C3 Systems in the Municipal Space
The civilian space has become a part of the battlefield in the last few decades. The differentiation between the frontline and the rear area becomes blurred as technologies originally intended for frontline warfighters are adopted by municipal leaders
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 09/03/2017
Photo: Elbit Systems
As the civilian space is becoming an inseparable part of the battlefield, city management is gradually being taken over by command and control systems as the municipal space is advancing toward the status of "Smart City". The intention is to implement technologies that would enable the mayor or municipal leader to dominate the urban space just as a commander dominates a military space.
The transition of violence that stems primarily from popular terrorism from the frontline and high-risk areas to the city streets has compelled municipal leaders and internal security services to adopt military operational doctrines. While security organizations such as the IDF, ISA and Mossad provide the municipal space with prevention 'loops' intended to prevent the violence from infiltrating the municipal space from outside the country, the internal security services should address the question of what will happen when the preventive loops have failed.
The municipal space, unlike the military space, is intended to allow routine civilian life. Accordingly, it is influenced not only by the defense/security aspect, but also by the economic, logistic (supply of food, water and medical services), transportation (roads, railways, aviation) and social (services for individuals) aspects, as well as by other aspects. The Smart City concept is intended to provide the city administration with the option of 'dominating' all of these aspects with the intention of reducing the element of uncertainty in the life of the city's inhabitants to an absolute minimum.
If we go back to the security aspect for illustrative purposes, the Smart City should provide the security services with a real-time command and control interface. That interface should enable them, in theory, to determine the status of each and every inhabitant at any given moment. If an inhabitant faces a security threat, the 'City' should respond promptly in order to safeguard his/her personal safety. The assumption here is that the objective of the city is to provide services to the inhabitants – not to engage in surveillance for political purposes or to support the personal whims of specific interested parties.
The Smart City Concept
What is a Smart City? Well, the Smart City concept is based on converting municipal processes into situational awareness processes. If we take waste disposal, for example, fitting sensors to the garbage trucks will enable them to handle waste bins only when the bin contents have reached a specific capacity/weight. If we fit the trucks with an autonomous driving capability as well as the ability to communicate with other vehicles (V2V), we will have a fleet of autonomous trucks with no drivers, capable of operating with maximum efficiency – reaching the bins only when they are full and working 24/7, year-round, with no sick leaves, vacations, strikes or holidays.
If we link this fleet with a command and control system managed by smart algorithms that automatically study the waste disposal patterns of each area cells, we will be able to provide the same service standards (or even better service standards) with fewer trucks on the road. The implications will include lower municipal taxes, reduced air pollution and fewer vehicles on the road, and that is but one example of many others. Consider the fact that every process involving a service provided to the city's inhabitants may be converted into a 'smart' process.
Just like the 'fire loop' in the military jargon, in the context of the Smart City we may regard such processes as a 'service loop'. The Smart City will provide services in the most efficient, economical and quickest way possible, with or without human operators. Once an inhabitant has requested a service, from a security-related distress call or a request for medical assistance, through a call for waste disposal to an application for a balcony closing project – the Smart City will do everything to close the service loop as promptly as possible. This will present a new kind of public administration that would provide a new color and character to the urbanization revolution.
The Internet of Inhabitants
For the most part, the Smart City is regarded as a collection of sensors with a decentralized communication capability. Some of the time these sensors are connected to a command and control system that links them together. This scenario fits under the title of 'Internet of Things' or IoT.
However, if we go back to the question of the purpose of the city as a social entity, we will realize that a city is, in fact, an aggregation of human beings intended to provide them with services in a manner that is more efficient than the decentralized manner they had experienced in the context of the agrarian society.
In view of the above, I would like to suggest a new concept to characterize the Smart City revolution – "Internet of Inhabitants", rather than "Internet of Things". The city is an aggregation of hundreds, thousands or millions of human beings within a specific area cell under a central administration, with the purpose of each inhabitant running his/her own everyday life in the manner that suits him/her best.
Subject to this definition, the inhabitants of the city are linked together by virtue of their coexistence within the same area cell. It is an equation of interdependence with every individual affecting other individuals. From an economic point of view, for example, if a certain inhabitant fails to pay his municipal taxes, all the other inhabitants will have to pay more – or will receive less. From a medical point of view, for example, if an individual catches an infectious disease, he/she might raise the morbidity rates in each area cell within the municipal space he/she may enter, be it a bus, a kindergarten, an office, a shopping mall or a residential building. The Smart City, through various technologies interlinked in real time, will be able to interconnect the needs of the various inhabitants into a network of real-time human needs the city should fulfill.
