Page 34 - U4SSC Simple ways to be smart

One of the challenges with air quality is that it can be difficult to detect and is often invisible. Smart
air quality monitoring can raise awareness of the problem and can be used to mobilise different
stakeholders to address it. It is possible to collect air quality information across large, distributed
areas and to correlate the data with population density, industrial and commercial activity. This can
help cities to understand what drives pollution and to identify appropriate courses of action. While
such systems can be costly, small scale systems are available that allow a city to monitor local air
quality levels.

Data on air quality can be used by city decision-makers to monitor how well policies are working. Data
that is shared with residents empowers them with real-time information about their surroundings.
Individuals can decide to stay at home, or change their running route when pollution levels are
high. This monitoring is possible in near real-time.

Cities that are monitoring air quality include London and Surat, in India. Resource-constrained
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cities may be able to make use of cheaper sensor and citizen science or educational projects, with
the support of researchers to do something similar (see Case 3).

3.2.3 Energy and water

Energy and water provision are key services of cities. Both draw on natural resources and need
to be carefully managed. Cities need to pay attention to both the supply and demand for these
services. Smart technologies can help cities to understand and manage the demand and can be
used to manage the supply more sustainably.

In many cities, the municipality owns and manages many buildings. Consequently, one smart
intervention that is attractive to cities is to retro-fit buildings to reduce their energy use through
better insulation and automated management of lighting and heating. At the same time, buildings
can be fitted with solar panels or other mechanisms to make use of freely available energy sources.
Such interventions make use of proven technologies and can be implemented incrementally. They
also usually result in cost savings which makes them easy for a city to incorporate into their plans.

Cities can also use smart devices to monitor the demand for energy and water from businesses and
residents. Understanding patterns of use enables the city to anticipate demand and, when necessary,
to introduce measures to manage demand. During the 2017 water crisis, Cape Town made use of
data about water consumption to map which households were complying with water restrictions
and call out those that were not. The city succeeded in reducing water consumption by more than
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50% during the crisis. Such monitoring and reporting devices are widely used. Implementing them
can be complex, however, as residents and businesses may resist their introduction.

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