SMART CITIES - An Integrative Approach.

Successful transformation to a smart city relies heavily on technology, its underlying infrastructure, and effective integration of data into the decision-making processes thereby fostering a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment through application of smart solutions. Agith G Antony stitches together the views from various stakeholders in smart city projects.

Increasingly, the world is seeking smarter, secure, more intelligent solutions and optimized utilisation of resources to enhance quality of life which has led to the rise of smart cities and advanced security solutions and communication infrastructure in several advanced countries. India is also rapidly gearing up creating smart cities that will soon be the backbone of the economy. What makes a city smart is how it uses technology to deliver real-time outcomes for its citizens. This means it is crucial to the success of any smart city initiative that its technologybase is secure, scalable and future-ready. Unless smart cities are being built from scratch, then modern communication systems must usually be retrofitted over the infrastructure already in place. These systems must allow access to real-time data, allowing analysis to be reviewed and acted upon by both city administrators and citizens. It is this integration of data into the decision-making process which truly makes these cities 'smart'.

In the approach of the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of 'smart' solutions. Smart cities represent a combination of solutions deployed in an urban environment to transform the administration and support of living and working environments. Accordingly, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are transforming at a rapid rate, driven by urbanization, industrialization of emerging economies, and the specific needs of various smart city initiatives. Smart city developments are causing solution providers to take a much more integrated approach as the design and implement infrastructure and service capabilities.

Speaking about the market potential Rajat Mishra, Chief Executive Officer, Efkon India says, “The global smart cities market is witnessing consistent growth due to the government initiatives for over population and urbanization management. According to Markets and Markets, the global smart cities market size is expected to grow from USD 410.8 billion in 2020 to USD 820.7 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 14.8%. India's smart cities market is also expected to grow due to the increasing demand for public safety, rising urban populations, and increasing government initiatives. In smart cities, technologies such as video surveillance, real-time license plate, and facial recognition are widely used for public safety, indicating the need for surveillance to ensure citizens' safety. The smart transportation segment is estimated to account for the largest market size, with smart transportation solutions providing an essential boost to the existing and new transport infrastructural projects.”

The IoT has been a disruptive force in smart building automation and control sector, offering new opportunities to enhance the efficiency of buildings, raise employee productivity, and encouraging the development of innovative new services. IoT can yield remarkable benefits. As interconnected IoT devices and sensors throughout the building measure, optimize and integrate multiple systems, an office can raise its efficiency and reduce energy usage while enhancing employee comfort and optimizing various operational and maintenance costs,” says Gaurav Burman, VP & APAC President, 75F.

According to Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd the three pronged strategy of 'Smart Cities Mission', 'Digital India' and 'Make-in-India' programs by the government has created a positive environment for the security industry to grow further. We foresee that Smart Cities Mission is a key driver for innovation and growth in the security industry in India. The smart city projects are creating new opportunities for IP and IoT enabled products, technologies and solutions. There are big growth opportunities in the smart cities for smarter and connected building technologies with specific reference to security and video security solutions.”

For example, Honeywell's IoT-enabled, city-scale command and control platform is a virtual turnkey solution for city management with out-of-the-box intuitive applications for city-scale geographic information system-based incident management, workforce dispatch, citizen engagement and pre-integrated applications with analytics to help manage city services. “The Smart City Operations Centre, the central hub, can equip a team to better monitor and operate multiple smart city systems. It brings together the data and value of IoT, empowering a city with solutions and actionable intelligence needed to be smarter, more resilient, and more sustainable, as well as help create a more productive citizen experience,” states Ashish Modi, VP & GM, Honeywell Building Technologies - India, ASEAN, and Korea.

“Linking the BMS with CCTV, access control systems, provides higher value and safety to the occupants. Edge computing in BMS, will help integrate all these requirements in one system. This reduces cost of implementation, makes various systems interoperable and provides seamless connectivity. We are moving to a connected world and want to access everything on our smart phones. This needs connectivity from the sensors and controllers to the internet in a secure manner. Edge computing provides the necessary connectivity and security demanded by BMS. In addition, it acts as a final piece of hardware in the building before data is moved to the cloud or internet. This is rather easier for Greenfield buildings, but the question would be to leverage these benefits for brownfield buildings. Edge architectures from B&R not only make Greenfield installations smart, but also make existing BMS smart. To upgrade existing buildings, management does not need to invest in upgrading individual components but can have these edge devices acting as middleware in place to satisfy the new requirements,” explains Mukund Patil, Head - PFA India, B&R Industrial Automation.

