What It Takes to Realize Smart Cities

 

 

 

Leveraging the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), many Asian cities are looking to become smart cities such as Smart Nation in Singapore, Digital China, Digital India, Jakarta Smart city. But do the governments and organizations in those cities have the expertise of building and running such smart cities? We spoke to Dr Helmut Reisinger, Executive Vice President International at Orange Business Services, to find out the requirements and challenges of smart cities.  

 

 

Dr Reisinger: Cities are becoming ever more complex. Burgeoning urban populations put increasing pressures on essential infrastructure and services, from fresh water supply to sewage, from street lighting to transport, from healthcare to education. On top of all that, cities need to take into consideration environmental factors such as climate change and supporting open spaces in densely built areas.

 

The concept of a 'smart city' may be difficult to define, but the goal of all smart cities is to create an urban environment that raises the quality of life for residents and by using technology to improve the efficiency of public services to meet their needs. The United Nations projects that 66 percent of the world's population will be living in urban areas in 2050, with Asia and Africa accounting for close to 90 percent of that growth. Faced with such daunting prospects, city officials - especially those in Asia - need to turn to sustainable urban management and technologies to rise up to the challenge of keeping their cities running. In the end, the smarter a city, the more it will attract long-term investments and people.

 

 

As with the adoption of any nascent technology, 'smart' technology is bound to face varying adoption rates across different industries. Some industries take to IoT like fish to water, while others struggle with general mistrust of increased connectivity, security issues, or simply inertia to change.

 

The Asia Pacific region is embarking on rapid digitalization. According to a recent Gartner report, global enterprise software spending is on pace to total $321 billion, a 4.2 percent increase from 2015. Orange Business Services has observed strong, double-digit growth in demand for cloud and IoT technology in the region. This shows that businesses recognize the impact of digital transformation on the way their organizations are run, and subsequently their profitability.

 

Another major hurdle to IoT adoption is the issue of interoperability. Without standardized data formats and semantics, open application programming interfaces (APIs) or big data analytics, the vision behind IoT cannot be fully realized. IoT providers and developers need to pull together and move towards a common platform in order to create a seamless network of connected devices that will truly embody 'smart' technology.

One other key issue with IoT adoption is that of cyber defense and privacy. IoT is not only about connecting objects but also about the usage of data generated by these objects. This raises the crucial questions of ownership, access and transparency. Allowing companies to work collaboratively and cross pollinate each other around data is essential if we want to ignite new business ideas.

 

In the case of IoT it is not a question of whether to adopt it, but how rapidly industries can embrace it. With such a pervasive and adaptable technology, no organization can afford to overlook IoT. The faster industries can find workarounds to their IoT challenges, the sooner they will be able to reap its benefits.

 

 

The smart cities concept - utilizing mobile technology, sensors and actuators, and cloud computing to create a more sustainable future for city life - is already being well underway in Asia Pacific, and holds tremendous potential to contribute more in the coming years. However, falling municipal budgets and a lack of cooperation amongst various stakeholders, are posing hurdles to the rate of adoption of smart city technologies.

 

City managers need to spend money wisely. Cities which embrace smart technologies, big data and IoT are investing in a more efficient and sustainable future. This is an imperative for all of us. The OECD Environmental Outlook drives this home very clearly: by 2050, we will have a world economy four times larger than it was in 2012, with 80 per cent greater energy need. Cities are facing unprecedented growth and there needs to be a change in the way we manage land and energy use.

 

In this context, cities need to do more than implement individual smart initiatives. There needs to be concerted effort between the public and private sectors, as well as across industries, to cooperate and share information and best practices to improve the quality of urban life. Government policy, funding technological innovation and public engagement efforts will also play a big role in catalyzing the adoption of IoT and the development of smart cities.

 

Governments need to take the lead in developing smart cities through strategic urban planning and partnerships with the private sector. However, most governments lack expertise or funds to develop, implement, and run smart cities. To overcome this, governments should look at working with major industry players who have strong existing capabilities in smart cities and continue to invest in IoT. Through such partnerships, governments can leverage the private sector's capabilities and economies of scale to fulfill their smart city objectives.

 

Singapore is exemplary in this respect. Recognizing the impact of smart technology, the government released its Intelligent Nation 2015 master plan in 2006, and subsequently the Smart Nation plan, outlining the city-state's ambitions and steps towards its goals. It has also set up the Smart Nation Programme Office to galvanize the smart city movement. The plan includes calls-to-action for the private sector, as well as encourages public participation in shaping Singapore's vision of becoming a smart city and nation.

