Data acts as the spine of smart cities helping decision-makers to make better decisions to build resilient, liveable, and connected cities that serve citizens better services. Right data at the right time has the capability to solve many complex urban challenges. With deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors to sense the city, real-time data is increasing every day, offering cities a chance to address city problems in smarter ways.
However, the challenge that is faced by city managers is that cities produce a humongous amount of data in many forms and from many different sources. The wide variety of data formats makes it difficult to scale applications from city to city. And, to this, the solution is improved Application Programming Interfaces or APIs. API has the power to provide access to the cities’ data even if the background systems are vastly different, making them a great way to attract and fully harness the huge potential offered by developers.
APIs create interoperability to connect the functioning of the entire city. As the massive amounts of data being generated and shared across functions and departments via these APIs, smart cities are becoming more evidence-based, and collected urban data is beginning to influence policy decisions.
For cities to function, APIs are an essential component that enables connected devices to communicate with each other efficiently that in return keep the city system running with any flaws. APIs helps cities in many ways, like for example, it decreases overlapping work within the city and between cities Simplifies work processes, saves cost, provides better quality data and reduces silo-effect by increasing the interaction between the city and its interest groups
How APIs are making a difference
Enable citizens to easily report problems: As two-way communication is a critical requirement of any smart cities. As technology cannot track everything every time, human intervention is most important to know and understand system failure in cities. Here API acts as a bridge allowing citizens to report their problems to a city’s feedback system with images and location details which can be accessed by municipal bodies as soonest possible. APIs also allows citizens to track the progress of their complaint.
Better Transparency for better Decision-Making: API makes it easier for citizens to access city decisions by providing the decision data in a structured and harmonized format. It makes municipal decisions and decision-making processes more transparent and accessible to the citizens. For example, city council, committee and board agendas and records can be published along with their attachments as open data. The data can be filtered by date, keywords, and location for easy access. The API also enables combining the information with data from other sources. When information is published in a structured format as open data, it can be utilized in many different ways. For example, applications can combine data from several cities or include data from other sources.
Help provide better transport facility: The availability of real-time, location-based information encourages citizens to use public transport and also give tourists a better experience. Here API offers unified and direct access to open transport, mobility, and location data from government, commercial, and citizen sources. It can help to find bus stops in specified routes or areas, time of arrival of public transport, gives information about traffic information for specific roads.
Better experience to tourist: APIs help cities to enhance the visitor experience and boost their economies by allowing visitors to easily access information on points of interest, events, and services helping them explore the city in an easier way. The API’s single point of entry allows cities to be added to an application as long as the same data is available. For example, applications based on the API give tourists the opportunity to experience the city in a completely new way by suggesting, for example, interesting attractions, themed walks, and nearby services.
Better collaboration: When cities or even countries work together the success rate is higher. Collaborating across borders, cities gain access to a wider resource pool. The open distribution of costs, failures, and successes associated with city-wide technological adoption could dramatically reduce the cost and development time for new smart cities across the globe. API-enabled data exchange between cities makes an easier and faster route mutually prove a success, replicate, and enact new advancements.
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