Smart cities have been revolutionizing our modern society. From the way we communicate to the way we order coffee; the Internet of Things is all around us and is getting an upgrade with 5G deployment. So which cities have the most connected fiber maps, the smartest evolution, and the best tactics?
Top 10
The International Institute of Management Development (IMD) has listed the top 10 smart cities for 2019. The factors playing into the ranking system is a balanced equation of smart economic and technological aspects with “humane dimensions” and are listed in order.
- Singapore (Asia)
- Zurich (Switzerland)
- Oslo (Norway)
- Geneva (Switzerland)
- Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Auckland (New Zealand)
- Taipei City (Taiwan)
- Helsinki (Finland)
- Bilbao (Spain)
- Düsseldorf (Germany)
IMD also pointed out that poorer cities are quickly falling behind, pushing the digital divide further. This is due to budgets restricting cities from implementing smarter technologies and better practices.
Best Practices for Smart Cities
A smart city ecosystem depends on all its services from traffic flow to government policies to technological infrastructure flowing seamlessly to create the ideal outcome. A smart city should have government efficiency, health and wellness, good quality of life, public safety, mobility, and sustainability. To reach the perfect outcome not only do city officials need to collaborate, but all citizens need to come together to understand and prioritize a city’s needs. For the ideal outcome to be reached, the following practices must be followed.
- Be willing to adapt and adopt new technology to improve systems
- Share information and data across common platforms that are accessible by everyone
- Engage citizens and encourage them to be interested to deploy city initiatives
- Prioritize security for devices and at all network levels to protect technology
- Handle data appropriately and respect citizen privacy
These practices must rely on smarter technologies to ensure they are qualitative and sustainable. With technological advancement, energy needs to be smarter. More and more processes require energy to avoid crashes or downtime. This calls for a smart infrastructure within the city layout and digital infrastructure of processes.
Smart mobility is also essential for smart cities. Multi-modal transportation must be integrated with intelligent parking solutions and traffic signaling. Mobility does not only pertain to physical transportation, but also with data transfer. All city systems must be able to communicate and share information for the ease of users. There are massive amounts of data that need to be analyzed quickly, so the data must be delivered smartly. This ties into the final technological component for smart cities, smart Internet of Things devices. The technologies that we use, from scanning a card for a latte to providing up-to-date information, all need to be efficient enough with enough capability to prevent failures and provide seamless interaction.
As the population in cities continues to grow, the cities themselves need to adapt and become smarter to be efficient. The best way to adapt to new advancements seen in smart cities is to accurately know the fiber maps and access points available. GeoTel Communications can provide this as we are the world’s leading provider in telecommunications location-based data. To advance your city, contact us today and find efficiency!
Author: Valerie Stephen
