ITU is working to improve the reliability, security and interoperability of ICT infrastructure needed for smart sustainable cities, while at the same time advocating for the use of ICTs to reduce the consumption of energy and enhance services and quality of life for city dwellers.
Setting standards
ITU and members within the ITU-T Study Group 20, which is dedicated to IoTs, smart cities and communities, have been developing international standards that establish technical criteria, processes and practices to enable a coordinated development of IoT technologies for smart sustainable cities. Most recently, the study group has been working on topics including AI, blockchain, machine-to-machine communication and Big Data aspects of IoT.
ITU and members within the ITU Focus Group on Data Processing and Management are working on the development of international standards that allow the IoT ecosystem to be fully inclusive, interoperable and capable of making full use of the data generated by the devices feeding into the system. This is to mitigate the risk of data ´silos´ emerging in different industry sectors.
ITU has also recently developed standards ensuring the security of networks in urban areas.
ITU's work on standards for 5G systems, which will help make smart sustainable cities a reality, is also underway.
ITU standards outline how smart grids can help build more controllable and efficient energy systems.
The ITU Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities has identified standardized frameworks needed to support the integration of ICT services in smart cities and key trends in urban smart water management.
Global collaboration and advocacy
In 2016, ITU and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) launched the global platform "United for Smart Sustainable Cities " (U4SSC) to advocate for public policy and to encourage the use of ICTs to facilitate and ease the transition to smart sustainable cities. The platform is now supported by 14 other United Nations bodies. The U4SSC has developed a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for s mart sustainable cities, allowing cities to set goals, collect data and measure progress in five major areas: the use of ICTs; physical infrastructure; social inclusion and equity of access to services; quality of life; and environmental sustainability. More than 50 cities worldwide, including Bizerte, Dubai, Kairouan, Maldonado, Manizales, Montevideo, Moscow, Pully, Rimini, Singapore, Valencia and Wuxi, are already implementing these KPIs.
Below are just a few examples showing how ICTs are helping to build smart sustainable cities:
- In Singapore , sensors and cameras build on the city state´s existing digital system and enable the government to assess the performance and efficiency of traffic flow and identify problems such as potholes and bumpy bus rides as well as lawbreakers. For example, to strengthen security in public spaces, the city has installed more than 62,000 police cameras in public housing blocks and carparks.
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Copenhagen, Denmark, has upgraded its street lights with efficient lamps connected by a wireless network. Smart street lights save costs because they can be programmed to dim or brighten automatically, optimizing the use of energy while lowering the risk of crime and traffic accidents.
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São Paulo, Brazil, has developed a solution to estimate and predict air quality using AI and Big Data analytics. Aggregated, anonymized data is leveraged from the mobile network and layered with data from weather, traffic and pollution sensors. This helps calculate pollution levels 24 to 48 hours in advance, helping policy-makers, municipalities and governments to take action to prevent death and disease—for example, by redirecting traffic before air pollution hotspots strike.
- In Holon municipality in Israel, the sewage system was plagued with problems such as frequent blockages and overflows. The municipality installed devices equipped with sensors to better manage its sewer systems and send alerts via short message service (SMS) when the level reaches low or high limits.
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Dubai introduced an eComplaints system for citizens to regularly provide feedback on public services.
[1] This definition was provided by the ITU and UNECE in 2015.
[2] Network stability allows everyone to communicate, access data and share information reliably, as needed.
[3] Network security is an over-arching term that describes the policies and procedures implemented by a network administrator to avoid unauthorized access, exploitation or modification of the network and its resources.
[4] Reliability is an attribute of any computer-related component that consistently performs according to its specifications.
[5] Interoperability refers to the ability of computer systems or software to exchange and make use of information.
Last update: February 2019