Hitachis Vision of the Smart City

Seeking a Well-balanced Relationship between People and the Earth

Prologue
Our increasingly urbanized world faces a range of urban issues that are growing in severity, including global environmental problems and rapid resource depletion due to population increase. This has led to demand for smart cities, meaning low-carbon cities capable of sustained growth that can respond to these challenges in a comprehensive way. Hitachi, Ltd. established its Smart City Business Management Division (now known as the Social Innovation Business Project Division) in April 2010 to work within the group and with Japanese and overseas partners on developing and promoting its smart city businesses. What Hitachi seeks to achieve through these activities is a well-balanced relationship between people and the Earth. Hitachi s vision of the smart city involves creating a sustainable society that satises both environmental and economic considerations, and achieving this by establishing a wellbalanced natural harmony between the eco value of reducing the load on the environment and the human-centered experience values of comfort, safety, convenience, and well-being. Underpinning this well-balanced relationship between eco and experience values are public infrastructure systems. As a group, Hitachi has been involved with the development of a wide range of different infrastructure over many years. This infrastructure is facing signicant changes due to the rapid advances in information technology (IT) in recent times. These developments open up the potential for new value to be added by utilizing the large amounts of information collected from infrastructure, and for new services to be created by coordinating different types of infrastructure. Critical to this realization of smart cities will be both the use of new technology for urban development and the creation of new possibilities for residents, companies, and other stakeholders. Hitachi hopes that this white paper will provide a useful and informative guide to Hitachis vision of the smart city, and what it is doing to turn this vision into reality.

Contents

Chapter

Why Smart Cities are Needed Now

1-1. Changing Global Environment and Adverse Effects of Urbanization 1-2. Changing Lifestyles 1-3. Well-balanced Relationship between People and the Earth

Chapter

Hitachis Vision of the Smart City

2-1. Smart City Stakeholders 2-2. Structure of Smart Cities Envisaged by Hitachi 2-3. IT Support for Smart Cities

Chapter

Smart City, Smart Life

3-1. Disassembly and Reassembly of Service Infrastructure 3-2. Anticipated Benets of Disassembly and Reassembly 3-3. New Ways of Life Made Possible by Disassembly and Reassembly

Chapter

Hitachis Role in the Smart City

4-1. Hitachis Capabilities 4-2. Specic Objectives for Smart City Development 4-3. Three Initiatives for Smart City Development

Why Smart Cities are Needed Now

Chapter 1

Why Smart Cities are Needed Now

The factors behind the need for smart cities can be divided into two major groups. The rst contains the external factors that inuence people s lives, including the global and urban environments. The second contains the internal factors caused by changes in people s views and values. Hitachi believes that smart cities must take account of and deal with both types of factors.

1-1. Changing Global Environment and Adverse Effects of Urbanization

A common factor behind the need for smart cities throughout the world is the question of how to cope with changes in the global and urban environments. This section will consider this question in terms of the external factors that inuence people s lives, including climate change, demographic change, resources, and the problems that cities are facing. [1] Climate change Global warming caused by anthropogenic climate change has become a focus of considerable attention. Not only does climate change impact ecosystems, it also represents a major risk to all modern society, including secondary damage such as the impact on economic activity due to more severe weather events and natural disasters, and inundation due to rises in sea level.

Chapter

The emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane by industrial activity has been identied as a cause of global warming. Unlike naturally occurring climate change, global warming is amenable to human control by minimizing the presence of greenhouse gases and reducing their emission. Accordingly, there has been a drive to establish mechanisms that will encourage reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to minimize and mitigate warming. Through global summits held in 1992 and 2002, and measures such as the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol at the Third Conferences of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1997, the creation of a low-carbon society has become an international consensus. [2] Population increase and resource depletion According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the world s population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011, an increase of 2.8 times over the population of 2.5 billion in 1950. The world s population will continue to increase and is forecast to reach 9.3 billion in 2050. Combined with economic progress, this rapid population increase is driving accelerating growth in resource consumption, giving urgency to the issue of natural resource depletion.

[3] Adverse effects of urbanization resulting from concentration of populations in cities The United Nations estimates that the urban population of emerging economies will surpass the rural population in 2020, and that around 70% of the worlds population will live in cities by 2050 (see Fig. 1.1). The risk for cities experiencing this concentration of population is that the numerous urban problems they are currently experiencing will become even more severe. Examples include the expansion of slums, air pollution, the difculty of acquiring fresh drinking water, the treatment of waste water and sewage, energy supplies, trafc congestion, and waste disposal. As well as being conscious of the global environment, smart city development also needs to take account of these urban problems when considering issues such as efciency or the introduction of new technology.

1-2. Changing Lifestyles

Another factor behind the need for smart cities is a change in consumers' lifestyles. This can be expressed as a change in the internal factors that inuence people, namely a shift in values away from material goods and toward activities. While this change in values is mainly evident in developed economies at present, it is anticipated that a similar change will occur in emerging economies in the future.

1950 2.5 billion

Population ( 100 million)

1987 5 billion

1999 6 billion

2011 7 billion

2050 9.3 billion

Urban population in emerging economies Rural population in emerging economies Urban population in developed economies Rural population in developed economies
(Year)

Fig. 1.1Trend in Urban and Rural Population. (Source: World Urbanization Prospects: The 2009 Revision, United Nations)

Why Smart Cities are Needed Now

[1] From ownership to sharing The way in which people consume goods and services has started to undergo a major change in recent years. In the past, convenience and satisfaction with one s way of life tended to be achieved through the purchase of goods for personal ownership. Now, however, an increasing number of services are appearing that provide consumers with convenience and satisfaction by giving access to goods without the need to purchase them outright. The number of consumers opting for these services is also growing. A typical and distinctive example is the use of rental or other leasing arrangements to obtain a motor vehicle when required, eliminating the need to own your own car. Three specic changes are inuencing this shift in the style of consumption from ownership to sharing. The rst is that the nature of what is being offered to consumers is becoming more intangible, switching from goods to services. An increasing number of services are based, not on specic products, but around the communication between the people involved. In such services, the user experience, and the fellow feeling that comes with the use of the service, are coming to be recognized as new forms of value in their own right. The second is the view that the cost of purchasing and maintaining a product, and the impact that continuing to own it has on the environment, mean that a sharing arrangement makes more sense than ownership. The third is that not owning things frees the consumer from restrictions being placed on their activities by material goods, and makes it possible to arrange matters such that the things they want will be available whenever they want them. This change in the way people approach consumption is likely to impact on the nature of the city and the many different types of equipment and facilities that are part of a city. The systems and services that cities provide need to change to match these new consumer values.

