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How we design and build a smart city and nation | Cheong Koon Hean | TEDxSingapore — Transcript

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0:00Transcriber: Sally Yang Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
0:04Do you know that today, in the world,
0:06half of the population actually live in cities?
0:11So, cities are very important to us.
0:14But cities also give us a lot of challenges,
0:19especially the architect planners.
0:21Because most of them face a growing population.
0:24Not only is the population growing, but it is also ageing.
0:28And people continue to have aspirations for a better quality of life.
0:33And as the cities grow,
0:35we would have to develop more infrastructure and services for them,
0:40and we have to make sure that these services work.
0:43And, with climate change, we have to encourage people to use less energy
0:48so that we reduce carbon emissions.
0:51So, cities seek solutions to address these challenges.
0:54How do we deal with them?
0:56Well, many cities are starting to adopt smart technology
1:00to improve our environment and our daily living.
1:03But what is smart technology?
1:06Everybody talks about being 'smart'.
1:08Well, in very simple form,
1:10it is really harnessing information and communications technology,
1:14the Internet of Things,
1:15and getting insights into data,
1:21to actually develop smart applications
1:24that make day-to-day living for us comfortable.
1:28It has been projected that by 2025,
1:31we will have at least 88 smart cities in the world.
1:37What about Singapore?
1:39Well, the prime minister has said:
1:40'Our vision is for Singapore to be a smart nation.
1:44A nation where people live meaningful and fulfilled lives,
1:47enabled seamlessly by technology,
1:50offering exciting opportunities for all.'
1:53Note that it's really about people and not about just the technology.
1:58But are we ready to be 'smart'?
2:01Well, I think we're pretty much on the journey.
2:04We're quite wired up.
2:0690 percent of our homes have broadband,
2:08and we're going to bring fibre to every home.
2:11And Singapore has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world,
2:16at about 85 percent.
2:18So, we are on the journey.
2:19But what is a smart nation?
2:21I'd just like to illustrate with an example of a public housing town,
2:28close to my heart.
2:29And I call it 'the Heartlands'.
2:31Why is it 'the Heartlands'?
2:33Because it houses 83 percent of the population,
2:36and many of you and I live in HDB towns, in about a million flats.
2:43So, what is a smart town?
2:45The smart town really functions like the human body.
2:49We have all the buildings in there where activities take place,
2:52like the muscles in our body.
2:55We have greenery and parks,
2:57like our lungs,
2:58that help to cleanse the air for us
3:02and give us oxygen to breathe.
3:04And we have all the roads,
3:06just like the veins and arteries in our bodies
3:09that move the traffic, the people and the goods.
3:12And you know, our body has the five senses.
3:15And the senses send [information] to our brain,
3:18so it senses what happens in the environment,
3:20[which] tells our brain how to get the body to adapt,
3:23whether it's hot or cold.
3:25So, if you add a sensor layer onto a town, it collects data,
3:31and insights from this data can help the town to continue to learn and adapt.
3:37And from this, we can develop smart applications for day-to-day living.
3:42As an architect planner,
3:44actually, I planned and built many of the towns that you live in.
3:48And I would very much like
3:50to build a smart town that is liveable, efficient, sustainable, and safe for you.
3:56We are going to look at 'smart' in four areas.
4:00Smart planning,
4:01smart environment,
4:03smart estate services,
4:04and smart living.
4:07What is smart planning?
4:10As an architect planner, I love this part
4:13because it helps me to design a better living environment for you.
4:19Now, what is smart planning?
4:21Basically, the first thing I do is to collect all the data about a town -
4:25the buildings, the roads, the parks -
4:29and I put it into the computer.
4:31And I'll also collect a lot of information about energy use and waste,
4:35for example.
4:37And with this information,
4:39I can develop a three-dimensional map of Singapore in the computer.
4:44Now, what do I do with this information?
4:46Well, I can do a lot.
4:48I can do a computer model that simulates the windflows through the town.
4:52We're in the tropics, we love the wind.
4:54We're not in Chicago.
4:56Now, if you look at this diagram,
4:58the colours that are yellow and orange mean that the windflows are pretty good.
5:02The ones in blue mean it doesn't move so much.
5:05So, when we did the first cut of Punggol Eco-Town,
5:09this was the pattern of the windflow.
5:11And then we adjusted the buildings,
5:13we moved the parks around,
5:15and then you find that the windflows improve.
5:18You see more of the orange and the red colours,
5:21which means you get a cooler and a better air quality through the town.
5:25Computer simulations can do many things.
