SMART POLICIES FOR CITIES

Henk Wolfert
DCMR Environmental Protection Agency, Parallelweg 1, 3112 NA Schiedam, the Netherlands
e-mail: henk.wolfert@dcmr.nl
Transportation noise is capturing European cities already for decades and it could be expected
that the noise burden will increase coming years. Currently more than 20% of the population in urban areas are exposed to 55 dB LDEN and higher and even 30% is exposed to noise levels above 50
dB LNIGHT. In the last decades the volume of vehicles has grown and also the mileage driven
grew. Due to the economic downturn these developments have shown a temporary lapse however, it
can be expected that when economy is back to the old level, the development of the last decades
will continue. Although local and regional governments are obliged to draft action plans as meant in
the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC the magnitude of exposed people has hardly decreased in urban areas. It could be assumed that this is due to numerous reasons. An important reason is that the action plans, sent in by the competent bodies, are rather poor meaning that these action plans hardly comprise concrete measures. Also the lack of political attention should be seen as
an important reason. Another reason to be mentioned here are the limitations met when trying to
solve the noise problems in urban areas. Traditional technical noise measures are not sufficient so
other measures should be employed by the local government. The measures to be employed should
be holistic. The smart cities approach could offer a window of opportunity.

1. Introduction
Transportation noise is always around us. When living in a city, an urban area or even walking in
a natural area, noise from cars, trucks or trains or airplanes can be noticed. In Western Europe just a
few places can be found where transportation noise is not observed. Noise in cities is dominated by
transportation noise, the largest contributor is road traffic noise. Due to the fact that car-ownership
is still growing and car-use as well, it is expected that the detrimental effects of it will increase as
well, meaning more annoyed people, more sleep disturbance and other irreversible effects. A bucket
of measures is already available. Best practices are disseminated all over Europe and the world.
Most civil servants, working in cities and dealing with noise know where to find them or where they
should knock on the door to disclose this bucket. However, 12 years of European polices and legislation (END2022/49/EC) did not result in less exposure until now and it seems that the attention for
noise and its effects is declining. Especially noise abatement in cities is a serious challenge. Most of
the exposed people live in cities and it is not easy to reduce the noise unless all cars are banned.
Assuming that officers and politicians are eager to reduce the noise. They are often confronted with
other problems and challenges, budgetary limitations, other priorities and the limitations that occur
when solving noise problems. In cities it is not always easy to reduce the noise by means of technical measures. When applicable it has a limited or temporary effect (e.g. quiet road surfaces). RecICSV22, Florence (Italy) 12-16 July 2015

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ognising that solving the traffic noise problem in cities is hard to tackle it is needed to rethink existing environmental policies. The so called smart cities approach could offer a good solution.

2. What is a smart city?

Smart city is a fuzzy definition. It can be defined as a city that uses intelligent devices, makes intelligent decisions and applies intelligent solutions. It is all aimed to reduce costs, environmental
impact, reduce consumption of resources and to improve the performance and attractiveness of the
city. The smart city approach is promoted by the European Commission and is leaning on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications applied in various domains in cities. A
smart city means smart solutions and not the conventional solutions that are stapled in the bucket
mentioned before. A smart city means, smart mobility, smart social services (e.g. e-health services),
smart education, smart citizens, smart housing, smart environment, smart economy, smart infrastructure, smart services, smart governance and smart regulation, see figure 1. This picture is not
complete but gives a good impression about this topic. Nowadays a lot of cities are working on this
smart approach and it offers numerous opportunities to solve serious problems in cities in a holistic
way.

figure 1: smart city elements (source:http://smartdirection.org)