Let's go back to the waste disposal example: the trucks, using sophisticated bins and cutting-edge sensors, will be able to determine, by monitoring the organic and non-organic waste, the caloric and chemical composition of the food each housing unit consumes and to analyze the data along the time axis. Sensors incorporated in the pavements and roads will be able to monitor, simultaneously, the change in body weight of each inhabitant in each housing unit. This information will be correlated with sensors fitted into the inhabitant's clothing or sensors monitoring biological systems inside his/her body, and the over-all information, along with the conclusions and insights, will be submitted to the medical services in real time, so that they may adapt a preventive health program for that particular inhabitant. In this way, the state may be able to save millions otherwise spent on medical services that are normally in short supply as the population of the cities increases – and that is but one example. One's imagination may run wild and come up with hundreds or thousands of additional potential applications for the Smart City.
As far as the technological aspect is concerned, the Internet of Inhabitants is already being provided with tailwind support by the on-going development of personal digital devices: smartphones, tablet and laptop computers, smart watches and bracelets, smart eyeglasses and so forth. All of these devices enable real-time monitoring of the everyday life of the city's inhabitants. It is a technological reality that enables digitization of the human life in the urban space. So, if the routine life of most of the inhabitants undergoes digitization, life in the city will evolve into one comprehensive Big Data system, enabling the Smart City to convert the needs of most of the city's inhabitants into a real-time dynamic average, with everything managed by computer systems – including the collection of data, the communication, the processing and the actual execution.
Viewing the Smart City concept as a mere technological advance will be looking at it through a drinking straw. It is not just another technological improvement capable of doing more of the same but more efficiently. Rather, it is a major cultural change in the management of the city and the everyday life of the city's inhabitants.
The city's ability to fulfill, at any given moment, the current need average of the entire population will remarkably improve the efficiency of life in the city. At the same time, it will hand over the operation of the living environment from human operators to computer systems. While at the present time the human operators are assisted by these systems for the purpose of running the city, in the future those human operators will no longer be required to make any decisions regarding the on-going operation of the city.
Can we expect to reach a situation where a municipal space may be run fully autonomously? This question is still open. If the technologies mature in such a way as to enable real-time communication between computerized entities, including algorithms that would enable a computerized system to be self-learning based on stimulations from the environment, we may well get to that point. At the present time, technology is not there yet. However, at least one organization is already thinking in that direction – the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). At this point, this organization aspires to issue unified standards for different content worlds (transportation, military, medicine, food, water, energy and so forth).
In order to try and understand the change we can expect, we should divide the day-to-day running of the city into logistic management and social management. Logistic management includes the responsibility for fulfilling the inhabitant's basic needs: food, water, housing, medicine and physical security. These tasks are essentially technical in nature. They include collection of data, planning, allocation of resources, transport in some cases and continuous enforcement.
It may be assumed with a high degree of probability that these logistic management tasks will be assigned in the future to autonomous systems. Automatic 'sentry' systems will be responsible for security; autonomous trucks will transport food and other commodities as well as taking care of waste disposal; autonomous logistic centers (like the center Amazon currently uses) will distribute the food and commodities to the inhabitants; motorized or aerial ambulance platforms will transport the sick or even supply emergency medical care on the spot, and so on. As to the question of an autonomous municipal space, as far as the operational aspect is concerned, we will probably be there in a few years' time.
Unlike the category of the technical-logistic tasks, the human inhabitants will remain dependent on other humans with regard to the social management of the city for a longer period of time. The tasks in this category demand a higher level of intelligence along with an emotional interface. Autonomous systems capable of dealing with these tasks may prove more difficult and complex to develop. In such a reality, the human operators will be involved primarily in decision-making around social activities and processes in the city. Their challenge will be the question of how to provide every human inhabitant with the living environment that suits him/her best – emotionally and socially.
Without a doubt, the Smart City and the consolidation of the Internet of Inhabitants will be based on the digitization of the inhabitant's life. As this process intensifies, the city will be better equipped to provide the human inhabitants with logistic services more efficiently and promptly. Those who regard the Smart City as just an additional technological layer over today's municipal management lack the imagination that would have enabled them to see and understand the change that is taking place right in front of our eyes within the urban environment.
The change in question involves a substantial, profound revision of the definition regarding the role of municipal administration, from the national level to the mayor/municipal leader. This change has implications on the future roles of the ministry of internal affairs and the ministry of public security as the command spans of the executive branch in the cities. The responsibilities of these ministries, at least in large part, will be assigned to the management of autonomous computer systems. Along with such technological aspects as standardization, cybersecurity, backups, operational continuity and other aspects, we should start thinking about other aspects of this change, including social, ethical and moral aspects. As stated above, the Smart City concept is not a technological change but rather a cultural change, and we should prepare for it well in advance.
