Smart city technology is gradually maturing, helping to pull up community safety protection networks

2024-01-16

A city is a living ecosystem with constantly changing demands. 2020 is a clear example. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges to urban management for governments in countries, states, and cities around the world.

Since then, cities and municipal authorities have made significant changes to their daily operations, changed priorities, and readjusted strategic planning to help their communities maintain safety and connectivity during this different period from the past. The impact of COVID-19 will undoubtedly affect the future way communities live and work.

Many cities have exhausted their budget for dealing with COVID-19 emergencies. Nevertheless, cities will still face pressure to create employment opportunities and continue to provide reliable urban services at optimized costs. Fortunately, state and local governments will begin to see a portion of the funds designated for them in the US rescue stimulus plan.

In the coming months, city governments will develop strategies for 2021-2022 based on the most urgent community challenges in the post pandemic world. When cities provide services and economic opportunities for their communities during the ongoing pandemic recovery process, they must consider the sustained impact 10 years later. A key area that local, state, and national governments will focus on in the coming years is community safety.

In the past 12 months, ensuring the safety of residents has been the top priority of the municipal government. In addition to the global impact of COVID-19 on regular operations, the United States has also experienced the most severe hurricane season in history and record breaking wildfires in California. In 2020, there was also an increase in internal strife worldwide. Although these public safety issues differ in many aspects, for urban managers, they are similar in terms of the risks they bring to the community and their impact on daily life.

Streetlights lay the foundation for innovation in smart cities

According to Forrester analyst Michele Pelino, many city governments have reallocated budgets over the past year to address security related issues. Urban decision-makers have significantly reduced operating costs by focusing early smart city plans on projects that can almost immediately realize value.

For example, for many cities, smart street lights have become the first step towards a smart city. The smart street lighting program has improved citizen safety while reducing electricity bills and freeing up millions of dollars to address more time and resource intensive projects.

These initial deployments of smart cities provided another important benefit for urban and municipal managers. By deploying anchored applications such as smart street lights, the municipal government has built an underlying communication infrastructure that can provide power for the next set of smart city use cases.

It is expected that urban managers will always grasp the pulse of the city to predict or respond to public safety hazards. However, it is almost impossible to complete a task without access to real-time information and digital infrastructure that supports this information.

By launching smart city projects with high impact and low risk (such as smart lightning), cities can lock in immediate investment returns while laying the foundation for encouraging continuous innovation and accommodating various applications and use cases, including public safety.

Safety will continue to be the main focus of the city

With security becoming the focus, privacy protection has become the foundation for ensuring the security of interconnected smart city projects. People are increasingly concerned about protecting the infrastructure of smart cities to ensure the safety of interconnected places, things, and people.

Municipal managers will increasingly rely on smart city technologies supported by newly launched IoT infrastructure and related sensor data to identify public security threats and take action.

In addition to smart street lighting, smart city applications will also help city governments immediately identify public safety threats, including riots, natural disasters, gas leaks, and even epidemic hotspots. Allowing the municipal government to take action will prevent or minimize potential damage and impact on their community.

Sensors can help detect public safety issues

Hurricanes, storms, floods, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires, and other natural disasters are becoming increasingly frequent, severe, and costly. Intelligent sensors and advanced analytics can help communities better predict, prepare, and respond to these emergency situations. For example, IoT sensors such as pole tilt, distribution lines, water level, and air quality sensors can be used to reduce risks, minimize damage, and respond more effectively to save lives and accelerate post disaster recovery.

By combining sensors with predictive analysis, urban governments can identify problems and drive results during and after natural disasters. These include:

Detect leaks and remotely close water pipes

Check if the pole has fallen off to prevent safety risks and promote faster resumption of work

Issue alerts to communicate quickly with citizens, provide new information to ensure their safety

Using intelligent evacuation plans to better guide traffic and keep people away from harm

Cities and utility companies can use remote disconnection devices, as well as lines and fault sensors, to obtain urgently needed intelligence and dispatch maintenance personnel to equip them with the necessary equipment for quick service recovery, rather than sending people to discover problems.

How will smart city technology help continue to improve security?

The pandemic has exacerbated many community issues, from internal turmoil to the digital divide in underserved communities. Public safety has become a top priority for global communities, and quickly identifying threats to ensure rapid response is crucial for reducing risks.

To meet this demand, many cities are investing in technology to provide critical infrastructure and services. By using smart city technology, municipal authorities can unleash value for their communities and lay the foundation for future use cases.

Although still an emerging market, smart cities have surpassed hype and are now helping to solve practical problems and create considerable value for cities and municipal governments.

As cities, municipal authorities, and utility companies hope to further improve their services and the safety of citizens in this different period from usual, smart city technology will become more important for better preparation and response to the next safety hazard.

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