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/ Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Eduardo Burgos-Suazo,
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COO of ABEXUS Analytics and Professor at UPRCA
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ack in 2015, 193 countries agreed on several desirable global goals that are known today as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Of the 17 SDGs, goal number 11 focuses on Sustainable Cities and Communities. This comes as no surprise when one examines historic population movement data and finds that societies are becoming highly urbanized. As seen in the past few years, this process brings environmental, technological, sociocultural, demographic, and governmental challenges. In fact, it is forecast that by 2040, 65% of the world population will live in cities. Therefore, it is imperative to tackle a roadmap that blends the necessary infrastructure to embrace the demanding realities of the next decades. Considering the historic juncture and the once-in-a-generation inflow of federal funds to rebuild Puerto Rico after the devastation of Hurricane María, the island is ripe to consider innovative, datadriven solutions to rebuild and face the challenges of tomorrow. Governments all around the world are betting on roadmaps to develop “smart cities”. Let’s dive in!
Smart City… What?
It is likely that on a daily basis one interacts with multiple devices that are interconnected in one way or another like smart watches, wireless earbuds, cellphones, and smart speakers. Maybe at home one controls dimming the lights for certain periods, adjusting the thermostat of air conditioning systems, or even modifying security camera angles, all from a cellphone. These are
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The Journey to Smart Cities Starts with a Single Data Point examples of what is called “Internet of Things” (IoT), which refers to a network of connected devices (mainly through the internet) that are embedded with sensors and software that generate, transmit, and send us vast amounts of data to “make things” happen. What if… one could implement the same logic to transform a city into a data powerhouse by interconnecting public infrastructure, while also leveraging the potential of data analytics to make smarter decisions? Even though data generation has increased exponentially, the cost of collecting primary data has also gone up dramatically (particularly in scenarios where probabilistic sampling is required). This roadmap enables cities to produce massive amounts of updated and realtime data at a fraction of the price, thereby empowering governments to transform data into information and information into knowledge, which will optimize city functions and promote economic growth. It is my belief that this relatively unexpensive technology (IoT) can
bridge the gap between sustainability and urban development strategies, while mitigating the serious data infrastructure problem that the island suffers. A concrete example of this would be smart roads, which use sensors that collect data on vehicle and pedestrian levels in order to, for instance, optimize and divert traffic according to different conditions. These sensors could establish population density in different areas of the city to know when and where to deploy police officers, as well as improve public safety. Smart street lights are weather adaptive to boost energy consumption, for example. That, in combination with smart waste management, will help monitor street bins and collect data on waste levels, which would optimize fuel usage of waste collectors. Within the city, one could even engage citizen participation via different applications in order to report any sort of situation (automatically georeferencing them). In essence, the city would be transformed into a digital platform. Just to name a few
It is my belief that this relatively unexpensive technology (IoT) can bridge the gap between sustainability and urban development strategie… Eduardo Burgos
examples. Now, one may believe that the above-mentioned explanation is coming from a science fiction movie or from the wonders of Isaac Asimov’s stories, but… it is no longer a question of if, but when. Traditional urban planning and development techniques must be evaluated to embrace designs that incorporate data-driven methods that will build and enhance the cities of tomorrow. Let’s welcome a culture of open data, transparency, and data-driven decision-making to city management. Puerto Rico has the unique chance of becoming a model of innovation as it rebuilds and becomes part of the future. We need to decide whether we would rather stay in the past or create the ecosystem necessary to become part of the select few that will establish sustainable cities and communities over the next decade. The author is COO of ABEXUS Analytics and Professor at UPRCA.
