Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and Requirements
2011
). The interplay with the general objectives attached to
Smart Environment, and particularly to those of reducing pollution, is also evident.
Urban traffic control systems developed and adapted into intelligent traffic systems
(ITS) capable of tracking cars location in real time, and adapting traffic man-
agement to current and predicted conditions, are instrumental too. They are
envisaged to be used not only to reduce traffic congestion but also to serve effi-
ciency of services (for instance, to set up fast lane corridors for emergency services
such as ambulances, police or fire brigades). Clearly this is a major target for cities,
because of the concentration of the global population in urban areas. To confine us
to comment on the European dimension of this statement, it is sufficient to note
that approximately 80 % of the European population lives in urban areas. Com-
plementarily, dynamic carpooling systems (Correia and Viegas
2009
), or the ones
developed in the WiSafeCar Project
2013
, provide a means to optimize the uti-
lization of transportation systems for commuters living in nearby places and
sharing a common destination. In brief, platforms allowing to share information
(location, weather and traffic data) among transportation system operators, urban
districts and passengers are needed in smart cities.
As to Smart Environment, and to energy consumption particularly, the com-
bination of smart processes (e.g., demand side/response management and real-time
consumption management) and smart technologies (e.g., smart meters and intel-
ligent home energy management devices) is considered as an opportunity to enable
energy efficiency and savings to be achieved in the residential and business
market. In this context, intelligent systems and integrated communication infra-
structures are required to assist in the management of the electricity distribution
grids. Smart grids are actually seen as a major opportunity to merge power and
ICT industries and technologies to satisfy almost all stated targets, and ICTs are,
again, of essence, because of the need for the underlying communication, con-
sisting in sharing information among consumers, producers, and the grid.
3.1.2
Cities' Transformation from Service Providers
to Platform Providers
The above observations indicate a process of transformation (AGCOM
2012
;
Evans
2011
) relevant to the role of cities as service providers. Cities are
increasingly moving from being service providers to platform ones, by setting up
and making available to users at large infrastructures enabling the development of
a broad range of public and private applications and services.
Two aspects of this process appear worth factoring in our analysis on the legal
framework for smart cities. The first one is the increasing importance of infor-
mation and communication in the process that will grant cities a new role as
platform providers. The second aspect, which is connected to the first one, is the
increasing importance of private law (compared to administrative law) for cities,
as they start realizing the many legal issues relevant to the processing of the
information made available in the platforms. This second aspect, in turn, will
