i3 - March/April 2019 - 20

Other popular e-services, according to Toomas
Sepp, the city secretary and administrative
leader of the Tallinn City Office, include a mobile
public transportation app (it offers timetables,
tracking and a city map), traffic cameras (these
alert drivers about jams) and the official online
city map (it's updated with the most recent news
and developments).
"Our ambition," says Sepp, "is to make planning smarter and involve citizens in the planning
process even more."
Estonia is looking even deeper into ways their
smart city can become even smarter. "Technology
is already providing opportunities to make citizen engagement more interesting and rewarding," Sepp says. "For example, virtual reality and
augmented reality in urban planning is something that we have not tapped into yet."

HOW TO BUILD A SMARTER CITY

That a small post-Soviet nation achieved what
most other cities still dream about is a testament
to how ambition can trump even the most challenging of economic tests. In fact, most cities that
rethink smart services often find themselves in
far better economic positions down the road.
Going smart also has tremendous environmental
and psychological benefits.

Just ask Jesse Berst, chairman of the Smart
Cities Council in Reston, VA, who says smart cities
are in the process of being redefined by technology
designed to improve urban life as we know it. Berst
says there are four major components to any successful smart city initiative being developed now:
1. COLLECT: This is the very heart of IoT and
networking in which data is being collected and
shared about a city's condition - and this is happening anywhere and everywhere. "You don't
have to wonder if your streets are congested,"
Brest says. "Your streets tell you" thanks to a system of cameras, apps and networking.
2. COMMUNICATE: This is about accessing
and sharing data where it's needed most, like citywide networks that Berst predicts will soon operate
on a 5G network (it's already being tested in Asia).
3. COMPUTE: This is how analytics are read
and reported, ushering in an era of predictive
analytics that help local governments make
smarter decisions. For example: Should a traffic light change 10 seconds earlier to help cut
back on congestion? Could a water sensor discover a leak before there's any real damage to
a street or community?
4. CONTROL: This is how people truly harness the power of the other three categories -
with data and tools over a secure communications
network. The result can be as simple as knowing when to turn off lights when no one is in a
room to tracking street maintenance before it
poses a problem.
Berst thinks of smarter cities in two ways -
the first in terms of outside-in and the second
as an inside-out approach. "Outside-in is getting this information, getting environmental
sensors and video cameras," he says. "Inside-out
is taking the city's services and delivering them
digitally. Just like I do a big percentage of my
shopping and most of my banking on my phone,
people expect to interact with their cities 24/7
by phone or browser."
According to CTA market research, more than
$34 billion will be spent to create smarter cities
by 2020. CTA predicts that there will be at least
88 smart cities like Estonia by 2025. This coincides with an increase in city populations, which
will be most affected by sweeping changes in
technological innovation. The United Nations
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

i3 - March/April 2019

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