What is a smart city?

A smart city is the leverage of technology to serve people. They start with an information network designed to optimize resources and thereby promote a sound, suitable environment. T is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology to manage a city. A smart city’s assets include public transportation, IT connectivity, water, power supply, sanitation, solid waste management, urban mobility e-governance and citizen participation.

A brief on Kohima Smart City Development Limited(KSCDL)

Kohima Smart City Development Ltd. was registered under the Companies Act  2013 vide Government of Nagaland notification on 30^th of May 2016. The first board of Directors was constituted and the Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) for smart city implementation was initiated. KSDCL functions as a company to implement the smart city mission for Kohima following the mission guidelines and the implementation jurisdiction will be within the area under Kohima Municipal Council (KMC).

The vision of Kohima Smart City

“To leverage Kohima’s geostrategic location to foster sustainable and resilient community-led development as a regional hub for tourism & transit complemented by its significant natural and cultural assets.”

Building a smart city with GIS technology

Technological literacy is the key to build a smart city that provides smart solutions to its citizens. GIS helps identify suitable sites for city development. Looking at the State’s topography as a largely mountainous state, GIS can also combine and integrate various types of information for better decision making and can provide high-end visualization tools that can improve for better site identification, valuation and final selection. Outputs in the form of maps and graphs prepared using GIS software can help quickly generate reports that demonstrate how requirements are being met. It makes GIS an ideal technology with the ability to scale across all aspects of smart city planning and development.

Technology provides smart solutions based on the data from all aspects such as traffic, utilities, finance, health or waste management and results in a smart and intelligent solution. These are some of the technologies crucial for smart cities:

1. Information and Communication Technology

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a bridge between the citizens and the government which helps the government to analyze the demand pattern of the state and thus creates resources to address the same. It helps in resource optimization with the integration of analytics and deep learning.

2. Internet of things

Internet of things connects every dot of a city which allows managing resources of a megacity population. Internet of things can give solutions for a location to park the car on a real-time basis to switching on the street light when someone passes through which makes it smart enough to decide their action.

3. Sensors

Sensors are a ubiquitous component of the urban landscape that acts as a control system. The sensors with their ability to collect data convert parameters of a physical nature to electromagnetic signals and the interpreted by humans. The data collected by sensors include light, pressure, temperature, humidity and a variety of other parameters.

4. Geospatial Technology

Geospatial technologies provide a location based data that allows understanding the various needs so  a better solution can be applied to it. It collects data and transforms the collection of data to facilitate software-based solutions.

5. Artificial Intelligence(AI)

A smart city means generating a huge amount of data. The data then generates information after it is processed using Artificial Intelligence that can make sense out of the data. It is a process of a machine to machine interaction that also plays a role in intelligent traffic management and healthcare facilities.