Take a closer look at any large city today and you’ll find another city pulsating within it, made up of interconnected systems of many different functions and activities.

1. A Smarter City at Work

2. Take a closer look at any large city today
and you’ll find another city pulsating within
it, made up of interconnected systems of
many different functions and activities.

3. Often invisible, and taken for granted, these incredible
systems that undergird a city stretch beyond roads,
utilities, and water supplies to give us the means to
move around, maintain our environment, keep our
streets safe, and generate new ideas.

4. And if we want to build a smarter planet — where a
new level of intelligence is being infused into the
systems and technologies that make everything work —
there may be no better place to start than in our cities.

5. Take a look at what’s being built into cities
around the world.

6. Stockholm, Singapore, Brisbane and
London are discovering that traffic isn’t
just a line of cars: it’s a web of
connections.

7. These cities are infusing intelligence into their
entire transportation systems — streets,
bridges, signs, signals and tolls. And now
they’re seeing significant drops in congestion
and pollution.

8. Everyone knows good police work relies on
good information.

9. Police in New York, Charleston, Memphis
and other cities are using advanced
analytics to access and analyze billions of
records, evaluate and forecast crime
patterns, and take action in real time.

10. The work of water relies heavily on the
ability to monitor and understand vast
amounts of data.

11. The District of Columbia Water and Sewer
Authority is using analytics to predict how water is
being used and improve service.

12. In city buildings, thousands of wireless sensors monitor
everything from motion and temperature, to humidity,
precipitation, occupancy and light.

13. By viewing buildings as living organisms, people
can more easily identify problems and suggest
cost-effective ways of making buildings healthier
and more energy-efficient.

14. City governments are streamlining access to
information and processes, so that everything
can be located through one easy access point.

15. As a result, citizens can get the most out of
government services quickly and easily.

16. From city command centers, cities of all sizes
can get an integrated view of information
across city departments and agencies.

17. South Bend, Indiana is using a cloud-based Intelligent
Operations Center from IBM to manage its water
system, predict the potential overflow of hazardous
wastewater, and make sense of massive amounts of
critical data at a glance.

18. To make cities truly smarter, one needs to have a
keen eye for the way cities work — how all the
different parts function and interact.

19. The flow of traffic.

20. The rush and activities of people.

21. The blending of the old,

22. and the new.

23. And then let oneself think about all that a smarter
city can be.

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