Like many cities across the United States, the city of Phoenix is looking for ways to deliver efficient, cost-effective and safe public services.
As the fifth largest city in the U.S., Phoenix is challenged with managing and conserving 270 million gallons of tap water and treating 135 million gallons of wastewater daily. Water is the lifeblood of the city, especially considering the dwindling water resources around the Colorado River in the U.S. West. Ultimately, the city wants to reach a zero-waste goal by 2050. The only way to get there is through technology. IoT solutions can be the answer but maybe not in the most intuitive ways.
To understand the potential impact of IoT, we need to realize there are more connected devices in the world today than humans. These devices, commonly known as the Internet of Things (IoT), come in infinite forms, from smart building technologies, which monitor and manage energy usage, to connected vehicles, which help anticipate and avoid potential collisions. According to Gartner, by 2020 the number of IoT devices is projected to exceed 20 billion, fueled by continued technological advances and the plummeting costs of computing, storage and connectivity.
The growing investment in IoT technologies has the potential to generate new cost-savings and efficiencies while also driving significant improvements to quality of life. An analysis by the World Economic Forum, in partnership with IoT-Analytics GmbH, found that an estimated 84% of IoT deployments are currently addressing, or have the potential to advance, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. IoT clearly has societal benefits that could be maximized without compromising commercial or economic viability.
Because of this, its rate of expansion, adaptability, ingenuity and scope is startling. Companies are developing more and more ways for us to connect. Within the next five years, sensors will likely have permeated every aspect of our lives, from our refrigerators to our shoes. The world’s IT infrastructure will be supporting a trillion devices, big and small.
For cities like Phoenix, the possibilities are endless when embracing IoT technology. Among the IoT technology recently deployed in Phoenix enabled by MetTel’s IoT Fleet Management technology:
- More efficient, cost-effective and safer delivery of water resources to residents and facilities.
- Greater visibility into the city’s mobile workforce: Automated vehicle location services including advanced location-based services, dispatch automation, vehicle diagnostics and driver safety data.
- Information on fuel usage, proof of service or delivery.
Coupled with a powerful communications management platform, city managers can get a dashboard view of these IoT-connected fleets and other communication assets to track costs, inventory, maintenance, performance and more to help digitally transform key municipal functions and helping it realize today the progress necessary to reach its admirable goal as a fully sustainable smart city within the next generation. Think IoT can’t change the world? I’ll take that challenge, one city at a time.