Supporting Cyber-Physical Systems with Wireless Sensor Networks: An Outlook of Software and Services

Sensing, communication, computation and control technologies are the essential building blocks of a cyber-physical system (CPS). Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a way to support CPS as they provide fine-grained spatial-temporal sensing, communication and computation at a low premium of cost and power. In this article, we explore the fundamental concepts guiding the design and implementation of WSNs. We report the latest developments in WSN software and services for meeting existing requirements and newer demands; particularly in the areas of: operating system, simulator and emulator, programming abstraction, virtualization, IP-based communication and security, time and location, and network monitoring and management. We also reflect on the ongoing efforts in providing dependable assurances for WSN-driven CPS. Finally, we report on its applicability with a case-study on smart buildings

Public entities driven robotic innovation in urban areas

Cities present new challenges and needs to satisfy and improve lifestyle for their citizens under the concept “Smart City”. In order to achieve this goal in a global manner, new technologies are required as the robotic one. But Public entities unknown the possibilities offered by this technology to get solutions to their needs. In this paper the development of the Innovative Public Procurement instruments is explained, specifically the process PDTI (Public end Users Driven Technological Innovation) as a driving force of robotic research and development and offering a list of robotic urban challenges proposed by European cities that have participated in such a process. In the next phases of the procedure, this fact will provide novel robotic solutions addressed to public demand that are an example to be followed by other Smart Cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Housing and Mobility Toolkit for San Mateo County

Since the end of the Great Recession, San Mateo County has attracted new workers at a record rate without building anywhere near enough housing. This jobs-housing imbalance drives the cost of housing up and forces many moderate and lower-income employees and their families out of the County. A lack of access to quality affordable housing in the County and the entire Bay Area along with limited transportation options means that an increased number of employees drive in and out of the County every workday. The resultant congestion, gridlock, and long commutes along with other negative environmental, social, and economic impacts create a major concern for communities in the County and beyond. Clearly, this problem has two distinct but interrelated dimensions: housing development and transportation planning. A select group of Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) Research Associates worked closely with representatives from the San Mateo County Home for All initiative to help address this challenge by developing a toolkit of successful case studies with a holistic approach to housing development and transportation planning

Community Development Evaluation Storymap and Legend

Community based organizations, funders, and intermediary organizations working in the community development field have a shared interest in building stronger organizations and stronger communities. Through evaluation these organizations can learn how their programs and activities contribute to the achievement of these goals, and how to improve their effectiveness and the well-being of their communities. Yet, evaluation is rarely seen as part of a non-judgemental organizational learning process. Instead, the term "evaluation" has often generated anxiety and confusion. The Community Development Storymap project is a response to those concerns.Illustrations found in this document were produced by Grove Consultants

Trends in Smart City Development

This report examines the meanings and practices associated with the term 'smart cities.' Smart city initiatives involve three components: information and communication technologies (ICTs) that generate and aggregate data; analytical tools which convert that data into usable information; and organizational structures that encourage collaboration, innovation, and the application of that information to solve public problems

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

A Survey on Virtualization of Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are gaining tremendous importance thanks to their broad range of commercial applications such as in smart home automation, health-care and industrial automation. In these applications multi-vendor and heterogeneous sensor nodes are deployed. Due to strict administrative control over the specific WSN domains, communication barriers, conflicting goals and the economic interests of different WSN sensor node vendors, it is difficult to introduce a large scale federated WSN. By allowing heterogeneous sensor nodes in WSNs to coexist on a shared physical sensor substrate, virtualization in sensor network may provide flexibility, cost effective solutions, promote diversity, ensure security and increase manageability. This paper surveys the novel approach of using the large scale federated WSN resources in a sensor virtualization environment. Our focus in this paper is to introduce a few design goals, the challenges and opportunities of research in the field of sensor network virtualization as well as to illustrate a current status of research in this field. This paper also presents a wide array of state-of-the art projects related to sensor network virtualization

Growing a Green Economy for All: From Green Jobs to Green Ownership

This Democracy Collaborative report provides the first comprehensive survey of community wealth building institutions in the green economy. Featuring ten cases, the report identifies how policy and philanthropy can build on these examples to create "green jobs you can own.

