Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
transmitter has the so-called safety zone being part of the city where the person may
freely move. If the transmitter's owner leaves the safety zone, the device will inform
minders, the police, the fire station or the supervisors of the system. Additionally it may
inform children about approaching the danger zone as well as call for help be means of
one button either in the device or selected places in the entire city. The buttons are com-
patible with the overall system u-Seoul Safety. In 2013 the above solution was used by
50,000 inhabitants. The transmitter is also available for less wealthy people. They may
buy it for 2 % of the price and in particular cases people may get it for free.
The above solutions constitute only selected examples of long, digital experi-
ence of Seoul. The way people work in offices is an example of flexibility of a city
and adjusting the infrastructure to real needs of the society. They may work in one
of ten co-working centers depending on the place they live. Their working time is
registered as usual by means of a magnetic card and they have to be available on
the chat online all the time. Such a solution is more and more popular being appre-
ciated by the workers themselves.
Virtual stores are also worth mentioning. Seoul inhabitants may do shopping
while waiting on a bus or tram stop or going through a subway. It is enough to
scan a bar code of a product from a poster and send an order and a courier will
deliver the purchases to the indicated address.
The option of viral shopping has been available in Poland since 6 November
2013 only for Warsaw inhabitants for the time being. The first “shop window” offer-
ing groceries appeared in the Centrum underground station. Since June this year vir-
tual stores in the form of delivery vans may be met in Warsaw also in the streets.
Seul and solutions applied there constitute an outstanding example. In Europe
the idea of Smart City, apart from Budapest, Amsterdam and Malaga began to
introduce. Asian countries and New York are other followers.
A Centralized Command Centre in Rio de Janeiro built by IBM is an example
of systems used by a Smart City. Thanks to available technologies employees may
monitor the entire city, anticipate dangers resulting from weather changes and man-
age risk effectively. Pavegen is becoming more famous. Thanks to the pressure gen-
erated by pedestrians on pavements electric energy is produced (Haslemayer
2014
).
There are numerous examples like that. It is worthwhile observing technologi-
cal development of smart cities to define what directions this concept is evolving
and answer the question whether we will be ready and whether we want to live in
a safer and more convenient but more controlled world.
4 Conclusions
A dynamic urbanization process occurring in the world poses new challenges to
the authorities. The problem arises with an inappropriate infrastructure which has
to secure inhabitants with appropriate amount of water, energy or guarantee their
mobility. A city should “grow” together with increasing needs of citizens. On one
hand it is to secure safety on the other it should enable its inhabitants to live a
comfortable life and be friendly.
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