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IoT in Smart Cities
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Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc62856111 \h 2Background PAGEREF _Toc62856112 \h 2Impact of Solid Wastes PAGEREF _Toc62856113 \h 3Water Shortages PAGEREF _Toc62856114 \h 3Problem Statement PAGEREF _Toc62856115 \h 4Purpose Statement PAGEREF _Toc62856116 \h 5Research Objectives PAGEREF _Toc62856117 \h 6Research Questions PAGEREF _Toc62856118 \h 7Research Method and Design PAGEREF _Toc62856119 \h 7Qualitative Research Approach PAGEREF _Toc62856120 \h 7The Quantitative Research PAGEREF _Toc62856121 \h 8Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc62856122 \h 9References PAGEREF _Toc62856123 \h 10
IoT in Smart Cities
Introduction
The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to shape lives in various ways. As people become busier, it has also become necessary to establish ways to make life easier. IoT is a product of technology, and in the same way that it transformed the information and communication sectors, it is the same way it is changing lives. Cvar et al. (2020) show that IoT can also be used in villages because the technology is not limited to certain aspects of development but can transform to influence people's lives at a personal or household level. Basic commodities are a priority in every city as well as in the villages. Therefore, efforts to enhance urban dwellers' lives should begin by ensuring that they receive these basic commodities, including water, electricity, health services, and sanitation services, uninterrupted.
The incorporation of technology at the domestic level is also associated with the concept of smart or automated homes. Smart homes are an innovation in which common devices are used to control home features. Smart home technology has already been used to control environmental systems, including lighting and heating, and hence time is appropriate for its use to enhance other services at home. The technology has not only been useful in turning devices on and off but has also been effective at monitoring the internal environment and activities that are taking place in the house. The result of these developments is that people have created smart homes by controlling everything using their handsets. They can open the gate, switch off the television, switch off lights, and lock or unlock the doors. Users have embraced this technology and helped save energy, time, and other resources.
The technology used in smart devices applies the same assistive technology used in environmental development and can communicate with each other. This ability to communicate can be utilized to report major environmental developments, such as leaking pipes and improper waste management. Many people in urban areas encounter water leakages and wastes disposed of carelessly. However, they do not have a proper channel of communication. Besides, the water leakages do not only occur through delivery pipes but also occurs via daily usage. Smart technology should be incorporated in meter readings, water, and power, to detect any unusual usages. In waste management, technology can be used to detect any indecomposable wastes, such as plastic bags, that can be detrimental to the environment when disposed of together with the rest of the wastes. The ability to monitor and prevent wastages using such a simple form of technology can ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
Background
As the world's population increases exponentially, people continue to scramble for scarce resources as others move to cities. Therefore, urbanization will continue in both developed and less developed countries. According to Koop and Leeuwen (2017), urban dwellers will account for 86% of the population in developed countries, and in developing regions, it will account for 64%. These city population increase projections point to a further problem of water shortages and urban pollution from wastes. As the homes continue to increase in the cities, they will be accompanied by some challenges related to increases in energy consumption and subsequent global emission. According to the UN (2013), cities accounted for approximately 2% of the land surface on Earth as of 2017 and 60-80% of energy consumption. The same statistics are likely to be applied to utilize resources, including wood, plastics, metals, and water. As consumption of these resources continues, so will the increase in the number of wastes produced. Therefore, there is a prediction that cities will have two major problems soon, water scarcity, which is already apparent in most major cities around the world, and an increase in wastes, especially in third world countries.
Impact of Solid Wastes
Cities generate significant amounts of solid wastes. The problem is exacerbated by the ineffective disposal system, leading to both water and soil contamination. Most cities, especially in developing countries, have open landfills containing wastes, and rivers in such regions tend to be extremely contaminated with plastics and other solid wastes. According to Jambeck et al. (2015), 192 coastal countries generated approximately 275 million metric tons of plastic entering the ocean. These plastics are not easily bio gradable and integrate into smaller pieces that interfere with marine life. The effect of the pollution is evident in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. The marine animals ingest them, killing them and interfering with the ecosystem balance (McFedries, 2012). Some of these plastics also emanate from consumer products such as cosmetics, paints, cleaning agents, and coatings. All these wastes are deposited in City Rivers and washed down to large marine sources, furthering pollution.
