Planning Practice Feature

Techno-Smart Cities, Techno-Savvy Urban Planners

by Rick Seiden, AICP

It is a beautiful spring day in the year 2028. You decide to work and hold your meetings in Central Park. Before leaving your New Jersey home, you log onto your PDA to access the web page for New York City parking to sign up for a parking space within a quarter-mile of Columbus Circle, near Central Park. This parking system continuously monitors parking space availability in New York City using sensors on a wireless network.

As you approach, a car parked at 58th Street vacates a parking space and the space's embedded sensor reserves this space for you and informs your onboard GPS unit that Space Number W58BB is now available and shows the quickest route for approaching it. Once you park in space W58BB, the city sensor system automatically debits your credit card to park in that space for four hours.

You have reserved Section 37 at the Central Park West Outdoor Office Plaza, where you are meeting three colleagues from New York and two who flew in from India the evening before. The outdoor office plaza is a WiMAX hotspot capable of sending and receiving data at a rate of one terabit per second. The plaza has large, outdoor tables on which to work, comfortable chairs and a fantastic lake view. At promptly 9 a.m. EST colleagues from Germany, Argentina, and China will be joining the six of you via virtual meeting where you will be recording and editing a video presentation to be given to a customer in Moscow next week. Using your notebook computers — which also serve as mobile phones, Internet terminals, and portable video recording and editing studios — you begin working on your video presentation.

When it is time for lunch, your team searches the Internet for a five-star Indian restaurant in New York City. You find several and then select one, access its menu and place your orders. Lunch is scheduled to arrive, via Segway, in less than 25 minutes. While awaiting lunch, your Indian guests wish to explore seeing a Broadway show in the evening, so they visit a website to view scenes of six hit shows, instantly using the WiMAX connection to download six brief clips. They select a show, search for ticket availability, and log onto the Times Square video camera system to see the ticket lines at the TKTS booth. The line is short, so they go back to the Internet to hire a virtual assistant in Times Square who, for $15, runs to the discount ticket booth to purchase the tickets. The virtual assistant uses a handheld scanner to scan the new tickets into his PDA and sends them instantly to the Indians in Central Park. Fifty minutes of lunch still remain, so using their notebook computers and a VoIP connection, they make video-phone calls to their families back in Bombay (now Mumbai).

Your cell phone rings through your computer. It is your car calling, asking if you wish to add time to your parking space. Press "one" for two hours, press "two" for four hours, press "three" for eight hours. You press "two."

At the end of your meeting you send the video presentations to your manger in San Francisco for her review.

You leave Central Park at 3:30 p.m. When you return to your parking space, for which you are charged only for time used, you get into your car and view the outbound Hudson River crossing cameras on your car's video monitor to observe real-time traffic conditions. This information, combined with data from your onboard navigation system, enables you select the best route back to your New Jersey home.

This is an image of a city of tomorrow. Today we encounter computers, microprocessors, and sensors multiple times in our daily lives. Be it in our cars, appliances at home, in children's toys, or at our local ATM, computers are ubiquitous in our world. The urban landscape is on the verge of becoming another large computer combining video technology, wireless communications, and probes and sensors capable of monitoring, collecting, measuring, and analyzing large amounts of urban data. Some technologies are already functioning in cities, others are on the brink of introduction, and some are more speculative and may arrive within the next 10 or 20 years.

Managing the introduction of new technologies for urban planners and city officials is not new. Be it the automobile in the early 20th century, traffic signals in the mid-20th century, or cell phone towers, planners are continuously challenged by the arrival of technology and how to implement it in a controlled and rational manner to enhance communities and the citizen experience. As in the past for our profession, it is always important for planners to understand what is coming next.

This article focuses on three technologies selected to illustrate this point: One is already here, the second is quickly being deployed, and the third is on the horizon.

Urban Video Surveillance: Coming to Your Community?

