Smarter Destinations: What the Future of IoT holds for Cities and Local Government

Part of the Rarely Impossible IoT Smart Country series

www.rarelyimpossible.com/iot

What is IoT?

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is about connecting the physical objects around us to the internet and other connected devices. Advances in technical infrastructure and the rise of smart consumer products is making IoT increasingly mainstream. This is going to dramatically change the way we all live and work over the next 10 years.

This type of technology is already being widely used by various industries including automotive, agriculture, finance and transport. Sensors and smart appliances such as televisions, refrigerators and coffee-makers are popular examples of this technology being used in everyday homes. Accenture suggest that 30% consumers already own or plan to own an in-home smart device.

But while research suggests that 48% of British consumers are aware of IoT, only one in three are actually familiar with the technology.

By 2020

the amount of internet connected things could

exceed 50 billion

of companies have seen a return on their IoT

investments

94%

From

machine to machine connections will grow from 5

billion to 27 billion, with China having a 21% share and U.S

20%

2015 to 2024

Cisco believe IoT could generate

over the next 10 years for the public sector and

for the private sector

$4.6 trillion

$14.4 trillion

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Smart Cities

According to the ISO TMB Smart Cities Strategic Advisory Group:

A ‘Smart City’ is one that…… dramatically increases the pace at which it improves its social economic and environmental (sustainability) outcomes, responding to challenges such as climate change, rapid population growth, and political and economic instability …… by fundamentally improving how it engages society, how it applies collaborative leadership methods, how it works across disciplines and city systems, and how it uses data information and modern technologies……in order to provide better services and quality of life to those in and involved with the city (residents, businesses, visitors), now and for the foreseeable future, without unfair disadvantage of others or degradation of the natural environment.

(ISO Smart Cities Report 2014) 100 cities

More than

of 1 million people will be built in the next 10

years

60m

The number of urban residents is growing

by nearly

every year

Cities occupy

of land

2%

of people from developed countries will

live in cities

86% by 2050

Cities house

of global population60%

Cities consume

of Earth’s resources75%

Source: Cisco

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Smart City Concepts

In 1800, only 2% of the world’s population lived in urban areas compared to an estimated 60% who will call cities their home in 15 years’ time.

Perhaps the most important issues to be addressed include: over-crowding, pollution, social isolation and energy consumption. Demand has forced the cost of living to rise in cities and is straining both the environment and infrastructure.

Congested roads and rail are affecting the air quality and psychological wellbeing of citizens. Social services are burdened by poor health issues like obesity, heart disease and depression.

However, driverless cars, smart “energy-saving” buildings, accessible Wi-Fi and free-flowing public information are soon going to be the norm for smart cities. But the increasing number of connected devices and rising number of electric cars on the road may mean the existing electric grid is likely to be insufficient to power the city.

A smart city is about leveraging technology to share information and insight, connect people, measure the quality of the area in which they live and influence a healthier, more sustainable way of living.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2014/06/19/smart-cities-a-1-5-trillion-market-opportunity/#2941b47d7ef9

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Opportunities

“The dream of a smart city is to be efficient, productive, sustainable, social and

free!” - Alex Garrigues, Barcelona iCapital

“A smart city has to be a learning city”. - Josep Pique, Barcelona City Council

Cities that are pioneering this technological disruption include Barcelona,

Singapore, Eindhoven, San Francisco, Stockholm and Tel Aviv. Countries, such

as Australia and India, are also developing new urban settlements from scratch.

Barcelona’s superblock initiative aims to reduce vehicular traffic and make these

mini-neighbourhoods pollution friendly. Closer to home, Bristol, Manchester,

Glasgow and Milton Keynes are embracing IoT for development.

Whilst a smart city isn’t built in a day, we can look to a number of specific sectors

who are already exploring how smart cities unlock new opportunities and tackle

today’s issues.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/superblocks-rescue-barcelona-spain-plan-give-streets-back-residents

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Energy Efficiency

With predicted urbanisation trends, one of the most important aims of a smarter

city is reducing pollution and energy levels. Governments must look at ways

to effectively save money and increase efficiency of energy sources. Smart

technologies can deliver real time data on energy usage across a city to analyse

and identify inefficiencies. This can also help to predict and mitigate problems,

such as power failures in bad weather.

20%The average home

wastes almost

of the energy it consumes, unnecessarily

£8bnThe UK could save

up to

By 2020, IoT is expected to grow the energy market from $7.59 billion in 2015 to

$22.34 billion

a year by using electricity more

efficiently

Utility companies could save $7.1 billion -

each year by using smart water solutions

$12.5 billion

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Energy Efficiency

Out and About

The Strawberry Tree is a public seating innovation that provides a unique space for citizens to access the internet, charge their devices and socialise. It also collects data on temperature, CO2, noise, humidity and air pressure, allowing towns to better understand their environment. This solar powered structure lights up at night to make the surrounding areas safer.

