Building the foundation of smart cities

27 November 2020

By 2050, the world’s urban population is expected to be nearly double the size of what it is today. This rapid transformation undeniably entails challenges, to which the notion of smart cities is often presented as a panacea. But what exactly is a “Smart city”, and how do we overcome the challenges of urban densification? The Link asked two of the Chamber’s member companies, Icomera and Sweco, that contribute to the development of smart infrastructure, one of the pillars of a smart city, in different ways.

By using technology and data purposefully, societies will be able to improve the quality of life for city-dwellers, e.g. by developing safer and more efficient transport systems. Reliable, high-speed internet connectivity can be seen as the backbone of a smart city because it is needed to keep the vast ecosystem of devices and sensors connected.

Connectivity is key
Connecting over 5,000 trains and 26,000 buses and coaches worldwide, SCC member Icomera is the global leader in mobile Internet connectivity for public transport. “We believe that connected public transport vehicles are a key element in delivering the smart cities of the future, and we are working to build a world in which we can stay connected while we travel, wherever we travel,” Peter Kingsland, SVP UK & APAC at Icomera says. “Our patented technology provides the fastest, most secure and most reliable connection available to moving vehicles. In a transport context, passengers benefit from ubiquitous Wi-fi connectivity through being able to turn travel time into productive time, for both work and leisure. Beyond Wi-fi, our platform also supports a wide variety of other value-adding applications, such as remote vehicle monitoring, which improves operational efficiency and reduces costs, and sophisticated digital video surveillance, which ensures that passengers and staff are kept safe during their travels.”

Connectivity also in a broader sense
Sweco, a northern European engineering, environment and design consultancy is committed to sustainable urban development – a topic which is shared through its regular research reports that look at topical issues facing the urban environment from the citizens perspective. “Look for instance at the average time it takes to get to work in London. It hasn’t reduced in the last 50 years, and that’s the same with most European cities because we live further and further away. We spend more time in our cars and we experience more congestion on the trains. So how do we solve that? How do we put people back in our urban environments and get them walking and cycling?” Geoffrey Palmer, Sweco UK’s Director of Buildings, asks rhetorically.

“For me, a smart city is not necessarily about the technology. It’s not about having Internet of Things-technology in your fridge so that it can tell you what the temperature will be tomorrow. It’s about a shift towards renewable energy, making use of natural heating and ventilation, as well as lowering the energy use peaks e.g. by making use of timers on electrical devices so that everyone is not turning on their dishwashers at the same time, thereby lowering the burden on the network,” Geoffrey says.

In addition to increasing and improving internet connectivity, the development of smart cities is also about connecting different parts of society. Geoffrey continues: “Intelligence comes by using less to start with, and then see how we can share locally. Let’s say you have two apartments - one facing east and one facing west. The apartment facing east doesn’t need much heating in the morning and the apartment facing west doesn’t need much heating late in the afternoon. If we stop looking at these apartments separately and instead join these together in a central system we can reduce total energy use by allowing them to share energy with each other. The same goes for electric car batteries, which contain lots of renewable energy which can be “borrowed” short-term by our buildings or infrastructure when renewables are less plentiful.

“Creating smart cities is about taking away fragmentation and having a more holistic approach. Smart buildings, to me, starts with being naturally passive before you start adding things to make it low energy. It’s about creating buildings that can serve as an office today and residential tomorrow with relatively straightforward change, not having to knock it all the way down. Up until the last two or three years, buildings have been thought of in isolation - in isolation of transport, in isolation of their energy use, and in isolation of the needs of the community. Now all of the different pieces are slowly coming together. The way buildings interact with transport and the energy network is becoming much stronger, and I find that very exciting,” Geoffrey adds.

With densification comes new challenges
While future cities in many ways will be more convenient, urban densification also comes with challenges. “There’s undoubtedly a need to ease pressure on urban infrastructure, and public transportation has an important role to play in tackling that challenge. But in order to become more attractive than e.g. private car travel, which offers a door-to-door experience, the public transport infrastructure of tomorrow will need to integrate with other services (for example, bike and scooter hiring), enabling seamless door-to-door personal journeys utilising different modes of transport,” Peter says. “We work closely with public transport operators, vehicle manufacturers and municipal authorities to deliver a range of applications which enhance the passenger experience, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs, and help protect passengers and assets, among other things. Through delivering solutions which encourage people to use public transport over less sustainable forms of transport, we are helping drive the transition towards a carbon-neutral world.”

Geoffrey agrees: “The move towards low energy electric vehicles will bring about many health
benefits. As noise and pollution decrease, we can have more naturally ventilated offices, and we will get more people cycling and walking. I also think that with densifying urban areas, the importance of the spaces between becomes greater and greater. And if you want to create cities that are long-term sustainable it’s necessary to become more local. Currently, many people travel an hour and a half to get to their office in central London to get the quality or affordability of home environment that they don’t think they can get in London. We need to optimise more parks, look for pocket green spaces
and identify possible biodiversity corridors in inner-cities. We need to decrease pollution and
to create an environment that is more family-friendly so that people don’t feel it’s necessary to take a three-hour round-trip to go work. My challenge to everybody is to consider what they can do today to help biodiversity. Perhaps you could refrain from mowing that area of grass? Maybe you could plant something different or hang up a window box to help out the bees? We all have our part to play in improving and better utilising our urban environment.

Disruption is a chance to reconsider
While both Peter and Geoffrey acknowledge that their businesses have been affected by the ongoing pandemic, it’s evident that they in no way have lost their respective visions. “If anything, the pandemic has heightened our commitment to making mass transport the most productive, efficient, sustainable and above all, safe way to travel, Peter says. “The pandemic has created the need to restore passenger confidence in the use of public transport, especially where more crowded services are concerned, as well as the need to adopt new means of working. This is best achieved through the communication of onboard safety measures, real-time service updates, and passenger loading data via technologies such as Wi-Fi portals, and passenger information and announcement systems. Looking at the rail industry specifically, the need for higher capacity, continuous connectivity is just increasing and to this end, we are developing the next-generation of mobile connectivity through our TraXsideTM solution, which consists of a network of highspeed radio units installed on existing railway infrastructure such as towers or masts, helping infill any “not spots” where there is no cellular coverage, or to boost capacity in conjunction with 5G where it is needed most.”

“The decentralised model of our organisation allows us to be agile and to work remotely, so we’ve been able to continue working without any major hindrance,” Geoffrey says. “I think this whole pandemic gives us a place to reset from the hamster wheel of life and reconsider the way we do things, on both a professional and personal level. We need to stop focusing only on GDP, because if we do, we end up with unsustainable solutions. We are now in a place to look up and benefit from collaboration and move to long-term, people-centric solutions. The UK government is planning to invest a lot of money into green energy and into developing transport infrastructure, which is good news not only for the supply chain but for the country as a whole. Hopefully, it will make more people realise how everything is connected. That is possibly a silver lining to the Covid pandemic.