Systems engineering approach to design and modelling of smart cities

Abstract

A city is a very complex area with complex governing bodies and a number of decision makers. More often, cities are engines of economic development and are attractive places for people seeking employment and better quality of living [1]. As a consequence, cities are now facing a growing urban population which imposes stresses on urban quality of life and the environment. Among the major challenges faced by cities around the world, urban population growth is at the forefront as it is expected that future cities will be home for more than 70% of the global population by 2050. Other associated challenges include traffic congestion, environmental degradation, security, level of quality of public services, and effective resources management. To ensure sustainable development of cities with such a boom of urbanisation, cities around the world are embracing technology and adopting smart cities concept following the recorded development of information and communication technologies and internet of things. However, the literature [2] shows that the concept of smart cities is not being approached efficiently. A smart city is a system of subsystems and should be approached as a whole as opposed to infusing technology into subsystems one by one. To achieve this, there is a requirement of a standard platform to integrate all the subsystems of a smart city system. This work proposes a holistic model which integrates all the subsystems of a smart city system. The proposed model is based on systems engineering approach and Systems Engineering Modelling Language (SysML) is adapted as a potential modelling language. It is a general purpose visual modelling language for Systems Engineering applications and for complex systems such as smart cities and can handle better complexity and challenges such as documentation, communication, and management.