[2] Growing importance of non-monetary values The way people think about payment for services is also showing signs of change. Because the Internet offers such scope for people to publish information, it is expanding the opportunities for the information or specialist skills held by individuals to play a role in society. This can be seen in examples such as volunteering, where people exchange their knowledge or other skills, not for money, but for values such as the experience of contributing to society. Phenomena like this indicate a shift away from money as the sole commodity of exchange in interactions between individuals, between individuals and the community, and between organizations. This change in values, emphasizing things like time, experience, feelings, and a sense of satisfaction that cannot be converted into monetary value, is creating greater diversity in how people think about payment. When combined with corporate economic activity, this greater diversity in how value is exchanged is likely to give rise to numerous activities that did not exist in the economic systems of the past, activities that will be characterized by a high degree of freedom and exibility. In addition to providing marketplaces in which money can be used for the exchange of value, the cities of the future also need to provide mechanisms and infrastructure to allow these other complex and diverse forms of value exchange to occur smoothly.

Chapter

[3] Growing diversity in opportunities for work and study In Japan, which leads the world in its low birth rate and aging population, it is estimated that one in every 3.3 people will be 65 or older by 2025. Even now, the proportion of people 60 or over in the working population is very high by international standards. Providing an environment in which more elderly people are able to work can mitigate the problem of a shrinking working population caused by the falling birth rate and reduce the burden of work on the young and middle-aged. There is also a need to draw on the skills and know-how of older people to assist corporate and regional revitalization. Against this background of an aging population, progress is also being made on expanding the diversity of educational opportunities, including the growing demand for lifelong education. Meanwhile, advances in telecommunications technology are making it possible to work outside the ofce, allowing companies to adopt new ways of working. Expanding opportunities for learning via the Internet, meanwhile, mean that everyone from children to the elderly can study when they want, without having to attend school. It is anticipated that these demographic changes and advances in telecommunications technology will increasingly expand the diversity of opportunities for work and study in the cities of the future.

[4] Freedom from restrictions of time and place The spread of the Internet has brought advances in existing services, such as catering or courier delivery, and has ushered in an era in which numerous products can be purchased with ease from one s own home. This is making it easy to receive services, such as having a chef visit your home to prepare a meal, that in the past would have required you to visit a shop or restaurant, freeing consumer perceptions from the restrictions of place. Time too is becoming less of a constraint. One example is the way in which improvements in video recording allow viewers to watch television at a time that suits them or make copies for archiving. This trend can be thought of as an ongoing shift toward services of different types becoming more in tune with consumers. For example, whereas the concept behind urban transportation in the past has been for the consumer to adjust their plans to match the city s available means of transportation, smart cities are looking to offer more consumer-oriented urban transportation services. [5] Consumers as both producers and users In the eld of information and telecommunications, people can now transmit information as easily as they can receive it. Someone who browses the Internet can also use it to publish a blog, for example. This new bidirectionality that allows producers and users to be one and the same is a phenomenon that will likely appear in many other elds in the future. In the energy eld, for example, someone who installs their own photovoltaic power generation can act as both a consumer and supplier. This means that future urban operations will no longer be able to assume a unidirectional relationship with the consumer, and there will be a need to provide reliable bidirectional communications in a variety of forms.

Why Smart Cities are Needed Now

1-3. Well-balanced Relationship between People and the Earth

The term smart city is generally interpreted as meaning a city that is conscious of the environment and uses IT to make efcient use of energy and other resources. However, while such an efcient and environmentally conscious approach will be an essential part of future urban development, this on its own is not enough to make a city a desirable place to live. Instead, Hitachi believes that the building of smart cities that suit all stakeholders will require a wellbalanced relationship between eco and experience considerations, where eco means taking account of the global environment and experience is about providing city residents with a prosperous urban lifestyle and a good quality of life (see Fig. 1.2). This combination of lifestyle convenience and consideration for the environment will be essential if cities are to achieve development in a sustainable way. It also has very important economic implications, including in the formulation of urban policy and the improvement of international competitiveness. [1] Eco: Concern for the global environment The next generation of urban development will need to deal with changes in the global environment, while also reducing the load that cities have on that

environment. Indeed, how it responds to global environmental concerns is one of the dening features of a smart city. These challenges include the creation of a low-carbon society in response to climate change, the efcient use of water resources to resolve imbalances in supply and demand, and responding to the depletion of fossil fuels and other mineral resources by making effective use of energy. [2] Experience: A prosperous urban lifestyle that offers a good quality of life An extremely important factor when considering the sustainability of cities is how to enhance people s experience values, such as living, working, studying, and traveling. It is necessary to provide a prosperous urban lifestyle that offers a good quality of life in a way that is also balanced in economic terms, and that can cope with changes in people s lifestyles, with a view to solving problems such as demographic changes as well as those faced by cities directly. The following section gives examples of what is meant by and what is required for well-balanced relationships in the natural environment, urban lifestyles, and the economy. (a) Well-balanced relationship between natural environment and economy The more priority is given to the economy, the more it tends to cause environmental problems. For example, while using coal to fuel thermal power generation has excellent economics, it results in the emission of large amounts of CO 2 . Similarly, while discharging factory efuent into the ocean reduces costs in economic terms, in environmental terms it creates a need for cleanup work. These relationships also require measures such as the reassembly of urban infrastructure and advanced control of the balance between supply and demand to achieve balance. To create an urban structure that can achieve a better balance between the natural environment and the economy at low cost, Hitachi believes it is necessary to think of cities in low-level terms, using the concept of the smallest units of urban infrastructure.

