On the Use of Cameras for the Detection of Critical Events in Sensors-Based Emergency Alerting Systems

The adoption of emergency alerting systems can bring countless benefits when managing urban areas, industrial plants, farms, roads and virtually any area that is subject to the occurrence of critical events, supporting in rescue operations and reducing their negative impacts. For such systems, a promising approach is to exploit scalar sensors to detect events of interest, allowing for the distributed monitoring of different variables. However, the use of cameras as visual sensors can enhance the detection of critical events, which can be employed along with scalar sensors for a more comprehensive perception of the environment. Although the particularities of visual sensing may be challenging in some scenarios, the combination of scalar and visual sensors for the early detection of emergency situations can be valuable for many scenarios, such as smart cities and industry 4.0, bringing promising results. Therefore, in this article, we extend a sensors-based emergency detection and alerting system to also exploit visual monitoring when identifying critical events. Implementation and experimental details are provided to reinforce the use of cameras as a relevant sensor unit, bringing promising results for emergencies management.

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A Distributed Multi-Tier Emergency Alerting System Exploiting Sensors-Based Event Detection to Support Smart City Applications

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20010170 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 170 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Daniel G. Costa ◽

Francisco Vasques ◽

Paulo Portugal ◽

Ana Aguiar

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Event Detection ◽

Smart City ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Sensor Nodes ◽

Risk Level ◽

Critical Events ◽

Emergency Situations ◽

Alerting System ◽

Emergency Systems

The development of efficient sensing technologies and the maturation of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm and related protocols have considerably fostered the expansion of sensor-based monitoring applications. A great number of those applications has been developed to monitor a set of information for better perception of the environment, with some of them being dedicated to identifying emergency situations. Current IoT-based emergency systems have limitations when considering the broader scope of smart cities, exploiting one or just a few monitoring variables or even allocating high computational burden to regular sensor nodes. In this context, we propose a distributed multi-tier emergency alerting system built around a number of sensor-based event detection units, providing real-time georeferenced information about the occurrence of critical events, while taking as input a configurable number of different scalar sensors and GPS data. The proposed system could then be used to detect and to deliver emergency alarms, which are computed based on the detected events, the previously known risk level of the affected areas and temporal information. Doing so, modularized and flexible perceptions of critical events are provided, according to the particularities of each considered smart city scenario. Besides implementing the proposed system in open-source electronic platforms, we also created a real-time visualization application to dynamically display emergency alarms on a map, demonstrating a feasible and useful application of the system as a supporting service. Therefore, this innovative approach and its corresponding physical implementation can bring valuable results for smart cities, potentially supporting the development of adaptive IoT-based emergency-aware applications.

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Spatial Autocorrelation in the Study of Neighbourhoods towards Smart Cities: Empirical Evidence from Kerman, Iran

Scientific Research Journal ◽

10.24191/srj.v9i2.9405 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Asra Hosseini

Keyword(s):

Spatial Autocorrelation ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Moran’S I ◽

Moran's I ◽

Urban Planner ◽

Universal Feature ◽

Autocorrelation Method ◽

Selection Of

From earliest cities to the present, spatial division into residential zones and neighbourhoods is the universal feature of urban areas. This study explored issue of measuring neighbourhoods through spatial autocorrelation method based on Moran's I index in respect of achieving to best neighbourhoods' model for forming cities smarter. The research carried out by selection of 35 neighbourhoods only within central part of traditional city of Kerman in Iran. The results illustrate, 75% of neighbourhoods' area in the inner city of Kerman had clustered pattern, and it shows reduction in Moran's index is associated with disproportional distribution of density and increasing in Moran's I and Z-score have monotonic relation with more dense areas and clustered pattern. It may be more efficient for urban planner to focus on spatial autocorrelation to foster neighbourhood cohesion rather than emphasis on suburban area. It is recommended characteristics of historic neighbourhoods can be successfully linked to redevelopment plans toward making city smarter, and also people's quality of life can be related to the way that neighbourhoods' patterns are defined.