5:27We can do it at a town level,
5:29or we can do it at a precinct level,
5:31and we can even do it at a building level.
5:34So, welcome to Punggol Northshore.
5:36It's a precinct we've just designed,
5:39which I've just launched for sale.
5:40I don't know how many of you applied for a flat there,
5:44but I highly recommend it.
5:45It's a great place to live in.
5:47(Laughter)
5:48Now, similarly, when we first did the design,
5:53we looked at the windflows through the town.
5:56And at a town level, we also made adjustments to the design -
6:00I moved things around, cut holes in the buildings -
6:04and you can see that the windflows have improved,
6:07particularly in the neighbourhood centre.
6:10We wanted a lot of natural ventilation
6:13so that we can minimise the use of air conditioning.
6:17Now, computer simulations can also help you in many ways.
6:21It can do a shadow analysis of the town.
6:24Here, you see the shadows moving from morning till night.
6:28Why is it important?
6:30Well, it helps the architect and the planner
6:33to decide where to put the park,
6:35the outdoor dining areas,
6:37the outdoor plazas,
6:39playgrounds,
6:40and my childcare centre - I like to put them in the shade
6:42so that the children can be out the whole day.
6:45The computer can also tell you the solar irradiance in a town.
6:49How much sun actually falls on the surfaces of the town
6:52and on the buildings.
6:54And why is this useful?
6:56Well, it helps me to decide, for example, where there's moderate sunshine.
7:00I'm going to put the roof gardens there.
7:02And where there's a lot of sunshine,
7:04that's where I put my solar panels.
7:06We've talked about solar panels.
7:08And it is very effective.
7:09All this information helps the architect to design the town,
7:14not only aesthetically,
7:16but also to ensure that it is functional.
7:19So this is the waterfront town.
7:21Quite nice.
7:22You can start applying for it.
7:23(Laughter)
7:26Now, we can add a layer of sensors to the town.
7:29A layer of sensors that tells you about the humidity,
7:33the heat, the windflows.
7:34And all this data that I collect can go back into the computer systems
7:39to validate the assumptions and make them even more accurate.
7:43But more importantly, [the data] can be used in many ways.
7:45For example, in my neighbourhood centre, I have these huge fans.
7:49Now, I hope that these fans can be triggered.
7:52When I monitor the humidity and the heat,
7:56they would be triggered when it hits a certain threshold level.
8:01But that is a greenfield site.
8:03What about old towns?
8:05So, welcome to Yuhua, Jurong, an old estate.
8:09What we did a couple of years ago
8:11is to try to introduce a lot of sustainability initiatives
8:14into this estate to make it greener,
8:17which means more cycling, more solar panels for clean energy.
8:22We put in rainwater harvesting systems.
8:25But can I make it even smarter so that they're more effective?
8:30So, for example,
8:32we have put a lot of solar panels on hundreds of buildings in HDB blocks.
8:37You may not see [them] because you didn't climb up to the roof.
8:41Now, we put in sensors to all the solar panels
8:45and we track the energy that is collected.
8:48And we know immediately when the panel is not working,
8:51because it would not be collecting energy,
8:53and we can fix it.
8:54But do you know that such data collected can do many things?
8:58It can even tell you the weather condition.
9:00For example, if many of the solar panels are not collecting a lot of energy,
9:06it might mean that over that town, it is cloudy, or it is actually raining.
9:11So, it is a proxy to the meteorological station.
9:18Another service that we see a lot in town -
9:21an estate service that we're very familiar with -
9:23is the lighting along your corridor.
9:27How many of you walk into a toilet and [the light] suddenly switches on,
9:31and you get a shock?
9:32From dark to light, right?
9:35Well, smart sensors allow a person to walk along the corridor,
9:39it can even predict where you're going,
9:42and then the lighting level picks up.
9:44And when you have passed it, the lighting level dims again.
9:48And you save energy.
9:50And the data collected is useful
9:52because if, along the corridor, after 11pm every night,
9:56very few people actually walk there,
9:58the system is smart enough to learn the pattern
10:01and to reduce the brightness of the light
10:04and save energy.
10:05Another estate service we are all very familiar with is ...
10:12the lift.
10:14We have 24,000 lifts in HDB towns.
10:18And we monitor them every day.
10:21Now, you may not know this,
10:23but we move the lifts when you are sleeping.
10:27There's no ghost. We move it.
10:29(Laughter)
10:30The reason being that we are testing it to make sure it works
10:33when you take the lift the next day.
10:36Now, of course, when the lift breaks down,
10:39we will get a signal and we have to go and fix it.