Eco
Contribution to global environment

Experience
A prosperous urban lifestyle that offers a good quality of life

Establish a well-balanced natural harmony between the value of reducing the load on the environment and the human-centered experience values of comfort, safety, convenience, and well-being.
Fig. 1.2Well-balanced Relationship between People and the Earth.

Chapter

(b) Well-balanced relationship between urban lifestyle and economy If a city emphasizes considerations like economics and efciency, the result will be a city in which it is not easy for people to live. To give an extreme example, the most economically efcient way to build a city, in which the distance people need to travel is kept short, thermal efciency is high, and facility management costs are low, would be to construct a single huge building capable of housing all homes, workplaces, supermarkets, schools, and hospitals along with waste management, entertainment facilities, sports facilities, and other infrastructure. However, this would not make for an attractive place to live. Also, in both developed economies and emerging economies, the value of a city is enhanced if urban development allows its historic and modern parts to coexist. This is because of the added value from the fusion of cultures and generation of new values that occurs when a number of areas adjoin one another. While living in a city that is conscious of the environment is very important for urban consumers, if they do not nd the city to be attractive, they will eventually go somewhere else. What is needed when building a smart city is to create a consumer-oriented city in which consideration has been given to ways of making it an attractive place to live. (c) Well-balanced relationships in urban living Many people acting to maximize the benet to themselves will not necessarily maximize overall welfare. For example, trafc congestion occurs when large numbers of people choose to use cars so that they can benet from getting to where they want to go quickly and efciently, resulting in longer travel times and the loss of that benet they hoped to gain. What is needed to resolve this fallacy of composition is sophisticated control of demand and supply, including ways of making information visible. It is also necessary to revise the inappropriate balance in supply and demand that has occurred in the past whereby production has continued despite an absence of demand, or demand has continued for as long as an excess has been available. This will not only eliminate energy wastage to reduce the impact

on the environment, it will also improve the utilization of infrastructure and other equipment to reduce overall costs and reduce resource wastage. (d) Well-balanced human values Establishing a well-balanced relationship between ownership and sharing of tools, facilities, and other equipment is essential for responding to changing consumer values. For example, if services were provided that allowed cars or other products to be used by those people who really need them, when they need them, sharing between large numbers of people would bring savings such as in the overheads of ownership and the dead time when the products are not being used. Such a balance between ownership and sharing would also reduce the impact on the environment and minimize unnecessary energy use by allowing city managers to provide their services without the need to maintain excess resources or equipment capacity. Also, smart cities expand the scope in which the skills and know-how that individuals have acquired through work, education, or personal interest can be deployed. This is because the more advanced communications infrastructure available in a smart city provides the mechanisms to allow individuals skills and know-how, which in the past were only deployed within a limited scope, such as in their company or local community, to be brought to bear exibly when and where they are needed. Possible examples include mechanisms for things like needs matching or skills development to assist the elderly in nding new employment; new ways of working that allow people to work without feeling held back by time, location, or bodily constraints; and mechanisms for establishing arrangements for circumventing problems such as shortages of doctors or child care. Balancing needs and opportunities helps create towns with a greater scope for new challenges that suit individuals aptitudes, and in which everyone from youth to the elderly feel they are leading a meaningful life. This is another example of what Hitachi views as a well-balanced relationship. The next chapter looks at the specic ways in which smart cities can be brought about.

Hitachis Vision of the Smart City

Chapter 2

Hitachis Vision of the Smart City

2-1. Smart City Stakeholders
The stakeholders in a smart city can be broadly divided into the following three groups based on their different interests and how they interact with the city. [1] Consumers This group represents the people who are active within a city (living, working, studying, or traveling). They are seeking to fulll their own needs, and to achieve a better quality of life that is comfortable, convenient, safe, and secure. [2] City managers These are organizations such as local government, real estate developers, and infrastructure operators. Their aim is the sustainable development of the city, and they manage the planning, design, construction, operation, and growth of the urban environment that supports consumer activity. They are seeking to build a cohesive Society with a vibrant economy and efcient urban operations. [3] World opinion This group wants to reduce the load on the environment at a global level. Their priorities include reducing carbon emissions, making effective use of natural resources, and maintaining biodiversity. They seek global warming prevention, effective use of natural resources, maintenance of biodiversity, and a reduction in the citys load on the environment.

Chapter

As described above, the conicting interests of these different stakeholder groups mean their needs will not necessarily coincide. For example, while consumers may desire the convenience to be seated in an uncrowded train, if a city manager were to increase the number of trains to satisfy this demand, the cost to the railway company would lead to higher fares and greater energy consumption. On the other hand, if the number of trains were cut to reduce the load on the environment, consumers would suffer from longer travel times and crowded trains. What is required in the development of smart cities is a sustainable approach that achieves a balance between the many conicting demands of each group of stakeholders, without compelling any of them to endure more than their fair share. Maintaining a balance between the needs of these three groups is another aspect of the well-balanced smart cities that Hitachi is aiming to achieve.

2-2. Structure of Smart Cities Envisaged by Hitachi

In Hitachis vision, smart cities will have a hierarchical structure determined by considerations such as function and purpose. The use of IT is one prerequisite for establishing smart cities. IT underpins the entire infrastructural hierarchy, starting from the national infrastructure layer that spans cities and regions. On top of this national infrastructure layer is the urban infrastructure layer, which delivers infrastructural functions in an optimized and autonomous way at the level of individual cities. The service infrastructure layer, meanwhile, operates on top of the urban infrastructure layer and provides services directly to the city s consumers. The actual facilities used to provide services are part of this layer. These various infrastructure layers are coordinated by the urban management infrastructure. In other words, what underpins consumers way of life in Hitachi s vision is the concern for the global environment combined with security and convenience made possible by the coordination of infrastructure (see Fig. 2.1).

Live Study

Consumers Work Travel

Smart city

Lifestyle

Urban management infrastructure Service infrastructure Urban infrastructure

Service infrastructure
Healthcare, education, administration, nance, etc.

