Cities all over the world are entering a new era. The concept of smart cities that encourages the digital transformation of many city sectors, has been gaining popularity globally. A smart city is defined as a city which merges traditional infrastructure with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to promote innovation and provide useful [...]
Insurance is a millennial practice for transferring or distributing risk, to protect from financial loss. As an Earth Observation (EO) market, Insurance is traditionally a small one, but an emerging approach called parametric insurance recently opens new opportunities for EO service providers. If traditional insurance products indemnify for an actual loss sustained, parametric insurance contracts offer a means [...]
In 14 and a half seconds, the sun provides as much energy to Earth as its population uses in a day. Capturing all this energy is feasible and depends only on decision making. Nowadays, there is an increase of the share of renewable energy sources in the total energy production and consumption mix (currently 22%, [...]
Closing the loop of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use or resources can bring benefits for both the environment and the economy. It is the case, for example of recycled nutrients from organic waste or by-products (bio-based materials such as food waste, used water and animal by-products such as manure) that can be returned [...]
It is the case of gas to liquids, for example, switching to alternative fuels. Electric and LPG offer separate fuel systems, but there are other options offering the potential to clean up the existing diesel. One example is the new synthetic gas to liquid (GTL) fuel developed by Shell, derived from natural gas. The use [...]
Traditionally, energy savings has been a driver for building management globally. Gradually, energy benefits are becoming secondary to operational efficiency and non-energy benefits such as occupancy analytics, air quality and worker productivity. In this sense, space utilization is becoming the significant differential metric particularly in the commercial building market. As employees increasingly work from home, [...]
Citizen engagement is a complementary aspect of smart cities related to the support of greater engagement in an attempt to tap into the collective intelligence of cities as well as better understanding their daily acts and needs. Currently, a bigger priority in energy efficiency-oriented training and promotion activities is given to the implementation of modern [...]
An alternative to cleaning up emissions from vehicles directly could be to deploy technologies which remove pollution from the ambient air. For example, a number of companies are developing photo-catalytic treatments which remove pollutants from the air in the presence of sunlight. These treatments can be applied to a range of surfaces, for example roofing [...]
Energy management needs a communications infrastructure in order to connect infrastructure, with devices and people, in such a way that data gathering and services delivery is possible. The complexity of the technological and service ecosystem requires a holistic approach to networking and communications. For that, smart cities count on a range of technologies from low [...]
What is smart specialisation (strategy), and why is it important? The Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) is a policy concept developed as an instrument for boosting national or regional innovation, specifically focused on the strengths and the competitive advantages of a region, through enhancement of partnerships between businesses, public entities, and knowledge institutions. Registered countries and [...]
