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Cities need to smarten up

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 14 Nov 2014
Smart cities have the potential to make citizens' lives better, but progress is slow.
Smart cities have the potential to make citizens' lives better, but progress is slow.

While SA has several plans to make cities smart over the next few decades, few cities' plans have managed to get off the ground and progress is painfully slow.

Several cities have plans to become smart, including the City of Cape Town's five-year strategy, while the City of Johannesburg aims to be smart by 2040, with the City of Tshwane following 15 years later. However, these plans are often beset by challenges in understanding exactly what is needed, and then developing a successful implementation roadmap.

Willie Oosthuysen, Altron's group executive for technology and strategy, says there are many projects on the go at the moment, but few get delivered properly. Part of the issue is that cities do not know what they want, and spend lots of money on consultants to define what they need, but this then does not translate into an implementation roadmap, he explains.

Oosthuysen adds the tender often gets skewed and then derailed and, by the time it is on track again, the originally designed technology is obsolete. He says smart cities are likely to be built piece-by-piece and then interconnected.

Getting there

While SA is "way ahead of other African countries", the issue is in how municipalities are managed and their backlog in efficiencies. He says priorities need to be determined one-by-one and then each functionality developed, such as smart street lights.

Oosthuysen explains smart cities are a way of using ICT to improve service delivery and cope with the rapid urbanisation that is happening faster than authorities can build. He says it aids basic service issues, such as managing traffic lights to ease congestion. "What we need is just service delivery."

However, says Oosthuysen, "technology is not going to be the answer" because other aspects have to be in place, such as governance and management to make sure the cities get the most value out of the smart systems. He notes more public entities realise public/private partnerships are vital to make smart cities work.

On the go

Benefits of smart cities

Smart solutions can be used to tackle issues such as:
Emergency service deployment
Demand-side power management
Flood warnings
Water leaks and management
Greater financial transparency
Waste removal
Traffic light management
Street light monitoring
Parking management
Interactive information for tourists
Interactive maps
Interactive transport routes
Mobile parking payments

There are massive outsourcing projects happening, such as the City of Tshwane's public transport deal, which integrates billing, ticketing, telematics, surveillance and radio communication into its public bus system, says Oosthuysen.

Tshwane has also awarded a tender for its Total Utilities Management Services project, which Altron will take part in. However, the system - which aims to install almost 500 000 smart meters as part of the city's vision to be a smart city by 2055 - has since gone on review, he says.

ICT veteran Adrian Schofield notes "progress is painfully slow" when it comes to getting these projects running. He believes several aspects need to be in place before cities can become smart, including infrastructure to attach devices to, apps, training, and then access points need to be created. "It's one thing to access the network, it's another to get the services you need."

Oosthuysen says Gauteng's Broadband Network, which is being implemented by Altron unit Altech TMT, is running six months ahead of schedule and will ultimately lead to a lot of smart city endpoints being created. The project, which has a return on investment of 17 months, will allow for devices and applications to be slotted in at various points, aiding the province in its quest to become smart.

The City of Cape Town has made advances, and is using smart technology to improve its waste collection, as tracers on bins means only full dustbins need to be collected, and their route can be planned better, says Oosthuysen. Although one size does not fit all, SA does not have to reinvent the concept and can look to cities such as London, San Francisco and Paris for guidelines.

Schofield says SA is "notoriously bad at executing the plan," but notes progress is being made in pockets, which looks positive.

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