How IoT is Shaping the Smart Cities of Tomorrow

IoT smart cities
Image: Creative commons

By the year 2050, approximately 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities, according to Gartner. Cities have evolved a lot over the last few years, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is making a big impact on these changes.

Read more IBM Research: The Sensors Powering Smart Cities Are Vulnerable to Hackers

It is estimated that millions of devices are connecting to the internet every second. The IoT devices are forecasted to grow to between 25-30 billion devices by 2020. The IoT economy will see billions of dollars spent over the next several years, reports Forbes.

As smart cities of tomorrow are taking shape against this backdrop, IoT is playing a huge role in running our smart homes and businesses and enhance our quality of life.

IoT is easing the burden of rapid urban growth by improving infrastructures and communications.

Here are some ways IoT is changing our smart cities:

Improve Public Transportation

Public transportation is disrupted whenever there are road closures, bad weather, or equipment breakdowns. IoT can provide mass transit authorities the real-time insights they need to implement contingency plans, ensuring that city dwellers always have access to safe, reliable, and efficient public transportation. This might be done using insights from cameras or connected devices at bus shelters or other public areas.

Satellite above Earth
Image: Pixabay

Provide More Efficient Water Supply

IoT can potentially change the way cities consume water. Water leaks and improved data integrity are possible with the help of smart meters. This will in turn prevent lost revenue and boost productivity. Also, these meters can be designed to help consumers with delivering real-time access about their consumption and water supply.

Improve Security and Privacy

IoT is already providing improved security with video surveillance, allowing police to monitor live feeds from across an entire city and relying on artificial intelligence systems to detect and report incidences of crime.

Read more AIStorm Introduces Real-Time AI-in-Sensor Solutions for IoT, Mobile Handsets and Driverless Cars

How Nokia is Helping to Advance Smart Cities

Nokia has launched “IoT for Smart Cities”, a fully integrated framework to efficiently deliver and manage smart city services. The ‘fully integrated’ approach fulfills the vital requirement of a connected city that is shared, secure and scalable – where every ‘thing’ can talk to each other to make tomorrow’s cities smart, safe and sustainable. Nokia’s Integrated Operations Center (IOC) orchestrates all smart city operations for enhanced efficiency, faster responsiveness and improved decision making.

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Cathy Russey
Cathy Russey () is Online Editor at WT | Wearable Technologies and specialized in writing about the latest medical wearables and enabling technologies on the market. Cathy can be contacted at info(at)wearable-technologies.com.