All elements should be smart meaning having a digital and interactive component with the environment which can be the physical environment or the community. The principle is efficacy supported by ICT features, sensors, apps, et cetera. Supplying and offering services, products and so on
when needed in time and place. The market penetration of cell phones, tablets and phablets with all
their possibilities means that people are always connected. Also cars and infrastructure are currently
applied with these features. ITS, Intelligent Traffic Systems, is already installed in buses and trucks
and it will be a little step to integrated them in passenger cars. ITS devices are also installed offroad. Big data is collected, also by the governments. Nowadays even houses and building do have
digital devices with remote control (home automation). This opens the door to new possibilities.
Smart cities are offering online services to citizens, visitors, institutes, companies, haulers and others. The ultimate smart city has embedded digital technology in all domains. In a smart city government, knowledge institutes, companies and cities (quadruple helix) collaborate to achieve a better, more efficient functioning of the city and their tasks, services, et cetera. A more comprehensive
overview of the smart cities approach is given in [1,2,3].
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3. Outstanding examples
A very ambitious smart city, a new city, was built by Siemens in Abu Dahbi, Masdar City. This
new built city has employed a low carbon philosophy and is planned and built as a sustainable city
using solar energy by means of a solar energy plant, photo-voltaic panels, re-using waste water for
sprinkling the plants and trees. Recycling as much as possible the waste and transportation of goods
and passengers is one by means of sustainable transport like trains, buses and even automated vehicles also called people movers. See figure 2. The streets are situated in a way that they shadow as
much as possible and catching the breezes in order to limit air conditioning use. The houses and
building are densely populated. Work is not at a large distance. Appliances are high-efficient like
low shower flows. More info can be found in [5,6,7]

figure 2: Smart people mover

Also the city of Songdo (South-Korea) is seen as a very ambitious smart city. Most of the major
buildings in the Central Business District are built according to the so called LEED [4] requirements and taken into account the framework act for low carbon green growth. The city has an automated waste collection system and a science village which is an innovative cluster. More information can be found in [8,9]
Other existing cities that have adopted the smart cities philosophy are Amsterdam, Melbourne,
Barcelona, New York, Singapore and a lot of other cities too. However they are just at the beginning and have developed only a part of their cities as a smart city or have started pilots.

4. Smart city philosophy in practice

When local governments decide to join the smart city idea they have to decide to introduce also
the smart city policy for al domains. It means smart governance and smart regulation. Maybe this is
the most challenging factor as governments and regulations normally are following the societal
needs and developments. Policies and legislation lags often behind on societal developments and
could be an obstacle for innovations or transitions. The smart cities philosophy implies that problems must be solved in an integrated way taken into account expected impacts on other domains,
such as mobility, economy, health and well-being, education, housing, spatial planning, urban
planning, social issues, et cetera. This means that the noise problem cannot be seen as an isolated

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phenomena. It is strongly linked to other aspects and also taking into account developments that are
taking place in society like demographic changes, change of habits, trends, et cetera.

5. Smart cities and noise

Regarding smart cities and noise it should be noted that a smart city does not consider noise in
isolation but as a part of a system that has its benefits and disadvantages. When it comes to transportation noise the smart city has to take into account accessibility, road safety, urban planning,
environmental factors and a lot of other factors as well. Not only transportation of people but also
transportation of goods should be considered. It is not that noise should be forgotten but it is one of
the elements in the sustainable transport paradigm. The trend observed in the domain of urban planning is to build compacter cities in order to save energy and making the city as much as efficient as
possible. Doubling the city implies that only an extra of 85% of the energy and all kind of facilities
is needed, so 15% can be saved by doubling the city instead of building new towns, villages or cities elsewhere [10].

