IBM has been supporting smart city initiatives for several years. The following examples are compiled from Taft's slide show (eweek.com/cloud/ how-ibm-is-making-cities-smarter-worldwide).
• Minneapolis (United States). The initiative supports more effective decisions for the city's resource allocation. In addition, it aligns the operations of multiple departments working on the same project. IBM is providing AI-based pattern recognition algorithms for problem solving and performance improvement.
• Montpellier (France). IBM's software is helping the city in its initiatives of water manage-ment, mobility (transportation), and risk management (decision making). The rapidly growing city must meet the increasing demand for services. To do this efficiently, IBM provides data analysis and interpretation of activities, research institutions, and other partners in the region.
• Stockholm (Sweden). To reduce traffic problems, IBM technologies are optimally matching demands and supplies. The initiative uses sensors and IoT to alleviate the congestion problem.
• Dubuque (United States). Several initiatives were conducted for efficient use of resources (e.g., utilities) and management of transportation problems.
• Cambridge (Canada). The city is using IBM's "Intelligent Infrastructure Planning" for conducting business analytics and decision support technologies. Using AI-based algorithms, the city can make better decisions (e.g., repair or replace assets). In addition, IBM smart technologies help to improve project coordination.
• Lyon (France). Transportation management is a major project in any big city and a target for most smart city initiatives. Smart technologies provide transportation staff with effective real-time decision support tools. This helped reduce traffic congestion. Using predictive analytics, future problems can be forecasted, so, if they occur, they can be solved quickly.
• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). To manage and coordinate the operations of 30 city departments is a complex undertaking. IBM technologies support a central command center for the city that plans operations and handles emergencies in all areas.
• Madrid (Spain). To manage all its emergency situations (fire, police transportation, hospitals), the city created a central response center.
Data are collected by sensors, GPS, surveillance cameras, and so on. The center was created after Madrid's 2004 terrorist attack and is managed with the support of IBM smart technologies.
• Rochester (United States). The city police department is using IoT and predictive analysis to forecast when and where crimes is likely to be committed. This AI-based system has proven to be accurate in several other cities.
These examples illustrate the utilization of IBM's Smarter Cities framework in several areas by smart city initiatives. Note that IBM Watson is using IoT for many of its own projects.

Questions for Case 13.4
1. List the various services that are improved by IoT in a smart city.
2. How do the technologies support decision making?
3. Comment on the global nature of the examples.