Public infrastructure
Power distribution, commuter transportation, water and sewage, etc. Power transmission, inter-city transportation, irrigation, etc.

National infrastructure

IT

Fig. 2.1Hierarchical Structure of Smart Cities.

10

Hitachis Vision of the Smart City

[1] National infrastructure This layer contains infrastructure that covers areas larger than a single city. In addition to providing the foundational layers of energy, transportation, water, and communications that keep people safe and support their day-to-day activities at a national or regional level, this is also the level at which coordination between different cities is managed. Taking the case of public transportation, the Shinkansen inter-city train service is an example of national infrastructure, while the commuter transportation services that use Shinkansen stations as hubs (such as subway and bus services) are examples of urban infrastructure. [2] Urban infrastructure This infrastructure is formed from the smallest functional units based on the geographical and physical characteristics of individual cities. Closely coordinated with national infrastructure, urban infrastructure is tied to a specic city and supplies services located close to consumers, delivering national infrastructure functions such as energy, transportation, water, and communications. The urban infrastructure can be thought of as being made up of elements (basic units) capable of operating independently. In the case of sewage, for example, this is the area covered by a single treatment plant. For transportation, it is the region accessible by foot from a railway station or bus stop. Each of these can be thought of as representing a logical unit of infrastructure. Urban infrastructure also includes the waste disposal, telecommunications, and other services for a particular district. Tasks such as balancing infrastructure functions and the autonomous and decentralized coordination of functions are achieved at the level of these urban infrastructure units. Here, the term public infrastructure is used to refer collectively to the national infrastructure and urban infrastructure layers.

[3] Service infrastructure This layer is made up of a city s facilities and other services, including healthcare, education, administration, and nance. The service infrastructure coordinates with the urban infrastructure to supply a range of different services. Provision of these services, such as healthcare and educational facilities, can be enhanced through a process of disassembly and reassembly based on consumer needs. [4] Urban management infrastructure This infrastructure provides IT platforms for coordinating interoperation within and between different types of infrastructure. Its roles include information management, operational management, and equipment operation within the city. The urban management infrastructure coordinates the systems required for information and control that span the infrastructure sector. Examples include smart grids in the energy sector, navigation systems and green mobility involving the use of EVs (electric vehicles) in the transportation sector, and advanced water management systems using water from rain and recycling in the water sector. [5] Lifestyle This represents the consumer s way of life, and how the coordination of different types of infrastructure helps people to live, work, study, and travel. Hitachi s vision for smart cities seeks to improve quality of life by understanding consumers genuine needs and then disassembling and reassembling the functions of the service infrastructure layer accordingly.

11

Chapter

2-3. IT Support for Smart Cities

Hitachi s vision for smart cities involves using IT to combine the various elements of the hierarchy described above so that they work together. For example, the delivery of security, safety, and comfort, together with services that are available when and where they are needed, can be achieved through the physical and system-based coordination of both the common elements that make up a city (such as homes, ofces, hotels, factories, and schools) and those elements that differ by region (such as industry, commerce, logistics, research, higher education, agriculture, and sheries) (see Fig. 2.2). Hitachi is utilizing the information system and control system technologies it has built up over time, integrating their operation to provide platforms that can underpin this coordination. This section describes the IT platforms used to coordinate smart cities, including the development capacity and exibility they provide.

[1] Public infrastructure IT Hitachi s aim is to use a fusion of two different types of IT to resolve the issues confronting public infrastructure and help develop smart cities that are secure and comfortable in a way that is conscious of the environment. These two types of IT are, respectively, the control systems that operate public infrastructure safely, efciently, smoothly, and in harmony with the environment, and the information systems that help deliver smart lifestyles with security and comfort. For example, information systems can collect operational data from various areas of life, and then transform it into information and knowledge that can be used in the provision of smart services such as demand prediction. Similarly, control systems can use this information to operate factories, electric power systems, railways, and other services in ways that better match consumer needs. Through this cycle, it is possible to develop infrastructure systems that are optimized across the whole of society.

Commerce

Industry
Retailer Recycling facility Factory

Live
Tourism, leisure
Financial institution Building Public facility Residence

Work
Energy station Railway station Hotel

Study
Research, university
Sewage treatment Industrial wastewater treatment

Urban management infrastructure

Agriculture, sheries

Travel
Logistics

School

Hospital

Equipment management Operational information Analysis and simulation

Broadcasting

Internet

Water
Water treatment New energy Batteries

Communications
Telephony

Data center
Shipping Gas Aviation

Energy
Large central power source

Mobility
Railways

Roads

IT
Fig. 2.2Relationship between Smart Cities and IT.

12

Hitachis Vision of the Smart City

In the past, there have been signicant differences between the IT used in information systems and control systems. In the case of information systems, rapid progress is being made on increasing processing speed and expanding capacity in order to deal with the explosive growth in information, particularly on the Internet and mobile networks. Also, many of these systems work on the best effort principle and use horizontally demarcated, open system congurations to handle the steady stream of new services. Control systems, on the other hand, because they are used for the reliable and safe operation of physical equipment, are designed to prioritize safety, reliability, and real-time performance*. In many cases, they are developed on the assumption that the system will remain in operation for decades. Of importance in the future, Hitachi believes, will be overall optimization of systems in order to deal comprehensively with the various issues that cities are facing. This will require a fusion of these two types of IT (information and control systems), allowing them to interoperate much more closely than in the past.
* Real-time performance While information systems, too, include many mission-critical systems that demand 24-hour, non-stop operation and are designed for realtime performance (such as nance systems), these systems have a very different denition of reliability. For example, whereas information systems are often designed with an emphasis on average execution speed, such as the throughput they can achieve under normal conditions, the emphasis in control systems is on what is known as hard real-time performance. This means that processing is guaranteed to complete within the allowed time with 100% certainty.

