Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories

Abstract Digitalisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) help city councils improve services, increase productivity and reduce costs. City‐scale monitoring of traffic and pollution enables the development of insights into low‐air quality areas and the introduction of improvements. IoT provides a pla...

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Main Authors: Vijay Kumar, Sam Gunner, Maria Pregnolato, Patrick Tully, Nektarios Georgalas, George Oikonomou, Stylianos Karatzas, Theo Tryfonas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024-12-01
Series:IET Smart Cities
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/smc2.12081
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author Vijay Kumar
Sam Gunner
Maria Pregnolato
Patrick Tully
Nektarios Georgalas
George Oikonomou
Stylianos Karatzas
Theo Tryfonas
author_facet Vijay Kumar
Sam Gunner
Maria Pregnolato
Patrick Tully
Nektarios Georgalas
George Oikonomou
Stylianos Karatzas
Theo Tryfonas
author_sort Vijay Kumar
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Digitalisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) help city councils improve services, increase productivity and reduce costs. City‐scale monitoring of traffic and pollution enables the development of insights into low‐air quality areas and the introduction of improvements. IoT provides a platform for the intelligent interconnection of everyday objects and has become an integral part of a citizen's life. Anyone can monitor from their fitness to the air quality of their immediate environment using everyday technologies. With caveats around privacy and accuracy, such data could even complement those collected by authorities at city‐scale, for validating or improving policies. The authors explore the hierarchies of urban sensing from citizen‐to city‐scale, how sensing at different levels may be interlinked, and the challenges of managing the urban IoT. The authors provide examples from the UK, map the data generation processes across levels of urban hierarchies and discuss the role of emerging sociotechnical urban sensing infrastructures, that is, independent, open, and transparent capabilities that facilitate stakeholder engagement and collection and curation of grassroots data. The authors discuss how such capabilities can become a conduit for the alignment of community‐ and city‐level action via an example of tracking the use of shared electric bicycles in Bristol, UK.
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spelling doaj-art-c4ff1495d8144d9c8d426a6dbca32ce82025-08-20T02:32:12ZengWileyIET Smart Cities2631-76802024-12-016429131110.1049/smc2.12081Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatoriesVijay Kumar0Sam Gunner1Maria Pregnolato2Patrick Tully3Nektarios Georgalas4George Oikonomou5Stylianos Karatzas6Theo Tryfonas7University of Bristol Bristol UKUniversity of Bristol Bristol UKTU Delft Delft The NetherlandsUniversity of Bristol Bristol UKBT London UKUniversity of Bristol Bristol UKUniversity of Cambridge Cambridge UKUniversity of Bristol Bristol UKAbstract Digitalisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) help city councils improve services, increase productivity and reduce costs. City‐scale monitoring of traffic and pollution enables the development of insights into low‐air quality areas and the introduction of improvements. IoT provides a platform for the intelligent interconnection of everyday objects and has become an integral part of a citizen's life. Anyone can monitor from their fitness to the air quality of their immediate environment using everyday technologies. With caveats around privacy and accuracy, such data could even complement those collected by authorities at city‐scale, for validating or improving policies. The authors explore the hierarchies of urban sensing from citizen‐to city‐scale, how sensing at different levels may be interlinked, and the challenges of managing the urban IoT. The authors provide examples from the UK, map the data generation processes across levels of urban hierarchies and discuss the role of emerging sociotechnical urban sensing infrastructures, that is, independent, open, and transparent capabilities that facilitate stakeholder engagement and collection and curation of grassroots data. The authors discuss how such capabilities can become a conduit for the alignment of community‐ and city‐level action via an example of tracking the use of shared electric bicycles in Bristol, UK.https://doi.org/10.1049/smc2.12081IoT and mobile communicationssmart cities applications
spellingShingle Vijay Kumar
Sam Gunner
Maria Pregnolato
Patrick Tully
Nektarios Georgalas
George Oikonomou
Stylianos Karatzas
Theo Tryfonas
Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
IET Smart Cities
IoT and mobile communications
smart cities applications
title Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
title_full Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
title_fullStr Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
title_full_unstemmed Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
title_short Sense (and) the city: From Internet of Things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
title_sort sense and the city from internet of things sensors and open data platforms to urban observatories
topic IoT and mobile communications
smart cities applications
url https://doi.org/10.1049/smc2.12081
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