 

Digital India is also a notable Asian smart city initiative in which Orange is proud to be supporting through several key projects. The Indian government has taken the lead in the bringing the country forward by digitally empowering its citizens, and is approaching the mission through actively partnering private industry players.

 

Another way governments can encourage the development of smart cities is through policy-making and providing relevant funding. With a clear direction for cities to take and the appropriate guidelines for working towards it, policy-making and funding could accelerate research into IoT in strategic directions. For example, India's Smart City Challenge spurred its states to submit bold proposals for their nominated cities. The plans had to include pan-city initiatives that made use of smart technology to touch the lives of many, or potentially all, of its citizens.

 

Lastly, but certainly not the least, smart technology was created to improve lives, and it would probably serve city officials well to rethink smart cities from the ground up. Smart city efforts need to engage the public. By having a good grasp of the challenges citizens face, as well as understanding their most pressing needs, municipal governments can then prioritise and adopt the right smart solutions to meet these needs.

 

 

Orange strongly believes in the merits of the smart city movement. We are actively looking to support municipal governments across the globe with their IoT needs. In recent years, we have worked on projects in Europe and the Middle East. Each project has given us invaluable insights into the unique ways cities are run all over the world, many of which can be translated to cities in other regions as well.

 

In 2011, we created a dedicated smart city entity to support the digital transformation of towns. The objectives were to improve their economic and tourist attractiveness, streamline transportation flows, develop innovative services for residents, and to optimize resources. The smart city entity showcases Orange's digital research and innovation expertise to develop the technologies that will materialise the city of tomorrow.

A key learning with our smart city work is that most cities do not have the privilege of working with greenfield sites, and that technology providers need to exercise creativity in developing solutions that work around the constraints posed by brown field sites. While there are greenfield developments in the Middle East such as King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia, Lusail in Qatar and Masdar City in the UAE, smart citiy projects in the Middle East are not just about brand new cities. Brownfield sites include Dubai and Doha, which aim to become 'smarter' cities.

 

In Saudi Arabia, Orange Business Services has been working with the Al Ra'idah Investment Company for years to develop the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) the largest of four smart cities the country invested $70 billion to build. Located north of Riyadh, KAFD will offer a futuristic smart city experience, extending across mass transit, energy supply, and more.

 

Orange is working with prominent French construction company, Eiffage, to implement all digital solutions for the new EcoDistrict Euroméditerranée, an eco-friendly development spanning, 58,000 m2 in Marseille. The EcoDistrict will see the installation of a very high speed global network infrastructure, which will support all the digital services available in the district, as well as provide free Wi-Fi coverage in all public areas. The city will also feature innovative urban solutions such as dynamic displays, interactive information points, shared parking. One highlight of the district is its web and mobile community portal, which will serve as the unifying bond between all services in the eco-district, and as a platform for exchanges among residents.

 

In France, we have also developed mobile applications for counties or towns, such as MaVilleDansMaPoche, an intelligent citizen's assistant on smart phone. These applications aggregate and distribute to the residents all information pertaining to the city and the greater region. Residents will receive information on events, parking availability, bus or tram arrival times, and security and weather alerts. They can also make use of the application to report safety or traffic incidents to the city. Such mobile applications facilitate the everyday life of a city's residents, and improve the quality and efficiency of public services.

 

While many of these solutions are already present here in APAC in various forms, we have learnt through our smart cities work that the success of these initiatives depends on the integration of solutions, and the sharing of information among stakeholders. Most smart city initiatives are spearheaded by governments, but the private sector and members of the public need to be engaged right from the planning phase so as to ensure the successful implementation and meaningful adoption of smart city solutions.

 

 

According to Navigant Research, the business opportunities for companies in the IoT sector are huge, with the annual smart city investment in technology alone set to quadruple to US$11.3 billion by 2023. At Orange, we have observed that the smart cities market is shifting from a previously fragmented and opportunistic approach, towards one that utilizes a fully integrated strategy. Now, city driven integrated strategies are emerging, with broad requirements to help in monitoring public areas, allocating city resources, promoting access to the city's information, and involving residents in the decision making process.

 

We have been working closely with the Orange Group's innovation arm to develop the technologies that will bring about smart territories. The Orange Group is investing about 700 million Euros per annum in pure R&D, with a significant focus on smart technologies. As a major integrator and operator, we also work closely with key players and startups to build innovative and fully integrated solutions that meet the needs of the city's inhabitants, and those who manage its public services. We believe that innovation and co-innovation are key to translating new ideas into meaningful services, and will continue to spearhead the move towards smart cities.