“Urban clusters contribute about 70% of India's GDP and it is expected that these numbers will increase. Most of these urban clusters revolve around industries that are set up near the cities or on the outskirts which are given priority for access to electricity. As we plan to develop smart cities, the pressure on the energy grid is expected to increase. While there are programmes to generate renewable energy, along with other sources of energy, we need to meet the demand of the new cities and simultaneously ensure the provision of energy access for all. Furthermore, the application of smart systems based on IoT, automation and big data can help to save crores of rupees a year in energy costs,” states Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India.

“Smart City Mission (SCM) is an effort by the government to address core issues of stakeholders and improving the quality of life. The essence of the scheme is to understand ground conditions, verify available data and propose optimised solutions in more scientific manner and cohesive interactions with stakeholders. SCM projects have now matured and showing due improvements in the facilities / amenities provided by the authorities. Though all projects would not bear fruits immediately but definitely helpful in attaining the sustainable urbanisation. Smart city projects are meant to improve quality of life for the beneficiaries and not all the projects needs to be financial viable in implementation. On its quantitative impacts, it can be different for different cities based on its pace and bandwidth of improvements during implementation of the projects under SCM,” points out Dhirendra Ahire, DGM - Operations, REPL.

“India is a rapidly growing economy and there are several smart city initiatives currently underway. Cities in India are showing great potential for technological integrations. Smart solutions are seeing increasing demand among residents and will soon become paramount in enhancing community living.” Planet Smart City has already launched its first real estate project in Pune, where we are integrating more than 25 smart solutions within the project, including our unique offering of the Planet App and a Community Manager. We are confident and look forward to integrating these solutions with other developers across the country - particularly in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad,” states Daniele Russolillo, COO, Planet Smart City and Global Head of Planet Idea.

According to Sanjeev Sirsi, Head - Municipal Water Supply, Water Utility, Grundfos India intelligent technologies can address the water issues in a sustainable manner, be it metering on intake of water, reducing leakages or ensuring they are energy efficient. He says, “One such example is the Grundfos' iSOLUTIONS, a technologically advanced system that is connected to work seamlessly together with IoT, AI, and cloud computing to deliver the highest level of energy and cost savings for smart water management. These innovative solutions can not only address the water and wastewater management both at micro and macro level but also help in creating a holistic circular economy.”

Rajneesh Chopra, Global Head, VA Tech Wabag, underlines the point. “A city can be termed as a 'Smart City' only when there is smart water management, which is based on a circular economy principle. This includes 24×7 water supply, reduction of non-revenue water (NRW) using GIS mapping and leak detection and 100% water recycling and reuse, wherein the wastewater should be considered as a resource rather than a liability. The treatment of wastewater should be based on resource recovery concept, where the wastewater is treated and reused, resulting sludge is treated to utilize biogas for generating green energy and digested sludge packed to be used as manure. Hence, we believe that a city is transformed to a 'Smart City' in the true sense when integrated smart water and wastewater management based on a circular economy is incorporated,” states Chopra.

IoT possibilities are endless. It has the capability to create new experience across different segments - residential, commercial and hospitality projects. Smart city project is no different. IoT can help to contribute to a healthier environment, better control of lifestyle and improve living environment to enhance public safety and optimizing lighting. IoT can help central management of lights, safety, data connectivity and complete electrical intelligence in our domain. States Sameer Saxena, Member of Board and Director - Strategy Marketing, Legrand India.

Highlighting the pressing need for smart parking, Ajay Raina, Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tedra Automotive Solutions, says,” There is a dire need to have a proper policy framework for management of our cities, especially developing a parking policy and management. Cities should have an area wise parking plan with a thorough understanding of the supply and demand, peak and non-peak traffic situations. Policy makers and private professional parking operators can come together and play a great role in easing this problem with successful business models encouraging organized parking and commute.”

The following pages have stitched together the views of solution providers from various segments; a comprehensive coverage on the critical role played by technology disrupters in the smart city space.

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