[2] Advanced control for balancing supply and demand By coordinating the urban infrastructure and service infrastructure layers, urban management infrastructure gives access to more information on supply and demand than was available in the past. It also allows management of the balance between supply and demand to be performed instantaneously and with high precision. (a) Control of demand It is possible to smooth utilization of urban infrastructure equipment, without changing total demand, by guiding and controlling demand-side needs. For example, further development of this approach could reduce trafc congestion by controlling peaks in road demand, or could better manage demand to cope with situations where supply-side control is difcult, such as the output of photovoltaic power generation. (b) Control of supply By controlling the level of supply appropriately in accordance with individual demands while also taking account of demand-side considerations, it is possible, for example, to supply only as much power as is needed at a particular time, or to manage the supply of electric power based on public priorities during times of power shortage. (c) Risk mitigation When controlling supply and demand during disasters or other emergencies, it is possible to maintain an appropriate level of service infrastructure by managing supply and demand independently based on geographical and physical characteristics. For example, minimum guidelines can be set for the smallest units of the urban infrastructure layer, such as shared energy or other resources. By linking and coordinating these units with other systems in an autonomous and decentralized way, this allows the load distribution and the balance between supply and demand to be controlled appropriately, even during an emergency.

13

Chapter

[3] Non-stop autonomous and decentralized operation of urban infrastructure Hitachi denes the smallest units of urban infrastructure as being those capable of operating independently. If an autonomous and decentralized system concept is adopted, individual systems can function autonomously and service outages can be prevented when abnormal situations arise, without the risk of local malfunctions spreading to the entire system. These can then be developed further to become symbiosis autonomous decentralized systems that are more easily able to interoperate, even between different communities and different systems. The aim is to create cities that can change dynamically for long into the future without interruptions to 365-day, 24-hour functions. [4] Designing infrastructure based on geographical characteristics By dividing infrastructure and other city functions into small units and combining only those that are needed by the community, it is possible to adapt exibly to various different geographical characteristics. When constructing infrastructure to supply the needs of island-like communities (small areas that are cut off from surrounding regions), for example, this means providing autonomous infrastructure consisting of only those elements that are required by the community. Meanwhile, to satisfy the requirements of arid areas where catchment management is a priority, it is possible to provide, in a limited way, some of the functions available in cities, such as Hitachis intelligent water system. By separating non-location-dependent services from their locations, it is possible to respond in a netuned way to the requirements perceived by the administrators who formulate city policies. This can improve convenience and efciency, reduce operating costs by sharing those services that are best shared, and cut energy use by eliminating unnecessary functions.

[5] Adapting to changes that come with different city life stages Cities can be differentiated on the basis of the series of life stages they go through over time, such as the rapid progress in emerging economies, the renewal taking place in the mature cities of developed economies, and the renewal stage when the national infrastructure layer and service infrastructure layer become separated. The smart cities envisaged by Hitachi will be able to adapt to these changes in an extremely exible way, including to changes specic to individual cities. In the stage of rapid progress, for example, the national infrastructure layer and urban infrastructure layer are developed in an integrated way, with elements of the service infrastructure and lifestyle layers added as they become needed. The situation in the renewal stage is that the national infrastructure layer remains in good condition but the urban infrastructure and service infrastructure layers are subject to some deterioration, with the renewal of these being prioritized based on how urgent the need. In the mature cities of developed economies, it is possible to operate cities in a sustainable way using a renewal-based approach involving, for example, the conversion of facilities and services. One possibility might be the repurposing schools that are no longer needed due to a falling birth rate and their redeployment as rest homes for the elderly.

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Smart City, Smart Life

Chapter 3

Smart City, Smart Life

3-1. Disassembly and Reassembly of Service Infrastructure
The disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure envisaged by Hitachi is one approach to building smart cities that stakeholders will nd well-balanced. The idea is that the service infrastructure can be broken down (disassembled) into a wide range of urban operations that can then be made smarter (improvement) and put back together (reassembled) to develop a city that satises the genuine needs of consumers. [1] Service infrastructure The service infrastructure works with the urban infrastructure to provide consumers with a wide range of different services. From a consumers perspective, the services used on a daily basis via the urban infrastructure can be broadly divided into two categories. One contains those services that are dependent on facilities or equipment, such as radiography at a hospital. The other contains services that do not depend on a particular facility and are accessible from anywhere provided that communications services are available, such as being able to transfer funds between banks via the Internet.

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Chapter

Hitachi denes the facilities and other consumer services of this type as the service infrastructure, and sees them as representing an additional layer of infrastructure on top of the energy, transportation, and other functions of the public infrastructure layer (see Fig. 3.1). The services of the public infrastructure layer are made smarter by treating each one as a single function and taking account of whether or are not they are facility-dependent. When combined with telecommunications infrastructure that has been enhanced by IT, even services that can only be obtained from a particular place, such as lessons at a school or obtaining a residence form from city hall, can be redened as an education service or administrative service that consumers can gain access to from anywhere and at any time. Services that have been freed in this way from their facility-dependence can then be combined in ways that suit individual consumer needs. It is anticipated that this will make possible the creation of new urban operations with a high level of added value.

In the smart cities envisaged by Hitachi, consumers can enjoy a way of life (living, working, studying, traveling, and so on) characterized by safety, security, convenience, and comfort, and this can be achieved by rst categorizing the infrastructure used to provide urban operations into either the urban infrastructure layer or service infrastructure layer based on factors such as their function and purpose, and then optimizing the role that each layer is called on to fulll. Meanwhile, the disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure described below makes it possible for city managers, service providers, and others to deliver the services demanded by the community in an optimal form based on the genuine needs of consumers.

Lifestyle - Remote medicine - Net banking - Net community - Face-to-face medical examination - Cash withdrawal

Service infrastructure

Non-face-to-face services Services Face-to-face services Equipment and machinery Buildings or structures Urban infrastructure National infrastructure Energy, transportation, water, telecommunications Face-to-face services Equipment and machinery Buildings or structures Energy, transportation, water, telecommunications

Facilities

Public infrastructure

Energy, transportation, water, telecommunications

Urban management infrastructure

Fig. 3.1Structure of Service Infrastructure Layer.