6. Smart policies
One of the elements of the smart cities philosophy already mentioned is smart governance. This
is the future of governance meaning a kind of governance that makes the development of smart cities possible and does not behave as an obstacle. Society undergoes huge transitions towards a more
digital supported society confronted with all kind of developments in numerous domains. It is almost similar to the chip industry which has proven that Moores law is still true. In order to manage
these fast successive developments as society, citizens and government, it is needed to have answers
in time. The domain that are changing fast is not only the ICT domain but also the financial, the
economic domains. Even the social domain is changing very fast in modern society. Regarding policies and regulations it is needed to create free zones for innovative and creative industries that can
practice their experiments without to be hindered by local regulations. Legislation and policies
should also be based on a shared policy which implies involvement of citizens, companies and other
stakeholders. The policies to be developed should stimulate, culminate and support in public and
social services based on digital technology. Policies should be more transparent and include better
communication features and based on a long term strategy without freezing new developments. Infrastructure, physically and digital are enablers and boosting all desired and planned activities It is
mainly based on the e-governance principle.
When it comes to the major contributor of noise and environmental polluter in the urban environment, road transport, then the policy should be aimed to sustainable and efficient transportation.
Mobility does not only mean car-mobility. Other modes of transport such as walking and biking
should be promoted by the policies to be developed by developing a good infrastructure and by reeducating citizens. Especially bridging short distances, walking and biking is not only more sustainable but also better for health. Combination of the soft modes with public transport should be
sought by showing citizens and visitors the direction to their destinies. This can be done by digital
services (city-app) or (digital-) signs. Mass transit by subways, fast trains, trams and buses should
be comfortable, reliable and frequent. Their providers should offer digital information at stops and
facilities e-billboards with news and other information. Electric, hybrid and hydrogen cars should
have priority above fossil fuelled cars and have dedicated facilities like free parking places, free
access to some streets or squares or free use of charging poles. These financial assets should be
made possible by the local policies. Regarding city logistics, this can be organised in a better way
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by creating consolidation centres at the citys borders. Goods destined for the city (centre) delivered
by trucks (guided from the motorways to those centres).
Traffic flow can be monitored by means of sensors that could be combined with sensors that
monitor noise, air pollution, CO2, et cetera. Depending on the extent of pollution, temporary and/or
local interventions could be taken, like speed reduction, detours, interactive speed humps, interactive faades that close the windows when the health limits are exceeded. An early warning system
can inform drivers to park their cars at the city border and to change their way of moving.
By means of geo-fencing hybrid vehicles (buses, trucks or even passenger cars) entering the city
can be switched from the fossil to the electric mode. This al can be boosted or forced by policies at
a local, regional or national level.
This policy should cause a tipping point in numerous aspects of daily urban life. Regarding the
detrimental effects of transportation a limited number of options or elements of smart solutions that
could reduce these effects could be listed:
- co-modality in combination with first and last mile (walking, biking, e-biking, public
transport, etc) supported by all kind of e-features.
- smart ticketing that include PT trips with discounts on other services, products
- use of e-buses combined with fast charging stations (charging poles, induction, conduction or
with pantographs) in order to extend the reach of these type of buses
- use of hybrid buses combined with geo-fencing
- use of hydrogen buses
- facilities for e-cars (free parking places, discounts parking places)
- use of subways and other ways of public transport
- apps that show the shortest, eco-friendliest route, free parking space, on route parking ticketing, etc. when car use is needed
- introduction of sustainable city logistics, as already described above
- introduction of pedestrian spaces in cities
- reconstruction of road profiles by narrowing car lanes, introduction bike lanes, pedestrian
lanes and dedicated lanes for public transport.
When considering the smart citizens or communities then the next options, reducing car use are
available:
- e-learning, teleshopping, e-health, e-working, working consolidated commuter centres, moving by biking and walking
- using and buying local products and local services
- applying the principle of sharification, sharing cars, goods and services
- choice for green cars (owned, shared or rent)
- using facilities (schools, shops, gyms, et cetera) close to their homes
- combining house buildings with other functions (work, education,..)
When considering smart economy next options could be considered:
- better logistic planning in order to avoid empty trucks
- better packaging of goods
- better use of internet (webshops, online services, ..)
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- combining Public Transport nodes with shops, combining recreational functions with other
function such as combining museums with restaurants or swimming pools with exhibition
space.
- use of 3D printers
- use of better tyres that are more safe, less polluting the air, energy friendly and quiet.
When considering smart education the next options could be considered:
- gaining awareness in families and at schools or clubs
- stimulating soft modes among youngsters e.g. by means of gaming, apps, role models
- provoking youngsters to choose sustainable way of transport by introducing a competitive
element or gaming devices.

REFERENCES
1 Caragliu, A; Del Bo, C. & Nijkamp, P (2009). "Smart cities in Europe". Serie Research
Memoranda 0048 (VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics).
2 Giffinger, Rudolf; Christian Fertner; Hans Kramar; Robert Kalasek; Nataa PichlerMilanovic; Evert Meijers (2007). "Smart cities Ranking of European medium-sized cities". Smart Cities. Vienna: Centre of Regional Science.
3 Draft Concept Note on Smart City Scheme". Government of India - Ministry of Urban
Development.
4 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, http://www.usgbc.org/certification
5 http://www.masdar.ae/
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masdar_City
7 Todd Antony (2013); Masdar: the shifting goalposts of Abu Dhabi's ambitious eco-city,
Technology.
8 Kwong Hyung LEE (2011);Building a new smart city in Asia,
9 www.songdo.com
10 Geoff West (2011); New York Times; Why cities keep on growing, corporations always
die, and life gets faster.

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