Water Shortages
As the cities continue to grapple with the waste and pollution problem, urban dwellers also find themselves short of water. According to Walton (2019), millions of Indians and Zimbabweans in Chennai and Harare respectively go for several weeks or even months without water. The same scenario was evident in Sao Paulo in 2014, where the city almost drained its water reservoir while the officials lazily as the drought creped in. Cape Town almost had a similar experience in 2018 following the dry weather's exposure of its feeble water system that mainly depended on rainfall. All these experiences can be attributed to the unaddressed problem of water loss. According to Ahopelto & Vahala (2020), the world loses approximately 126 billion cubic meters annually, with an estimated value of USD 39 billion each year. Most of this water is wasted through leakages that are attributed to old infrastructure. For example, Africa, rich in resources, has some of its infrastructure constructed during the colonial periods. Some of the newer infrastructures have been constructed without proper urban planning measures, leading to interferences in water sources and distribution channels.
The old infrastructure and poor urban blueprint in some towns have led to water losses through background leakages and leakages from bursts. Besides background leakages, water is also lost through metering errors, unregulated public usage, and theft (El-Zahab & Zayed, 2019). Leakages account for the most significant losses of approximately 70%. As unmanaged networks continue to sprout in cities, this value is expected to increase. Petroleum pipeline networks suffer from the same fate, where huge leakages have been reported in various cities worldwide. While water leakages may be beneficial to the environment, oil leakages are harmful. Sadly, oil leakages are also accompanied by other dire consequences, including property damage. For example, according to (), the USA has reported pipeline accidents that cost around $7 billion over the past three decades, killed over 500 people, and injured several others. Therefore, solving the water leakage problem.
Problem Statement
IoT comprises a set of technologies for accessing data collected using various devices through wireless and wired internet networks. While different sources define the technologies differently, the common explanation is its potential to provide valuable information using different user devices that utilize wireless and internet networks (González-Zamar, Abad-Segura, Vázquez-Cano, & López-Meneses, 2020). The adoption of IoT began a long time ago in smart cities, and as of 2017, its adoption increased by about 39% compared to 2015 (Park, Pobil, & Kwon, 2018). Its adoption is mainly associated with improving the cities' quality of life (Cvar, Trilar, Kos, Volk, & Duh, 2020). A survey on smart city use of IoT has to indicate various uses of the technology in improving the quality of life. Smart city use connected to public transport is the most preferred use of IoT worldwide, with a 74% implementation rate. For example, Skanetrafiken, the public transport body in Malmo, Sweden, installed the system to connect the public bus transport system (IoT Analytics, 2020). Another smart city use for IoT is in traffic monitoring and management, in which 72% of the cities use the technology to monitor traffic and ensure that it flows efficiently (IoT Analytics, 2020). For example, in Copenhagen, Denmark constructed 380 intelligent traffic lights that helped reduce congestion in the streets by prioritizing bikes and buses. In Geneva, IoT helps develop a high-speed network and smart grids to aid energy management (Talari, Shafie-khah, Siano, Loia, Tommasetti, & Catalão, 2017). The graph below shows the top 10 smart city use cases of IoT.
While IoT has been effective at improving city efficiency, there still exist several challenges that city dwellers face. Water is a scarce commodity in most cities around the world. Therefore, besides metering it, IoT can also monitor its distribution and ensure that the water reaches most users. Water scarcity also attributes to undetectable leakages and illegal connections in most cities. IoT can be used in monitoring such water flows to ensure that everybody gets sufficient water. Other than water leakages and theft culminating in its unequal distribution, cities also face hygiene challenges. These areas are prone to pollution from industrial wastes and gas emissions from motor vehicles. The technology can monitor these emissions and ensure that only treated wastes are allowed into the environment. This study aims at assessing the viability of using IoT for these reasons.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine how the Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to help improve city lives at the household level. The research will apply a mixed-methods approach as it will e...