/ Smart Cities

Smart Cities

“Smart cities” combine information and communication technologies (ICT) with the Internet of things (IOT) to allow a city to fully integrate its assets, services, and citizens. This system results in a regular and circular dialogue between citizens, infrastructure, and government – vastly improving a city’s capacity to respond to complex problems or major emergencies. In smart cities, real-time data is collected everywhere. For example, sensors detect exactly how much water is available in the city’s supply, how many people are waiting in each hospital’s emergency room, and the current load on the city’s mass transit system, while sensors on a bridge transmit regular updates on its condition. Data collection is broad in scope and is shared among all agencies of the city, allowing for dramatically enhanced management of the city’s infrastructure and resources. Citizens can access much of this information, as well as communicate directly with the city government in response to problems – which adds another layer of data aiding the efficient allocation of a city’s resources.

While there are still barriers to overcome for smart cities to be fully realized, there are many groups and initiatives currently working to surmount them. GTiMA represents the geospatial transportation mapping community by participating in and monitoring the following fora:

UNITED STATES

• US Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge
• The Smart City Council
• The Smart America Challenge

U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL

• International Technical Working Group on IoT-Enabled Smart City Framework
• The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) & the International Standards Organization (ISO)’s Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology (JTC 1) on Smart Cities, including their World Smart City Forum
• The IEC Systems Evaluation Group (SEG 1)
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)’s Smart Cities Initiative
• The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s Focus Group on Smart, Sustainable Cities
• ITU & The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) United 4 Smart Cities Initiative
• UNECE’s United Smart Cities Project

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD

• The Transportation Research Board Technical Activities Council
• TRB Standing Committee on Transportation and Economic Development
• TRB Standing Committee on Transportation and Sustainability
• TRB Standing Committee on Regional Transportation System Management and Operations
• TRB Standing Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems
• TRB Standing Committee on Emerging Technology Law
• TRB Standing Committee on Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation
• TRB Standing Committee on Pedestrians
• TRB Standing Committee on Bicycle Transportation
• TRB Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Relations in Aviation
• TRB Standing Committee on Freight Transportation Economics and Regulation
• TRB Standing Committee on Inland Water Transportation
• TRB Technical Activities Council
• TRB Standing Committee on Transportation in the Developing Countries