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The proportion of the global population – which itself is rising inexorably – that lives in cities has been rising for decades and this trend shows no sign of abating.
A United Nations study revealed that about 66% of the global population will be living in cities by 2050, up from 53% today and 34% in 1960. Ninety percent of that increase will be accounted for by Africa and Asia, with the latter’s urban population set to reach 2.7bn.
Responding to this paradigm shift in where and how people live governments across Asia are investing hugely and developing targeted policies in making cities more comfortable, safer and more secure places to live.
As cities absorb thousands of new arrivals every year governments are increasingly turning to technology to cope with the strain – more specifically, ‘smart’ technology.
In the Asia-Pacific region the annual investment in technologies designated to smart cities projects are expected to see an almost fourfold increase to $11.3bn by 2023, according to a study by Navigant Research.
Steven Webb, Vice President for Aerospace, Defence & Security at market research firm Frost & Sullivan, reflects on a burgeoning trend.
“The race to develop cities that compete for international business and tourism whilst simultaneously delivering tangible benefits to its inhabitants is well underway,” he says.
“Terms such as ‘Smart Cities’, ‘Smart Infrastructure’ and the ‘Internet of Things’ are all widely used, often interchangeably, to describe the sensors and wireless networks that have become a ubiquitous part of infrastructure in cities striving to become ‘smart’.”
Singapore has been a big mover in the nascent smart cities trend
So what is a smart city exactly? There is not yet a widely agreed definition leaving many opportunities unexplored, let alone effectively leveraged.
Both private and public stakeholders are striving hard to develop a more exhaustive outline for the concept.
Undeterred by the lack of a clear definition experts generally seem to envisage that everyday things, from street lights to pavements, would be internet-connected and equipped with sensors. Detecting everything from temperature to pollution they would generate data that alters the settings depending on parameters set by the relevant authorities.
In short, it’s essentially about connecting to a network and generating data.
That phenomenon is widely referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Everything and has emerged as the latest buzz phrase for all things claiming or aspiring to be ‘smart’. The data generated through IoT helps the governing authorities to identify trends – whether it’s the behaviour of crowds or effect of new roads on pollution levels – and formulate policy.
One sector already harnessing the power of IoT is aviation. A 17 hour non-stop flight from Dallas to Sydney is now a reality in part due to sensors throughout the aircraft that monitor temperature, performance of various components and other variables and automatically recalibrate various settings accordingly.
The benefits of smart tech “are often explicit,” says Steven Webb of Frost & Sullivan, which produces market reports on smart cities. “The capability for officers to share voice, video and data real time will revolutionise response times and situational awareness.
“Likewise as body-worn video and facial recognition analytics become increasingly widespread the resulting data will contribute to improved operational decision making, resulting in a more effective police service.”
In Singapore smart technologies such as electronic road pricing systems, expressway monitoring and advisory issuing systems have significantly assisted in overhauling the transportation system by managing and reducing congestion. The effectiveness of this monitoring is attested to by the fact that the city state now boasts one of the highest average car speeds on roads anywhere in the world at 27km/h.
In Tokyo and Jakarta, by contrast, the average car speed remains a slovenly 11km/h and 5km/h respectively.
The US Department of Transportation is so convinced of the technology’s promise that they have announced a plan to soon make inter-vehicle communications a possibility. With the help of this technology smart cars – ultimately driverless cars of the kind being tested in California by Google – of the future will drastically lower the risk of accidents.
Korea’s Songdo International Business District and Japan’s Fujisawa are some Asian cities developing according to the smart city concept.
China is developing Tianjin as a model city in terms of sustainability with a low carbon footprint the goal. Iskandar in Malaysia is also being transformed into the country’s first smart city.
Apart from health and education the security industry, which will play a pivotal role in protecting all other sectors, is the main beneficiary of the smart city trend. Energy and transport, the former in terms of efficiency and cost savings and the latter in terms of combating terror and making journeys more comfortable for passengers, will also be major focuses for the drive towards smart urban environments.
A raft of innovative small tech firms like Senseiot and Tellient are already competing with traditional security giants to produce solutions to meet the needs of the modern city.
Cyber security and privacy concerns are the two major bulwarks to realising the smart city vision.
Says Webb: “The global cities of South East Asia, such as Singapore, all have ambitious digital programs demanding heavy investment. Whilst tangible benefits are expected as a result of this investment, as is often the case the integration of new technologies can be a double-edged sword.
“Systems Integrators have struggled at times to deliver fully operational, wireless systems, leaving customers frustrated.
“Undoubtedly this will become less of a challenge over time as technology matures, yet such large scale projects across a city will have many vulnerabilities and solutions need to be developed to ensure police communication networks are both secure and resilient.
“This is before the pertinent issues of privacy and data security, often still neglected by many stakeholders, are accordingly addressed.”
Cyber security
An IDC study projects that the threat of some form of major breach over IoT networks in the coming two years at no less than 90%.
Small firms like Bastille, Sansa security and Offspark have sprang up to meet address the growing cyber vulnerabilities in an increasingly network-connected world.
The era of smart security has heralded the advent of IP-enabled and integrated security systems where multiple gadgets and sensors report, analysis and automatically act upon – within pre-programmable parameters – collected data to reduce response times in crisis situations.
Security companies have big decisions to make about which smart capabilities they add to their products to differentiate from competitors. With technology now software driven the marginal costs of upgrading solutions can only reduce the risks of, and accelerate, innovation.
Security companies must take into account the value created by adding smart technologies in a product and only charge a suitable premium based on the cost savings it can offer over its lifecycle.
Since response times are of the essence in security industry, the same must also be carefully considered while deciding whether a certain feature should be embedded in the device or be delivered through cloud.
In order to prevent any response lag or delay due to poor network connectivity, it’s inevitable that the said feature must be embedded, even though this could drive up costs.
Cloud-based functionalities coupled with uninterrupted network connectivity to ensure instant alerts in case of a security breach can minimise loss in hazardous environments.
Remote monitoring – where disparate sensors monitor a given environment and feed back data to a central control room or the operator’s smartphone wherever they may be – no longer entails as high a marginal cost for the manufacturer as it used to and vastly improves the user’s ability to work flexibly and efficiently.
Steven Webb throws down the gauntlet to the security industry:
“There are plenty of opportunities for industry as end users look to overcome the operational challenges. These include IP cameras, body-worn devices, wireless sensors, 4G public safety communication networks, data analytics and storage, visualisation technology and a secure system.
“The evolving requirements of cities provides industry with the opportunity to find innovative solutions.”
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Smart Cities in South-East Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for the Security IndustryResearch firm Frost & Sullivan lends insight to this analysis of a burgeoning trend in IP-connected, data generating security solutions in cities across the region.
Bhavesh Kumar
IFSEC Insider | Security and Fire News and Resources
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