Home » Technical Topics » Data Science

Understanding the future of smart cities through data science

  • Noami Woods 

The concept of smart cities is to use advanced technologies to minimize traffic congestion, manage waste better, and improve the quality of life for people. Data science will play a critical role in managing intelligent cities. It will help avail insights to help city managers make data-driven decisions. Big data will offer a unique opportunity for running sustainable and livable cities.

City dwellers will benefit from minimum energy use, less pollution, and better air quality. The development of the cities faces different challenges such as competition of resources and data privacy issues. Urban managers and dwellers will use various AI-driven techniques, systems, and processes to get real-time analysis and reports to understand actual happenings.

Understanding the future of smart cities through data science

Image Credit – Pexels

How data science will help intelligent cities become smarter and more efficient

Advancing data analytics will offer unprecedented chances for urban environments to increase sustainability, resilience, and livability. Leveraging data-based insights will be critical when making informed decisions. City management authorities will rely on data to improve traffic flow, manage energy distribution and use, waste, and make plans for smarter infrastructure.

Data analytics in smart cities will provide quick and dependable ways for analyzing raw data to help understand the real-time dynamics of cities. It will be useful in enabling planning and developing new adaptations for challenges. Efficiency is important in advanced cities. Big data will help minimize pollution to the environment and increase the quality of air. Urban management will effectively supply the right amount of energy required to keep systems running and buildings livable.

As smart cities develop more, society needs to address a variety of data privacy and security risks.  Resolving them in a smart security environment needs a holistic approach. WIFI connection will play a major role in intelligent cities but various WIFI security issues might arise. One of them is that this network is blocking encrypted DNS traffic, especially when a user gets a new WIFI connection. This is a common issue that affects network security on Mac.

If you fail to resolve privacy warning in Mac you could compromise your data and privacy. One of the ways to resolve this network blocking encrypted DNS traffic is to restart your gadget, reconnect your WIFI, or update your gadget. DNS blocking happens when a company tries to prevent DNS encryption so that it can snoop on your data. That is when your gadget’s OS displays the message network is blocking encrypted DNS traffic. You might want to use a VPN, reconnect your internet, or change your connection password to resolve this issue.

 Understanding the future of smart cities through data science

Image Credit- Pexels  

Benefits of using data science in smart cities

The effects of climate change are impacting every sector of society. Globally, societies are experiencing challenges such as:

●       Hotter temperatures

●       Poorer food production

●       Diminishing human, animal, and plant health

●       More species going extinct

●       Increasing poverty, droughts, and live threatening storms

One of the aims of developing intelligent cities is to find solutions to these challenges. Scientists are finding ways to minimize the production of CO2 and improve human life. The aim of data-driven smart cities is not only to minimize CO2 emissions but also to provide a variety of benefits to urban dwellers.

Produce more energy and use less. Smart city technologies aim to save more energy in a wide variety of ways.

Ensure there is cleaner air for urban dwellers. Smart urban planning authorities will use technologies to measure air quality and understand sources of pollution.

Enhanced transportation. City data analysis and systems in smart cities aim to optimize mobility in urban places. Data will help pinpoint challenges in transportation systems, minimize congestion, and provide real-time traffic updates.

Enhanced waste management. AI-driven city management will help gather data across ecosystems for waste recycling, repair, and reuse. Big data will help reduce waste production and management of waste delivery channels.

Enhanced public safety and quality of life. Data privacy in smart cities will help security teams keep an eye on real-time happenings across streets and buildings using AI-driven cameras.

 Understanding the future of smart cities through data science

Image Credit – Pexels

Challenges that cities face in implementing data-driven solutions

Terabytes of data can be generated daily which is important for improving efficiency in smart cities. However, big data poses a major storage challenge to both City management and dwellers. The data generation, processing, and storage systems are prone to cyberattacks.

International and local policies for data privacy and sharing keep changing which poses a major challenge to companies, governments, and individuals. As urban technology improves, legislation needs to change. The current laws are full of loopholes that hinder the swift implementation of smart city policies. There needs to be greater connectivity and efficiency but intelligent use of big data is currently lacking.

Conclusion

The realization of smart cities is approaching fast as societies become more intertwined with urban technology. Big data is playing a major role in speeding up the pace and improving efficiency, and quality of life. Still, there are several drawbacks that the current generation has to deal with. They have to address issues of cybersecurity, data privacy, CO2 emissions, legislation, and economic improvements of the people.