In the UKIn 2015, Bournemouth Borough Council worked to replace all existing street lights with 16,500 LEDs, resulting in a 73% reduction in electricity consumption and carbon footprint.

According to Cisco, cities that use information technology to track energy can make 30% savings within 20 years.

At HomeSmart Meters and other devices such as Efergy Ego and Neurio Home Energy Monitor can help home owners to track which devices consume most energy. They now have the power to switch off devices not in use, calculate accurate bills and optimise the home environment through a mobile app. Installing a smart grid can empower home owners to gain control on the devices that consume more electricity and sell extra energy, all through a smart device.

Photograph: Marc Ehrenbold

Source: Neurio: http://neur.io/products/

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Local governments can effectively save money, improve departmental project

efficiency and can leverage smarter technologies to receive real time data and

better manage resources.

A smart city app, such as Boston’s Bos:311 engages residents to improve public

services, by reporting non-emergency issues such as graffiti or potholes. Similarly,

the Massachusetts Commonwealth Connect app opens dialogue between citizens

and the local government, allowing them to report concerns in their neighbourhood.

This is particularly useful in ensuring the report is routed to the correct department.

Similarly, sensors in recycling bins can notify councils when they are full, meaning

that collection crews can only when needed. This creates immediate savings in

terms of labour and number of trucks needed.

Councils & Local Enterprise

Solving Parking WoesParking apps are a simple, yet effective example of smarter technologies easing town congestion and reducing one of life’s everyday headaches. Drivers can download Streetline’s “Parker” app to spot legal car parking spaces near them, saving users time and fuel.

Milton Keynes uses sensors in parking spaces to make changes to their parking restrictions, by observing the average parking duration in certain zones. For instance, the average waiting time in the train station drop-off zone was increased to 20 minutes which helped to reduce illegal parking and congestion on busy roads.

Source: Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/search/parking?photo=fNmqHVmhHR0

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Councils & Local Enterprise

A Broader PicturePlanet Labs supports high-resolution imagery of cities captured by over 100 nano-satellites in space. Governments can monitor changes in the city’s lifecycle, track illegal deforestation and can devise an action plan during an emergency. The application of this technology can be extended to various sectors and use cases from agriculture and civil government, to creating real social impact.

Local TourismBristol City Council works with businesses, charities, education providers and citizens to become a “resilient, sustainable and prosperous” city. Open data from the Bristol API encouraged local developers to create an app that would solve the city’s challenges. Blue Sparrows won by creating the Tiny Tours app, which lets users plan fun activities and days out in Bristol. Destination Bristol has also installed over 200 beacons around famous tourism landmarks, which sends users relevant information based on their exact location.

Source: Unsplash: https://hd.unsplash.com/photo-1454023776364-dd0f4ce93d91

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Travelling in the CityGoogle-backed Side Walk Labs’ Flow creates digital tools to help governments and business understand how people travel within a city. The aim is to ease urban transport problems, support street management and maintain a real-time parking inventory.

Dublin is one of the first cities to use Augmented Reality in transport within the city. People can point their mobile devices towards a bus stop to gain immersive information on their screen in real time. This includes route information and real-time arrival data. Pointing their devices towards specific landmarks can also provide the user with links to its website, contact information, events and offers or the ability to book tickets right from your screen.

As a city expands, the transport sector will play a central role in mass transit. Overcrowding, traffic, air pollution and limited land resources are going to force governments to think of innovative ways to make public transport appealing. IoT in this area is connecting different modes of transport to provide real-time information, ticketing, increase safety and predict maintenance before it’s due.

Self-parking and self-driving cars, such as those developed by Tesla, are gaining popularity. But it’s not just cars where we are seeing new technologies disrupt the transport industry, bikes are catching up as well.

Redefining Cycling

The Things Network designed an app which gets information about the whereabouts of the owner’s bicycle from an attached sensor. The app will let the owner know where their bike is and send notifications if it has moved whilst the owner’s mobile device is not nearby, thus assuming neither is the owner. Similarly, the Connected Cycle is a WiFi pedal with GPS tracking. It tracks the speed, route taken, incline and calories burnt.

Other technologies worth reading about include BitLock, Hövding airbag helmet and the bike sharing system in London.

Road Safety

Transport for London (TfL) is carrying out road safety trials by fitting buses with sensors to prevent accidents with pedestrians and cyclists. The systems use radar and optical technology to alert the bus driver and prevent collisions.

