The smart city is a very real concept that several French cities have already been applying for a few years. In these smart cities, new technological tools are used to improve the daily life and the journey of citizens within their city. These smart cities rely on digitalization and digital tools to ensure the well-being and safety of their inhabitants. They are therefore undergoing urban and ecological development in line with current environmental concerns.
What is the smart city?
The concept of smart city consists, among other things, of taking greater account of ecological concerns and promoting the fight against global warming by relying on new technologies to improve the development of modern cities, the “smart cities”. The aim is to create an ecological, responsible and smart city capable of meeting the needs of its citizens and providing them with an appropriate range of services, while optimising natural resources.
To create the city of the future, a system of smart energy networks or “smart grids” is needed. These cities and the smart city environment must therefore bring about significant changes in the territories, applying technological intelligence in many areas:
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- In transport, users see their travel time improved.
- Public transport and vehicle traffic are optimised.
- Smart grids enable a sustainable supply of electricity and water.
For the city, new technologies represent important issues. They allow it to create a common intelligence of the territories and to bring social innovation to increase the commitment of the inhabitants. The smart city players thus aim to develop collaborative cities in which citizens play an essential role.
What are the keys to turning a community into a smart city?
For a city to become a smart city through technology, it must create a secure and easily accessible technological environment and implement strong innovations. By allowing residents to use an e-administration interface to carry out their procedures, the city is modernizing and facilitating the daily life of its citizens.
Opening up the city’s open data means creating more interaction with citizens, who become players in their own city. The same applies to the creation of an application dedicated to mobility. Users can therefore follow the traffic in real time to facilitate mobility.
The objective is to contribute to the development of the smart city and for this, cities must create a less energy-intensive and more pleasant environment for citizens, but the challenge lies in the implementation of connected objects throughout the territory to enable cities to better manage their energy resources in real time to:
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- manage a waste collection and treatment system;
- measure water quality ;
- reduce network losses.