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We hear a lot of buzz about microgrids – localized power systems with the ability to self-supply and operate independently of the main grid. We hear about them because many believe they are the best way to guarantee power – even during natural...
Article - 09/26/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Energy, Connectivity, Instrumentation and control
Our efforts to separate pure trash from recyclables, and different types of recyclables from each other, are cutting down on the amount of waste in landfills. But they’re also resulting in waste.Each bin requires a different truck, and trucks are...
Article - 09/24/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Transportation, Waste management, Instrumentation and control
Do the lights in your office flicker when the electric car drivers start arriving for work?That could be the case as more and more electric vehicles (EVs) show up in company parking garages and plug their vehicles into charging stations. Dozens of...
Article - 09/24/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Energy, Transportation
Machine learning technology is expected to spawn a new generation of smart cities solutions that take action based on analysis of data collected from sensors and other sources. And the launch of Azure Machine Learning (ML) from Council Lead Partner...
Article - 09/24/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Analytics, Computing resources, Data management
Do residents think their city is as smart as city officials do? A new survey finds the answer is probably not.In fact, few people have even heard of the term “smart cities.” That's according to Roberta Gamble of Frost & Sullivan, writing for...
Article - 09/24/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Smart City Concepts, Citizen engagement, Research, publications and web sites
Over the past few months, two new power plants have gone online in Thailand, providing power for 1.5 million homes. Even though they are practically located at opposite ends of the country, both were finished in just three years thanks to an...
Article - 09/19/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Energy
By George Karayannis, LEED APWe continue our series on the new ISO 37120 Smart City standard with a look at the 11th of 17 themes defined in the standard – shelter indicators. As previously described, ISO 37120 includes 46 ‘Core’ (must report) and...
Article - 09/19/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Health and human services, Policy frameworks and tools
When it comes to ranking the world's top global cities, there has been little change. New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong top the Global Cities Index from A.T. Kearney – the same spots those cities held last time, and two times before that....
Article - 09/19/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Economic development, Health and human services, Connectivity
We celebrate the Swedes for many reasons. They invented the pacemaker, the flat screen monitor, the zipper. And they know a lot about meatballs.Sweden's latest claim to fame now comes in the waste management arena. Less than 1% of the country's...
Article - 09/19/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Waste management
In an important development for microgrids, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) will administer certification for the Performance Excellence in Electricity Renewal (PEER) program.According to GBCI, PEER is the first comprehensive...
Article - 09/17/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Energy
Car-sharing services have transformed the way that residents of many major cities get around by making it easy to rent vehicles for the odd trips where public transit just won’t do. And now they may transform the way that people look at clean-energy...
Article - 09/17/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Energy, Transportation
When crime rates skyrocket, cities may be tempted to dramatically increase police patrols or surveillance efforts. Durham, North Carolina, however, decided to fight crime with data. And the city appears to be winning the fight.The city launched...
Article - 09/17/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Public safety and security, Analytics
Lighting vendors offer dozens of smart street light options that promise to save cities money as well as collect useful types of data. But how do municipal officials figure out which option is right for them?A trip to the new Danish Outdoor Lighting...
Article - 09/17/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Energy, Connectivity
People generally like to be near the water, so it’s no surprise that many of the world’s largest cities are coastal cities. But as global temperatures, and therefore sea levels rise, many of those cities are becoming threatened by the very thing...
Article - 09/12/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Public safety and security, Analytics
Small and medium-sized cities backed up with traffic management issues may want to examine a new cloud-based solution from Council Associate Partner Siemens.The global engineering and electronics company has unveiled TACTICS smartGuard, an online...
Article - 09/12/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Transportation
When a gunman was roaming through the halls of Virginia Tech in 2007, students frantically texted 911 for help. It seemed like a good way to contact police. They could talk to police silently. Their voices wouldn’t alert the gunman where they were...
Article - 09/10/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Public safety and security, Telecommunications, Connectivity
Dissecting ISO 37120: How safe is your city? (Hint: run the numbers on homicides and response times)
By George Karayannis, LEED APWe continue our series on the new ISO 37120 Smart City standard with a look at the 10th of 17 themes defined in the standard -- safety indicators. As previously described, ISO 37120 includes 46 ‘Core’ (must report) and...
Article - 09/10/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Public safety and security, Security and privacy
Technology gadgets that help the vision impaired navigate unfamiliar spaces and environmental watchdogs sniff out sources of pollution are among the ideas swirling around a break-through computer chip developed by Council Lead Partner IBM.Called...
Article - 09/10/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Public safety and security, Computing resources
Council Associate Partner ABB has commissioned the converter stations to the 3,150 megawatt Rio Madeira High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) link in Brazil. At approximately 2,400 kilometers, the power connection is the longest transmission link in...
Article - 09/05/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Energy
Developers working on Saudi Arabia’s next smart cities are also getting smart about the construction of them. The same mobile technologies that help the smart cities operate are also helping to make development easier and at less cost.They’re...
Article - 09/05/2014
Active Region(s): Main, Australia - New Zealand, North America
Category: Built environment, Analytics, Computing resources, Instrumentation and control
What are the toughest challenges facing the traffic industry? Council Associate Partner Siemens has identified five that it thinks could be solved with some innovative thinking. Toward that end, it is inviting the general public and university...
Article - 09/05/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Public safety and security, Transportation, Citizen engagement
By Brendan O’Brien, CiscoSmart Cities. The Industrial Internet. The Internet of Everything. These terms have been thrown around quite a bit in the past year, but there haven’t been a great number of real-world examples demonstrating how these...
Article - 09/03/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Connectivity, Instrumentation and control
By George Karayannis, LEED APWe continue our series on the new ISO 37120 Smart City standard with a look at the ninth of 17 themes defined in the standard -- recreation indicators. As previously described, ISO 37120 includes 46 ‘Core’ (must report...
Article - 09/03/2014
Active Region(s): Main, North America
Category: Built environment, Economic development, Health and human services