Urban video surveillance is being deployed widely in both large and small European communities and is quickly spreading in North America. Many of us are familiar with cameras set atop traffic signals, also called red light cameras. Video surveillance is basically the same technology, but it is deployed in strategic locations throughout cities, parks, or industrial areas and can be simple or extremely sophisticated. Large cities such as New York and London already have cutting-edge surveillance systems. If this technology has not yet arrived in your community, planners can get ahead of this trend by becoming conversant in urban surveillance technology as well as its impact on your planning department and its regulations. Such considerations may include the following:

Camera placement
Number and types of cameras
Zoning regulations
Municipal codes
Infrastructure usage
Comprehensive plans
Community aesthetics
Privacy issues

Urban surveillance technology is a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) network. Unlike broadcast television, where images are broadcast to a mass market, CCTV is a closed system sent only to authorized personnel such as municipal employees, police agencies, and first responders. More specifically, it is a system in which a number of video cameras are connected in a closed circuit or loop, with the images produced being sent to a central television monitor or recorders. These systems can be quite dynamic, capable of zooming and panning, capturing images of license plates from thousands of feet away. Multiple cameras working in unison can track movement across a large space, and incidents can even be monitored by computer software that be programmed to produce alarms when specific incidents occur.

Cameras come in numerous formats and prices. They can be basic low-resolution black-and-white cameras or extremely sophisticated with attributes such as night vision capabilities, motion detection, bullet-proof casings, zoom capabilities, and high-definition recording.

The installation costs of urban surveillance systems run the gamut. Some advanced features may include:

Control of each camera using a joystick to move, pan, or zoom on a specific area or incident.
Recording and storage of images on tape or on a digital video recorder for the purpose of archiving and analyzing past incidents, particularly after a crime is reported.
Analytic software that can trigger alarms for pre-set events such as a car parked in a restricted zone more then three minutes or a fence jumper in a prohibited area.
Remote monitoring using the Internet to view images from anywhere with an Internet connection. (For example, a city official on vacation can log into the Internet, using a password, to view an incident in his city, such as a fire, from anywhere in the world where an Internet connection exists.)
Mobile video units on trailers that can be moved around cities for events such as parades, concerts, or civic gatherings to record large crowds or emergency situations.

Some benefits of video surveillance are obvious, such as increased "eyes on the street" and an increased virtual police presence. Other, not so obvious, benefits include:

Protecting restricted areas by installing a motion sensor camera that triggers an alarm only when an intruder is detected.
Monitoring threatening behavior. For instance, if the same car passes a restricted area more than 10 times in a week, a camera can trip an alarm.
Immediate dispatching of medical personnel as soon as an emergency occurs.
Monitoring of urban infrastructure, such as burned out streetlights, downed power lines, and other infrastructure problems.

Besides increasing the numbers of eyes on the street, urban surveillance systems can benefit city budgets by reducing the number of new hires, because these systems can be installed to complement existing personnel. Their very presence has proven to deter crime. "Dummy" or fake cameras in high-crime areas have proved effective as a crime deterrent. As this technology spreads, urban planners and city officials must begin to weigh the costs and benefits of such systems, balance security with privacy, and explore aesthetics with the capability to respond quickly and archive incidents.

Urban Wimax Is on the Edge of Ubiquity

WiMAX and WiMAX-like is going to bring astonishingly high-speed broadband to both fixed and mobile computers. Some experts see WiMAX as a game changer for the way we work and play. WiMAX is more of a standard than a technology, and it could have a significant impact on how cities function. This technology could impact land use and zoning as well as produce new requirements from your citizens. WiMAX promises to change how cities function and how people interact with the built environment. One complex and unresolved question today is: Who should own, deploy, or operate these networks? Companies already are positioning themselves to take the lead in this market space. However, some officials contend that towns and cities should own these high-speed networks. This issue will play out during the remainder of this decade.

The bandwidth and reach of WiMAX and WiMAX-like technology make it suitable for replacing some of today's technologies with the following potential applications:

Replace fiber and copper with wireless high-speed networks.
Use as an alternative to trenching or digging up streets for increasing bandwidth. (Fiber need not be laid.)
Be a "last mile" solution for residents and businesses.
Enable mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony that could compete with cellular phone providers (4G).
Provide wireless, mobile-rich media solutions to laptops and PDAs, including steaming video, high-speed movies, and fast music downloads.
Provide instant secure access to wireless, mobile business applications, such as private corporate networks, databases, and company Intranet applications.

Consider how your community could change with this enormous amount of wireless bandwidth (the speed at which information moves).

