September 2022

Written by Wentao Zhu

There is widespread agreement that critical infrastructure security and resilience must be enhanced in a smart city environment. For example, sector security and resilience plans provide the strategic vision to guide the national effort to manage risk to the Critical National Infrastructures (CNI) in the UK [1]. Nevertheless, the complexity of CNIs and their inherent interdependencies make it difficult to realise this aim. Recent research efforts are therefore devoted to the development of new methodologies for understanding and consequently, managing the risks associated with interconnected CNIs.

Written by Dakota J. Thompson and Amro M. Farid

As one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, global climate change demands a host of changes across at least four critical energy infrastructures: the electric grid, the natural gas system, the oil system, and the coal system. In the context of the United States, this paper refers to this system-of-systems as “the American Multi-Modal Energy System (AMES)." The needs of climate change demand mitigation and adaptation strategies which are far more demanding than the needs of just mitigation alone. Therefore, as policies are developed to drive the sustainable energy transition forward, they must not just aim to mitigate climate change but must also adapt to its effects with resilient architectures. In effect, the need for decarbonization must be harmonized with the need for economic development, national energy security, and equitable energy access. These combined requirements to develop effective policies necessitate an understanding of the AMES interdependencies and how they vary geographically and temporally. Furthermore, this cross-sectoral interdependency can introduce architectural fragility that must be managed as an integral part of the sustainable energy transition.

Written by Neethu Elizabeth Simon and Samantha Coyle

As Internet of Things (IoT) is coming to life across many application areas in a smart city, the number of “things” being installed  across various areas of a smart city is growing as new services are supported. A camera can be considered as an ultimate "thing" as a sensing device that generates enormous amounts of data for a large number of smart city services and applications. Fast and low-cost computation is supporting the growth of IoT in smart city deployment, AI and Computer Vision (CV)-based solutions in several fields are emerging as smart cities grow.  As a practical example, security solutions aiding situational awareness of the surrounding have benefits in keeping assets and public safe throughout a smart city. However, these solutions are increasingly difficult to develop and deploy due to resource constraints, hardware costs, security concerns, and high inference loads on edge devices. Our team developed a CV-based Security-as-a-Service Solution using AI/ML providing a framework and processing pipeline for deploying an AI-assisted, multi-camera Smart City Solution of vehicular and walkway traffic make mobility smarter and safer for everyone. This article illustrates this situational awareness solution covering architecture, learnings, and challenges encountered during its design and implementation. We will also discuss ethical concerns that drove our moral compass in developing CV solutions.

Written by Sidharth Sabyasachi and Sumanjit Das

The definition of smart cities evolves over the last five years with the implementation of emerging technologies and socio-economic development across smart cities. The prospective of advancing in society development across a smart city involves both quantitative and qualitative way is changing. As a result, different approaches are attempted to solve any type of economic, political or social issues. The modernization of transportation is a result of technological development in a wide range of areas from energy efficiency to more efficient mobility, and it is the center of focus in EV charging for smart transportation while shaping a smart city. To provide the best facility to the people of a smart city, various modes of transportation should be availed which must be environmental-friendly and economically viable. Electric Vehicle (EV) are the best choice for it and fulfills the goal of a smart city. A major obstacle while implementing EV is the charging infrastructure. As huge power requirement is necessary for charging high power batteries in EV, and the charging infrastructures are sourced by power grid. But due to heavy demand of electricity in a smart city, power shortage normally happens which must be taken care by implementing bidirectional power flow option i.e. Vehicle to Grid (V2G) charging system. This article discusses various strategies in the implementation of bidirectional power flow-based charging infrastructure into the planning of smart city and how it is benefited to the city administrative as well as the people living in the city.