IoT can be used to improve the quality of life in smart cities

How IoT can be used to improve the quality of life in smart cities
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How IoT can be used to improve the quality of life in smart cities
Problem Statement
IoT refers to a set of technologies for accessing data collected using various devices through wireless and wired internet networks. While different sources define the technologies differently, the common explanation is its potential to provide valuable information using different user devices that utilize wireless and internet networks (González-Zamar, Abad-Segura, Vázquez-Cano, & López-Meneses, 2020). The adoption of IoT began a long time ago in smart cities and as of 2017, its adoption increased by about 39% compared to 2015 (Park, Pobil, & Kwon, 2018). Its adoption is mainly associated with improving the quality of life in the cities (Cvar, Trilar, Kos, Volk, & Duh, 2020). A survey on smart city use of IoT has indicate various uses of the technology in improving the quality of life. Smart city use connected to public transport is the most preferred use of IoT around the world with a 74% implementation rate. For example, Skanetrafiken, the public transport body in Malmo, Sweden installed the system to connect the public bus transport system (IoT Analytics, 2020).
Another smart city use for IOT is in traffic monitoring and management, which 72% of the cities use the technology to monitor traffic and ensure that it flows efficiently (IoT Analytics, 2020). For example, in the city of Copenhagen, Denmark constructed 380 intelligent traffic lights that helped reduce congestion in the streets by prioritizing bikes and buses. In Geneva, IoT hels develop high-speed network and smart grid to aid in energy management (Talari, Shafie-khah, Siano, Loia, Tommasetti, & Catalão, 2017). The graph below shows the top 10 smart city use cases of IoT.
While IoT has been effective at improving the city efficiency, there still exists several challenges that the city dwellers face. Water is a scarce commodity in most cities around the world and, therefore, besides metering it, IoT can also be used to monitor its distribution and ensure that the water reaches most users. Water scarcity is also attributed to undetectable leakages and illegal connections in most cities. IoT can be used in monitoring such water flows by measuring volume of consumption against disbursement volume to ensure that everybody gets sufficient water. Other than water leakages and theft culminating in its unequal distribution, cities also face hygiene challenges. These areas are prone to pollution from industrial wastes and gas emissions from motorvehicles. The technology can be used to monitor these emissions by measuring the PPM quantity of the pollutants in air and ensuring that only treated wastes are allowed into the environment. This study aims at assessing the viability of using IoT for these reasons.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine how the Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to help improve the city lives at household level. The research will apply a mixed methods approach as it will entail obtaining views from the consumers regarding their understanding of IoT and how they ...