Geo-spatial Information Science ISSN: 1009-5020 (Print) 1993-5153 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tgsi20 Geomatics for Smart Cities - Concept, Key Techniques,and Applications Deren LI , Jie SHAN , Zhenfeng SHAO , Xiran ZHOU & Yuan YAO To cite this article: Deren LI , Jie SHAN , Zhenfeng SHAO , Xiran ZHOU & Yuan YAO (2013) Geomatics for Smart Cities - Concept, Key Techniques,and Applications, Geo-spatial Information Science, 16:1, 13-24, DOI: 10.1080/10095020.2013.772803 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10095020.2013.772803 Copyright Wuhan University Published online: 27 Mar 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3382 Citing articles: 24 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tgsi20 Geo-spatial Information Science, 2013 Vol. 16, No. 1, 13–24, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10095020.2013.772803 Geomatics for smart cities – concept, key techniques, and applications LI Derena, SHAN Jieb,c, SHAO Zhenfenga*, ZHOU Xirana and YAO Yuanb aState Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping, and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China; bSchool of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China; cSchool of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN 47907, USA (Received 10 December 2012; final version received 16 January 2013) The progressive transition from digital to smart cities has become a reality in recent years. Studies on the fundamental concept of smart cities, along with their supporting techniques, have attracted unprecedented attention. This study first discusses the concept of smart cities, where it is pointed out that the real city and the digital city can be integrated into a smart city by using ubiquitous sensor networks (USN) or the Internet of Things. More intelligent services for city man- agement and public services can be provided in smart cities through massive and complex calculation, analysis, and data mining on cloud computing platforms. A smart city’s representative characteristics are summarized here to demonstrate that smart cities are superior for offering technical securities and intelligent services. Smart municipal supervision, smart transportation, smart environment monitoring, and smart tourism are used as examples to support the discussion. Keywords: smart city; digital city; Internet of Things; ubiquitous sensor network; cloud computing; intelligent service 1. Introduction feedback to the real world for intelligent city manage- Smart cities can be identified along six main axes of ment and public services. dimensions: a smart economy, a smart environment, Most of the current smart city efforts are focused smart mobility, smart people, smart living, and smart on how to build a complete Internet of Things, includ- governance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_city; (1)). ing men, machines, and city infrastructure through a There are views on the concept of a smart city as diverse variety of wireless sensor networks, as well as how to as the authors’ fields of expertise. Tranos and Gertner accomplish real-time analysis and control by super-com- (2) portrayed a smart city as a combination of sensor puters on cloud computing platforms. However, smart networks. Shapiro (3) referred to a smart city as an cities also refer to a smart mechanism for city manage- improvement of social operation quality. As an IT ser- ment and operation, which holds several characteristics vice provider, Dignan (4) of Microsoft Corporation con- involving sensing, measurement, perception, analysis, sidered a smart city as a smart and human-friendly visualization, and self-controlling. Digital cities reside service. Harrison et al. (5) of IBM, from a system inte- in cyber space, whereas smart cities belong to cyber grator’s perspective, regarded a smart city as a wider physical space. In a smart city, citizens have better and interconnection. Usually, a smart city rests on three pil- safer living conditions, including, but not limited to, lars: economic development, earth environmental issues, such aspects as power supply, transportation, medical and social equity; and sustainability can be achieved care, education, urban management, and emergency only if all three aspects are equally considered. From the response. perspective of geomatics, a smart city is the full integra- There is a demand for and a real shift from digital tion of a digital city, the Internet of Things and cloud cities to smart cities. Motivated by this observation, we computing technology. A digital city provides a 3D geo- will describe the key supporting technologies of smart spatial framework for cities, while the Internet of Things cities (i.e. digital cities, Internet of Things, and cloud embedded in the ubiquitous sensor network realizes the computing). From the geomatics perspective, the funda- real-time sensing, measuring, and data transmitting of mental and operational issues for a smart city are still or moving objects. Cloud computing, performing addressed, including geo-referencing and 3D spatial-tem- like a human brain, is responsible for massive and com- poral modeling, integration of global position system plex calculations, data mining, and analysis; and it then (GPS), remote sensing and GIS in mobile platforms, helps in the automatic discovery of patterns, rules, and devices and structures for ubiquitous sensing and knowledge and provides remote monitoring, control, and communication, and service capabilities in cloud *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Ó 2013 Wuhan University 14 D. LI et al. environments. The following topics also are discussed (4) Distributed spatial data archiving and manage- later as suggestions for future investigation: the technical ment for federal databases with interoperability; difficulties with and challenges for location clouds and (5) Spatial data analysis and mining techniques; and remote sensing clouds, the integration of video and sens- (6) Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and ing platforms with GIS, and the capabilities and potential location-based service techniques. for utilizing smart phones in indoor navigation and ubiq- uitous sensing. To support the discussion, we will pres- Although these technologies are becoming mature ent examples of smart city implementations, including and stable, the future generation of digital cities still smart municipal supervision, smart transportation, smart requires the complete cooperation of various govern- environment monitoring, and smart tourism. ments and institutions, the standardization of data and The rest of the article is structured as follows. Fol- products, and the interoperability of nonprofit organiza- lowing the concept and background of smart cities in tions and cooperation (9). The ultimate goal of a digital this section, Section 2 discusses the three key supporting city, with the help of all the above technologies, is to techniques for smart cities. Five characteristics of smart provide the “right data” to the right person at a right cities then are summarized in Section 3. Section 4 high- time and a right place (10). lights seven new topics being investigated in current and future smart city development, and Section 5 demon- 2.2. Internet of Things strates four examples of recent smart city-related pro- The “Internet of Things” concept emerged in 1999. It jects. The stydy concludes with a discussion of possible refers to uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their future developments in Section 6. virtual representations in an internet-like structure. In 2005, the International Telecommunication Union issued the ITU Internet Report 2005: Internet of Things, which, for the first time, provided a comprehensive description 2. Supporting techniques of smart cities of the Internet of Things (11). Generally, the Internet of 2.1. Digital cities Things can be defined as follows: adopting radio fre- Digital cities evolved from the concept of digital earth. quency identification (RFID), infrared sensors, GPS, and Gore (6), a former vice president of the US, defined the information sensing devices (e.g. cameras and scanners) digital visual earth scene as having the purpose of pro- connecting any items or things that can be connected via viding appropriate service patterns integrated with the the Internet based on agreed protocols of information internet. This concept offers a new perception about the exchange and communication. Such connections can be functionalities of digital cities and has been widely used for intelligent identification, localization, tracking, employed in urban infrastructure upgrading programs by monitoring, and management of things. Specifically, the the US federal and local governments. As the most Internet of Things is built by interconnected diverse important part of digital Earth, digital cities have types of sensors inserted or equipped in electric net- attracted a great deal of scientific study, followed by works, rail networks, bridges, tunnels, roads, structures, many nationwide digitalization projects (7). In general, a water supply systems, dams, gas pipelines, etc. China digital city is a seamless framework containing all kinds proposed its agenda on creating the Internet of Things in of information to ensure the city operates smoothly and 1999 and then the Chinese Academy of Sciences com- orderly. It aims to organize all of the diverse information menced related studies on