Communications of the ACM
Toward Smart and Sustainable Cities
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Latin America hosts some of the world's great metropolises, with a plethora of social problems facing the complex societies that live there. Not only is there a lack of proper infrastructure but also there is a high degree of inefficiencies in urban services and a lack of effective management. Evidence-based public policymaking is finally starting to gain attention as governments and academic projects throughout the region begin to apply modern computer science techniques to develop tools for both operating the city's daily life and guiding long-term management. Instead of focusing on futuristic smart cities built from scratch or on improving user experience in rich cities, Latin American researchers pay attention to underprivileged neighborhoods and their low-income populations, leveraging existing data and collecting new datasets to support better decision-making.
Latin American researchers pay attention to underprivileged neighborhoods and their low-income populations, leveraging existing data and collecting new datasets to support better decision-making.
A prime example is the InterSCity project,a a consortium of 11 universities and startups in Brazil in which computer scientists work together with architects, urban planners, transportation engineers, economists, and health professionals. The goal is to produce innovative science and open source software tools to address relevant urban problems using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, high-performance computing, big data analytics, and visualization.
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