Scale aware modeling and monitoring of the urban energy chain

With energy modeling at different complexity levels for smart cities and the concurrent data availability revolution from connected devices, a steady surge in demand for spatial knowledge has been observed in the energy sector. This transformation occurs in population centers focused on efficient energy use and quality of life. Energy-related services play an essential role in this mix, as they facilitate or interact with all other city services. This trend is primarily driven by the current age of the Ger.: Energiewende or energy transition, a worldwide push towards renewable energy sources, increased energy use efficiency, and local energy production that requires precise estimates of local energy demand and production. This shift in the energy market occurs as the world becomes aware of human-induced climate change, to which the building stock has a significant contribution (40% in the European Union). At the current rate of refurbishment and building replacement, of the buildings existing in 2050 in the European Union, 75% would not be classified as energy-efficient. That means that substantial structural change in the built environment and the energy chain is required to achieve EU-wide goals concerning environmental and energy policy. These objectives provide strong motivation for this thesis work and are generally made possible by energy monitoring and modeling activities that estimate the urban energy needs and quantify the impact of refurbishment measures. To this end, a modeling library called aEneAs was developed in the scope of this thesis that can perform city-wide building energy modeling. The library performs its tasks at the level of a single building and was a first in its field, using standardized spatial energy data structures that allow for portability from one city to another. For data input, extensive use was made of digital twins provided from CAD, BIM, GIS, architectural models, and a plethora of energy data sources. The library first quantifies primary thermal energy demand and then the impact of refurbishment measures. Lastly, it estimates the potential of renewable energy production from solar radiation. aEneAs also includes network modeling components that consider energy distribution in the given context, showing a path toward data modeling and simulation required for distributed energy production at the neighborhood and district level. In order to validate modeling activities in solar radiation and green façade and roof installations, six spatial models were coupled with sensor installations. These digital twins are included in three experiments that highlight this monitoring side of the energy chain and portray energy-related use cases that utilize the spatially enabled web services SOS-SES-WNS, SensorThingsAPI, and FIWARE. To this author\u27s knowledge, this is the first work that surveys the capabilities of these three solutions in a unifying context, each having its specific design mindset. The modeling and monitoring activity and their corresponding literature review indicated gaps in scientific knowledge concerning data science in urban energy modeling. First, a lack of standardization regarding the spatial scales at which data is stored and used in urban energy modeling was observed. In order to identify the appropriate spatial levels for modeling and data aggregation, scale is explored in-depth in the given context and defined as a byproduct of resolution and extent, with ranges provided for both parameters. To that end, a survey of the encountered spatial scales and actors in six different geographical and cultural settings was performed. The information from this survey was used to put forth a standardized spatial scales definition and create a scale-dependent ontology for use in urban energy modeling. The ontology also provides spatially enabled persistent identifiers that resolve issues encountered with object relationships in modeling for inheritance, dependency, and association. The same survey also reveals two significant issues with data in urban energy modeling. These are data consistency across spatial scales and urban fabric contiguity. The impact of these issues and different solutions such as data generalization are explored in the thesis. Further advancement of scientific knowledge is provided specifically with spatial standards and spatial data infrastructure in urban energy modeling. A review of use cases in the urban energy chain and a taxonomy of the standards were carried out. These provide fundamental input for another piece of this thesis: inclusive software architecture methods that promote data integration and allow for external connectivity to modern and legacy systems. In order to reduce time-costly extraction, transformation, and load processes, databases and web services to ferry data to and from separate data sources were used. As a result, the spatial models become central linking elements of the different types of energy-related data in a novel perspective that differs from the traditional one, where spatial data tends to be non-interoperable / not linked with other data types. These distinct data fusion approaches provide flexibility in an energy chain environment with inconsistent data structures and software. Furthermore, the knowledge gathered from the experiments presented in this thesis is provided as a synopsis of good practices

ROLE OF GIS IN RESIDENTIAL MICROGRID

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN