Smart technology is no longer limited to your phone or television. There are entire cities whose technological IQ is being improved. This interesting topic came to us from Smart Cities Dive in their article, “A successful data strategy starts at the edge.”

As the benefits of smart cities become more widely known, cities all over the world are looking for ways to implement edge computing and make use of new data sources, while ensuring the quality of that data.

While cities occupy only 2% of the planet’s land mass, they host 50% of the world’s population, consume 75% of global energy produced and generate 80% of global CO2 emissions. These stats alone should give reason to reach for better utilization of resources. Smart technology can help with that.

City planners are responsible for optimizing transportation, energy distribution and other residential services. Doing that often involves installing sensors in places like parking lots, public transportation stations, garbage trucks and urban lighting systems. All of those sensors generate huge volumes of data and provide vast amounts of information on inhabitants’ behaviors. The rich data supply can also be used to help urban planners design roads and cities based on movement.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.