The civilian space has become a part of the battlefield in the last few decades. The differentiation between the frontline and the rear area becomes blurred as technologies originally intended for frontline warfighters are adopted by municipal leaders
As the civilian space is becoming an inseparable part of the battlefield, city management is gradually being taken over by command and control systems as the municipal space is advancing toward the status of "Smart City". The intention is to implement technologies that would enable the mayor or municipal leader to dominate the urban space just as a commander dominates a military space.
The transition of violence that stems primarily from popular terrorism from the frontline and high-risk areas to the city streets has compelled municipal leaders and internal security services to adopt military operational doctrines. While security organizations such as the IDF, ISA and Mossad provide the municipal space with prevention 'loops' intended to prevent the violence from infiltrating the municipal space from outside the country, the internal security services should address the question of what will happen when the preventive loops have failed.
The municipal space, unlike the military space, is intended to allow routine civilian life. Accordingly, it is influenced not only by the defense/security aspect, but also by the economic, logistic (supply of food, water and medical services), transportation (roads, railways, aviation) and social (services for individuals) aspects, as well as by other aspects. The Smart City concept is intended to provide the city administration with the option of 'dominating' all of these aspects with the intention of reducing the element of uncertainty in the life of the city's inhabitants to an absolute minimum.
If we go back to the security aspect for illustrative purposes, the Smart City should provide the security services with a real-time command and control interface. That interface should enable them, in theory, to determine the status of each and every inhabitant at any given moment. If an inhabitant faces a security threat, the 'City' should respond promptly in order to safeguard his/her personal safety. The assumption here is that the objective of the city is to provide services to the inhabitants – not to engage in surveillance for political purposes or to support the personal whims of specific interested parties.
The Smart City Concept
What is a Smart City? Well, the Smart City concept is based on converting municipal processes into situational awareness processes. If we take waste disposal, for example, fitting sensors to the garbage trucks will enable them to handle waste bins only when the bin contents have reached a specific capacity/weight. If we fit the trucks with an autonomous driving capability as well as the ability to communicate with other vehicles (V2V), we will have a fleet of autonomous trucks with no drivers, capable of operating with maximum efficiency – reaching the bins only when they are full and working 24/7, year-round, with no sick leaves, vacations, strikes or holidays.
If we link this fleet with a command and control system managed by smart algorithms that automatically study the waste disposal patterns of each area cells, we will be able to provide the same service standards (or even better service standards) with fewer trucks on the road. The implications will include lower municipal taxes, reduced air pollution and fewer vehicles on the road, and that is but one example of many others. Consider the fact that every process involving a service provided to the city's inhabitants may be converted into a 'smart' process.
Just like the 'fire loop' in the military jargon, in the context of the Smart City we may regard such processes as a 'service loop'. The Smart City will provide services in the most efficient, economical and quickest way possible, with or without human operators. Once an inhabitant has requested a service, from a security-related distress call or a request for medical assistance, through a call for waste disposal to an application for a balcony closing project – the Smart City will do everything to close the service loop as promptly as possible. This will present a new kind of public administration that would provide a new color and character to the urbanization revolution.
The Internet of Inhabitants
For the most part, the Smart City is regarded as a collection of sensors with a decentralized communication capability. Some of the time these sensors are connected to a command and control system that links them together. This scenario fits under the title of 'Internet of Things' or IoT.
However, if we go back to the question of the purpose of the city as a social entity, we will realize that a city is, in fact, an aggregation of human beings intended to provide them with services in a manner that is more efficient than the decentralized manner they had experienced in the context of the agrarian society.
In view of the above, I would like to suggest a new concept to characterize the Smart City revolution – "Internet of Inhabitants", rather than "Internet of Things". The city is an aggregation of hundreds, thousands or millions of human beings within a specific area cell under a central administration, with the purpose of each inhabitant running his/her own everyday life in the manner that suits him/her best.
Subject to this definition, the inhabitants of the city are linked together by virtue of their coexistence within the same area cell. It is an equation of interdependence with every individual affecting other individuals. From an economic point of view, for example, if a certain inhabitant fails to pay his municipal taxes, all the other inhabitants will have to pay more – or will receive less. From a medical point of view, for example, if an individual catches an infectious disease, he/she might raise the morbidity rates in each area cell within the municipal space he/she may enter, be it a bus, a kindergarten, an office, a shopping mall or a residential building. The Smart City, through various technologies interlinked in real time, will be able to interconnect the needs of the various inhabitants into a network of real-time human needs the city should fulfill.
