IFSEC Speaker Q&A: Roz Euan-Smith on Smart Cities

Roz Euan-Smith, senior analyst on Smart Homes & Smart Cities at research firm IHS, shares her views on her area of expertise and a subject she’ll be discussing at IFSEC International between 16-18 June.

IG: How would you define a safe/smart city?

Roz Euan-Smith: In 2014 IHS Technology published a report defining a smart city as a city that has deployed, or is currently piloting, the integration of ICT solutions across three or more of mobility and transport, energy and sustainability, physical infrastructure, governance, and safety and security city functions in order to improve efficiency, manage complexity and enhance citizen quality of life, leading to a sustainable improvement in city operation.

In 2015 IHS Technology plans to launch a new Smart City Intelligence Service, which will also include healthcare as a core city function.

In the 2014 smart City report, the safety and security element of a smart city was forecast to demonstrate the highest compound annual growth rate between 2013 and 2025, although it should be noted that this is growing from the smallest base.

The safe city concept is based on a consolidated IT platform which combines public-safety information of different types and from different sources, obtained through sensors and multi-agency collaboration.

IG: The smart city concept is still relatively new…

RES:  We are seeing some really exciting examples of smart-city projects around the world, such as the Rio Operations Centre in Brazil and the New York Real Time Crime Centre in the United States.

However, we see the the safe and smart city concepts as still evolving. Terms such as smart city, safe city, and future city are often used interchangeably, and just as every city is different, every city’s approach to smart ICT programs to manage its challenges will be different too.

IG: What will be the biggest impact IoT has on security and public safety in cities?

RES: IoT as it relates to safe cities is all about how those sensors that are deployed across a city can be bought into a common operating picture and used to enhance the operator’s situational awareness. This can help lower response times as well as potentially predicting incidents before they occur.

IG: The security threats for smart, interconnected cities are…

RES: Many cities are considering how the convergence of physical security and cyber security should be handled, and whether they should be unifying their approach to these.

Cyber and data security and privacy are issues of public concern, so in order for IoT to deliver the maximum potential benefits of a smart-city, a solution would need to be found for these issues.

Roz Euan-Smith is discussing ‘Smart Cities, Safe Cities’ at IFSEC International 2015 in the Safe Cities Academy.

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