Faster, Stronger Smart Cities with Location Intelligence

The market for "Smart Cities" solutions is expected to more than double over the next five years  from $308bn in 2018 to $717bn in 2023. With growth driving greater innovation and flexibility in the industry  "Smart City" is no longer a cool buzzword for boosting proposals at city hall  but has the potential to be an attainable standard for cities of any size  worldwide.

The proliferation of Location Intelligence technologies and solutions is a big part of "Smart Cities" growth. As distinctly spatial entities  cities uniquely benefit from a deeper understanding of 'where'. From disaster relief and health services  to traffic optimization and more  Location Intelligence is making cities not just smarter  but stronger and faster.

Faster Organization and Implementation of Disaster Relief and Reconstruction

In 2017  Global economic losses from disasters  from devastating hurricanes and earthquakes  to rampaging wildfires  reached $337 billion. No matter how smart your city is  it can be stopped in its tracks by a natural disaster. Providing relief  both immediate and long term  and rebuilding in the aftermath are critical for a city's physical  social  and economic recovery. Location Intelligence can help.

One such disaster  the 2017 Puebla Earthquake  cost 370 individuals their lives and toppled 228 buildings in Mexico City alone. The government of Mexico City  empowered by a new city constitution  sought a solution to assess and address city-wide damage. They launched Platforma CDMX  a two-way data sharing platform featuring an interactive map  allowing Mexico City residents to file damage reports and providing a direct line of communication with local officials amid ongoing recovery efforts.

By working with companies like CARTO to develop new solutions  the government of Mexico City aims to equip the city with more resilient infrastructure to withstand future earthquakes.

 Want to learn more about Platforma CDMX?Check out our Case Study!

Strengthening Traffic and Mobility Systems

Transit systems are the arteries of the city  and when traffic and congestion clog those arteries  cities suffer. Today's "Smart Cities" are using Location Intelligence  data science  and mobile data streams optimize their roadways.

A Location intelligence solution like Traffico  leverages location data for faster  smarter decision-making that can save not just commuter hours  but lives.

Using city data and real-time mobility data streams from Waze  Traffico can surface incidents live  allowing emergency vehicles to respond faster  and allowing cities to optimize their emergency response networks so those faster response times are institutionalized long term.

With the help of Open Source connectors  city planners can capture and analyze historic Waze data to discover trends  find congestion points  and address areas within their transit system that would benefit from improvement or new construction.

Greater Citizen Access to City Data

The proliferation of Open Data portals for city data  thankfully  continues unabated. Providing access to data  be it environmental health data  criminal activity reports  construction permitting data  or otherwise  empowers citizens to better examine and understand the cities they live in  and take action to better their own communities.

But the democratization of that data is often hindered by the technical barriers faced by non-technical citizens looking to sink their teeth in.

Teams like the NYC Planning labs are popping up in city governments  and their work on projects like ZoLa  or New York City's Zoning and Land Use Map (pictured above)  is addressing this challenge head on.

ZoLa's mapping interface allows users to toggle layers and categories of layers tosee where planning initiatives are happening in there city. With over a dozen zoning layers  administrative boundaries  BIDs  transit layers  and search functionality users are provided a uniquely comprehensive map of land use in the city.

For more info on ZoLa and the methodology of NYC Planning Labs  check out their technical talk from CARTO Locations 2018

Smarter  Better  Faster  Stronger Cities with Location Intelligence

"Smart Cities" technology will continue to develop and proliferate  offering the urbanists of today and tomorrow the opportunity to change the way that over 50% of the world's population lives. With unprecedented data sources  powerful visualization tools  and the latest data science methods  Location Intelligence solutions are central to city growth and the capacity that today's cities have to make life safer  healthier  faster  and better for their citizens.