Top 7 smart city components Other Services

A smart city is a vital amalgamation of various components/elements put into action in order to build an economical yet sustainable city. There are a dozen components, below we discuss the most important ones which you cannot miss out on while designing a smart city plan.

1. Infrastructure:

The infrastructure while constructing a smart city is a harmonious blend of physical and Information and communication technology (ICT). The physical infrastructure is the structural establishment of the smart city which includes physical buildings, roads, railway tracks, power supply lines, water supply systems, etc. Physical infrastructure is not considered as the core smart element in a smart city compared to ICT Infrastructure. The information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is the core element that enables the city to respond smartly.  It acts as an essential nerve centre for the smart city to function effectively. The ICT infrastructure includes communication infrastructure such as fibre optics, Wi-Fi networks, wireless hotspots as well as service-oriented information systems. Smart infrastructure is more efficient, safe, secure, and fault-tolerant as compared to classic infrastructure.

2. Health Care:

Due to the rapid growth in population, traditional healthcare is critical to handle. There are fewer medical practitioners to meet the medical needs of the ever-growing population. Many times we have come across news that patients receive wrong medication from a hospital or the hospital handles infectious diseases very casually, creating massive panic in the citizens. Therefore, with limited resources and ever-increasing demand, conventional healthcare needs to be intelligent, efficient, and sustainable. This is exactly where smart healthcare comes into the picture. Smart healthcare is nothing but a combination of various elements such as traditional healthcare, smart biosensors, wearable devices, Information and communication technology (ICTs), and smart ambulance systems. The recent newly formed components of smart healthcare include emerging on-body sensors, smart hospitals which are interconnected, and smart emergency response to critical situations. In hospitals that are technologically enabled features of cloud computing, smartphone apps, and advanced data analysis techniques, are leveraged during their operations. The patient data can be made available in real-time at various smart hospitals for emergency expert opinion.

3. Transportation:

Conventional transportation systems or facilities such as the railway network, development of smart roads, airline transport, and water transport have existed for a long time. Here each of them is functional individually. Smart transportation brings in a touch of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) which helps seamless communication and navigation between vehicles (e.g. car-to-car), and between vehicles and fixed locations (e.g. car-to-infrastructure/GPRS). ITS also covers the public transport services like rail and BESTS, water, and air transport systems, and aid them to interact with each other. The smart transportation system has made it possible to build global airway hubs, intercity railway connectivity networks, intelligent road networks, dedicated cycle routes, well-protected pedestrian paths, and integrated public transport. This is done with the intention to have safe, rapid, cost-effective, and reliable transportation within a city. The use of ICT and real-time data processing has made the smart transportation system possible. A smart transportation system maximizes the utilization of the vehicles utilized within the system. For example, this enables citizens to access massive transportation data i.e. the number of aircraft that an airline has or the number of trains a railway network has. Access to this data allows passengers to easily select different transportation options for low-cost, shortest distance, or fastest routes.

4. Energy:

Energy Management for a smart city is simply defined as enhancing the properties of an object or system to produce work. There are various kinds of energy such as potential energy, kinetic energy, chemical energy, and thermal energy. Energy sources are also quite assorted including solar, fossil fuels, gas, electricity, and battery. A universal fact of energy is that it can be transformed from one form to another as per requirement. In recent times, energy is also associated with clean energy, green energy, sustainable energy, renewable energy, and smart energy. As energy is a depleting resource, humans fear it won’t be available for human consumption soon. The aim of introducing Clean energy or green energy is that energy consumption has a very minimal negative impact on the environment. For example, solar energy or wind energy are forms of green energy sources. Sustainable and renewable energy sources are which cannot be consumed within a few generations and can be regenerated faster than they can be consumed. Additionally, the differences between sustainable energy and renewable energy: sustainable energy sources are naturally made whereas renewable sources are man-made. One example of renewable energy is bio-gas which requires the growth, consumption and disposal of organic materials to generate it.

5. Information Technology:

Smart technology utilization is a key element for the design, execution, and effectiveness of smart cities. One has to choose wisely which technologies are essential for a smart city to function adequately. Here the challenge is how to have a good blend of the smart technologies so that the smart cities are sufficiently smart to be sustainable for years and years. The use of relevant technology in infrastructure, buildings, physical structures, electrical infrastructure, electronics, communication infrastructure, information technology infrastructure, and software, together make up a smart city. Thus, it is important to consider budgets for the same. However, as science and technology make progress, smart technology can become cheaper and smart cities may become an economically viable option. For Example, TV sets were expensive once upon a time, when the product reaches the stage of high production and less demand the price tends to drop making it affordable to many.

6. Cyber Privacy:

With high interconnectedness in a city comes the risk of data. When data is highly transparently available to citizens and professionals for their respective jobs there is a slight doubt of misusing this information. Hence, setting up tight rules and regulations for Cyber Security in smart cities and strict access norms for such critical data is a must to maintain decorum within the city. While planning an IT infrastructure for private functions it's critical to keep the access private as per norms to avoid data breaches and intrusion. Additionally, professionals should design smart cities where risks are mitigated as well as interconnectivity is maintained. This will involve sitting down with stakeholders, technologists, policymakers, etc. to define systems that are secure that allow privacy along with data gathering.

7. Financial and Economic Development:

The biggest and most important question before you start chalking down a plan for a smart city is, who is going to pay for it? Though once built a smart city is a revenue generation model due to its highly modernised technology and these require massive investment, unlike conventional municipality budgets. Approaching the right people before implementation is vital like: investors, businesses with like-minded solutions, Governments who are keen to invest. There is no single solution to this issue but recently there are many private partnerships emerging which have proven to be fruitful. The use of traditional funding mechanisms such as a rate base for electrical and water utility improvements can also be considered high-yielding. Ideal fundraising/funding strategies may be identified from existing and untapped sources of capital, and new revenue streams.

Though a smart city project uplifts the standard of living of the city, there are loads of challenges while executing a Smart City Project you may want to prepare in advance for. TenderOnTime tracks new business opportunities for you and provides you with leads online. To get the latest information on online tenders, bidding and government contracts you can Subscribe to our basic or premium plan.