Smart City Hub

The article below tells you what is driving the need to establish smart cities, how smart city concepts and projects are different in the developing world, and what technologies and systems are needed to make them a reality.

And it gives a lot of facts and figures.

Urban innovators are increasingly thinking of the city not just in terms of place, but as a platform. Throughout history, cities have been crucibles of innovation because of physical concentration of people, the independence of spirit, and the creative collision of different backgrounds.

Today, the connectivity revolution through which we are living offers new possibilities. Digital platforms are already changing the way we use our urban spaces: AirBnB for staying; Tinder for dating; Uber for moving.

The next wave of transformative change may come from seeing the whole city as an innovation platform. Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, on a recent visit to the UK asked: “What would a city look like if you started from scratch in the internet era - if you built a city from the internet up?”

See whole article below:

In Amsterdam, mailcompany PostNL is replacing 100 Diesel delivery van rides with sustainable e-cargo bicycle delivery. This will reduce carbon emissions by approximately 60,000kg per year. This way, PostNL wants to contribute to clean city centres and improve accessibility in the city centre. After Amsterdam, the cities of Utrecht, The Hague, Rotterdam and other major cities will follow.

For centuries, street lamps were only used to lighten your streets. But nowadays, technology is thus far, that they can be used for so much more. In Green Village (Delft University) a number of companies are investigating the possibilities to make street lamps the brain of the city.

They are everywhere, are a stable and high basis, and are connected to the powergrid. Street lamps offer many possibilities to contribute to smart cities, for instance:

* safety camera’s
* Wifi sensors
* antennas
* devices to measure air quality, traffic congestion or noise

What? They can even be used to verify if a parking space is available, or why not use them to charge electric cars?

In Green Village, a group of companies will test the possibilities of street lamps for smart cities. In fact, the term street lamp does not fit any more, the new commonly accepted name is ‘Smart City Hubs’ (no relationship with the name of this website).

What is unique about this concept? In Green Village, a city infrastructure is created, in which companies, students, startups, researchers and other stakeholders can work together to develop and test new products. It is a real life version of a city centre, where city governments can monitor developments in real time.

The street lamp will become the iPhone of the street. While thusfar companies did only attach sensors and devices to street lamps, in Green Village sensors and devices will be fully integrated in the street lamps (clip-ons).

Read the full article below.

Hi all,

In the article below you can read about the digitization process of the city of Moscow. Part of its success is the fact that there is a centralized organization of all public IT-systems. But they have some issues too.

I wonder if the city of Amsterdam shows similarities?

Egbert

City policy-makers need to revisit the approaches they adopted to combat urbanization challenges. Traditionally, the provision of urban infrastructure and services to meet people’s basic needs, local economic development and environmental protection has been the exclusive province of the public sector. Urbanization dynamics have evolved over time and call for a transition to a more collaborative approach enabling the private sector, civil society and academia to participate and be a partner in bringing about the desired transformation.

The figure below depicts the four stages of a city’s development. Cities need to identify their current stage and the future transformational initiatives they plan to adopt to climb the development ladder at a rate that is commensurate with the pace of urbanization.

See below an insightful interview with Guus Sluijter about how the Smart Society Programme of the city of Eindhoven is managed, funded and secured, in co-operation with the public and enterprises. If you are interested in a similar interview, please let me know.

Read the full interview below.

Within the next minute, the global urban population will increase by 145 people. Urbanization is inevitable and is one of this century’s most important megatrends. In 1800, about two percent of the world’s population lived in cities. Now it’s 50 percent. Every week, some 1.5 million people join the urban population, through an amalgamation of migration and childbirth. China and India, two leading Asian countries, add 60,000 people every day to urbanization figures.

Globally, a vast majority live in urban regions, and this number is set to increase by 2050 with more than two-thirds of the world’s population dwelling in cities.

The global rise in cities has been unprecedented. But sharp regional variations exist: Africa’s population is projected to double by 2050, while Europe’s is expected to shrink.

Read more in the article below.