What is a Smart City:
A Smart City is a urban area that uses information and communication technologies to increase efficiency. While a specific definition varies, the mission of smart cities is to optimize the city operations and functions to improve quality of life for its citizens.
There are different ways in which a city can be smart. The different aspects that comprise a smart city vary from sustainability, mobility, infrastructure, environmental impact, communication and security. Many Smart Cities have used these aspects to create an environment for the citizens to feel comfortable around and increase efficiency.
In simple terms smart cities use Internet of Things, devices such as sensors, lights and meters to collect and analyze data that can then improve infrastructure, utilities and services.
According to Business Insider there are five main reasons that drive Smart City Projects in the US:
• Operational Efficiency/ Cost Reduction
• Environmental Sustainability
• Improved City Management
• Infrastructure Resilience
• Attract Businesses
Operational Efficiency/Cost Reduction
With the increase in population, the cost and efficiency in a city are compromised. Cities are interested in reducing their operational cost with the data collected by the Smart City technologies that can be implemented throughout the city. Once a smart city collects the data from the smart city technologies, they are able to predict costa find efficient ways in which they can improve and reduce costs.
Environmental Sustainability
Sustainability is a challenge that important to many cities around the world. The pollutants released in these cities have a high percentage chance of having harmful and permanent impacts on the environment. Cities represent three quarters of energy consumption and 80% of CO2 emissions worldwide (“Smart cities: innovation in energy will drive sustainable cities”, 2018), thus creating new energy sources and reducing pollution by monitoring the air and water quality, cities can become more sustainable.
Improved City Management
The use of Smart City technologies ensures that the management of the different areas in a city can be improved. With the frenetic energy of big cities, it is essential for cities to be able to manage the different aspects of their city in a cost effective and efficient way. Thus by ensuring that the data collected through the different technologies is being processed in the right way, the data collected will become essential for the management of the city.
Infrastructure Resilience
The challenge that growth poses to cities has been a major factor that has affected the need for cities to become smarter. Cities that have to manage large numbers of people from small towns moving into their city, need to find a way to support these people. It is essential for cities to be able to provide, grow and revitalize infrastructure.
Attract Business
It is important for cities to be able to stay competitive and attract the investment of different businesses. By becoming Smart Cities, they incentivize different businesses to come to the cities and invest. They incentivize by building appropriate infrastructure, services and utility. Businesses are more willing to invest in cities that are efficient, reliable and have affordable services.
The potential for future smart cities means that the growth of cities will accelerate and integrate with the citizen’s perception of a normal city. Smart Cities ensure that citizens’ quality of life and enjoyment of the city increases by the services provided and the Smart City technologies that ensure the city is managed in the most efficient way,
Smart Cities Around the World:
Many big cities from different parts of the world have become smart cities. This is due to the benefits that come with being a smart city; the increased citizen life standard, to the increase in mobility and the incentives it offers businesses. There are many different ways in which cities have invested time and resources to make their city smarter, from finding the appropriate technologies to use for their city to leaving green spaces for their environmental sustainability.
Barcelona:
Barcelona is Spain’s biggest smart city. With free WiFi routed throughout the city, Barcelona has tested different ways of using the internet of things for its citizens. They have implemented more efficient street lighting, sensors to monitor air quality and parking spaces, and even placed smart bins, Francesca Bria says “to rethink the smart city from the ground up, meaning to rethink technology, focusing on what it can do to serve the people, instead of pushing a technology push agenda”. (https://www.ft.com/content/6d2fe2a8-722c-11e7-93ff-99f383b09ff9) Barcelona’s Smart city is based on the needs of its citizens.
There are many projects that have been implemented in the city of Barcelona, some of which encourage sustainability and smart mobility. The CityBikes app was introduced in Barcelona due to the Open Data of the city. This encourages the use of bicycles and the reduction of pollutants that come from driving a car.
Another project Barcelona implemented were IOT trashcans. These smart bins were introduced in Barcelona to report their status real-time. It ensured that the city could monitor in real time and in an efficient way the collection of waste around the city.
Singapore:
According to Forbes Singapore stands as the world’s second Smart City. It has reached its spot due to its thriving business ecosystem and planning for more efficient and clean energy. The city makes 4G available to the citizens to ensure that there is an increase in data available to citizens. What makes this city special is the different ways in which mobility, health, safety and productivity have all increased with the different smart city initiatives. These include initiatives to maintain sustainability in the form of both renewable energy and self-sustainable ecosystems. The city has invested in different types of technologies to offer better services to the citizens. It has invested in advanced healthcare systems, where regular checkups can be done via video call to ameliorate the response time for the patients as well as increase efficiency. Furthermore, they have invested in their security system to ensure the safety of their citizens. They have placed many cameras that are equipped with face recognition software and can identify the people in the streets, this
ensures the citizens safety and helps the city in case they need to find specific footage.