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Smart City, Smart Life

[2] Paradigm shift brought about by disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure Under the conventional view of cities, a facility like a hospital, for example, is dened by the functions it performs, such as consultation, admission, the serving of meals, surgery, and the issuing of prescriptions. In other words, what makes a facility a hospital is the fact that it performs these functions. If performed in a hotel, for example, the same functions of admission and the serving of meals would become hotel functions. Also, the fundamental requirement of consumers who enter a hospital is to have their illness cured, and actions like visiting the hospital, being admitted, or undergoing surgery are only steps toward this end. Hitachi believes that considering the locations and functions of the service infrastructure separately and reassembling them based on their specic fundamental requirements provides completely different insights. That is, it is possible to usher in a paradigm shift in our approach to cities by separating the service delivery functions that make up the city from the conventional idea of their being places, and reassembling them based on the actual requirements. Continuing with the hospital example, it is possible to satisfy medical needs in a more responsive way by providing completely new multi-function facilities

that combine different types of conventional service infrastructure. Potential examples include allowing children who have been admitted to hospital to continue remotely receiving the same lessons as their classmates at school, or allowing patients to receive medical counseling at a neighborhood police or re station. This approach achieves well-balanced results through a combination of services, places, and other factors. It also allows service managers and operators to deliver different types of services at a reasonable cost, and this in turn means that consumers can gain onestop access to various services at an appropriate price. [3] Methods of disassembly and reassembly The following section uses an example to explain the steps involved in disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure. (a) Disassembly Taking note of the fundamental needs of urban consumers, divide the service infrastructure into services and facilities, and then further divide the facilities into buildings and structures or equipment and machinery. The elements into which the infrastructure is divided become general-purpose components that can be replicated anywhere in the world (see Fig. 3.2).

Hospital (healthcare) example

Prevention Services Service infrastructure Diagnosis and treatment Rehabilitation and nursing Support for daily activities In-home medical assistance and nursing

Fitness

Health diagnosis

Counseling

Tests

Treatment or surgery

Medication

Nursing

Rehabilitation

People (doctors, nurses, technicians, pharmacists, carers, etc.) Equipment and machinery Facilities Buildings and structures Blood pressure meters, scales Electronic records Imaging and diagnostic machines Blood testing machines Treatment machines In-house power generation Surveillance sensors Rehabilitation equipment

Beds

Security

Fitness club/spa

Medical examination center

Clinic/hospital

Outpatient center

Nursing facility

Assisted-living homes

Fig. 3.2Example Disassembly of Service Infrastructure.

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Chapter

(b) Improvement Map the functions of the individual elements to the fundamental needs, then make the functions smarter so that they can work more reliably and efciently. Specically, in addition to identifying their fundamental purpose and whether or not they are location-dependent, also consider technological advances such as new innovations or the potential to apply technologies from other elds. (c) Reassembly While the disassembled and improved parts were categorized based on the fundamental needs of urban consumers, when put back together again, they are combined in such a way as to satisfy the specic requirements of the smart city. For example, it is possible to select only those functions that are required for the needs of a particular city s residents based on considerations such as its topography, culture, religion, nationality, and level of infrastructure. This allows the reassembly of a smart service infrastructure that only includes those functions that are actually required.

Also, by considering the lifecycle of different facilities and equipment (the cycle of planning, design and development, operation, and maintenance and repair) when reassembling the various elements, the service infrastructure itself can go through cycles of growth, development, and renewal (see Fig. 3.3). Smart cities have a diversity of regional needs specic to the country, region, or city, and also due to ongoing changes. Similarly, considering the three stakeholders, namely consumers (including both resident populations and working populations), city managers (public service providers, government, real estate developers, and others), and world opinion (global environmental problems), the conicts that arise between these groups are different in different places, as are things like how to go about balancing these and where they impact. Even when these regional needs are very tightly intertwined, disassembling and reassembling the functions of service infrastructure will result in smart cities that are well-balanced in terms of meeting their distinctive regional needs.

Research, universities

Tourism, leisure Industry

Agriculture, sheries

Commerce

Logistics National infrastructure IT

Fig. 3.3Expansion and Progress in Smart Cities Based on Needs.

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Smart City, Smart Life

3-2. Anticipated Benets of Disassembly and Reassembly

Smart cities built based on the concept of disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure will provide not only residents, but also the businesses involved in urban development and the public and other operators of urban operations, with the following benets that have not previously existed. [1] Smoothing workloads By turning functions that were previously performed separately into common functions, and by taking services that were not necessarily tied to particular places and supplying them in a non-locationdependent way over a wide area, it is possible to smooth over any localized periods of high or low demand that may occur and make full use of limited resources. For example, if hospitals suffer from a shortage of doctors, it is possible to smooth demand and make effective use of limited medical resources by sharing response functions rather than having each hospital handle its own emergency calls. This could be done by taking calls at a central call center and then directing or referring patients to the most suitable emergency medical center based on factors such as whether spaces are available and whether the appropriate specialists are on hand. [2] Efcient sharing Sharing of equipment and machinery improves its utilization, minimizes investment costs, and reduces use and disposal of resources. It also helps reduce energy consumption because it allows operators to allocate only as much machinery or other resources as they require for a particular purpose. In the case of car sharing, for example, if someone who only wants to make a trip in one direction shares a vehicle with someone who wants to make the same trip in the opposite direction, the vehicles utilization increases and it only travels the distance that is really needed. This improvement in utilization also leads to higher service levels because it allows more expenditure and effort to be applied to the service itself.
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[3] Improved efciency by reviewing division of responsibilities By using the disassembly and reassembly process to review the roles played by specic facilities, equipment, or functions in terms of consumer needs, it is possible to make fundamental improvements in areas that have proved a problem in the past. For example, a hospital able to accept inquiries or payments remotely via the net could take advantage of this to implement one-stop services and achieve efciency improvements in areas like consultation waiting times or the dispensing of medicines. [4] Energy saving and low carbon emissions By reviewing specic services and the components that make up urban functions, energy efciency improvements can be sought across the entire smart city and greater progress made on reducing carbon emissions. For example, if reassembly of the service infrastructure results in greater availability of onestop services, along with more services being freed from restrictions of time or place, the benets will include less energy consumed in the movement of people or goods and a consequent cut in carbon emissions.

