It’s IoT Day today, and to celebrate, IoT Evolution is bringing you a little recap of the Smart City highlights over the past year. Smart city is the heart and soul of the IoT, and the last 12 months have seen some really interesting executions. Here are a few of our favorites. For more on Smart Cities, join us at The Smart City Event, June 4-5 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia.
Amarjeet Sohi, Canadian Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and Jenny Gerbasi, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), announced funding for 72 Smart City initiatives in communities across Canada through three funding programs: the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP), the Municipal Asset Management Program (MAMP), and the Green Municipal Fund (GMF). The projects in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Smoky Lake, Alberta, Kingston, Ontario, and 69 others will demonstrate the work being done on these fronts in municipalities large and small, according to the statement.
Cisco is investing $1 million in Smart City technology for Adelaide, Australia to help reduce traffic congestion in that city and create the foundations for the deployment of autonomous vehicles on busy roads.
With an increased awareness in implementing IoT strategies in India, the government of India is furthering its measures to enable Smart City projects and leveraging IoT technology to create a sustainable environment in the country. Under the Smart Cities project launched by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, which is valued at over half a billion dollars, the country is bringing solutions to Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai.
The City of Stratford, Ontario moved forward on a pilot project designed to enable it to track the use of municipal parking spaces, and eventually make that data available to the public. The smart parking initiative, which brings the city together with partners eleven-x, FoxNet and Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX), involves sensors embedded in the asphalt that will send signals to a low power wireless network indicating whether vehicles are parked in the spaces.
AT&T made it clear that it is committed to Smart City development. Through collaborations with other industry leaders, the company said it is working closely with city leadership to deliver solutions that address some of the key challenges facing communities. To transform cities, the entire smart cities ecosystem, AT&T said, and so it created the AT&T Smart Cities Strategic Alliance, made up of industry organizations and tech companies, including Cisco, IBM, Intel, Synchronoss and Ubicquia. AT&T and CarForce are collaborating to help car dealerships, fleet managers, and repair shops better manage car maintenance and predict issues. AT&T and Cisco are exploring opportunities to integrate the Cisco Kinetic for Cities platform into AT&T Smart Cities solutions, including AT&T Smart Cities Operations Center. For supply chain, the company has integrated Geotab’s fleet tracking platform with its IoT platforms to launch the AT&T Fleet Management for Enterprise and AT&T Fleet Management for Government. Finally, as part of the AT&T smart cities spotlight cities initiative, the city of Portland is set to pilot two new solutions: AT&T Smart Cities Digital Infrastructure and AT&T Smart Cities Structure Monitoring.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) released a study forecasting that worldwide spending on Smart City enablement technology will reach $80 billion this year. According to the IDC, successful digital transformations of Smart Cities are blending together environmental, financial, and social outcomes. In IDC's view, a Smart City begins to be developed when multiple smart initiatives are coordinated to leverage technology investments across an entire city, use common platforms to decrease service time/maintenance costs, share data across systems, and tie IT investments clearly to smart missions.
Five cities won 2018 Readiness Challenge Grants from the Smart Cities Council, including: Birmingham, AL; Cary, NC; Las Vegas, NV; Louisville/Jefferson County, KY; and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Each received mentoring and tailored products and services to accelerate their smart city initiatives. The four runners-up were Albuquerque, NM; Aurora, IL; Fairfax County, VA; and Los Angeles.
Noise Pollution is a problem in urban areas. And more and more people live in cities every day, so it’s a problem for most of us now. In fact, noise is the top complaint among New York City residents. City residents have been shown to have hearing levels of people 10 or 15 years older because of their constant exposure to noise. Students at schools in noisier areas also tend to do worse than those in quieter areas. To address this, Novecom and Altizon have been creating solutions this year, and testing them at the Newcastle 500 Supercar race in New South Wales, Australia.
IDC Government Insights named the finalists in its inaugural Smart Cities North America Awards(SCNAA). The new awards were designed to recognize the progress North American communities have made in executing Smart Cities projects. The finalists: Ann Arbor, MI; Las Vegas, NV; Arlington, TX; Boston, MA; Kansas City, MO; Detroit, MI; Miami – Dade County, FL; Dallas, TX; Chicago, IL; Spokane, WA; The State of Illinois; San Diego, CA; Virginia Beach, VA; Lafayette, LA; Los Angeles, CA; San Jose, CA; Arlington, TX; Washington, DC; El Paso, TX; Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX; State of Arkansas; Austin, TX; New York, NY; Tukwila, WA; Little Rock, AR; Baton Rouge, LA; Charlotte, NC.
That’s just a sample of the hottest news happening in the Smart City Space right now, and to keep up with these stories and all the other news, make sure you keep reading the Smart City Sentinel, and register now for The Smart City Event, June 4-5 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.
