Enabling integrated city operations

Cities throughout the world are facing increasingly complex challenges as they continue to accommodate population growth and demands for higher-quality services while managing budgetary constraints. An effective implementation of advanced technology is essential to addressing these challenges. The pervasive use of smart sensors to provide real-time monitoring and control of systems for services-such as public safety, water, and power-serves as a foundational layer. The next step is to integrate real-time information and processes so work is coordinated efficiently. The most valuable and powerful result of integration is the ability to create a unified real-time view of the status of the entire city similar to a network-operations-center view of a data center. This enables new solutions such as a city command center to optimize operations for individual services while simultaneously optimizing actions for goals associated with the city as a holistic entity. Real-time simultaneous optimization of all systems in a city may seem like a difficult goal to achieve, but this paper describes how information technology event-management architectures, semantic models, and standards can be extended in a practical fashion to accomplish this vision. © 2011 by International Business Machines Corporation.