Chapter

3-3 New Ways of Life Made Possible by Disassembly and Reassembly

This section uses specic examples to describe how the disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure will change the way people live from day to day in smart cities. [1] Disassembly and reassembly focused on services By disassembling certain diagnosis and treatment services at a hospital (considered as a type of facility) and then reassembling these at a different location or facility, it becomes possible to receive various healthcare services without restrictions like time or place. For example, it would also be possible to receive remote treatment, advice, or other assistance in an emergency at locations outside a hospital, such as a police station, school, supermarket, or in-service train. Furthermore, collaboration with educational institutions could allow children in hospital to continue receiving the same lessons as their classmates at school, and doctors could provide counseling to children in their homes or school without leaving the hospital (see Fig. 3.4). In the education sector, meanwhile, it would be possible to provide new forms of education that over-

come the barriers of time and place by separating the provision of lessons (considered as a service) from schools (considered as a type of facility). Possible innovations that could assist people to study when and where they like might include making library data accessible whenever needed, or adopting teaching methods that use videoconferencing systems and other communication tools. Public facilities, too, can deliver services with higher added value by combining the functions of different equipment and facilities within the service infrastructure. By reviewing and reassembling their functions, the meeting places in each community can be transformed into smart meeting places where people can receive multi-purpose services. By providing one-stop services for educational, administrative, medical, and other functions based on the nature of the town and its way of life, these new smart meeting places could surpass what is possible at conventional sites that are tied to a particular function. Moreover, because the reassembly of functions allows a wider range of services to be provided than in the past, it strengthens the original objective of these facilities, which was to be a place where people meet, and as a result can be expected to revitalize real communication within each community.

Remote classroom service

Connect to system using PC or tablet.

Connection Receive same lessons as classmates at school.

Support childs recovery and psychological care.

Comprehensive opportunities for learning

Monitoring system in case of emergencies

Use of videoconferencing to discuss remedial learning plan with doctor

Use classroom recording to take delayed lessons.

Healthcare

Education

Fig. 3.4How Disassembly and Reassembly Might be Used at Facilities Like Hospitals or Schools.

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Smart City, Smart Life

[2] Disassembly and reassembly focused on consumer objectives and actions Reassembling city functions based around the objectives and actions of service consumers can also create a more convenient and comfortable way of life. The following section considers the example of moving to a new home. Currently, this forces you to deal separately with different municipal and public agencies (service providers), whereby you have to go through various procedures and ll out forms such as change-of-residence registration forms for your old and new addresses. However, by disassembling the actions required when moving to a new home in terms of services, and then reassembling them with a focus on objectives and actions so that the various services provided by different agencies work in coordination, the complex and troublesome procedures of the past should no longer be needed.

Specically, keeping your information up to date will be made much easier if changes to personal details, such as your address or telephone numbers, are managed centrally by area management functions. This could include updating your details with public agencies and nancial institutions or updating your account at infrastructural service providers such as electricity, gas, water, or telecommunications. By coordinating with local service providers, businesses, and others, this approach also allows added-value services to be supplied specically to new residents (see Fig. 3.5).

Moving company From requesting quotation to making appointment

Publish information on services for new residents (healthcare, schooling, and other information).
Municipal DB

Arrangements

Municipality (old home)

Lodge change of address (old home)

(Inquiry)

Municipality (new home)

Municipal and public agencies

Power company Gas company Water agency Post ofce

Lodge change of address (new home)

Real estate agent

Change registered address.

Area management
SC resident DB

(Loan, rent)

Smart city living setup service

Simplies the procedures associated with moving to a new home and makes lifestyle information management more efcient.

(Publish information on services for new residents.)

Update address information.

Telecommunications company Broadcaster

Bank

Finance Commerce
Commercial facilities
Relayed withdrawal

SC: smart city, DB: database Fig. 3.5How Disassembly and Reassembly Might be Used for Moving and Public Administration Services.

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Chapter

[3] Disassembly and reassembly focused on location By considering a railway station and reassembling its disassembled functions, it is possible to imagine what form a smart city station might take. The installation of kiosks or other devices at a new railway station could provide commuters with opportunities to make use of even the short time they spend waiting for a train. Examples might include three-minute English lessons with an on-line teacher, stretching exercises with an on-screen instructor, or viewing an etiquette lesson prior to visiting a customer. In this way, it is possible to offer functions

that suit different needs, and to turn the station into something more than just a place to catch a train. The service level of reassembled service infrastructure at a railway station can be further enhanced through coordination with public infrastructure. In the case of distributed energy sources, for example, the potential for green electricity includes not only the installation of solar panels, it could also extend to using the ground under the station to generate geothermal power. The generated power could be used for green services such as community EVs or charging stands (see Fig. 3.6).

Station in smart city

Smooth transfers Timely provision of operational information Logistics coordination Help people nd where they want to go

Shopping facilities

Use of renewable energy and supply of electric power

EV charging and discharging station

Display of information on various types of devices

On-site English conversation class

On-site childcare service

Railway station as a part of the service infrastructure

Users can receive services that match their needs

Fig. 3.6How Disassembly and Reassembly Might be Used at Railway Stations.

Disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure can improve convenience and comfort through the composite provision of services to consumers while keeping as a prerequisite that these services reduce the load on the environment. It also makes possible the sustainable development of the city that city managers seek as well as the creation of smart cities that are well-balanced from the points of view of all three stakeholder groups (consumers, city managers, and world opinion).
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Achieving this disassembly and reassembly requires not only that the elements that make up the infrastructure be made more advanced, but also the use of IT for sophisticated infrastructure coordination. Hitachi believes that linking all these elements together, including large-scale national infrastructure as well as service infrastructure and urban infrastructure, will make possible new hospitals, new administrative services, new railway stations, and other innovations.

