“Singapore is doing it at a level of integration and scale that no one else has done yet,” Guy Perry, an executive of the Los Angeles engineering design firm Aecom, told The Wall Street Journal.
The platform contains the dimensions of buildings, their construction materials, placement of windows, and includes an online map of the nation that allows users to view closed-circuit TV footage, check flooding levels and monitor open parking spaces. Today the system is used by the government to identify when people are smoking in non-smoking areas or littering from high-rise housing. Plans to expand the program will extend the system’s capabilities further, sometimes sharing the data with private companies.
The data-fueled map will allow the government to see where public transit riders are gathering so they can decide where buses should be routed.
Data collected could also be used to model things like how skyscrapers might affect wind-flow patterns throughout the city or wireless signals, or map the potential spread of infectious diseases. The system could also be used to predict how crowds might react in an emergency, such as a bomb exploding in a shopping mall.
Mandatory satellite-linked devices in the vehicles of all residents will help the government charge tolls more precisely, scale charges to the distance driven by each person, or allow dynamic pricing based on road conditions.
Sensors deployed in homes by private companies will show if an elderly family member stops moving and monitor health by recording toilet usage.
