IEEE Electrification - September 2019 - 15

Panasonic Initiative
In collaboration with Japanese entities, Panasonic chose
neighboring cities outside Tokyo and transformed them
with the latest smart city technology. They then measured
how the improvements have affected the quality of life of
the citizens.
Many cities have a range of data-based metrics and
current data. These might be related to, for example, air
quality, commute times, education needs, and health-care
needs. According to Panasonic, the chief question now is
"Do measures we have taken translate into greater happiness and improved quality of life?"
A critical component of Panasonic's Town Development
Concept is a set of targets for this smart city, including
numerical goals, for example, a 40% reduction of CO 2
emissions (in comparison with levels in the fiscal year
ended 31 March 2006) and usage rates of 30% or higher for
new sources of energy. Notably, the Town Development
Concept also stipulates rules for managing the town's
landscapes and design.

SOURCE: ITRON

According to an April 2018 study by the Economic and
Social Research Council, technology transformation is
driving business-friendly environments and citizen-centric service delivery. The potential for using what the
council calls "urban data" for increasing sustainability
remains untapped.
Let's look at two initiatives and what those initiatives
are striving to achieve, and have already achieved, in pursuit of sustainability.
Figure 12. Glasgow is participating in the Itron Smart City Challenge.

climate change. Program officials noted that "the world's
leading scientists have calculated that global greenhouse
gas emissions should peak at the latest by 2020 and subsequently sharply drop."

Conclusions
The grand vision of smart cities is a self-awareness that
will enable people to move with a high degree of efficiency
and safety, while enjoying the benefits of AI acting on
unprecedented amounts of data (the defining characteristics of the second-generation smart city) to promote personal safety and security, better health, and the greater
economic growth that come with progress and innovation.
The good news is that, by and large, vital technologies are
maturing and will usher in improvements needed to help
make life in cities something to be cherished. AI is ready to
be tapped. Devices that produce data, the sensors that collect and measure those data, and the IoT network itself will
make the second generation of the smart city a reality.

C40 Cities
C40 Cities is a global coalition that measures the sustainability of the top 40 cities in the world. The coalition, whose members are representatives of those cities,
is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and climate risk through the implementation of measurable, replicable, and sustainable climate-related policies and programs.
C40 Cities has developed the Deadline 2020 Program to
support all its members in developing and delivering
ambitious plans aligned with the 1.5 ˚C "pathway" (i.e.,
limiting the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 ˚C)
established by the Paris Agreement. The program also
monitors member cities to ensure that they develop integrated climate action plans detailing both ambitious mitigation and adaptation commitments.
In September 2018, C40 Cities reported that "27 cities
across the globe, home to 54 million people, have already
reached their peak greenhouse gas levels and are now
seeing emissions fall an average 2% per year."
C40 also reported that 27 cities in its analysis, including
Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, New York City, and Sydney, have
seen their emissions fall from a peak in 2012. C40 Cities
reports that, if cities take a step forward in sustainability, it
will have a tremendous impact on the "global picture" of

For Further Reading
U. Sengupta et al., "Sustainable smart cities: Applying complexity science to achieve urban sustainability," United
Nations University, Tokyo, 2017. [Online]. Available: http://col
lections.unu.edu/view/UNU:6393
Itron, "Itron resourcefulness report: An analysis of international energy and water trends," Liberty Lake, Washington,
2018. [Online]. Available: https://itron.com/de/resources-page/
resourcefulness-report
Economic & Social Research Council, "Smart cities and
sustainability," Swindon, U.K., 2018. [Online]. Available: https://
esrc.ukri.org/files/news-events-and-publications/evidencebriefings/smart-cities-and-sustainability/
GuideStar, "C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group,"
[Online]. Available: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/
90-0634376
New China, "27 world biggest cities reach peak of greenhouse gas emissions," 2018. [Online]. Available: http://www
.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-09/15/c_137468474.htm
Smartcity Press, "Artificial intelligence: The evolving brain
of smart cities," 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.smart
city.press/artificial-intelligence-in-smart-cities/

Biography
Itai Dadon (Itai.Dadon@itron.com) is with Itron, Liberty
Lake, Washington.

IEEE Electrific ation Magazine / S EP T EM BE R 2 0 1 9

http://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:6393 http://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:6393 https://itron.com/de/resources-page/resourcefulness-report https://itron.com/de/resources-page/resourcefulness-report https://esrc.ukri.org/files/news-events-and-publications/evidence-briefings/smart-cities-and-sustainability/ https://esrc.ukri.org/files/news-events-and-publications/evidence-briefings/smart-cities-and-sustainability/ https://www.guidestar.org/profile/90-0634376 https://www.guidestar.org/profile/90-0634376 http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-09/15/c_137468474.htm http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-09/15/c_137468474.htm https://www.smartcity.press/artificial-intelligence-in-smart-cities/ https://www.smartcity.press/artificial-intelligence-in-smart-cities/

IEEE Electrification - September 2019

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