Smart Cities-IoT-Circular Economy

Climate, green and sustainable strategies are linked to the circular economy in 70% of the cities and regions surveyed. Several governments at various levels have been establishing a circular economy long-term vision. These have taken various forms, such as: strategies (Colombia, Denmark, Finland); roadmaps (Belgium, Chile France a); action plans (Portugal), frameworks (Italy), white papers (Norway); bills (France) and programmes (e.g. Barcelona Metropolitan Area and Rotterdam). The common point across national, regional or local initiatives is the long-term view, expressed in some cases through specific targets.

A smart city is defined as a city in which ICT is merged with traditional infrastructure, coordinated, and integrated with the use of new digital technologies (Batty etal. 2012: 481). A city is considered as smart when investing in human and social capital but also traditional and modern (ICT) communication infrastructures fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with prudent management of natural resources, through participatory governance. (Caragliu & Del Bo & Nijkamp, 2011: 70).

How smart can a city become? With the help of technology, a lot. Several Municipalities in many countries have taken steps in such a direction, offering from smart parking spaces to smart benches for charging portable electronic devices through the use of solar energy.

These innovations are based on modern digital technology and especially on Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology that allows sensors to connect directly through the mobile network to the corresponding smart applications, without the need to create new wireless or wired networks. Today in 2020, the digital upgrade of cities is becoming a central political choice for many countries, because it achieves, on the one hand, savings and efficiency in the operation of its services and in the management of its problems and on the other hand, speed and transparency in decision making.
Citizens can perceive both direct and indirect benefits of IoT application in a city. For example, intelligent controlled parking systems immediately improve the daily life of the citizen, because they reduce the time to find a parking space. This is made possible by the installation of parking sensors, which through a mobile application inform the drivers about the location of the free parking spaces. Also, through GPS, the users of the smart application receive instructions on their mobile device on how to get to the free places. There are also waste management applications. They work with a wireless ultrasonic sensor that measures the fullness of the bin, sends the data to a platform that analyzes it, and then sends the information via a mobile phone application to the garbage truck driver. Thus, the garbage truck only collects the full bins, avoiding unnecessary itineraries on roads where the bins are not full. Therefore, this leads to immediate cost savings of up to 50% on fuel costs, while reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions accordingly. Furthermore, cost saving is possible in buildings with the installation and operation of a system for monitoring of their energy consumption. In this way, a reduction of electricity consumption is achieved in real-time, but also of the energy footprint of carbon dioxide, something extremely important for the protection of the environment.

Another very good example of circular cities / circular economy combination is the bike sharing philosophy. Citizens with the use of a dedicated application can find where co-sharing bikes are and use them in order to move around the city. Cycling promotes a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, and a bike share system encourages cycling by providing convenient access to everyone. To add on that, bike-sharing is one of the best examples of Circular Economy which also helps make cities become greener and transform cities market.

Today, Circular Economies (CE) are expected to re-shape current market paradigms, carrying valuable benefits in the cities. Five megatrends are already highlighted as the main precursors that will boost the adoption of CE solutions in the cities. These are:

⦁ Urbanization
⦁ Empowered consumers
⦁ Rise of the sharing Economy
⦁ Community Reliance and
⦁ Resource Scarcity and water insecurity.

To add more on that, four main CE market trends in European Cities are identified:

⦁ Buildings
⦁ Mobility
⦁ Food
⦁ Product and Services

European Union took great steps in order to achieve environmental and sustainable development targets. The 5 main initiatives of the European Commission are:

⦁ European Green Deal
⦁ EU Circular Economy Action Plan
⦁ Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence
⦁ European Industrial Strategy
⦁ European Data Strategy

According to the OECD survey, most of the responding cities and regions perceive themselves at the initial phases of the transition. Only 10% of surveyed cities and regions defined themselves as “advanced”, while 39% as “in progress”, 57% as “newcomers” and 4% of surveyed cities and regions described the transition towards the circular economy as “not in place”.

Circular Economy aims to change the paradigm from a linear economy (produce, use, dispose) to a more circular one, that transforms waste into resources. This requires of course the cooperation and willingness of all cities stakeholders from public authorities, up to the private sector and citizens.

In the 21st century, a thriving Circular Economy in cities will depend on public-private and cross-sector collaboration on an unprecedented scale. Now is the time to take full advantage of the wealth of opportunities in Circular Cities and create a system that can work long-term for the economy, society, and environment.

To sum up, Circular Cities and Circular Economy are not a luxury. It is a choice and a need. They provide solutions to the problem of rapid environmental degradation, increased road traffic and limited resources. Our cities are becoming more sustainable and citizen-friendly. It is crucial to highlight the importance of smart cities through pilot projects which will be the test-beds for the future development of the CE ideas in a larger and more global scale. Our goal should be a fair and green digital development of cities, without exclusions and entanglements. Otherwise, technology can cause new crises and inequalities. Fair Green development and fair Digital development go together.

The following videos provide an analysis of what a Circular City is and how IoT can help develop it.