London:
London is focused on the quality use and management of data to improve innovation and systems. Their plans have changed throughout the years, prioritizing different aspects and ensuring that the city is running with the best and most innovative technologies. Their current smart technology plan is divided in five different points. (https://www.smartcity.press/londons-smart-city-initiatives/)
• Establishing London’s Datastore : it is necessary for London to present a free and easy access data platform to the citizens. This ensures that there is constant public engagement and they fell a sense of community in the city
• The innovation in transportation such as the introduction of Heathrow pod: the city wants to provide safe and efficient journey experiences to the citizens; this is done by introducing innovative technologies developed by their “Innovate18” program
• Building intelligent road network transport systems
• Facilitating people with the development of digital money by using Oyster, credit and debit cards: with the introduction of new payment methods that are more easily accessible the city ensure that the citizens can benefit from the services provided. The Oyster card are smartcards to pay for different types of transportation around the city. This card ensures that the owner can pay for all the different methods of transportation in a convenient way.
• Making use of new technology in reusing waste heat from underground chambers and subways
Why Does Turin Want to be a Smart City:
The city of Turin has started their own initiative to turn the city into a more efficient one. They have launched their Torino Living Lab campaign at the end of 2016. Their mission is to “promote, develop and test new innovative solutions in a real context” (source). Their plan is to test different and innovative technologies in the different test areas they have provided. Its focus is on improving different areas of the city; environment, mobility and tourism.
Campidoglio district has become the first urban space in Turin dedicated to further implement smart city technologies to turn the city of Turin into one. Their main focus can be divided into five different areas (source)
• Energy
• Inclusion
• Mobility
• Life and Health
•
Integration
Energy
Their main focus in the area of energy is on finding the appropriate technologies to use in the city. Turin wants to build efficient, comfortable and renewable sources of energy; they want to ensure that the citizens of the city are aware of the different technologies that are being used to become a more sustainable city.
Inclusion
Turin’s plan is to ensure that there is an Open Data platform. This will ensure that citizen participation, and ensure that Turin can be managed in a more efficient way. It looks forward to grant accessibility for all citizens, and ensure that they can access what they need in the best and most efficient way possible.
Mobility
The city’s mobility plans include building the infrastructure and services for freight and logistics’ value chain as well as infrastructure to support cycling mobility. The city wants to build systems for optimized mobility and data use. With the data that can be gathered from around the city, Turin wants to implement efficient mobility to its citizens.
Life and Health
This area involves the sustainability of the city. Their plan is to ameliorate wellness and life style by providing public safety and promoting tourism and culture. Their goal is to reduce the waste and pollution generated by the city and ensure that the environment Is kept as clean as possible to ensure that the citizen’s quality of life is increased by providing the best services possible.
Integration
In the domain of implementation the city of Turin is focused on 4 different aspects of implementing smart city technologies
•
Smart Building and Grid:
The construction of the Torino energy center near the Politecnico campus is devoted to ensure that the city has sustainable energy. It is a research and development center that is looking to develop new energy sources for the city to use.
• Smart Lighting:
The city is implementing a replacement plan for the Torino Street Lighting System by installing LED technology. Their plan is to save 50% of their annual consumption of energy
•
Smart Transport System:
Turin plans on ensuring that accurate and real time information about traffic, mobility and parking for the citizens living in the area is given to them. By monitoring the influx of people in the city and the traffic, they can ensure that the citizens will be able to move around the city in a convenient way
• Low Impact Urban Development:
The plan of Turin is to include interventions on public spaces and structures and interventions to foster economic development and social inclusion. They plan on transforming the northern area of Torino by implementing a new subway line and an Eco residential district.
Identifying the problem in Turin:
The main problem we identified in Turin was the environmental and efficiency of the waste generated in the city of Turin. The problem Turin is facing is due to a lack of citizen engagement with the environment. Another factor that has an influence in this problem is the inefficient way of monitoring the waste generated in a day. We looked at the different efficiency side if the smart cities. Our main focus, however, was in the environmental problems that Turin was facing and how these could be solved with smart city solutions. There are many ways in which the city can improve their waste management system, thus we investigated different systems and technologies that could be used to create a more efficient system for the city.
Turin’s Current Waste System
Turin’s waste disposal system has been managed by Amiat since 1976. Amiat uses a door to door recycling method, it entails the citizens cooperation to ensure that the garbage can be collected by the trucks evert day. In door to door recycling a different type of waste is collected to ensure that enough waste is generated in a week, it also means that specific waste that cannot be handled in the traditional collection way has to be disposed in specific places situated around the city.
However with the decrease of employees from 2250 to 1530 in Amiat there is a significant problem that has arisen due to the lack of trash collectors. According to the workers from Amiat, if a garbage collector had to sweep five to six kilometers a day, they now they have to sweep around ten kilometers. This increase is double the work that they’re used, this is causing the system to become inefficient in the city. Thus without the necessary employees to ensure that the city is clear of garbage it faces the problem of collecting waste that has been disposed in the wrong manner.
