Autognosis: Cities 2

Sustainable Design 

In the last installment of ‘Autognosis: Cities’  we discussed a theory of matching the growth curve of a city with that of an organism. In this installment, I would like to cover the idea of giving that city a nervous system. Clearly  such a vast network of complicated relationships – on which modern  civilization depends no less – creates a vacuum for coordination,  management, and deployment of resources to which Ai seems uniquely  suited. 

Enter the ‘Smart Grid’. 

Dr. Cheong Koon Hean is involved in a program to develop just such a nervous system for the city of Singapore. This  nervous system, otherwise known as a ‘Smart Grid’ in the context of a  city, seems to be a nexus point between the integration of networked  smart technology and living systems. As she describes <here>  this involves adding a sensor layer to a city to gather information, as  well as building responsive energy management infrastructure.

From Dr. Cheong Koon Hean presentation on Smart Cities
 
SUMMARY 

Adding a sensor layer to a city – Smart Grid/ Smart city.  

Collecting massive amounts of data.  

– Windflow  

– Temperature Modulation  

Precinct  Building  Industrial/Home Area  

– Shadow (sunshine/solar irradiance) Analysis  

– Place Solar Panels 

 – Humidity  

– Heat  

– Noise  

– Lighting foot traffic  

Responsive as well as Predictive  

– Transportation  

– Transport Planning  

Smart Phone  

Decision Making  

– Learns patterns as well as responds   

– Home Energy management system
 
From Dr. Cheong Koon Hean presentation on Smart Cities

         

A  ‘Smart Grid’ would allow a city to coordinate traffic flow, control  temperatures, manage energy use, and generally allow the city to make  adjustments its subsystems in real time. Just like any complex organism. 

Continued in ‘Autognosis: Cities 3’

 Written for Metric Media by Shane Flox
Co-published on Metric Media's official website