Urban IoT: Advances, Challenges, and Opportunities for Mass Data Collection, Analysis, and Visualization

Abstract

Urban Internet of Things (IoT) is in an early speculative phase. Often linked to the smart city movement, it provides a way of sensing and collecting data—environmental, societal, and transitional—both automatically, remotely, and with increasing levels of spatial and temporal detail. From city-wide data collection down to the scale of individual buildings and rooms, this chapter details the technology behind the rise of IoT in urban areas and explores the challenges (societal and technical) behind city-wide deployments. Drawing from a series of deployments at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, it details the challenges and opportunities for mass data collection. Widening out the view, it looks at what is becoming known as “the humble lamp post” in Urban IoT fields to detail the potential of Urban IoT with the objects that already form part of the urban fabric. Finally, it examines the potential of Urban IoT for input into urban modeling and how we are on the edge of a shift in the collection, analysis, and communication of urban data.