The Star: April 13, 2017
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi<br />
Thursday <strong>April</strong> <strong>13</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 9<br />
Christchurch a smart city to live in<br />
Kiosks<br />
Electronic touch screen kiosks<br />
are being developed which would<br />
be placed in different parts of<br />
the city to provide residents and<br />
tourists with information.<br />
It is likely they will have<br />
SmartView loaded on them. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
have three different dimensions<br />
so kids, people in wheelchairs<br />
and taller people can all reach the<br />
screen.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team is still working out<br />
locations and how many they<br />
would create.<br />
Bin Level Sensors<br />
Along with the SmartRubbish<br />
trial, Smart Cities is also working<br />
on trialling bin level sensors<br />
which tell contractors when they<br />
are full.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y have a volume, tilt and<br />
heat sensor. <strong>The</strong>se would save<br />
contractors’ time because they<br />
will know exactly what bins<br />
need attention, and it would<br />
also show what ones are actually<br />
used.<br />
It can also save money, in<br />
Santander, Spain, level sensor<br />
monitoring has been installed in<br />
all public refuse bins.<br />
As a result, it has saved 1.5<br />
million Euros annually in diesel<br />
costs along, as contractors do on<br />
demand emptying<br />
EQ Response Visualiser<br />
Software is being developed<br />
that generates images following<br />
an earthquake showing the peak<br />
ground acceleration.<br />
It will generate a coloured ‘heat<br />
map’, which will show where in<br />
the city was worst affected.<br />
This is a huge improvement<br />
over the old method of magnitude<br />
and location. <strong>The</strong> city<br />
council owns more than 1000<br />
facilities and it wants to continually<br />
improve on its assessment<br />
and prioritisation processes.<br />
once the earthquake visualiser<br />
has developed its map, city<br />
council engineers will be able to<br />
see where they should start their<br />
assessments.<br />
This information will be<br />
uploaded to SmartView to be<br />
used by any individual or<br />
agency.<br />
<strong>The</strong> concept was developed as<br />
part of last year’s GovHack competition<br />
and later came second<br />
at the international awards in<br />
Adelaide.<br />
GovHack team members have<br />
formed a company called Sense3<br />
to deliver the project for the city<br />
council.<br />
It is hoped to be trialled within<br />
six months.<br />
Sensibel<br />
Sensibels are a small piece of<br />
equipment, with a bell, which can<br />
be clipped onto bicycle handle<br />
bars.<br />
Smart Cities is looking to roll<br />
them out so people can use them<br />
when they are riding, and can<br />
ring the bell once for a negative<br />
experience, and twice for a positive<br />
one.<br />
<strong>The</strong> feedback is sent to a mobile<br />
phone, then to the cloud, to be<br />
used to map what areas need to<br />
be improved.<br />
Fabriko is making them now.<br />
Sensor Network<br />
A sensor network, made up of<br />
what are known as ‘kites’, would<br />
have a number of different uses,<br />
including measuring air quality.<br />
Environment Canterbury has air<br />
quality monitoring stations in St<br />
Albans and Woolston.<br />
Smart Cities wants to set them<br />
up across the city – the problem<br />
is, ECan’s ones cost about $60,000<br />
each. So the team has bought<br />
cheap equipment to attach to the<br />
kites, costing about $200 each. It<br />
has installed them next to ECan’s<br />
stations to see if their results<br />
match. If successful, they will be<br />
rolled out across the city, with the<br />
results fed onto SmartView.<br />
Although they would only provide<br />
a rough estimate, it would<br />
give residents an idea of air quality<br />
where they live.<br />
Seismic Monitoring Network<br />
In other cities across the world,<br />
it is a legislative requirement to<br />
install accelerometers in significant<br />
buildings to measure how<br />
they move in an earthquake. But<br />
in New Zealand it’s not.<br />
So Smart Cities is installing six,<br />
made by Trimble, in Christchurch<br />
Art Gallery to monitor it<br />
during an earthquake.<br />
Ms McCallum says it’s clear<br />
there’s a need for technology<br />
providing data to engineers about<br />
buildings’ safety, and to reduce<br />
the impact of their loss<br />
of earnings and productivity<br />
when buildings are evacuated<br />
as they wait for an engineer’s<br />
inspection.<br />
<strong>The</strong> monitoring network would<br />
monitor how the building holds<br />
up in a quake, provide information<br />
on whether it could be occupied<br />
and if it needs to be assessed<br />
urgently.<br />
•Turn to page 10<br />
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