Cities of the Future: Self-Maintaining and Sustainable Smart Cities

The New City 

The world’s population is increasing rapidly and most of us are heading to the cities, creating ever greater strain on urban infrastructure. Not only that, but global warming is a progressively dire issue that needs immediate addressing. The solution to these growing pressures is clear: we need both smarter and more sustainable cities. But how can this be done? By integrating IoT and AI for automation and better design, we can make cities run far more smoothly and meet the needs of citizens – socially, economically and systemically – in a democratic and efficient manner. Furthermore, by making use of clean infrastructure and energy generation, we can build sustainable and non-exploitative cities.

IoT Integration and Automated Urban Infrastructure 

The Internet of Things, or IoT, is an immensely growing area of development, and it is already taking a key role in various aspects of our lives, such as refrigerators, security systems and wearables. So it is clear that IoT must be integrated into our cities to improve automation and efficiency within urban infrastructure. The primary potential of IoT in cities is sensors, which can be integrated with infrastructure systems to improve safety, maintenance and efficiency.  

For example, passive receivers, which receive rather than emit signals, can be used to identify structural instability at a continuous rate with low energy consumption. As we are increasingly developing larger infrastructure, both above and below the surface, it is paramount to have efficient and constant monitoring for potential earthquakes and other structural safety hazards. By integrating passive receivers with automated infrastructure, immediate response can be made to ensure the protection and safety of both citizens and infrastructure. Another useful application of IoT technology lies in its implementation for street lights. Running street lights in cities all throughout the night creates large, and often unnecessary, energy consumption. By implementing and improving street light sensors, street light usage can be limited to when vehicles are in a reasonable range, of around a hundred metres. IoT can also be implemented in cities to detect breaking or deteriorating infrastructure, so that maintenance may be immediately notified within cities. Overall, the potential of IoT in automating and monitoring urban systems and infrastructure will undoubtedly improve safety and efficiency within cities.

What is the role of Data in a Smart City? 

As our world is increasingly digitised and we find more and more uses for technology, data is becoming ever more important. Data, whether it is involving citizens or infrastructure, can be used to shape cities with improved quality of life and far smoother functioning. In terms of citizens, data can greatly improve lives by offering insights and recommendations in various domains, including education and businesses. For example, survey data on city demographics can be used to determine or advise where parks and schools should be built, or where businesses should station their operations. This can also be implemented vice versa, where people could be advised where to live based on their ideal surrounding infrastructure, whether their focus is on jobs, leisure or education.

When integrated with IoT in cities, data may also play an important role in infrastructure management and functioning. By monitoring and collecting data on infrastructure within cities, efficiency can be increased while waste is decreased. One application of this lies in collecting dynamic data of rubbish systems, which can significantly reduce waste and environmental strain from transport. For instance, sensors in bins can detect how full bins are so that rubbish collection only takes place when the majority of households in a local area have their bins filled up beyond, say, 85-90%.

 Yet even with the brilliant potential of data in smart cities, it is important that data collection is regulated, particularly that concerning citizens. In misusing citizen data, whether by governments or corporations, serious surveillance issues may arise – as we saw in a previous article, Digital Privacy: Navigating a World of Ubiquitous Mass Surveillance. If data collection is not democratic and transparent, then organisations may make use of data, such as demographics, to make unvoted decisions for that area, likely in violation of our rights.

Sustainability and Efficient Management 

As cities continue to grow, both in terms of population and infrastructure, and demands on management and energy increase, it is paramount that we manage our cities efficiently and sustainably. So what will all of this look like? 

Growing cities means growing energy demands, and with the ever greater issue of climate change, our cities need to be powered on clean energy. There are two key ways this must be done – solar and nuclear. Many city spaces, such as roofs, large building walls, and carparks, receive vast amounts of sunlight, almost all of which is wasted. By integrating PV cells into glass buildings, covering car park shade-sails with solar panels, as well as the roofs on every house – these vast amounts of sunlight we receive can all be harnessed, giving us passive access to clean energy. Yet it isn’t safe to rely entirely on solar power, so there will need to be another means of consistent and reliable energy production, namely nuclear power. Large nuclear power plants can be used to power entire, state-wide, electrical grids, but there is an alternative of particular use in self-sustaining smart cities. Small modular reactors, or SMRs, are small, (albeit scalable) safe and cheap nuclear reactors which are assembled from mass-produced modules. These can be built and connected to a city’s grid, where they can assist solar power as a clean and reliable means of power production.

As well as constructing sustainability and efficiency through energy, it is also essential that urban infrastructure is built in an efficient and sustainable manner. By doing this, we can be sure to reduce any economic or environmental harm as much as possible. For instance, researchers have been developing “smart asphalt” which allows road and pavement to reduce its maintenance requirements, in terms of speed and cost. Because iron fibres are magnetic, they can be heated up by magnetic induction machines which – if the iron fibres are in the pavement with the asphalt – will cause the asphalt to heat and melt into the cracks. As this only requires an induction machine over the damaged area of pavement, maintenance can be done faster, cheaper and easier – and with minimal disturbance. In constructing cities with technologies like this, urban environments can run far more efficiently, as well as sustainably.

AI-Powered Smart Cities 

By implementing IoT, clean energy and more efficient infrastructure – combined with transparent data collection – the smart cities of the future stand out as nothing short of brilliant. They offer the potential to create a greater economy, with improved quality of life and less environmental impact. Yet there is something else that is needed to link together these smart technologies and infrastructure – AI. AI offers brilliant potential in domains of both designing and analysing. In designing a city, AI can take everything into consideration, without exception, and come to the best solution, in a way that suits everyone’s needs. Furthermore, AI can analyse all the data in a city far more efficiently than people, as well as constantly monitoring IoT, such as street lights, to make sure it is functioning and immediately contact maintenance in light of failure. As AI lacks any subjective motivations, and can be designed with one specific job – AI also is ideal for a democratic city with full disclosure and transparency of both data and urban infrastructure systems.

 Making use of these technologies is, undoubtedly, something which we must focus on to create a better world that solves many of our existing economic and environmental issues – and doing so with the aid of AI will only ease the process.