Advertisement

5 Applications Of Big Data In Smart Cities

With Big Data, existing fragmented and isolated data sets can be studied from an overarching perspective to provide effective solutions to common problems that affect rapidly growing cities today.

Smart cities are the new buzz word in infrastructure development. With a steadily increasing influx of populations into cities and a constantly growing need to better handle resources, several cities like San Francisco and Seoul are experimenting with up-and-coming technologies to make their cities smarter. Among these new trending technologies is the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data, which has revolutionised the way we analyse patterns and trends in human behaviour.

With Big Data, existing fragmented and isolated data sets can be studied from an overarching perspective to provide effective solutions to common problems that affect rapidly growing cities today. Here are 5 ways in which Big Data could prove indispensable in smart cities of the future:

Smart mobility and transportation

With increasing overcrowding in cities, transportation will play a key role in decongesting smart cities of the future. With Big Data, the flow of transportation - both private and public - through the cities can be monitored closely to identify areas and times of high congestion, allowing effective solutions can be chalked out.

Smart energy management

The building global energy crisis not only calls for a shift from fossil fuels to sustainable renewable alternatives, but also effective management of energy. With big data, everything from individual streetlights to energy use across individual power grids can be analysed closely to increase efficiency of energy distribution.

Public health

Employing big data in smart cities could help greatly improve public health. From identifying sensitive areas for spread of diseases and implementing preventive measures to smarter medical record keeping to quicker diagnoses and better overall patient care.

Smart governance

With a greater stream of data from citizens, stronger bridges can be built between citizens and the government. Governments can address local issues faster and create a citizen-centered model of governance that increases transparency between the government and the population.

Better security

Security will only grow as an essential need as well as an industry in the smart city model. Big data could allow for a comprehensive socio-political study of crime in focused areas, a preventive model could be implemented to predict future patterns of crime.


Big Data is a major part of data analytics, and is a fast-increasing need of the hour as large data systems and data handling become important. Smart cities have a huge data input, and a large number of ways to process and implement that data. Big data is an important part of the smart city concept.


Tags assigned to this article: