Topic: smart-environment

If the science fiction writers of the 1950s had been right, most of us today would travel around in flying cars and pneumatic trains. We would commute to work on high-speed moving sidewalks and zip across town in horizontal elevators. For short hops, we would wear personal jet packs or anti-gravity belts. Well, here we are in the early 21st century and we’re still waiting for buses, stuck in traffic jams and trying to walk across busy streets without being hit by a cab. Transportation has changed, but not in the ways predicted by science fiction. Many of the most important changes have been invisible.

Urban mobility is described as the lifeblood of modern cities, a critical economic factor, and a facilitator of smart, sustainable development. Planning a smart city that delivers effective and equitable urban mobility solutions is one of the most pressing problems for cities throughout the world. In this article — the first in a planned series — we provide a perspective on urban mobility challenges and examples of smart urban mobility solutions.

A recurring theme in architecture and construction engineering is that of "sick buildings". In our eagerness to control all the parameters and internal and external conditions of our constructions, humanity has tended, increasingly, to make hermetic buildings, replete with electrical and electronic installations that give off electromagnetic waves and ions. Especially in offices we often find ourselves with spaces that are too cold and with a highly charged environment.

Here we will address how to alleviate the excess of electromagnetic charge and the lack of humidity in an environment, with the installation of Canadian or Provencal Wells, for the promotion of sustainable architecture.

On the 1st of November,  Sigfox's exclusive network operator Thinxtra showcased the start of its territory-wide low-power wide-area (LPWA) IoT network in Hong Kong, providing cost-effective IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity for the city.

Cost-Effective LPWA Network provides IoT Connectivity

Until March 2018, 100 Sigfox base stations are expected to be installed throughout Hong Kong to provide long-range, low-bandwidth, low-power connectivity for businesses, research institutions, and government organizations to seize opportunities of the rise of IoT.

The role of smart lighting solutions in the intelligent transformation of cities and buildings has gained momentum in the past years. This development will continue in the coming years based on increased connectivity and industrial internet of things (IIoT) solutions becoming a key element in most smart city strategies around the globe.

The opportunities that cities can seize with the installation of smart lighting solutions go far beyond value creation through energy (cost) and maintenance savings (which are huge considering that as much as 40 percent of a city’s energy budget is consumed by street lighting and new efficient lighting can save up to 50% of these costs as a result of increased energy efficiency) or the improvement of the environmental impact.

A growing number of cities around the globe are testing smart waste management solutions to create higher efficiency in terms of resources and costs associated with keeping their cities clean.
While equipping the bins of private households with latest sensor technology is tested only by a few cities (like Santander in Spain or Montreal in Canada), several cities start in public spaces with implementing smart waste management solutions.
The installation of smart solar-powered compacting bins can be observed in a growing number of cities like Amsterdam, Atlanta, London, Melbourne, Philadelphia, and others.

Self-powered smart urban street furniture can help cities and communities to increase the attractivity of public spaces by providing public services, information, and connectivity, while at the same time enabling the collection of valuable data for optimizing processes and reducing costs.

Cities are increasingly adopting smart street furniture solutions

Whether we talk about digital signs, smart benches or even fully-integrated smart bus stops – there are a lot of new products available in terms of smart urban street furniture. A growing number of cities and communities throughout the world are adopting these self-powered products to make life easier for citizens and visitors and to optimize the management of public infrastructure or to provide connectivity such as free WiFi.