Hitachis Role in the Smart City

Chapter 4

Hitachis Role in the Smart City

Hitachi is focusing on its Social Innovation Business, with its smart city business being a key pillar within this strategy. Hitachi established its Smart City Business Management Division (currently Social Innovation Business Project Division) on April 1, 2010 to serve as a coordinating organization that spans a range of sectors involved with smart cities, including electric power, transportation, public industry, urban development, information and telecommunications, and information and control. The mission of the new division is to participate in smart cities from the concept stage, offering a one-stop service that acts as a powerful driver for the business while also adding new value. Smart city initiatives cover a wide area and this is not something that Hitachi is able to do on its own. In its global activities, Hitachi works with partner companies, local companies, and others to contribute to the building of smart cities in a range of different roles, extending from urban planning to operations.

4-1. Hitachis Capabilities

Hitachi boasts extensive experience and total engineering capabilities (including nance, service design, system design, and operation and maintenance) built up over many years of involvement in public infrastructure sectors such as electric power, transportation, water and sewage, and industrial systems. It also has the capabilities to achieve an advanced fusion of infrastructure with information and telecommunications, being equipped with excellent solution capabilities in the information and telecommunication sectors along with advanced technologies and know-how. These capabilities are at the core of Hitachi s activities in the eld of smart city development, which include working on projects in partnership with real estate developers, construction companies, manufacturers, trading companies, and others involved in urban development.
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Chapter

Hitachi is currently involved in numerous smart city projects in different parts of the world where it is trialing specic practices and building experience. Hitachi intends to remain committed to smart city development, not just in three or ve years time, but 30 years from now and beyond, supplying a wide range of solutions in the belief that it has an essential role to play among those engaged in urban development.

Smart City Development Objectives Generate new value through the disassembly and reassembly of service infrastructure. Minimize misuse, waste, and irregularity in equipment and machinery without compromising peoples comfort. Establish various services that provide consumers with a high level of added value. Optimize the balance of supply and demand in urban infrastructure. Achieve an efcient allocation of functions, and coordination between national infrastructure and urban infrastructure. Develop an urban management infrastructure that supports these objectives, along with the integrated information and control systems for data collection, analysis, simulation, and optimization that lie at their core. Urban management infrastructure is a major feature of smart cities and is critical to achieving these objectives. Utilizing IT, it provides a platform that interlinks the urban infrastructure and service infrastructure layers along with the larger scale national infrastructure layer. Its functions include information management, operational management, and equipment operation, providing consumers with a secure lifestyle and delivering services with a high degree of added value while simultaneously seeking to minimize misuse, waste, and irregularity in the equipment and other facilities of the service infrastructure (see Fig. 4.1).

4-2. Specic Objectives for Smart City Development

In the eld of smart city development, Hitachi is working on a range of initiatives that include interlinking different parts of the service infrastructure and urban infrastructure, including energy, transportation, water, and telecommunications. Along with the ongoing improvement of existing products and technologies, specic examples include the development of new technology, the trialing of technologies and models in Japan and other countries, the identication of needs by participating in urban development from the concept stage, and the devising of new products and solutions based on the knowledge gained through this process.

Healthcare Service infrastructure Services

Education

Public administration

Make lifestyles more secure and establish services with high added value.

Certication device Smart meters and sensors Facilities Equipment and machinery Equipment and machinery Equipment and machinery

Urban management infrastructure

Data collection Analysis and simulation Optimization

Minimize misuse, waste, and irregularity without compromising peoples comfort.

Urban infrastructure

Energy

Transportation

Water

Telecommunications

Optimize balance of supply and demand.

Fig. 4.1Urban and Service Infrastructures Linked Together by Urban Management Infrastructure.

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Hitachis Role in the Smart City

4-3. Three Initiatives for Smart City Development

Currently, Hitachi is engaged in the following three major initiatives associated with smart city development. [1] Packaging of Japans advanced infrastructure Japan is an environmental leader and this initiative involves packaging the strengths of its advanced infrastructures so that they can be deployed globally through collaboration with local partners. Rather than acting on its own, Hitachi is working with corporations and other entities with strengths in the various components that make up the package in order to cover all aspects of infrastructure development, from planning to operation and maintenance services. [2] Participation through collaboration between public and private sectors from the concept stage, and participation as a primary contractor This initiative involves expanding Hitachi s PPP (public-private partnership) business to take part in consulting and planning work at the concept stage of projects and in policy making by central and local government. It also includes expanding its business into services such as operation and maintenance. When acting as the primary contractor, if adequate capital cannot be raised for smart city development, it is anticipated that Hitachi s role will include supporting urban development by having a comprehensive involvement in everything from investment in the infrastructure to its operation and maintenance.

[3] Technology and system development This involves utilizing the strengths of Hitachi, with its extensive experience and success in the public infrastructure sector, to develop and supply the new technologies and other systems required by smart cities. Examples include energy management systems that can reduce the load on the environment while maintaining security of supply by managing the regional balance between energy supply and demand. These systems may also include charging management, vehicle information management, and other subsystems that allow EVs to play their part in a city s transportation infrastructure.

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Epilogue
Hitachi has been involved for many years in the development of the public infrastructure systems that support Japan s society and way of life, including power, transportation, water, and information and telecommunications. Contributing to society through the development of superior, original technology and products has been Hitachi s corporate credo since its formation, and Hitachi is now seeking to realize this vision globally in the eld of smart cities. In service infrastructure, meanwhile, Hitachi believes that implementing solutions that provide genuine coordination of different types of public infrastructure and service infrastructure, including their disassembly and reassembly, will allow it to contribute to the development of smart cities throughout the world. Urban development involves huge projects in which many different organizations and companies participate over a long period, from planning through to development and operation. Hitachi intends to continue working together with its partners, local businesses, and others as it seeks to achieve a wellbalanced relationship between people and the Earth by contributing to smart city development in ways that suit local needs based on a smart city vision design.

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Hitachi, Ltd.
Inquiries: Social Innovation Business Project Division

http://www.hitachi.com/products/smartcity/
The content of this document is subject to change without notice. If you have any inquiries, please contact your Hitachi sales agent.

Hitachi, Ltd. 2012. All rights reserved. SCW-E001 Printed in Japan 2012.09