Cities are large units of a multitude of entities breathing and bustling at the center and also all corners. There is so much happening in the cities of today that management of affairs by a central body becomes difficult and different pockets of a city may develop ailments in public administration. This certainly limits the efficacy of the central public administration to manage the cities at large and therefore, issues related to judicious allocation of resources, law and order, and environmental protection. Yes, we do we have municipal corporations to take care of the situations; however, the best management happens when it is localized. The local inhabitants of a place know the issues of their areas closely and are more focused to get things right in their own neighborhood.
Decentralization of administration has its own merits and can be the new possibility for the cities of tomorrow. We will soon have hyperlocal administration in big cities, wherein smaller individual societies will grow into self-sufficient sustainable units for better management of the urban population. This will enable much more community action in self-sustained societies and make citizens directly responsible for their neighborhood’s cleanliness, progress and sustainability.
Civic amenities under 24/7 check
Cities have areas that often face problems related to the civic amenities like drainage, road conditions, power outage, garbage disposal management, etc. These amenities need to be regularly monitored, or better continuously monitored in real-time. IoT in public services is definitely going to be the next big thing. IoT sensors in drainage pipes shall monitor the flow of fluid and from the understanding of the rate of flow and the associated pressure and density values, the system shall understand if things are going all well or not.
In case the rate of flow at one location is normal and at another subsequent location, it is abnormally low for a prolonged period, it implies a blockage. If at certain areas the fluid is found to flow at a higher velocity and a higher pressure, it again implies a blockage, because when fluid escapes an obstruction, it escapes with much higher pressure and velocity. No rocket science, that’s just fundamentals of fluid dynamics.
Similarly, video analytics on traffic imaging will identify areas where multiple vehicles suddenly slow down over a number of days. In case the location does not map into the database of speed breakers in that area, it would imply a pothole or some other kind of damage on the road. On similar lines, IoT sensors can easily detect toxic gases’ levels near garbage bins and collection areas. In case the levels go beyond a threshold, the system will understand it’s time for a cleaning routine. Whenever IoT sensors detect an anomaly in normal routine affairs, they will send an alert to the public administration center for remedial action. This administration center may be one for the entire city, or maybe even distributed as small team for each of the small sustainable societies. This will bring decentralization public administration and will bring much faster remedial action to areas enabled by IoT analytics and image analysis. Edge computing will bring the processing power closer to the devices and sensors in order to accommodate the high volume of data being generated in real-time.
Pollution monitoring in smaller regions
Large cities also suffer from the menace of pollution. Vehicular pollution has plagued a lot of cities, with air getting choked with smog and hazardous particulate matter. In some instances, it takes considerable period of time to figure out which areas of a city are contributing the most in pollution. This is where hyperlocal sustainability principle will prove to be instrumental in containment of pollution. The air quality monitoring sensors will keep a tab on the pollution levels in the various hyperlocal communities. Any day, any time, if the air pollution level in a community crosses a threshold, an alert will be shared with the community inhabitants and the local authorities in the decentralized system. This way, the communities will be alerted about the pollution levels in their areas and the inhabitants of that area will get into action to maintain clean air as it directly impacts their health.
Same way, pollution levels in water can also be kept under check by having IoT sensors track the level of biological oxygen demand and pH levels in the water. Any anomaly in the safe standards of water will be notified to the local community and the residents will take appropriate community action to address the challenges. This way, pollution levels will not be managed by the city authorities alone, but also by the citizens. These citizen activism will make the stakeholders accountable for the maintenance of their society, which will help in building a sustainable city at large.
Law and order for the people, by the people
Any instance of law and order getting disrupted, or any sightings of crime by the imaging devices at various corners of the city will keep the hyperlocal communities alerted on the happenings around them. The decentralization of police forces has anyways happened as we have various police stations in each of the microcosms inside a city. These police forces will be assisted by drones for surveillance in risk-prone areas, image analytics systems for keeping a watch on all kinds of areas and crime-alert systems enabled by IoT sensors on doors, windows and entrance locations in buildings. The hyperlocal communities will be alerted on their neighborhood so that they stay alert on criminal activities. The locations of similar criminal activities will be autonomously mapped by the analytical engines and the possible hideout area of criminals will be identified based on which area has the highest density of crimes. Analytics and connected future will usher in a new era for law and order in the society.
Final thoughts
Cities will soon undergo fragmentation and will get converted into smaller units of manageable communities, where the inhabitants will be informed by the cutting-edge technologies and will be encouraged for citizen action to address the various issues that plague their neighborhood. This way, the decentralization of public administration will make cities an assortment of self-sustainable communities that coexist to make the cities better laces to live in.
