From the category archives:
George Hawkins, general manager of DC Water, gave a rousing keynote this morning at the Autovation event taking place in the DC area this week. Hawkins asserts that utilities are at the forefront of saving human civilization. He said that we’re called utilities, which in sports implies that you’re able to play a number of [...]
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Building America’s Future Educational Fund, a bipartisan and national infrastructure coalition, just released a report that examines the economic challenges posed by the United States’ ailing transportation infrastructure. The report, “Falling Apart and Falling Behind,” reviews investments being made by international competitors and recommends new transportation policies to spur U.S. economic growth. Among the report [...]
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NaturalGasWatch.org has been set up by concerned citizens that aim to shed light on the danger of leaks and explosions from New York City’s aging natural gas infrastructure. The site has documented leaks and explosions around the country, and questions why the infrastructure in the city hasn’t yet been updated, noting that: “there are more [...]
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A long-standing vision for the sensor web revolves around the idea of a smartdust sensor network that spreads a nano-scale web of sensors quickly to monitor changing conditions. While the nono-scale efforts are a good ways from being realized, there have been advances in networks of wireless sensors with advantages in quicker deployment, much cheaper [...]
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IBM has awarded 24 Smarter Cities Challenge grants to 24 cities worldwide, with each valued at $400,000. The Smarter Cities Challenge is a three-year endeavor that will ultimately award grants to 100 cities worldwide, with a total investment of $50 million. The contest required that each city match IBM’s investment with their own commitment of [...]
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Earlier this week the New America Foundation published a report about the cost of the United States’ under-investment in infrastructure. According to the report, the reduced efficiency has a direct impact on economic growth and can be quantified in dollar terms. According to various estimates from government institutions and non-profit organizations, the efficiency lost because [...]
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This week IBM held their Pulse conference in Las Vegas to focus on intelligent infrastructure. In conjunction with the event, the company announced three cities that will be using their sensor and software combination for water system management and maintenance. The solution combines sensors with IBM’s Maximo Spatial software and Esri’s GIS software. Washington, D.C. [...]
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The PG&E gas line explosion that took eight lives on Sept. 9 is being pinned on poor data entry and omissions in the GIS system. The exposé by the San Francisco Chronicle says that the lack of reliable information in the database and mapping system should have caught the defective seam that was the cause [...]
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Philadelphia is moving forward with a 20-year, $1.6 billion stormwater control plan that incorporates many green aspects. Included are plans to convert impervious surfaces into absorptive spaces that use soil and vegetation to collect and filter runoff, including green roofs, water gardens, and the restoration of streams flowing through the city their natural ecology. The [...]
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IBM announced a new smarter cities initiative with Rio today, and there’s a good feature about the details in Fast Company. The deal comes in the wake of devastating flooding last year that caused $13B in damages with 10,000 homes lost, and as a precursor to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games [...]
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