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Using Big Data To Make Cities Smarter
The city of the future is impeccably documented. Sensors are used to measure air quality, traffic patterns, and crowd movement. Emerging neighborhoods are quickly recognized, public safety threats are found via social networks, and emergencies are dealt with quicklier. Crowdsourcing reduces commuting times, provides people with better transportation (Uber) and helps avoiding traffic jams (Waze).
“The growth of big data is shifting the emphasis from longer term strategic planning to short-term thinking about how cities function and can be managed,” a 2013 paper argues. And we can’t disagree, though there may very well be ramifications for the typically 20 to 50 year planning cycle turning into something like 6 months. But let’s take look at what’s happening right now, in terms of cities using Big Data.
Current Big Data initiatives for smarter city management
Chicago markets itself as a Big Data haven, and there are indeed telltale signs that Chicago is quite like the “city of the future” referred to above. Big Data’s potential for social change is exploited to an unprecedented degree in the Windy City. Starting from small things, like the rather crude Twitter bot that helped pinpoint unsanitary restaurants, to preventive rat baiting and fighting homelessness, Chicago is scaling the heights in terms of leveraging Big Data to improve the quality of life for its inhabitants.
And they’re very open about their data. The Big Data exhibit, held by the Chicago Architectural Foundation, showed openly their data usage and resources. On top of the usual — sensors for detecting fire, water, and occupancy; GPS and energy meters, and so on — the city also turns to social networks to predict the next booming neighborhoods. In short, Chicago strives to “make decisions as data-driven as possible”. It’s just great that the city authorities are so cool with informing the public about the increasing role data plays in their decisions.
Cities like Boston and New York are following suit. The City of Boston opened a vast data supply last year in hopes to increase traffic efficiency and had users come up with impressive visualizations. Other cities pair Big Data with crowdsourcing. Public transportation availability for a regional station near Paris was vastly improved with Big Data, by providing commuters with data about available seats. The users’ data was tracked and crunched with the result that they can predict how full a given train will be. Three days in advance. Everyone — the city, the commuters, other taxpayers — benefits from that.
We’ll likely see even more daring efforts to drive city planning with data. The planning window will shrink, with public services becoming empowered to respond to changing situations much more faster. Engineers and project managers, however, will be able to match their efforts to the real situation, eliminating much guesswork. This city of the future sounds better than what we have right now.
(Image Source: Shutterstock)
By Lauris Veips
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