Satellites for the creation of Smart Cities

Have you ever imagined living in a city where you can always be linked to a free Wi-Fi connection?

While for many, having Wi-Fi publicly is something that they can have access to without problem, thousands of people still do not have those benefits. What if with the help of an application you could find a parking space in real-time or easily monitor your electricity and water consumption?

That’s what intelligent cities or Smart Cities are all about. These are known to combine sustainability with development and seek to respond adequately to the demands of the basic needs of both institutions and companies and, above all, of society. It was in 2004 when Spain began to use the concept of digital cities and from its beginning it has stood out for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Despite the growing relevance of Smart Cities in the international scene, in Latin America there are still no concrete plans to develop a project of this magnitude. Mauricio Segovia, CEO of AXESS, commented on the matter during Satellite 2018: “I don’t think there are cities with a formal plan to become a smart city in the region. What I see are problems related to the Internet of Things projects in certain areas of government, but the reality is that this is a matter that is just beginning.”

To implement a functional Smart Cities project, a series of key characteristics are required: better organization of governments, more satisfaction and participation by society, performance indicators and optimization of the resources at each place. However, ICT is the basis for the functioning of smart cities in the world. Within the planning of a Smart City, satellite images focused on land use are important for those who are responsible for making urban plans, as they can help with urban zoning and planning, modeling the city’s infrastructure and the carbon footprint.

Without doubt, one of the areas of growth in Smart Cities is the satellite industry due to the high degree of connectivity they need. What would it be used for? Smart buildings, traffic management, parking places, street lighting and even smarter networks. On the other hand, some possible markets of M2M (machine to machine) focused on satellite applications are video surveillance, telemedicine and industrial production when looking for hybrid satellite solutions.

As part of space technology, satellites play an important role in creating smart cities, specifically when talking about autonomous vehicles, which would help the population’s safe and efficient mobility. Through monitoring and assignment of addresses autonomous cars would be receiving updated information and thus avoid traffic or an accident en route. Smart Cities seek to cope with the increase in urbanization, where innovative and sustainable solutions to issues such as climate change are sought. Today, satellites are an important part in the creation of cities, as they have proven to be efficient for governments. An example of satellite applications is Montpelier, located in southern France. There, sensors and satellite connectivity are used in order to monitor organic waste compost trays in real-time and notify operators when they are full, in operation or if they generate a bad smell. (See satellite phone).