Foundations for Smarter Cities

C. Harrison B. Eckman R. Hamilton P. Hartswick J. Kalagnanam J. Paraszczak P. Williams This paper describes the information technology (IT) foundation and principles for Smarter Citiesi. Smarter Cities are urban areas that exploit operational data, such as that arising from traff ic congestion, power consumption statistics, and public safety events, to optimize the operation of city services. The foundational concepts are instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent. Instrumented refers to sources of near-real-time real-world data from both physical and virtual sensors. Interconnected means the integration of those data into an enterprise computing platform and the communication of such information among the various city services. Intelligent refers to the inclusion of complex analytics, modeling, optimization, and visualization in the operational business processes to make better operational decisions. This approach enables the adaptation of city services to the behavior of the inhabitants, which permits the optimal use of the available physical infrastructure and resources, for example, in sensing and controlling consumption of energy and water, managing waste processing and transportation systems, and applying optimization to achieve new eff iciencies among these resources. Additional roles exist in intelligent interaction between the city and its inhabitants and further contribute to operational eff iciency while maintaining or enhancing quality of life.