Another problem that the city is trying to change is the rubbish disposal. More often than not the containers for garbage disposal are overflowing. This means that the overflow causes bad smell around the city and thus makes the citizens of the city uncomfortable. Because of this many citizen in Turin believe the city is dirty, and believe that there is too much trash in the city. Thus the problem lies in the efficiency of Turin’s waste management, and the solution in finding the right technologies that can be implemented to ensure the appropriate and efficient way of dealing with the waste that has to be disposed of from the city of Turin.
The Solution to the Problem
The solution to the problem Turin faces lies in the perusal of other smart cities waste management system. Thus to find the appropriate method to propose for the city of Turin, it is necessary to look at the different systems that have been placed in Barcelona and around the U.S and how these differ.
Barcelona’s Waste Management System
The city has invested in the installation of an extensive fiver network that can be used for the different IoT systems. These has been done to improve their energy efficiency and monitor the consumption of it. This network has also been used to improve the waste management, to monitor waste levels and optimize collection routes for these. Different types of system to ensure the collection of waste have been implemented from smart bins to automated waste collection centers. Although these differ from the installation, both have ensured that the waste produced in the city is collected and treated in the most efficient way possible.
IFAT Waste Disposal and Management
To ensure that cities and companies have the latest and most efficient systems for recycling, waste treatment and waste collection there are different exhibitions. These exhibitions contain presentations and explanations on how the different systems work. One of the biggest waste treatment exhibitions and the world’s leading innovation platform for environmental technologies is the IFAT. This exhibition has more than three-thousand-three-hundred exhibitors that gather in different parts around the globe to share their new environmental technologies. Thus, to ensure that Turin had the latest, most efficient and cost effective solution to its problem, it was necessary to see the different solutions that different companies and environmental technologies experts had developed. In the exhibition we looked at how different companies provide waste treatment technologies as well as waste collection technologies.
At the IFAT we found two of the most efficient ways to ensure that the waste was managed in the most efficient way that was also convenient for the citizen of the city.
• Underground Garbage Collection
• Smart Bins
We decided to continue our proposal with smart bins, as it the most convenient and less obtrusive method for Turin to ameliorate their waste disposal system.
Underground Garbage Collection
Underground automated waste collection systems are an attempt to make cities cleaner and greener. They reduce the waste of traditional collection and transportation of waste.
How it Works:
When a city uses pneumatic waste collection systems or underground collection systems, the people deposit their rubbish into different waste openings located around the city. There is one opening for each type of rubbish (organic waste, mixed waste, paper waste). The person throws their rubbish in one of the openings and it will be transported through pipes all the way to a waste collection center. There the rubbish will fill the different containers and will be stored there until the next collection cycle. Later the waste will be collected and taken to a waste processing plant
The system is monitored and controlled by different people at the waste disposal stations, however there is no personnel needed for the actual collection and transportation of rubbish around the city. Thus this method proves to be efficient and cost effective.
Smart Bins
There are many different types of smart bins. Some increase citizen engagement and others to increase the efficiency of waste management. They make collection and distribution operations smarter, more efficient and less wasteful. There are many different companies that offer similar services, however we looked at three specific smart bins and how these could help Turin and its problem of overflowing waste in the city.
• TetraBIN
• Jinke
• Ecube Labs
TetraBIN
TetraBIN is a New York based company that produces interactive bins. The bins work with motion sensors that are used to create an interactive game where citizens are encouraged to throw the waste in the correct places by providing games. The bins can be done in a way that it encourages recycling having different compartment options. This way the trash can be divided by the citiznes and it is easier to recycle the waste when it is collected and taken to a waste management plant.
The Motion detectors in the bin sense when something is thrown and represent it as a game on-screen. Then every item that is thrown with the correct timing for the game will give the person points. When you win, a code will appear on the TetraBIN that can be submitted online for prizes. This, the company hopes that this type of activity will incentivize the act of throwing things away, and ensure that cities are kept clean.
Jinke
Jinke is a Chinese smart bin that has been implemented in different cities around China. The bin is powered by solar panels to ensure that it is sustainable and can be powered by itself. This reduces the cost of maintaining the bin. It provides WiFi services: which encourage citizens to Dispose of their waste in the correct way. The bin also treats bad smells, it prevents the odor of the waste to escape the bins, thus people are more willing to approach the bin. It has a sensor that predetermines the item that you are disposing. This ensure that the waste can be recycled in a more efficient way later on. The last feature in this bin is the UV light that has been place in the bin to ensure that the bacteria from the waste is killed.
Ecube Labs
Ecube labs provide different waste management options that ensure the efficiency of it collection and treatment. Thus for our proposal we decided to look further into Ecube Labs and how their different products could the city of Turin.