10:43But, you know, with the new sensors,
10:45maybe you can even monitor the vibration and the heat generation from the lift.
10:50And they can even predict a potential failure
10:53before it even happens so that we can go and fix it first.
10:57So, that's wonderful, right?
10:58To be able to predict.
10:59Now, this is a map of Singapore.
11:01If you look closely, you'll think there are a lot of ants running around.
11:04Now, actually, this is real time.
11:09It shows you where all the taxis are moving around in Singapore.
11:13But why do we want to collect such data?
11:16It's great data for transport planners
11:18because by looking at this data,
11:21the transport planner knows the road condition
11:24and where the congestion is.
11:25Now, we can push this data to you, to all your smartphones.
11:29I'm sure all of you have smartphones.
11:31And you'll know straightaway which road to avoid.
11:33Going home from NTU later to wherever you came from.
11:37You have your Ez-link card, right?
11:39Every time you go up the bus, you tap the Ez-link card.
11:42Now, that data's very useful
11:44because when we collect that data, we can tell you which bus is crowded.
11:49So, when you're waiting for your bus,
11:51on your handphone, you will be able to find out
11:53that this bus that's coming is going to be crowded,
11:56so you might want to take another bus, or change your route.
11:59So, such information and data are very useful.
12:03Next, I talked about smart living.
12:06Closer to home.
12:08By 2030, we will have double the people who are over 65 years old
12:14from 450,000 to about 900,000.
12:18In 1970,
12:19about 13 people supported one person who was over 65 years old.
12:25By 2030, there are only two of us
12:28supporting a parent who's over 65 years old.
12:32And with dual-income families,
12:34it means that many of us may not be home and our parents are left alone.
12:39Well, meet two of my residents.
12:41This is Doris, and her mum is 78 years old.
12:45And Doris has to go to work.
12:48She has to cater to the family, and she takes care of her mum.
12:52But she's always worried because her mum once had a fall at home.
12:56So, she's very worried when she's at work.
12:59So, what we did was we pilot-tested a system called SEMAS -
13:03Smart Elderly Monitoring Alert System - in her home.
13:07So, what we did was we went into her home
13:09and we fixed a couple of sensors throughout the home.
13:14And what this sensor does is it monitors the movements of her mum.
13:19But it doesn't just monitor.
13:21It learns her pattern over a few weeks,
13:26for example, the time that she wakes up.
13:28Now, if this pattern is broken - it becomes very irregular,
13:32or there's no movement at home -
13:34what happens is that a signal is automatically sent to Doris's handphone
13:39when she's at work,
13:40and Doris can quickly call home and check if her mum is alright,
13:44or to alert the neighbour to knock on the door.
13:46And I think this gives Doris a lot of peace of mind.
13:50So, with an ageing population,
13:51such smart solutions are actually very useful.
13:55Another application is telehealth.
13:58When you're at work, and mum has no one to send her to the hospital,
14:02she may not need to go to the hospital.
14:04She can be home and do her physiotherapy
14:07with a nurse watching her and training her
14:10to make sure that she's doing it correctly.
14:12She can do this in the comfort of her living room.
14:15And in fact, her heartbeat and blood pressure can be monitored.
14:22And so, it is very convenient.
14:24But, of course, if she needs to go to the hospital,
14:27the nurse would tell her, "You need to come into the hospital."
14:31So, I think another very useful application
14:35is the home energy management system.
14:37I think everyone is quite familiar with this.
14:39It tells you how much energy your appliances are using at home.
14:42But the smart solutions can even alert you when they reach a certain usage.
14:47It can even switch off your devices when you're not at home.
14:51And do you know that it can even do this?
14:53When you go to bed at night, and you turn on the air conditioner,
14:56a lot of you like it to be very cool.
14:59I don't know what temperature - 18, 20, or 21 [degree Celcius]?
15:02But it uses a lot of energy.
15:05So, what happens is, after you're asleep, very quietly,
15:09the device is going to raise the temperature of your air conditioner,
15:13and you won't even know it.
15:15And therefore, you save energy.
15:17So, I think, all these applications can make our daily living better.
15:21But, of course, we'll have to select the right technology.
15:24We have to make it very friendly.
15:27And, frankly, the SEMAS system I showed you -
15:29actually, Doris's mum found it very easy to use.
15:34And, of course, we have to make sure that we strengthen cyber security
15:37because we're collecting a lot of data.
15:40And I believe that while cities are a great challenge to us,
15:44if we can find the right smart solutions,
15:48we can make Singapore a much better home.
15:51Thank you.
15:52(Applause)

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