Source: Unsplash https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1473192047078-db913b6d44ac?ixlib=rb-0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&s=3d2119264a0c1603cc8d9b8b5165c970

Transport

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Home modifications can ease accessibility for special needs and ensure vulnerable residents are safe. For instance, sensors installed at the top and bottom of the staircase can help detect if the resident has not woken up or come downstairs, thus notifying family or caregivers that something is amiss. This allows the elderly to live comfortably in a familiar environment, while ensuring the family’s peace of mind.

The City4Age project, funded by the EU, aims to make urban areas elderly-friendly by identifying risk associated with cognitive impairments and frailty. It also hopes to provide a platform for the elderly to remain actively engaged. For instance, Madrid is running a trial project to ease public transport for the elderly by tracking activity data and travel routes through a smartphone app. Local governments in Athens and Singapore are working with community centres and friendship clubs to track the impact of socialising on mental health. And Birmingham has installed beacons in neighbourhoods to provide real-time information on transit routes and facilities through a multi-channel ‘Digital Log Book’.

All of these initiatives encourage the elderly to feel at ease in interacting with technology and create a sense of community that supports their personal needs.

With predicted cuts to local government, councils will need to find an extra £330m in residential and social care. Governments are busy developing the physical, legal and environmental infrastructure of the city to raise its standards and meet the needs of its ever-expanding population. Social care and health far exceed the national spending on education and public order (The Guardian 2016).

Elderly Friendly City

The ‘longevity economy’ describes the opportunities for healthcare providers and governments to enable independent and secure living for senior citizens. IoT can create an environment of independence for older citizens and enable better healthcare monitoring, prevention and support services. The key is developing technology that is intuitive and user-friendly for a demographic that often feels digitally excluded and uncomfortable.

Health and Social Care

40%of UK’s national health spending is devoted to

people over the age of 65

Data can be unobtrusively aggregated from smartphones, wearables and remote monitoring systems to ensure that smart cities are receptive to the needs of people who require additional care and support.

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The GreatCall Lively wearable acts as an emergency response system. The combination of sensors and smartwatch promote an active lifestyle by doubling up as a fitness tracker, while the urgent response button alerts family members through the app when the user is feeling faint or has fallen. Similarly, Active Protective’s Smart Belt detects irregular motion and deploys airbags to protect the hips when a fall is detected.

Public Health

In terms of the wider public, the Shadow Wi-Fi is an example of ways in which destinations can think smarter about looking after their residents and visitors. The large wall is installed on a beach or popular sunspot, and transmits Wi-Fi only when users are in its shade. It’s a clever initiative alerting people to the dangers of skin cancer and seeks to reduce the number of UV injuries admitted to hospital. It is currently located in Peru but is also being launched in New Zealand and USA.

Health and Social Care

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“Growth is inevitable and desirable, but destruction of community character is not. The question is not whether your part of the world is going to change. The question

is how.” -Edward T. McMahon

Modern technology can be leveraged to cope with the exhaustive demands of the future and make urban living simpler and more sustainable. But we also understand the challenges that councils and businesses face in developing and executing new innovative solutions.

Funding the Future

Converting an existing city’s infrastructure towards becoming a smart city may seem daunting, especially when a large up-front investment is required. Budget cuts and the challenges in obtaining external funding can easily become a deterrent. But that’s when initiatives like crowdsourcing can support, whilst also driving citizen engagement. For example, tweets from residents of flood-prone Jakarta are updated to a publicly accessible, open source, real-time map of the city, managed by the Emergency Management Agency to gain situational awareness.

Trial and Error

Carrying out necessary trials for new technologies can be time and resource intensive, especially when success cannot always be guaranteed and you need to execute existing, business-as-usual plans. Lack of knowledge or project leadership can be a hindrance and teams are often under pressure to deliver quick and measurable results for their investment. In such instances, working with specialists to carry out a pilot study, or proof of concept, can help to validate solutions through relatively small up-front investment before larger initiatives are rolled out. Besides this, collaboration projects such as Triangulum can help transfer of knowledge and

Challenges

experience provided useful models for reference. Under this project, Manchester, Eindhoven and Stavanger jointly implemented smart city solutions with citizens. This now serves as a reference for other European cities and an example of best practice helping replicate other successful initiatives.

Multiple Stakeholders

Smart city projects force councils out of their comfort zones and means collaborating with multiple stakeholders, ranging from complimentary industries and local enterprise, to universities and charity organisations. Conflicting motivations are inevitable. Sometimes there’s a grey area in determining all the beneficiaries of the gathered data – governments, businesses and citizens. However, ultimately this is a nice problem to have when you consider the endless possibilities, especially when everyone’s striving towards a positive, sustainable goal.

