Applications of Python in Urban Planning and Smart Cities: Some Recent Developments

Author(s): Dr. Saikat Dalui

Abstract:

A smart city is where integrated urban services with advanced infrastructure such as sensors, electronic devices, networks are available following strictly the norm of sustainability. For those services, it is crucial that the city's available infrastructure, land area, weather, climate, hydrology, and air quality are accurately and quickly modelled. By quantifying energy, water, and mass fluxes, among other things, various models can simulate interactions between the urban environment and citizens' infrastructure. Today Python is used extensively by the urban planners for data analyses and numerical modelling to implement and delivery of different services to their residents. Why Python? Because Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world, thanks to its simplified syntax that makes learning and using it very easy. Besides, it is also supported by a vast ecosystem of libraries and packages and is a powerful tool for customising architectural designs. Local government bodies like municipalities, as a component of 'smart city' endeavours and to enhance compatibility, are progressively integrating open-source software into their processes for data management, analysis, and visualization. In this paper we have documented few models/schemes based on python to automate processes and leverage real-time data for quick and informed decision-making for smart city. Those python-based schemes are mainly for identifying opportunities and scope of a project, analyzes available data of existing needs and policies in a given area/city for urban development mission.

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