‘Smart cities’ are closer to reality than we realize

A great summary that defines Smart Cities and what will need to happen on the local governance level to make it "real."

"Effectively managing a city to achieve these goals requires a citywide, interconnected system with real-time data gathering, processing and reporting capabilities. But equally important, it depends on having effective monitoring and decision-making intelligence, both human and artificial.

Tens of thousands of sensors throughout the city would continuously photograph, count or measure. They would collect and transmit information about real-time conditions. Thus, attentive personnel would know at every moment how city systems and services are performing, in turn enabling problems to be quickly identified and addressed as they arise.

All city government agencies would be interconnected, including schools, libraries, police, first responders, hospitals and clinics. Transit system operators, transit vehicles and utility providers would be part of the sensory network. Consider all the Metrorail deficiencies that would have been detected with a state-of-the-art monitoring system."