Supporting the smart city agenda

In the first of a series of articles examining how smart cities will impact our urban environment, Rebecca De Cicco, Director at Digital Node shines a light on what the UK is achieving in this burgeoning sector and how BIM will need to play its part

According to the UN’s latest within PAS180, recognising that terminol2018 Revision of World ogy and analytical language surrounding Urbanisation Prospects smart cities would require some standard(tinyurl.com/urbanisation18), isation regarding this agenda. Aimed at the world’s urban population currently city leaders, this PAS defined terms which stands at 4.2 billion, with around 68% of included intelligent city concepts across the whole world’s population projected different infrastructure and systems eleto live in urban areas by 2050. ments. They also developed the PAS 181

The report even suggests that by 2030, Smart City Framework (tinyurl.com/ we will see 43 megacities with more than smartPAS181) to enable city leaders to 10 million inhabitants, mostly in devel- develop, agree and deliver smart city stratoping regions. It’s no surprise then that egies, and the PAS 182 Smart City Concept this shift toward urbanisation presents a Model (tinyurl.com/smartPAS182); a guide to complicated set of challenges in meeting establishing a model for data, tackling the the needs of the population regarding barriers to implementing intelligent city sustainable development, housing, trans- concepts, including the interoperability of port, energy, employ- systems and datament, education, sharing between health care, and About the author agencies. infrastructure. These PAS docuHow we approach and solve these chalRebecca De Cicco is the director and ments outlined the standards to prolenges is an urgent founder of vide the necessary issue with smart city Digital Node, a conditions for innosystems being hailed BIM-based con- vation and collaboas the answer to sultancy work- ration, recognising manage resources and the economies ing with clients all over the world to educate, manage and support the that each city would likely have a differassociated with such implementation of a clearly defined pro- ent vision to meet a population shift. cess, underpinned by technology. its individual vision

Our future cities for its future. must be ‘smart’, but When one considwhat does that mean? The British ers BIM in the world of smart cities, intelliStandards Institute (BSI) defines the gent clients and a BIM-enabled supply smart city term as “the effective integra- chain would certainly be desired, ensuring tion of physical, digital and human sys- the information translated to the asset tems in the built environment to deliver owner or city would be ‘smart’ enough to sustainable, prosperous and inclusive use and reuse downstream. Keeping sysfuture for its citizens”. The definition tems connected to other smart city systems sounds simple, but the challenges of such as roadways, lighting systems, underdelivery are not. ground services etc., is the key, and a building built with BIM at its heart can Standards to support smart cities enable the integration with other systems In 2014 BSI produced the Smart Cities and supply the data required for future Vocabulary (tinyurl.com/smartPAS180) infrastructure, planning and maintenance. The London approach So, how well is the UK adopting smart city principles, concepts, and programmes?

A recent study from Philips Lighting cited London, along with Singapore and Barcelona as being the world’s best, with London being commended for its focus on communities when implementing technology. However, the report indicated that local authorities are being hindered through budget limitations, a lack of leadership in the implementation, limited capabilities in infrastructure and challenges around short-term planning.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, recently unveiled the new Smarter London Together smart cities roadmap aiming to tackle the main inhibitors to digitised cities, such as those mentioned above. Khan’s plan to make London the smartest city in the world relies on innovative data capture and how best that can serve citizens.

To capture that data, the roadmap requires the city’s 33 local authorities and public services to work and collaborate more effectively with data and digital technologies. The collation of this data will be supported by a new London Office for Data Analytics (LODA) (tinyurl.com/ LODAdata) which was developed during a 2016-2017 pilot. LODA will use data science techniques to deliver significant benefits for citizens that can be designed around their needs, prove efficiency gains for public services, and how new technologies and smart city devices can be used to solve urban challenges like air quality.

The technology market As smart cities rely on everything being connected, the technology to enable not only intelligent services for citizens but to connect them with authorities is the bed-

rock of how a smart city can be achieved. Singapore, and most recently, Australia. tancy using a smartphone application to

From sensors to The Internet of Digital Node was chosen on the Future support intelligent parking systems as Things, geospatial technology to AI, the Cities Mission to Australia this year out well as Grid Smarter Cities (gridsmartermarketplace is estimated to reach $400 of hundreds of organisations in the UK to cities.com), a consultancy offering smart billion by 2020 of which 10 per cent can travel to Melbourne to support how BIM city eco-systems using data to connect be reaped by the UK. Fortunately, the UK and future cities are interconnected. communities, people, transport and parkis recognising this potential market, and Melbourne was chosen as the Australian ing. We were honoured to be part of such programmes such as Innovate UK and city to support this mission as it was an intelligent forward thinking group. the Future Cities Catapult are Smart cities form a crucial supporting innovative companies to create the solutions to our urban challenges. ‘‘ A building built with BIM at its heart can component to the future of our cities, and although BIM is vital to this incentive, it is

Innovate UK’s work to sup- enable the integration with other systems only one part of the broader port businesses to realise the potential of innovative new and supply the data required for future picture to enable technology, data and innovation to thrive ideas has already seen a com- infrastructure, planning and maintenance support this agenda. mitment of over £1.8 billion, creating nearly 70,000 jobs and £16 billion for the UK economy. noted that future predictions on the city ’’ As more businesses realise the potential of engaging with, and delivering smart processes, we

Their Future Cities Missions intend to confirmed its rapid population increase will see the expansion of skills, knowloffer businesses improved access to in the next ten years, as well as the oppor- edge, and the use of such processes knowledge, markets, skills and partners tunities for UK businesses to offer their become part of the norm rather than their based outside of the UK to help remove services in this city. An example of other current status of something to be the barriers to global growth. These mis- companies who joined us on this mission admired from afar. sions have seen companies visit Malaysia, included Just Park (justpark.com), a consul- ■ digital-node.com