Smart City and Its Enablement - Research Paper Example

? Smart and its Enablement Background A smart refers to a well performing in terms of its people, its economy, governance, its surrounding, its forms of mobility and living. It is thus; built on a smart amalgamation of endowments, alert citizens, independent, and activities of self-decisive. It is a city that carries out monitoring and integration of all conditions relating to its critical infrastructures, bridges, roads, airports, communications, and it also deals with how it can fully optimize its resources, plan on its preventive maintenance actions, monitor its security features while on the same time, optimize services to its citizens. A smart city generally, strives towards making itself smarter in terms of efficiency, sustainability, ensuring equity and enhancing livability. Smart cities rely, among others, on the compilation of brilliant computing technologies that are applied on the significant infrastructure elements and services. Smart computing is all about a new generation of amalgamated hardware, software combined with network technologies that offer IT systems with the real time consciousness of the real world and complex analytics that assist citizens in making smart decisions, which would help them optimize their business processes (Chourabi, 2012). A development approach that is directed to a smart city includes concerns such as flexibility, awareness, synergy, transformability, a strategic conduct, some sense of individuality and a self decisiveness. A smart city denotes an interconnected, intelligent and an instrumented city. Instrumentation enhances the capturing and integration of live real world information through the use of personal devices, sensors, appliances, smart phones, the internet and other comparable data acquirement systems which include the social networks (Chourabi, 2012). The interconnection aspect implies to the incorporation of those data to an enterprise computing podium and the communication of the information on a range of city services. Intelligence includes the compound analytics, optimization, modeling and visualization on the operations of business processes, to ensure that smarter operational decisions are undertaken. Various cities have commenced the transformational projects accompanied by some initiatives commonly known as smart city initiatives. This projects and initiatives are meant to serve the citizens at large and also improve their lives. These initiatives engage multiple of stakeholders, leading to most cities developing a need to have better governance, to be able to manage the above projects and initiatives (Chourabi, 2012). Governance involves the execution of processes with components that are responsible for exchanging of information in regard to the set rules and standards in order to ensure attainment of the goals and objectives. A lot of cities have been in a position to garner the advantages of technology emergence, which has seen the improvement of their form of governance. Governance that is technology based is termed as smart governance. It is thus, a representation of a broad collection of technologies practices, policies, the social norms and all the other information that interrelate to maintain the activities of city governing. Smart governance is said to be the core of the smart cities initiative, thus representing a vital challenge for a smart city initiative (Chourabi, 2012). How Technology Influences Efficiency in a Smart City Technology is said to be one of the key drivers of the initiative that pertains to the smart cities. The amalgamation of Technology with expansion projects altogether bring change to the urban setting of a city and thereafter, provide a range of potential opportunities that can contribute in the enhancement of management and functionality of a given smart city. The infrastructure that entails a smart city is often linked through the help of ICT that enhances a more efficient control. On the other hand, this kind of interdependence augments the rate of security risks. The state governments normally hold the fears that, the loopholes that are found in the smart city’s technology may tend to hamper the communication network of the whole city by generating unwanted events, which includes the establishments of viruses and malware (Chourabi, 2012). Hence, a smart security system signifies a core invention within the markets of a smart city, as a result of the growing complexities that regards to data management. The world that we are living in today has gone data centric, and technology tends to have a substantial impact on every facet of our lives. The rate, at which the society reliance on information and communications is augmenting, goes hand in hand with the rate at which the existing threats are also increasing in return. Literature Review As a result of cities facing a lot of challenges and pressures on their central services, there has been a significant need for the government to become smarter in order to build a sustainable prosperity to its citizens. Thus, Technology comes in to play a key role of improving the understanding development and also control the urban systems. Cities have grown to be smarter, as communities, businesses and also governments, increasing their reliance on the smart form of computing to counter attack the challenges that are brought about by swift urbanization (Chourabi, 2012). The link that exists between the smart cities and technology implies that, the modern smart services that are needed in today’s living are built through the application of the ICT enabled astuteness, basing on instrumentation and interconnection to ensure upgrading and innovation of the existing urban systems to overcome living challenges that occur. The technology enhances smart city services and meets the overall life quality of its citizens, including promoting commercial opportunities for their ventures and also upholding the ecosystems of their cities (Chourabi, 2012). Problem Statement Regardless of the asserted advantages and benefits that go inline with the use of technology in the smart cities, there are also a range of demerits that go with the use of technology in the smart cities (Chourabi, 2012). It is undeniably that technology enhances the general quality of life of the citizens, but it should be understood that, the same use of technology in this smart cities augments the level of inequalities among the citizens and also increases the digital divide. Therefore, to try and solve these inequalities brought about by technology in the smart cities, the managers of the cities should put into consideration certain aspects while implementing technology, pertaining to the resource availability, the institutional willingness and capacity. This should be done with regard to the level of inequality, culture change, the digital divide and the habits of the citizens. Even though the evolution into an information era has enabled harnessing of computing resources, the problems required to be solved by this technologies have become extremely complex (Chourabi, 2012). All together, the urban sensor technologies, electronic identification and digital media have resulted in being rampant, but the sheer scope of information that an urban metropolitan provides for study becomes hard to be incorporated into the rational concerns that the current computing power is being asked to provide solution to. Objectives To examine how the integration of technology with the development projects can bring about the change in the urban landscape of a given city. To analyze the extents in which the incorporated software, hardware and the network technologies could provide the IT systems with the current awareness of the advanced analytics that would assist citizens living in the smart cities to make more brilliant decisions on their business processes. To assess the various advantages and disadvantages brought about by the use of Technology in the smart cities. To examine the various ways, that city managers can use to reduce the negative impacts that are brought about by the incorporation of technology in the smart cities. To examine the various aspect that city managers should consider while applying the use of technology in the smart cities regarding to the availability of resources. Research Questions How can the incorporation of technology with development projects bring about the change of an urban landscape of a smart city? What are the advantages and disadvantages brought about by the use of technology in the smart cities? What is the extent in which incorporated software, hardware and the network technologies would enhance the current systems of technology, with the present awareness of the advanced analytics, which would help citizens living in the smart cities to make intelligent decisions? What are the various approaches that city managers can use to reduce the negative impacts that are derived from using technology in the smart cities? What are the various factors that city managers should consider when agitating for the use of technology in the smart cities? Reference Chourabi, H. (2012).Understand Smart Cities: An Integrative Framework. Retrieved from http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/journals/hicss_2012_smartcities/hicss_2012_smartcities.pdf Read More