Smart Urban Sensing (SUS) is using artificial intelligence (AI) sensor technology to deliver green city solutions. There is an untapped link between data generated through AI products and big data analytics built into various smart city platforms, and sustainable solutions and policy advice. For example, by tracking and analysing footfall, cycling and e-scooters within key city regions, AI can be used to advise city councils on popular transport links and areas that could benefit from pedestrianisation and healthier modes of urban mobility leading to cleaner air and traffic-free city zones.
AI is now entering industries such as transportation, manufacturing and engineering. Its adoption started with retail, and now it has made its way into other sectors. With accurate, detailed, real-time, 24/7 data, local authorities can make data-driven decisions about city infrastructure and feed these same datasets into AI to plan everything from traffic light signals to air quality.
What we mean by Smart Cities
Smart cities use AI sensors which can share information with the public, businesses, city managers and other sensor systems, connecting sensors and services through the ‘internet of things’ (IOT).
SUS have installed a multitude of IOT hardware across the city of Manchester with the aim of identifying key digital technologies that could shape the city’s infrastructure and environment. Smart cities will change the way we manage and study cities in the future, allowing the public to become engaged with their environment in ways that weren’t possible before the era of AI.
Smart cities of the future will be informed, connected and aimed at a more sustainable and resilient path to prosperity. The term “smart” embraces not just the technological, but also the social and human aspects of a city. By adding new sensors and updating existing infrastructure for the digital age, cities will experience significant impacts on the efficiency, capacity, and service delivery to citizens, improving economic opportunity and overall quality of life.
How AI is greening cities
“To effectively serve people, it helps if the city authorities know how many people are going where and when,” says Asad Syed, managing director of SUS. “The flow of pedestrians affects the whole city environment. Using AI allows us to detect effective energy saving strategies, such as turning off streetlights in areas where we know there is no human traffic, and implementing solar panel lampposts for tailored use, contributing to greener cities.”
By developing an accurate AI IOT metering system, people’s behaviours within cities can be analysed and used to advise city councils on how to intelligently manage the flow and organisation of people, vehicles, and bicycles – an approach known as smart urban mobility.
AI can also be used to monitor air pollution, identifying problem areas and providing quantifiable evidence that certain policies, such as pedestrianisation and clean air zones, lower the amount of pollution in our cities.
