Data as business opportunities for Smart Cities

The smart city is an informed, networked, mobile, safe and sustainable city. Therefore, the city of the future needs a platform for urban data, services and applications in a technical and organizational sense as well as for business opportunities that arise from the generated data.

The need for platforms in urban planning and administration becomes clear, when it comes to the amount of data, services and applications which have to be organized and are in development. On the one hand, a technical infrastructure for the integration and provision of the heterogeneous and distributed data sources is needed. On the other hand, an organizational framework has to be established that controls the provision, processing, transfer and use of the data for all actors involved – technologically, legally and economically.

The main challenges to overcome, today more than ever, for cities are resulting from four main areas which are closely connected to the digital experience of its citizens: technology, quality of life, influence of government and businesses and economic, societal and environmental challenges.

The use of technology including advanced infrastructure, platforms and services is basis to provide more efficient urban services and as such, to improve the quality of life of citizens. This helps to develop a new relationship between the government and local companies and offers opportunities to tackle present and future needs of the city in terms of economic, social and environmental priorities. But Smart Cities must transform progressively and run through the following stages:

The early stage is the definition of the Smart City Strategy. The key indicators for the City are established, Verticals are ordered according to priorities and an adequate regulatory framework is put in place.

The next step of development is vertically, technology services are being implemented (for example, waste management, lighting, watering gardens and parks) seeking to become more efficient and relying on data flows in vertical silos.

Basing on that, the connectivity need to be worked on by integrating information from different vertical services, drafting predictive models and generating natural synergies between services which target the unification of all services in a single horizontal platform.

The last step is the core part, the so-called engine of growth, which facilitates all the information available to local businesses remains open (thus promoting further transparency and Open Data models).

The potential of big data in smart cities

There is a need for cities and governments to follow a cross-sectoral approach. Cities and government have traditionally considered these resources by verticals: energy, water, waste, transport and health have been considered and managed separately. But since the deployment of smart solutions, this is happening largely within these vertical value chains, without much interaction between different verticals. However cities are

starting to look at smart city solutions as part of a more integrated approach to information technology and data.

Furthermore, smart cities are looking to smart solutions and open data to address wider economic and social challenges. This cross-sectoral approach leads to additional opportunities for cities and citizens, and should also yield additional opportunities for industry.

This underlines that cities need help to develop the capability in leading and facilitating collaboration with industry, academia and citizens because deploying solutions requires collaboration between different actors in the value chain. There is a role for government and its agencies in convening multiple stakeholders.

When it comes to large scale trials of whole systems which are implemented, the focus should be on business models and deployment, rather than just technology.

Cities and utilities therefore need to find ways to make it easier to deploy innovative products and services. For cities, that means to look for ways to attract capital and create organisational structures which have the authority and capacity to deliver innovative programmes.

Big opportunities lie in local data produced in cities. Last December, Gartner predicted that smart cities will use 1.6 billion connected devices in the year 2016, which is an increase of 39% to the prior year [1]. A significant share of those are used in commercial real estate and buildings, for example sensors used to monitor and manage energy use and security. A significant growth is predicted in private residences, where smart thermostats and other devices are slowly but steadily replacing disconnected versions. Trends on consumer side accelerate as well, because more people worldwide use smartphones, enabling broader connectivity. In a report from July, Navigant Research estimated that revenue from energy, water, mobility, buildings and government components linked to smart city initiatives would jump to $88.7 billion by 2025, more than doubling 2016’s total of $36.8 billion [2].

Amsterdam is a role model for smart cities in Europe, as it has been ahead of the curve, setting up public-private partnerships with technology companies and, at the same time, capitalizing on the imagination of developers to build its own apps independently with available data. Amsterdam set up more than 80 different pilot projects throughout the city, creating a laboratory where these efforts are tested, sharpened and rolled out into a wider area if they turn out to be promising to be scaled up on city level. As one might expect, the teams encountered hurdles; an inventory determined that the city had 12,000 different data sets that were often not centralized and had had varying levels of accessibility. But by planning, managing expectations and carefully testing projects, Amsterdam has made progress in a whole host of innovative areas including crime prevention and investigations, traffic and pollution, healthcare and tourism.

European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities

Sharing data, within the bounds of privacy rules, can prove attractive to companies, and foundations can also help pay for programs through grants. This, of course, is different from city to city, but opportunities exist beyond tapping public budgets. Therefore, the initiative of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) which supported by the European Commission is an important instrument for bringing together cities, industry, SMEs, banks, research and other smart city actors.

The platform intends to improve citizens’ quality of life, to increase the competitiveness of Europe’s industry and innovative SMEs and to reach energy and climate targets by making cities more competitive and better places to live in by achieving social, environmental and economic sustainability for our cities. Through sharing knowledge, it is being prevented that mistakes will be repeated.

The EIP-SCC consists of the High Level Group (supported by its Sherpa Group) and the Market Place. The High Level group and its sherpas are responsible for the Strategic Implementation Plan.

The EIP-SCC Market Place has been designed for those who are active in the area of Smart Cities and willing to know more about ongoing and foreseen activities throughout Europe. This means, the marketplace supports the development and implementation of integrated smart city solutions; it builds on networking and partnering activities to accumulate knowledge and facilitate exchange of information with the focus on the intersection of Energy, ICT and Transport.

Copenhagen: SaaS, The City Data Exchange

Copenhagen, Denmark, is moving fast towards becoming a smart, carbon-neutral city by 2025. To achieve this goal, the city started a smart city program which includes smart lighting, sensor-based traffic management, intelligent building management and more. Up to now, data from individual smart city initiatives has been kept in silos. But the city of Copenhagen and Hitachi have now joined forces to launch an integrated data service to eliminate these silos.

The vision is to create a shared data hub in order to foster innovation and inspire new thinking. This solution establishes a citywide data marketplace, City Data Exchange, for data owned by public authorities and private companies. Through these approaches, the quality of life in the Copenhagen area will be improved, business activities will be stimulated and last but not least, it will help to achieve Copenhagen’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2025.

The City Data Exchange is a software-as-a-service solution that will allow for the sale, purchase and sharing of a wide variety of data from multiple sources among all types of users in a city – citizens, city government, businesses. The exchange enables large companies, small and medium enterprises, start-up companies, but also the academic and public sectors, to come together and integrate multiple sources of information to meet the challenges of sustainability and quality of life.

Over time, City Data Exchange can be used to integrate data from multiple sources, such as different statistics on demographics, crime statistics, as well as data on energy consumption, air quality sensors and traffic sensors. The solution is designed to allow other developers from SMEs, start-ups and developers to quickly develop applications basing on this shared information. Taking advantage of this data marketplace, the city of Copenhagen, the capitol region of Denmark, will support businesses operating there to improve their operations and provide better services for their customers, without needing a huge investment in infrastructure and data gathering. [3]

References

[1] Gartner (2016): Gartner Says Smart Cities Will Use 1.6 Billion Connected Things in 2016. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3175418.

[2] Navigant Research (2016): Annual Global Smart City Revenue is Expected to Reach $88.7 Billion by 2025. Available at: http://www.navigantresearch.com/newsroom/annual-global-smart-city-revenue-is-expected-to-reach-88-7-billion-by-2025.

[3] CDE Copenhagen (2017): City Data Exchange – Smart City Copenhagen. Available at: https://www.citydataexchange.com/

European Commission (2017): European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC). Available at http://eu-smartcities.eu/