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Ecosan Can Provide Sustainable Sanitation in Emergency Situations with Benefits for the Millennium Development Goals

Water Practice & Technology ◽

10.2166/wpt.2006.037 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

E. v. Münch ◽

G. Amy ◽

J. F. Fesselet

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Millennium Development Goals ◽

Net Present Value ◽

Soil Conditions ◽

Value Analysis ◽

Emergency Situations ◽

Long Time ◽

Development Goals ◽

Sanitation Systems

This paper describes the potential of ecological sanitation (ecosan) to provide sustainable excreta disposal in emergency situations and in peri-urban areas or slums in developing countries. At the present time, pit latrines are the most common form of excreta disposal both for emergency situations and in low-income peri-urban areas or slums. Although not intended to be a long-term solution, pit latrines provided during emergencies are often used for a long time (more than six months to years). This practice is not sustainable if the area is prone to flooding or there are soil conditions that allow groundwater pollution in areas where groundwater is used for drinking water, to name but two of the main factors. We propose eight criteria for the applicability of ecosan based on analysis of three case studies representing different types of emergency situations. The two most important criteria are awareness and expertise in ecosan within the aid agencies, and availability of standardised, lightweight toilet units that are quick to assemble and easy to transport (e.g. container for faeces, and urine diversion squatting pan made of impact-resistant molded polypropylene). Such toilets could be moved to, or replicated in, other areas in need after the emergency (peri-urban areas or slums). This would provide benefits for Millennium Development Goals achievements (targets on hunger, child mortality, sanitation and slum dwellers) at lower cost than conventional sanitation systems. Costs for sanitation systems should be compared based on the entire system (toilet, transport, treatment, reuse in agriculture), using Net Present Value analysis for capital, and operating and maintenance costs.

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Smart Cities and Smart Regulation

10.1093/oso/9780198822080.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anita Rønne

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Fossil Fuels ◽

System Analysis ◽

New Technologies ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Energy System ◽

Political Agenda ◽

Smart Regulation

Increasing focus on sustainable societies and ‘smart cities’ due to emphasis on mitigation of climate change is simultaneous with ‘smart regulation’ reaching the forefront of the political agenda. Consequently, the energy sector and its regulation are undergoing significant innovation and change. Energy innovations include transition from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources and application of new computer technology, interactively matching production with consumer demand. Smart cities are growing and projects are being initiated for development of urban areas and energy systems. Analysis from ‘Smart Cities Accelerator’, developed under the EU Interreg funding programme that includes Climate-KIC,——provides background for the focus on a smart energy system. Analysis ensures the energy supply systems support the integration of renewables with the need for new technologies and investments. ‘Smart’ is trendy, but when becoming ‘smart’ leads to motivation that is an important step towards mitigating climate change.

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Smart Cities in Turkey: Approaches, Advances and Applications with Greater Consideration for Future Urban Transport Development

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12122308 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 2308 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Can Bıyık

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Planning Process ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Radical Change ◽

Urban Transport ◽

Transport Systems ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Comprehensive Survey ◽

Future Vision

The smart city transport concept is viewed as a future vision aiming to undertake investigations on the urban planning process and to construct policy-pathways for achieving future targets. Therefore, this paper sets out three visions for the year 2035 which bring about a radical change in the level of green transport systems (often called walking, cycling, and public transport) in Turkish urban areas. A participatory visioning technique was structured according to a three-stage technique: (i) Extensive online comprehensive survey, in which potential transport measures were researched for their relevance in promoting smart transport systems in future Turkish urban areas; (ii) semi-structured interviews, where transport strategy suggestions were developed in the context of the possible imaginary urban areas and their associated contextual description of the imaginary urban areas for each vision; (iii) participatory workshops, where an innovative method was developed to explore various creative future choices and alternatives. Overall, this paper indicates that the content of the future smart transport visions was reasonable, but such visions need a considerable degree of consensus and radical approaches for tackling them. The findings offer invaluable insights to researchers inquiring about the smart transport field, and policy-makers considering applying those into practice in their local urban areas.

