NEWS AND INSIGHT
SMART CITIES UNDER THE MICROSCOPE COUNTRY: Germany SCHOOL: TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München (TUM) Smart cities – technology-enhanced areas that use electronic methods and sensors to collect data in order to manage assets and resources – are designed to improve a city’s services and operations. But how do smart cities work in practice and how do they make data flow as effectively as possible? How do they pick the right providers and ensure they are being cost effective? A recent study of German smart cities found that when choosing technology for their city, the main criteria are IT security, followed by low energy consumption and independence from third parties. Being a smart city does not necessarily provide financial gain. Only 25 of 93 responding representatives agreed that being a smart city generates additional revenue for their city. Instead, the results of the study indicate that smart cities are more likely to be seen as improving the external image of the city, making it a
liveable place and ensuring the better execution of urban tasks. Responding cities that were at a more advanced stage of implementation of the smart city at the time of the study’s survey were found to be more likely to work closely with their citizens. The study also delved deeply into low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) – one of the main technologies used by smart cities. These run on a single battery and operate sensors to provide data for the cities. There are different types of LPWAN technologies available for use in smart cities, but the study found that LoRaWANs are the most used – due to the fact cities can run them independently without a third party being involved. In terms of who pays, all responding cities said that they would like to provide the LoRaWAN network free of charge – or already do – for their own purposes, while 62 per cent said they would allow the city group to use it, and 65 per cent would let citizens use it for free. However, a majority of those surveyed believe that companies should have to pay for the use of the network (59 per cent). These results come from a survey led by Joachim Henkel, chair of technology and innovation management at the Technical University of Munich, and study director Lucia Baur. The respondents included 115 experts from 107 German cities and featured representatives of a city’s administration, as well as representatives of a city’s technology service provider or municipal utilities. EB
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Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 13
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