陳康

Smart cities are a hot buzzword right now as cities all over the world look to how they can use new technologies. These cities are no longer futuristic scenarios dreamed up by creative thinkers. Instead， real places around the globe are discovering innovative ways to incorporate smart technology into peoples everyday lives.

Lets take a close look at a smart city vs. a normal city. What are the differences between them？ In other words， what makes a smart city， well， smart？

The conceptualization of Smart City， may vary from city to city and country to country depending on the level of development. But simply put， Smart City is an urban area that uses Information and Communication Technologies （ICT） to ease up the livelihood of its people. It is a municipality that uses ICT to augment operational efficiency， share information with the public and improve both the quality of government services and citizen welfare.

The main purpose of Smart City is to create a society which can perform effectively and efficiently making effective use of city infrastructures through artificial intelligence. It also focuses to optimize city functions and drive economic growth while improving quality of life for its citizens using smart technology and data analysis.

Connected objects

Think about the sorts of things you might see when youre walking down an average city street—buildings， cars， lampposts， trees， trash cans， and more. In a smart city， you might want to take a second look at some of these everyday objects. The Internet of Things opens up a huge range of possibilities.

According to Technology Strategy Board1–IoT Special Interest Group， “IoT refers to a state where Things （e.g. objects， environments， vehicles and clothing） will have more and more information associated with them and may have the ability to sense， communicate， network and produce new information， becoming an integral part of the Internet.” Practical examples can be found in many industries such as manufacturing， transportation， utilities， healthcare and consumer electronics.

Lets use lampposts as an example. A regular city has regular lampposts. But in a smart city， there could be a whole lot more going on than meets the eye.

A smart lamppost will not only incorporate things like LED light bulbs to reduce energy usage， but could also have sensors installed. These sensors could measure a slew2 of different things， like whether or not there are people on the street in order to dim and brighten lighting as necessary. It could even measure something city government officials are interested in studying， like air quality.

Another good example would be an app which tracks and manages cargo vehicle fleets. The app along with the IoT web platform will allow the company to monitor the status of the vehicles in the fleet.

Engaged citizens

In a smart city， citizens create the city. Theyre active participants in shaping the city and how it works. This difference between smart cities and normal cities often gets overlooked， but citizen participation is essential to a smart city.

That means smart cities are adaptable to their citizens needs， and can grow and change with their residents.

Detroit recently did a smart city project where they gave teens kits to collect their own data， like foot traffic3， air quality， and temperature—and then come up with solutions. The very same technology is also used in cities around the world to measure structural integrity. They adapted it so that anybody could use it on the go to help make their city a better place.

That means that citizens can work on4 solutions to problems quickly and flexibly. It also means that real peoples everyday problems can be addressed. Sometimes， city officials in a regular city may not even realize that a certain issue needs fixing. But in a smart city， citizens can make sure they know about it， and even offer solutions.

Streamlined transportation

In a regular city， you might have to wait for a long time for the next bus to come without a good idea of when it will actually show up. On the city planning side， theyre making a best guess at what bus routes citizens need.

In a smart city， youll be able to consult up-to-the-second information about bus arrival times， whether thats with a smartphone app or a bus station with a display with the latest information. The bus routes will also be able to be optimally planned using data about real peoples behavior. You could even have a bot， like our own Intelligent City Bot5， to help guide people around the transportation system.

All around， this makes the transportation process more efficient and effective for everyone.

Environmentally friendly

Theres a difference between smart cities and sustainable cities， which are solely focused on making cities environmentally friendly. But there is a lot of overlap， so smart cities often end up being sustainable ones， too.

Tracking data can help cities design more energy-efficient policies and identify areas they can improve. It can help cities figure out what its citizens are really doing and present more efficient solutions.

By using smart lampposts like the ones we described earlier， the city of Barcelona reduced their energy usage by 30%， resulting in $37 million saved each year.? ? ? ? ? ? ■

全球各地的城市都在考慮如何使用新技術(shù)，智慧城市因而成為當(dāng)下的時髦熱詞。智慧城市不再是對未來天馬行空的設(shè)想。這些城市真實存在，遍布全球，正探索將智能技術(shù)融入人們?nèi)粘Ｉ畹姆N種新途徑。

讓我們探究一下，智慧城市與普通城市有何不同？換言之，是什么讓智慧城市有了智慧？

智慧城市的概念對不同的城市與國家來說各不相同，這取決于它們的發(fā)展水平。但簡單來說，智慧城市是指城市利用信息通信技術(shù)改善民生，市政府利用信息通信技術(shù)提升城市運行效率、與公眾分享信息、提升政府服務(wù)質(zhì)量及市民福利水平。

