Cities are social, cultural and economic hearts of nations. They are places where many people live, work and play, and they are getting larger thanks to urbanization and population growth. Currently, 55 per cent of the world living in urban areas, and that number is expected to grow to 68 per cent in 2050 according a United Nations estimate.

A smart city uses technology to capture data than can improve a community’s, safety, health and convenience. With better information, a city becomes more liveable and more efficient while reducing its impact on the environment.

A smart city is not a status that is achieved overnight because it needs to evolve through various stages. The first stage which is relatively straightforward, is to be informative. To do this, sensor technology and information technology (such as the Internet-of-Things and cloud-computing) can gather data and information on the city, from assets and citizens, at city level or individual level – for example, energy usage, water usage, emission levels, and traffic conditions.

This information can be used to help people be aware of things, such as their water or energy consumption (city-wide, or at household level), and then make decisions on how to reduce their usage.

A more advanced stage of a smart city uses analytics generated by image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning to classify and predict events. For example, it becomes possible to automatically detect and alert police in real-time occurrences such as vandalism, break-ins, snatch thefts, and illegal parking, or to even monitor suspicious behaviour so that preventive action can be taken before anything adverse occurs.

The next stage of a smart city is to be responsive. Using the information that has been gathered, automated schemes could better manage many aspects of running a city. That could something simple such as turning on water sprinklers on a hot day, based on temperature and rain sensors. It could be more complex scenarios such as automatically rerouting traffic in the event of an emergency, or automatically traffic light signals based on traffic conditions..

The possibilities of a smart city are endless, and what I’ve described here only scratches the surface. With the rapid advancement of technology, the features of a smart city will keep evolving, but one thing is sure – it will bring many benefits to the local community.

Response: Associate Professor Tan Chee Pin, Monash University Malaysia

The Fuzzy Logic Science Show is 1100am Sundays on 2xx 98.3FM. Send your questions to AskFuzzy@Zoho.com Twitter @FuzzyLogicSci