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An intelligent system for managing urban infrastructure, forecasting and eliminating emergency situations was created by scientists of the Penza State University (PSU) subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. The innovative aspect of the system is that the Smart City can be developed individually for each locality.
PSU has already developed a system to prevent emergency situations on the roads. Now scientists are working on combining the concept of the Internet of Things, information and communication technologies for the management of urban infrastructure: transport, education, healthcare, housing and utilities systems and others. According to the authors, the goal of the Smart City is to improve the quality of life of people.
"A Smart City is a comfortable and safe territory for living. But emergencies disrupt the balance and interfere with the peaceful life of citizens. For example, it is important to predict cat or utility systems accidents. Therefore, we have significantly expanded the system, covering the whole city," said the project manager, Associate Professor of the Department of Computer–Aided Design Systems, Anton Finogeev.
According to the scientists, digital data obtained from numerous control systems can be used to analyze the weaknesses of city services. For example, traffic cameras, sensors and thermoregulators of heating systems, and other recorders can become the basis of a large data system for the "training" of an intelligent system of a Smart City. You can collect useful information from two main sources: from external sensors and from the Internet. This will allow to filter the data, and delete duplicated facts, fakes, and incomplete data.
"The data obtained must be formalized and structured. And then we compare it with archival data on similar events to identify correlations. To store them, data blocks are formed with the calculation of hashes for identification, binding to the coordinates of the place and time of the event, establishing links and forming a distributed registry – blockchain," Anton Finogeev explained.
The Smart City will be managed by a single portal into which all information will flow. And artificial intelligence will help predict the occurrence of emergencies, and develop management solutions for their elimination. At the same time, it is possible to develop urban infrastructure management individually for a specific locality.
"A city is a living organism with its own complex laws of functioning, special rhythm and needs. It is never possible to say for sure that the experience of making managerial decisions in one city can be transferred to another without changes. Nevertheless, most events, accidents or emergency situations in the urban environment have similar causes and can be identified by a number of signs with a certain degree of reliability," the authors of the project add.
Work on the project has been going on for more than three years, in 2020 it was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation.