The concept of the 'smart city' is today more necessary than ever, as increasing urbanisation places greater pressure on the successful management of cities. Recognising this fact, South Africa's major metros have begun putting into place a range of solutions that lay the foundation for a truly smart city.
According to Kroshlen Moodley, GM for Public Sector at SAS South Africa, this is merely the first phase in a long-term smart approach, one which should ultimately lead to far-reaching benefits for both the municipalities in question and their citizens.
He explains that this long-term approach should take place in stages. The first stage is for governments to obtain a single view of the citizen and foster two-way communication between citizen and government. Following this, they can begin implementing additional, more advanced smart services. These would use predictive knowledge to improve policing and EMS services and reduce waste across the municipal supply chain.
"However, for the smart city of the future, there is even more to come. I believe that technologies like Blockchain are going to play a huge role in the near future in assisting municipalities to provide a single identity to citizens. After all, it is important to know exactly who the citizen is that is accessing any given service, he says".
"This is particularly pertinent when you consider the large amounts of documentation required to achieve anything currently. For example, simply obtaining a replacement for a lost matric certificate will likely require - amongst others - a letter from the school, an affidavit from the police and a registered copy of one's ID. With a single identity facilitated by Blockchain, all of this will be eliminated."
Moodley adds that once identities are assured, electronic government-to-citizen services will become much more ubiquitous, as there will be genuine trust between the parties. This will also facilitate greater and more interactive access via mobile channels.
"While some municipalities have launched apps that enable limited communications between citizens and the government - such as obtaining electricity bills or informing councils about water leaks - much more can still be done."
"With predictive analytics, it will be possible to understand what device to contact individual citizens on, what time to contact them and even what type of information they are likely to want. An example here could be that if someone has, in the recent past, had a query about the rebates related to installing a solar geyser, they will very likely want other information from the council related to alternative power."
He suggests that once there is a secure single identity for citizens, there is no reason why voting could not be done electronically, eliminating the huge queues generally experienced at election time. And, thanks to advanced analytics, there should also be a way to make results available in near real time.
"In addition, if government mines the vast amount of data gathered by the e-toll gantries, they will be able to obtain a clearer picture on everything from stolen vehicles and carbon emissions to traffic congestion. They could even monitor which areas of the highway suffer the worst wear and tear and thus need upgrading."
Moreover, it is not just the infrastructure that can be better served in a truly smart city. Healthcare could be improved by proactive monitoring of fitness devices. If, for example, there is a spike in a citizen's heart rate even though they are not exercising, a heart attack may be in the offing, so an ambulance could be proactively despatched. In effect, it will become possible to integrate the health of citizens with the smart city itself. This will also reduce the cost of healthcare for the municipality, as it will be able to treat many problems before they lead to hospitalisation.
"Ultimately, the future we are looking at is one where big data and advanced analytics combine with artificial intelligence, augmented reality and self-learning systems to give us a city where everything from healthcare and emergency services to education, government services and the underlying infrastructure are linked together to create an urban area that is more intelligent, and thus more effective, than we can even imagine at present," concludes Moodley.
Share