The reader, leafing through this issue of Municipal Engineer, might wonder how we arrived at our chosen theme. How does one define an ‘intelligent city’? Can a city be ‘intelligent’, and if so, how? Let us start with an analogy: the intelligent vehicle. The intelligent vehicle is a complex system that ‘sees’ the world through an array of electronic devices. Sensors extract data from their surroundings, generating a flow of information that in turn is converted into a form helpful to the driver. Some of the information is concerned with long-term goals such as navigating the vehicle to its destination. Some is concerned with short-term ones such as preventing a skid. Together, the devices may share with the driver an appreciable part of the burden of control.
Like any motorcar, the city is a complex system. It doesn't move about, but it does evolve over the long term, providing, one hopes, an agreeable place in which to live and work. In the short term, its infrastructure must be regulated so that it works efficiently from one day to the next, accommodating the movements of people, materials, goods and waste that are needed to support an industrial economy and enhance the residential environment. Managing the processes involved—even defining and describing them—is a daunting task. Not least, it requires city managers to cope with large amounts of information, much of which presently goes to waste. Can information technology help?
In a previous issue, J. S. Knudsen drew attention to one aspect of the problem, describing how ‘knowledge management’ techniques could help to conserve and make good use of information at a time when human expertise is in short supply.1 In the first paper in this issue, Brendan Wallace and Alastair Ross focus on the knowledge management process itself: how to categorise information so that it is accessible to a variety of users.
Dick Komakech then speculates on the potential for intelligence not only to make management easier, but also to improve the quality of life for residents as a whole. Bob McQueen, Kan Chen, Qixin Shi, and Gary Carlin present the case for advanced traffic management based on recent developments in information technology, and also ask how the private sector might become involved in the operation and management of metropolitan traffic systems.
There are then two interesting case studies concerned with the development of integrated systems at the local authority level. Darren Capes and Robin Hewitt describe the traffic signal and parking management system in York, which is equipped to provide real-time travel information but does not need a conventional control room. The West Midlands, an industrial conurbation, presents similar problems but on a larger scale, additionally involving a multiplicity of organisations and stakeholders. Paul Welsh emphasises among other things the importance of the human factor in complex system design.
None of the authors would claim to have solved the problem of how to build an intelligent city. That goal is still a long way off. But we will know when we have reached it. At one level, the physical infrastructure will be in better shape—all assets such as lighting columns and plant tubs will be tagged. An intelligent city will ‘know’ where everything is, and its state of repair. Perhaps more importantly, leisure, transport, waste disposal and incident handling will be managed in seamless fashion to make the best use of the city's resources. Residents will be more widely consulted and informed better about local affairs, with information channelled electronically into their homes.
All this cannot come too soon. On the one hand, high-income groups have rising expectations of what the city should provide and, if they are not satisfied, they leave. On the other hand, for disadvantaged groups including racial minorities, the elderly and disabled, the reality is an uninspired environment coupled with diminishing access to work and leisure—and no way out. By itself, information technology will not make all citizens equal, but it could, at least, promote greater involvement of all sections of the community in local affairs and make us all more aware of the potential to change things for the better.