Office workers will not be tied to a desk and can work productively either independently or as teams outside of the office, likely in parks, plazas, or even designated outdoor working spaces.
WiMAX will allow salespeople and other professionals to quickly access secure corporate databases and Intranet sites.
People can spend the day in the park or at the beach working and during breaks quickly download their favorite television show, movie, or music or upload large presentations or reports to the home office or customers.
WiMAX will be capable of delivering high-speed video, Internet, and telephony to homes and businesses without using wires or cables.
An automobile's onboard computer can communicate wirelessly using WiMAX with mechanics or first responders.
WiMAX will be capable of tracking and integrating civilian and military RF devices.
Providing a wireless communication backbone for sensor and video surveillance networks.
An emerging application is the ability to drop battery-powered WiMAX antennas into a disaster area or in an emergency situation to deploy an instant, wireless telecommunications network.

Urban planners will have much to consider when this technology arrives in their community. Such considerations include where the base station/hub site antenna should be located and where the small public and private antennas can be deployed. What outdoor spaces will office workers use and congregate in? City officials also may wish to explore municipal revenue-generating opportunities that WiMAX may present. If it is private companies asking to build their networks in your community or municipalities deploying the entire networks themselves, urban planners will be involved in the process.

Urban Probes and Sensors: The Next Decade's Urban Technology

A sensor network is a group of specialized transducers with a communications infrastructure intended to monitor and record conditions at diverse locations. Commonly monitored parameters are temperature, humidity, pressure, wind direction and speed, illumination intensity, vibration intensity, sound intensity, power-line voltage, chemical concentrations, and pollutant levels.

A sensor network consists of multiple detection stations called sensor nodes, each of which is small, lightweight, and portable. Every sensor node is equipped with a transducer, microcomputer, transceiver, and power source. The transducer generates electrical signals based on sensed physical effects and phenomena. The microcomputer processes and stores the sensor output. The transceiver, which can be hard-wired or wireless, receives commands from a central computer and transmits data to that computer. The power for each sensor node is derived from the electric utility or from a battery. Sensors typically are small and can be deployed using a wireless communications network.

Sensors have potentially endless applications in the urban environment. Such applications could include:

Collecting CO2 emissions data.
Monitoring airborne diseases for public health.
Tracking nuclear or biological plumes.
Tracking pollution.
Tracking wildfires.
Measuring outdoor noise and air pollution.
Fleet vehicle tracking.
Parking technologies.

Hoboken, New Jersey, is using sensors for parking enforcement by embedding small RFID chips into all newly issued parking permits, giving parking enforcement officers the ability to distinguish, in an instant, between residents and nonresidents and identify counterfeit permits.

Although sensors are just beginning to be introduced into communities, planners and city officials should know this technology is coming. Sensor networks will change the way cities collect and analyze information about the urban environment. Increased data storage capacity may be required to store and analyze the terabytes of data that could be collected by these systems. New careers may arise for people to review incoming data, understand it and apply this information to the built environment. First responders will be extremely interested in this technology if they can be quickly notified of an incident, how to respond, and who to evacuate.

Planners and city officials will need to consider placement of individual sensors, who would be authorized to use the network, and exactly what data and metrics should be collected to enhance the physical environment, protect assets and lives, and improve people's urban experience.

Conclusion

Many other technologies are evolving and will find a place in the built environment. The three technologies discussed in this article — urban surveillance, WiMAX, and sensors — have the potential to transform communities and the planning process. Independently, these technologies are complex, but one can forecast how these technologies will begin to converge, particularly with the maturation of Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. Using IP mesh networks, one could monitor the municipal video surveillance and city sensor network all running off a WiMAX backbone. It is even possible for humans to be removed from active monitoring by using analytic software to identify threats, incidents, or anomalies in a city and immediately notify police, government staff, emergency medical technicians, or first responders.

Urban planners should begin to consider how these technologies fit into comprehensive plans, current ordinances, and permitting requirements. Creative responses will be needed, such as establishing a technology overlay zone in the zoning ordinance, promulgating community technology standards, and hiring planners who can speak confidently about emerging technologies as well as land-use and zoning issues.

Rick Seiden is president of Towntech, Inc., an urban planning firm focused on integrating technology into the built environment. Rick@towntechinc.com, www.towntechinc.com. 888-475-0888.