s commitment to improve public services through the design of smart cities makes an approach that helps us locate the concepts of Smart Mobility and Smart Energy in this context. Both are interrelated, since it seeks a safer and sustainable transport, while it focuses on this sustainability from a broader point of view, seeking a lower energy consumption, betting on renewable sources.
Smart Energy focuses on sustainability, seeking lower energy consumption, betting on renewable sources in smart cities.
Without going any further, the European Parliament states that smart cities can be identified and classified according to six main dimensions, including Smart Mobility and Smart Environment, which is closely related to intelligent energy approaches.
Other Smart City pillars include Smart Governance, Smart Economy, Smart people, and finally Smart Living. Therefore, an intelligent city requires sustainable policies in aspects related to mobility and energy use.
From a broad conception of the Smart Cities, both investments in transport infrastructures are needed to improve mobility and energy efficiency as well as in ICT to achieve a sustainable economic development that also helps to improve the quality of life, ideally through a government Participatory approach.
Says Helena Villarejo Galende, Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Valladolid in an interesting article published In the Journal of European Studies. A concept that has evolved, emphasizes the expert, going from the simple technological dimension to achieve greater efficiency of municipal resources to a broader concept, in which the tools are at the service of a new way of living and managing the city
Urbo, which means “city” in Esperanto, is a clear example of an initiative that provides solutions to citizens and managers to improve efficiency at different levels, including urban mobility and the energy field.
On the one hand, this ambitious project developed by Telefónica and Geographica offers real-time information on aspects of citizen’s interest such as traffic, air quality or waste management, and on the other, helps better urban management.
An intuitive dashboard or control panel provides accurate information from multiple sensors to streamline the decision-making process. Definitely, this makes use of intelligent data in order to improve the quality of life of citizens beyond the effectiveness of municipal services, while optimizing the resources of the different Public Administrations.
Smart Data, the key to smart management
We are all part of that great growth of data that does not stop, reaching exponential figures that pose previously unimaginable advantages, while posing great challenges related to management, security and privacy, among other challenges.
Not only private organizations have faced these new challenges that allow them to analyze, discover and understand beyond what their traditional tools report on their information to make the best business decisions. Also, the public sector must do this in order to achieve a more efficient management in the environment of intelligent cities.
Traditional processes and tools continue to play their role, but require Big Data solutions to respond to a new approach to understanding and decision-making based on the collection of information from the analysis of huge amounts of heterogeneous data.
There are many Big Data data types. In fact, the creation and massive accumulation of data in smartcity is generated not only through the citizen or its employees and public managers, but also from the communication called machine to machine (M2M), among other types of large data.
It is the Internet of things that allows to have real-time information with great potential for the design and operation of Smart City. At the municipal level, in fact, intelligent data management uses data of a different nature using hybrid solutions that take advantage of Big Data ecosystems while taking advantage of relational systems.
This involves the integration of diverse components to obtain reliable data with which to obtain quality information to make strategic decisions that improve the efficiency of services or help to devise and implement policies in the best way.
Digital sensors installed in garbage containers, let us say, allow a real-time monitoring so that this information is sent to the municipal management office in order to make better decisions. They also provide information about transportation, as well as about our movements within cities.
A multidisciplinary approach is required for the proper development of platforms for Smart Cities. Although the casuistry is very varied, usually at the technological level, experts are needed in different areas related to large data, such as Big Data, artificial intelligence or real time data visualization, as well as Business Intelligence.
Urbo, dashboard for Smart Cities, developed by Telefónica, has as main objectives to facilitate the visualization and access of information in real time, both managers and citizens in a simple way, to allow the correct decision making through a single solution with different levels of access.
Urbo allows to visualize the density of the traffic thanks to the IoT.
Currently there are millions of sensors interconnected for the best management at the corporate level and the smartcity, and the number continues to increase . They exist in different sectors such as automotive, transportation, services, industrial and, as we are seeing, also in the area of public management.
Objective: to design Sustainable Smart Cities
In the public domain, smart mobility (Smart Mobility) or energy efficiency (Smart Energy) solutions depend on the use of data, so smart use (Smart Data) is required through a process and analysis that converts them in valuable information.
Smart cities are “a new approach in the management of public space and the provision of public services”, explains in an article Luís Cases Pallarés, an expert in urban planning.
Pallares considers both efficiency and technology as keys in its design, specifically thanks to “interrelate the different benefits and activities that are developed in the public space with a high TIC component”.
Its vision integrates the notions that occupy us, because both intelligent data as a more efficient mobility and energy use are essential to achieve “an improvement in the quality of service delivery in the interests of citizens, environmental efficiency and translated economic efficiency At a lower cost for public coffers, “he concludes.
As an example to understand the key importance of the data the tendering of a service contract launched by the European Commission in August last year to obtain information on the current data situation to adopt and implement smart mobility solutions in cities.
In particular, data on taxonomy, mapping and gap analysis, market structure, applicable legislation and the causes of traffic jams, among others, were required.
In sum, this type of initiative seeks to identify critical problems to establish action plans that demonstrate European commitment to urban sustainability. Or what is the same, with a more human city, in which people can live better without giving up an efficient management.
Within the Community strategy on Smartcities, in sum, these types of initiatives seek to identify critical issues to establish action plans that demonstrate Europe’s commitment to urban sustainability. Or which is the same, with a more human city, in which people can live better without giving up an efficient management.