Let's go back to the waste disposal example: the trucks, using sophisticated bins and cutting-edge sensors, will be able to determine, by monitoring the organic and non-organic waste, the caloric and chemical composition of the food each housing unit consumes and to analyze the data along the time axis. Sensors incorporated in the pavements and roads will be able to monitor, simultaneously, the change in body weight of each inhabitant in each housing unit. This information will be correlated with sensors fitted into the inhabitant's clothing or sensors monitoring biological systems inside his/her body, and the over-all information, along with the conclusions and insights, will be submitted to the medical services in real time, so that they may adapt a preventive health program for that particular inhabitant. In this way, the state may be able to save millions otherwise spent on medical services that are normally in short supply as the population of the cities increases – and that is but one example. One's imagination may run wild and come up with hundreds or thousands of additional potential applications for the Smart City.
As far as the technological aspect is concerned, the Internet of Inhabitants is already being provided with tailwind support by the on-going development of personal digital devices: smartphones, tablet and laptop computers, smart watches and bracelets, smart eyeglasses and so forth. All of these devices enable real-time monitoring of the everyday life of the city's inhabitants. It is a technological reality that enables digitization of the human life in the urban space. So, if the routine life of most of the inhabitants undergoes digitization, life in the city will evolve into one comprehensive Big Data system, enabling the Smart City to convert the needs of most of the city's inhabitants into a real-time dynamic average, with everything managed by computer systems – including the collection of data, the communication, the processing and the actual execution.
Viewing the Smart City concept as a mere technological advance will be looking at it through a drinking straw. It is not just another technological improvement capable of doing more of the same but more efficiently. Rather, it is a major cultural change in the management of the city and the everyday life of the city's inhabitants.
The city's ability to fulfill, at any given moment, the current need average of the entire population will remarkably improve the efficiency of life in the city. At the same time, it will hand over the operation of the living environment from human operators to computer systems. While at the present time the human operators are assisted by these systems for the purpose of running the city, in the future those human operators will no longer be required to make any decisions regarding the on-going operation of the city.
Can we expect to reach a situation where a municipal space may be run fully autonomously? This question is still open. If the technologies mature in such a way as to enable real-time communication between computerized entities, including algorithms that would enable a computerized system to be self-learning based on stimulations from the environment, we may well get to that point. At the present time, technology is not there yet. However, at least one organization is already thinking in that direction – the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). At this point, this organization aspires to issue unified standards for different content worlds (transportation, military, medicine, food, water, energy and so forth).
In order to try and understand the change we can expect, we should divide the day-to-day running of the city into logistic management and social management. Logistic management includes the responsibility for fulfilling the inhabitant's basic needs: food, water, housing, medicine and physical security. These tasks are essentially technical in nature. They include collection of data, planning, allocation of resources, transport in some cases and continuous enforcement.
It may be assumed with a high degree of probability that these logistic management tasks will be assigned in the future to autonomous systems. Automatic 'sentry' systems will be responsible for security; autonomous trucks will transport food and other commodities as well as taking care of waste disposal; autonomous logistic centers (like the center Amazon currently uses) will distribute the food and commodities to the inhabitants; motorized or aerial ambulance platforms will transport the sick or even supply emergency medical care on the spot, and so on. As to the question of an autonomous municipal space, as far as the operational aspect is concerned, we will probably be there in a few years' time.
Unlike the category of the technical-logistic tasks, the human inhabitants will remain dependent on other humans with regard to the social management of the city for a longer period of time. The tasks in this category demand a higher level of intelligence along with an emotional interface. Autonomous systems capable of dealing with these tasks may prove more difficult and complex to develop. In such a reality, the human operators will be involved primarily in decision-making around social activities and processes in the city. Their challenge will be the question of how to provide every human inhabitant with the living environment that suits him/her best – emotionally and socially.
Without a doubt, the Smart City and the consolidation of the Internet of Inhabitants will be based on the digitization of the inhabitant's life. As this process intensifies, the city will be better equipped to provide the human inhabitants with logistic services more efficiently and promptly. Those who regard the Smart City as just an additional technological layer over today's municipal management lack the imagination that would have enabled them to see and understand the change that is taking place right in front of our eyes within the urban environment.
The change in question involves a substantial, profound revision of the definition regarding the role of municipal administration, from the national level to the mayor/municipal leader. This change has implications on the future roles of the ministry of internal affairs and the ministry of public security as the command spans of the executive branch in the cities. The responsibilities of these ministries, at least in large part, will be assigned to the management of autonomous computer systems. Along with such technological aspects as standardization, cybersecurity, backups, operational continuity and other aspects, we should start thinking about other aspects of this change, including social, ethical and moral aspects. As stated above, the Smart City concept is not a technological change but rather a cultural change, and we should prepare for it well in advance.
