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make the realization of a European
smart city complex and costly.
Stokoe does not expect that our
cities in every respect will be
completely “in pain”. "Unless you
build a new urban area”.
Rotterdam Harbour
Stokoe finds the port of Rotterdam a
fine example of an environment that
is indeed quite smart. "That's really
a smart port. In recent decades,
the Port of Rotterdam has grown
tremendously. I am impressed by
the efficient way in which instance
the container is managed today.
Everything is going smoothly and
there is hardly any human work
involved. Those aspect towns also
have. But the port of Rotterdam
had also about 25 years to get at
this current level."
The expert sees some towns with
a lot of smart city-potential. He
calls Amsterdam and Utrecht,
Manchester and Bristol in England,
the Australian Adelaide and Chinese
cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
"These cities are beginning to
recognize the value of data. How
can we use data to improve our
environment? Sustainability is
always an important element: the
use of green energy, recyclable
materials and reducing greenhouse
gas emissions. The Netherlands
plays a pioneering role."
Virtual twin city
But none of these cities have it as
Singapore. Not for nothing Dassault
Systèmes chose Singapore just for
the ambitious 3DEXPERIENCity
project. The company created in
collaboration with the Singaporean
government a hyper-realistic model
of the city that is constantly fed
with real-time data on population
density, traffic, weather, energy
consumption
and
recycling.
Analyzing this dynamic digital 'twin
city replica' helps policy makers to
improve the quality of life. Now and
in the future.
This model, moreover, goes much
further than simply raw data about
the city, designed in a visually
appealing way. "You will not only
see how those individual issues
look like, but also how they influence
each other," said Stokoe. "Then it
really delivers actionable insights.
What happens in my town, what
goes wrong and what can I do?
The beauty is that this platform is
evolving along with Singapore. When
the project is completed, we have a
simulation platform that is applicable
to other cities or parts of it.”
Endless possibilities
Apart from Singapore, we are still
far from smart cities. But Stokoe
radiates optimism. He points out
that many applications are already
within reach. "You can monitor
traffic and manage, so people can
quickly move from A to B. Patients
and the elderly do not need to go
to the hospital because you can
monitor their health from home.
Education is more accessible,
because students can study at
home. And also in the retail industry
and energy sector much is already
possible."
At the same time, the expert
recognizes that there are new
dangers lurking by collecting all that
data. "The smarter our cities are
the more important cyber security
becomes. These two things go hand
in hand. Ultimately, our security is
still no. 1 priority. Let us therefore
remain particularly rational about
smart cities. The point is that
smart technology makes our world
truly better, more efficient and
more sustainable. But without any
targeted usage and only promoting
how great and wonderful the smart
city is, it will be nothing more than
a phenomenon or a buzzword."
Figure 4: Billions of sensors continuously collect data about our
homes, roads and hospitals
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