Are smart systems the key to sustainable urban development?

Smart systems are miniaturized devices that incorporate functions of sensing, actuation and finally control. They are capable of analyzing a situation or problem and taking decisions based on the available data in a predictive or adaptive manner. The goal is that these systems are able to act in a smart way without human interference. To act in a smart way the system of course needs input: the software that runs on it and the network that connects the different parts. Thus the limiting factor still is mankind. The systems mainly consist of sensors for signal acquisition and elements that transmit the information to control units. The control units then give instructions based on the available information.

Smart systems usually address environmental challenges like limited resources (fossil fuel), climate change (global warming) and globalization. One area in which smart systems have been successfully implemented is urban development. As a result of a growing population our future cities will not only become bigger but also more dependent on a well adapted infrastructure. Today smart systems are used in power saving where they for example turn off the air-conditioning when the demand for electricity is high. Smart infrastructure also includes water-pipes with sensors and fibre-optic networks connected to toll and traffic systems that automatically reroute traffic to avoid traffic-jams. Smart systems can also be applied outside buildings, bridges and tunnels to measure temperature, displacements, strain or vibrations thus making the constructions safer against collapse. Monitoring of constructions isn`t actually new. What on the contrary is new is the smartness, the ability to respond accordingly to problems without human interference. An example would be buildings in areas where earthquakes occur monitored with shock absorbers that automatically stiffen or relax depending on the resonant frequency of the vibration.

New smart cities are actually under construction in Abu Dhabi and South Korea, but as most of our cities already exist ways have to be found to transform cities into smart cities. Such attempts have been made in The Netherlands and Denmark.
Though smart systems have a wide field of application the systems are in their beginning and still under development. Problems that engineers struggle with are minimization of data amounts that have to be transferred between sensors and thus making the system slow. Smart systems are also vulnerable to power failures.