Abstract
Smart cities include the intelligent networking and smart operation of existing ones in accordance with the latest energy standards, SDGs, climate strategies, and common good. The building sector causes almost 40% of global CO2 emissions and is therefore the key to central climate neutrality by 2050. Innovative building technologies in existing buildings enable intelligent ecosystems within the 5th industrial revolution. Experience from the practical application provides signposts for the use of the latest digital technologies for the cities of tomorrow, with more efficiency, comfort, and safety for everyone who lives and works in them.
TopIntroduction
Smart Cities not only involve new construction of high-tech infrastructure and buildings but upgrading existing buildings to intelligent building automatization systems as per Smart Cities standards, SDGs, Climate and Ecological Strategies. The building sector causes almost 40 percent of global CO2 - Emissions and is therefore key to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Innovative building technologies in existing buildings support independent monitoring, control, analysis and optimization of energy consumption. These technologies enable smart ecosystems ready for the 5th industrial revolution.
Experiences shared from user practice show how new intelligent technology such as digital twins, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), Cloud Computing, Intelligent Building Operation and Networking increase efficiency, safety and sustainability.
They mean powerful tools for integrating existing buildings and upgrading to smart cities standards; they ease smart communication between new and existing buildings, new and existing infrastructure and facilities by digital planning, constructing and the overall holistically safe and economical operation. Digital twins create technical possibilities for significantly more efficient life cycles, for reducing operating costs, minimizing natural resources as to reach sustainability goals. Practical Use Cases refer to expert interviews from a larger research project (Weber-Lewerenz, 2021a).
Conventional cities highly consume non-renewable resources of energy, management for garbage and control pollution is poor. To gain economic and environmental sustainability as the cities grow, humans have to deal with diverse technical, social, societal, economic and organizational pressures. Mammoth tasks lie ahead in the construction sector. Hightech-aligned Smart Cities raise multiobjective problems.
Smart Design, Smart Construction and Smart Operation (BMWI, 2021) put focus on the Construction Branch. Smart city development bases not only on new construction but on how to integrate existing buildings, green buildings, electrical vehicles, roads, bridges and the overall infrastructure as to ensure smart, intelligent operation. The search for integrative options is part of smart cities modelling including Monument Preservation (Figure 1.-3.) and old buildings protection e.g. New Harbour Village in the old town of Hamburg, The New Humboldt Forum in Berlin. Green energy technologies, green buildings are examples on how to upgrade existing buildings to modern standards of smart cities (Winkowska, 2019): urban flexibility, circular economy, and clean energy utilization.
Figure 2.
Digital recording of Monument Preservation, Germany.
Figure 3.
Reconstruction Notre Dame Paris, France, via Digital Twin.
Key Terms in this Chapter
IoE: Internet of Energy. Not to be confused with Internet of Everything (IoE). It is a concept that goes beyond the confines of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoE is an implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in distributed energy systems. IoE is a technology term that refers to the modernization and automation of power infrastructure for energy producers and manufacturers. As a result, energy production can be driven more efficiently and cleanly with the least amount of waste.
IoT: Internet of Things. The term describes that the computer in the digital world is increasingly being supplemented by “intelligent objects” to “AI”, artificial intelligence. Instead of being the object of human attention itself, as is currently the case, the “Internet of Things” is intended to support people in their activities.
BIM: Building information modeling.
Digitization: There is no clear definition for the term. In the original sense, digitization refers to converting analog data values to digital formats. This data can be processed by information technology. Another meaning of digitization is the digital revolution, also known as digital change or digital transformation.
Ethics: Ethics deals with the prerequisites and the evaluation of human action and is the methodical reflection on morality. At the center of ethics is specifically moral action, especially with regard to its justification and reflection (ethics describes and judges morality critically). The focus of ethics is on the three questions of the “highest good”, the right action in certain situations and freedom of will.