The Final Word

There is no single definition that sets the parameter for a smart city. Every city has a unique set of needs and resources. Setting an ambitious road map, while benchmarking the performance, will go a long way in creating a collaborative environment. Ultimately, a city that adapts itself to the needs of its residents and manages resources efficiently and sustainably is a Smart City.

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Rarely Impossible

At Rarely Impossible, we believe that a smart city is often at the heart of creative-technological disruption. Our solutions are sector-agnostic, inspired by business problems, everyday frustrations and brilliant new tech capabilities. Our current projects include working with council housing services, local councils and tourist landmarks.

The R&D team is currently researching the application of technology in assisted living, predictive analytics for equipment and asset maintenance, destination apps and improving workplace productivity.

In February this year, we launched the Bournemouth IoT Network, a city-wide network open for anyone to use. A sensor connected to this network can transfer data at a slow speed (around 50 kbps) but over a distance as large as 5km in an urban area. Environmental information on temperature, humidity, air quality, UV light, volume, movement can easily be tracked. The possibilities are endless.

If you want to create a digitally enhanced experience for your customers, stakeholders and service users, we want to work with you.

We love to share and discuss ideas, so whether you’ve got a project in the pipeline or have just enjoyed reading this report. We’d love to hear from you.

For more in the Rarely Impossible IoT Smart Country series visit:

http://www.rarelyimpossible.com/connecteddevices

Phone: 0330 001 1282

Email: hello@rarely.io

Tweet: @rarelyimpossibl

Pop in: Platinum House, 23 Hinton Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH1 2EF

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Sources

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https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/labs-insight-industrial-internet-of-things

http://www.cbronline.com/news/internet-of-things/consumer/iot-smart-cities-most-uk-people-dont-even-understand-the-concept-4879562

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2015/03/09/the-top-five-smart-cities-in-the-world

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2014/06/19/smart-cities-a-1-5-trillion-market-opportunity/#2941b47d7ef9

http://www.iso.org/iso/smart_cities_report-jtc1.pdf

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/how-much-economic-growth-comes-from-our-cities/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-26888378

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35722324

https://www.smartenergygb.org/en/the-bigger-picture/about-the-rollout

https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/mar/31/internet-of-things-revolutionise-council-services

http://visitbristol.co.uk/destinationbristol/information/news/2016/7/20/new-app-for-planning-days-out-in-bristol-launches-a2894

http://www.futurespacesfoundation.org/2016/03/the-future-of-cycling-introduce-boris-bikes-in-outer-zones-and-make-cycling-part-of-a-multi-modal-commute-to-make-londons-roads-a-place-for-everyone/

https://skift.com/2016/02/01/how-the-rise-of-smart-cities-is-impacting-travel-and-tourism/

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2014/august/new-bus-sensor-technology-trialtfl

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/01/ageing-britain-two-fifths-nhs-budget-spent-over-65sguad

http://www.city4ageproject.eu/

http://www.psfk.com/2015/05/beachgoers-get-free-wi-fi-in-the-shade-prevent-skin-cancer-shadow-wi-fi.html

https://www.ted.com/talks/carlo_ratti_architecture_that_senses_and_responds/transcript?language=en#t-133894

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/internet-of-things-iot-in-smart-cities-market-worth-14751-billion-usd-by-2020-568599431.html

http://readwrite.com/2016/07/27/5-key-technologies-of-a-smart-city/

https://petajakarta.org/banjir/en/research/

http://triangulum-project.eu/

Productshttp://www.clara.com.au/

http://www.lavasa.com/

http://www.efergy.com/ego/

Http://neur.io/

http://senergy.rs/?lang=en

http://www.cityofboston.gov/doit/apps/311.asp

https://www.boston.gov/departments/innovation-and-technology/apps

http://www.streetline.com/

http://www.bluesparrowapps.com/tiny-tours/

https://www.planet.com/

https://www.f6s.com/iwanttoridemybicycle

http://connectedcycle.com/

https://bitlock.co/

http://www.hovding.com/

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http://www.civicresource.com/civicconnect.html

https://www.greatcall.com/devices/lively-wearable-senior-activity-tracker

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For more in the Rarely Impossible IoT Smart Country series visit:

http://www.rarelyimpossible.com/connecteddevices

Phone: 0330 001 1282

Email: hello@rarely.io

Tweet: @rarelyimpossibl

Pop in: Platinum House, 23 Hinton Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH1 2EF

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