Sweat your assets
So how can a city official best demonstrate ROI?
A multi-pronged cost-benefit analysis is required.
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Streetlighting, for example, is a popular platform for a range of smart city services well beyond illumination.
These include air quality sensing, traffic counting and gunshot detection.
Waste bins are an emerging area for gathering data and housing telco infrastructure.
A key reason for this is the ubiquity and essential nature of these systems.
CCTV can deliver similar benefits.
For example, most camera systems are used to investigate incidents after they have happened.
Video analytics make CCTV systems much more effective without the need to invest in additional staffing.
To maximise investment, its essential to choose multifunctional tools which apply to a long tail of use cases.
Further, as the pandemic has shown, new and unexpected use cases can emerge at any time.
This frees up staff time and ensures a proportionate response.
Video analytics on camera networks can automatically detect parking violations, risky traffic behaviour or illegal rubbish dumping.
In line with cities privacy goals, these solutions dont use licence plate or facial recognition.
Similarly, the efforts of security staff and emergency workers can be optimised using real-time intelligence from camera data.
Operations centre staff are notified of events of interest rather than constantly scanning.
Further, look for providers that understand cities specific budgeting needs.
Communicate
An ongoing feedback loop helps demonstrate transparency and trust with residents.
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