智慧城市的主要目的是通過人工智能有效利用城市基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施，實現(xiàn)社會有效、高效運作。此外，在運用智能科技與數(shù)據(jù)分析改善市民生活質(zhì)量的同時，致力于優(yōu)化城市功能、推動經(jīng)濟(jì)增長。

實現(xiàn)物聯(lián)

想一想走在普通的城市街頭，你會看到建筑、汽車、燈柱、樹木、垃圾桶等各類事物。但在智慧城市，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)能賦予一些司空見慣的物品很多不一樣的功能，讓你禁不住再看一眼。

英國技術(shù)戰(zhàn)略委員會—物聯(lián)網(wǎng)特別利益團(tuán)體稱：“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)指的是一種狀態(tài)，在該狀態(tài)下，‘物體（如物品、環(huán)境、車輛和服裝）將擁有越來越多與之關(guān)聯(lián)的信息，且可能具備感知、交流、聯(lián)網(wǎng)和產(chǎn)生新信息的能力，進(jìn)而成為互聯(lián)網(wǎng)不可或缺的一部分?！痹谥圃鞓I(yè)、交通運輸業(yè)、公用事業(yè)、醫(yī)療保健和消費類電子產(chǎn)品等諸多行業(yè)都有物聯(lián)網(wǎng)應(yīng)用的實例。

以燈柱為例。普通城市的燈柱不足為奇，但在智慧城市，燈柱內(nèi)部卻大有文章。

智能燈柱不僅裝有LED燈泡等各種節(jié)能部件，還可安裝傳感器。這些傳感器可以進(jìn)行各種判斷，比如感知路上是否有行人并酌情調(diào)節(jié)照明亮度，甚至還能測定空氣質(zhì)量等市政府官員想要研究的事項。

另一個范例是可以跟蹤管理貨運車隊的應(yīng)用程序。公司可使用該程序和物聯(lián)網(wǎng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)平臺監(jiān)測車隊的車輛運行狀況。

市民參與

智慧城市由市民創(chuàng)建。市民積極參與城市創(chuàng)建和城市運作。智慧城市與普通城市的這一差別往往被忽視，但市民參與對智慧城市來說至關(guān)重要。

這意味著，智慧城市能夠順應(yīng)市民需求，能夠與市民一起成長和改變。

最近，底特律開展了一項智慧城市項目，為青少年提供各種裝備，讓他們收集各自的數(shù)據(jù)，如過往行人、空氣質(zhì)量、氣溫等，然后提出解決方案。該技術(shù)在世界各城市也用于評估結(jié)構(gòu)完整性。各城市對其進(jìn)行調(diào)整，讓所有人都能在行程中使用該技術(shù)，為優(yōu)化城市助力。

這意味著市民可以快速靈活地制定各類問題的解決方案，也意味著日常生活中的各類現(xiàn)實問題有望得到解決。有時，普通城市的政府甚至意識不到有待解決的問題。但在智慧城市，市民可以確保政府了解到問題的存在，甚至還能為政府提供解決方案。

高效交通

在普通城市，可能要等很久才能乘到下一班公交車，而且也無法得知車輛的到站時間。市政規(guī)劃部門現(xiàn)在做的就是對市民出行所需的公交路線進(jìn)行最佳估測。

但在智慧城市，使用智能手機(jī)應(yīng)用程序或站臺顯示屏，就能查閱車輛到站的實時信息。根據(jù)市民實際出行行為的數(shù)據(jù)，可以規(guī)劃出最佳公交路線。甚至還能使用類似“智能城市機(jī)器人”這樣的機(jī)器人，讓它為市民交通出行提供導(dǎo)航方案。

總的來說，這些技術(shù)使交通出行更加方便高效。

綠色環(huán)保

智慧城市和可持續(xù)型城市有所區(qū)別，后者只注重環(huán)保。但兩者有諸多相同之處，因而智慧城市最終也往往會發(fā)展為可持續(xù)型城市。

數(shù)據(jù)跟蹤能協(xié)助城市制定更多節(jié)能政策，發(fā)現(xiàn)可改進(jìn)之處;還能幫助城市了解市民實時動態(tài)，提出更高效的解決方案。

巴塞羅那使用類似前文提到的智能燈柱后，能耗減少了30%，每年節(jié)省開支3700萬美元。? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?□

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎?wù)?單位：江蘇省無錫市玉祁高級中學(xué)）

Smart cities do not mean creating jungles of concretes or sophisticated cities of glasses with HiFi technologies. But a smart city means a city， where humans， trees， birds and other animals can grow with all their glories， imperfections， freedom and creativity.

―Amit Ray， Peace on the Earth—A Nuclear Weapons Free World