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iBikeSafe: A Multi-Parameter System for Monitoring, Evaluation and Visualization of Cycling Paths in Smart Cities Targeted at Cycling Adverse Conditions

Smart Cities ◽

10.3390/smartcities4030056 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 1058-1086

Author(s):

Franklin Oliveira ◽

Daniel G. Costa ◽

Luciana Lima ◽

Ivanovitch Silva

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Large City ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Parameter System ◽

Urban Centers ◽

Adverse Conditions ◽

Last Mile ◽

Real Scenario

The fast transformation of the urban centers, pushed by the impacts of climatic changes and the dramatic events of the COVID-19 Pandemic, will profoundly influence our daily mobility. This resulted scenario is expected to favor adopting cleaner and flexible modal solutions centered on bicycles and scooters, especially as last-mile options. However, as the use of bicycles has rapidly increased, cyclists have been subject to adverse conditions that may affect their health and safety when cycling in urban areas. Therefore, whereas cities should implement mechanisms to monitor and evaluate adverse conditions in cycling paths, cyclists should have some effective mechanism to visualize the indirect quality of cycling paths, eventually supporting choosing more appropriate routes. Therefore, this article proposes a comprehensive multi-parameter system based on multiple independent subsystems, covering all phases of data collecting, formatting, transmission, and processing related to the monitoring, evaluating, and visualizing the quality of cycling paths in the perspective of adverse conditions that affect cyclist. The formal interactions of all modules are carefully described, as well as implementation and deployment details. Additionally, a case study is considered for a large city in Brazil, demonstrating how the proposed system can be adopted in a real scenario.

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Challenges and Barriers for Net‐Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts—Empirical Evidence from the Smart City Project SPARCS

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings11020078 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 78

Author(s):

Daria Uspenskaia ◽

Karl Specht ◽

Hendrik Kondziella ◽

Thomas Bruckner

Keyword(s):

Smart City ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Smart Cities ◽

Scale Up ◽

Practical Experience ◽

Positive Energy ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Net Zero ◽

Multidimensional Representation

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.

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Building Bridges: A Participatory Stakeholder Framework for Sustainable Urban Construction Logistics

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052678 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2678

Author(s):

Nicolas Brusselaers ◽

Koen Mommens ◽

Cathy Macharis

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Sustainable Construction ◽

Environmental Footprint ◽

Implementation Barriers ◽

Urban Construction ◽

Multi Level ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Roll Out ◽

Construction Works

The urban built environment concentrates due to the growing urbanization trend, triggering construction and renovation works in urban areas. Although construction works often revitalize cities upon completion, the associated logistics activities engender a significant financial and environmental footprint if not handled appropriately. Cities have the largest potential to reduce negative impacts through requirements on construction logistics. However, today, there is a lack of knowledge within cities on how to set such demands and how to involve and manage the numerous and varying stakeholders in these processes. This paper presents a participatory decision-making framework for the governance of urban construction logistics on economic, environmental and societal levels, building further on the Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA). The framework was then implemented on a use case in the dense urban Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium), gathering a wide variety of stakeholders in the context of a sustainable Construction Logistics Scenario (CLS) evaluation. Special attention was paid on the identification of implementation barriers and the role of governments to facilitate the introduction and city-wide roll-out of novel CLS. Findings show how different processes are site-, actor- and condition-specific, thereby delivering a common built object which is often based on different motivations and concerns. The study proposes a flexible, replicable and upscalable framework both from an inter- and intracity perspective, which can serve to support (1) the management of processes and CLS, (2) the management of people and the community, and (3) the project and city, in the context of multi-level governance.

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