Smart City Objectives by 2020: Climate Change, Resilience and Sustainability KPIs

By 2020, half of all the smart city objectives will include climate change, resilience and sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs), according to Gartner. Cities are defining new objectives and placing them into tangible programs. This creates measurable outcomes that meet the targets agreed upon at the COP 21 in Paris to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

"With the Horizon 2020 goals of energy efficiency, carbon emission reductions and renewable energy in mind, many cities in Europe have launched energy sustainability, resource management, social inclusion and community prosperity initiatives," said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, research vice president at Gartner. She discussed how Internet of Things technologies, and the ability to analyze data in a contextualized way, can accelerate the development of smart city execution during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo.

Major world cities have adopted traffic and mobility objectives to resolve or mitigate the traffic congestion issue with IoT-enabled smart city solutions, but urban mobility does not stop at a seamless choice that consist of moving from A to B. "The uptake of ride sharing, the electrification of public transportation, the support infrastructure for e-vehicles and congestion charging for combustion engines, all of those examples are driving cleaner air, producing fewer GHG emissions and saving energy, while improving the noise levels and ambience on streets," Tratz-Ryan said.

She cited the Florence card as an example of how there can be a substantial economic benefit in those measures that can be also directly related to climate change, resilience and sustainability outcome. "The Florence card provides free transportation on electric buses to many touristic sites, helping improve the cultural and touristic experience of the visitors while using environmentally friendly electric buses," Ms. Tratz-Ryan said. "This example shows that there are economic advantages in those measures that can be also directly related to climate change, resilience and sustainability outcome.

Sensors have become a critical element in the execution of climate change goals and are at the heart of smart cities. According to Gartner, in 2017 around 380 million connected things will be in use in cities to deliver sustainability and climate change goals, and this figure will increase to 1.39 billion units in 2020, representing 20 percent of all smart city connected things in use. In 2017, use cases in smart commercial buildings and transportation will be the main contributors, representing 58 percent of all IoT installed base in smart cities.

Driven by the Ecodesign directive that stipulates that members of the EU will have to phase out their incandescent streetlights by the end of 2016, Gartner analysts expect that those sustainability targets will also have a positive investment and innovation impact, especially for the industrial sectors located in urban corridors. The EU Energy Efficiency Directive means public buildings and private real estate will have to reduce their energy consumption by 3 percent every year. Today, heating, cooling and lighting are responsible for approximately 60 percent of a building’s energy consumption. Companies that implement a smart LED’s lighting system could realize a 60-70 percent saving. By integrating the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system with occupancy and building utilization savings close to 50 percent can be achieved.