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Big Data Makes Cities Smarter
Facts
In 2013, the Center for Urban Science and Progress was opened in New York. Its main objectives are to improve the quality of life of the residents and the efficiency of the public and municipal services. The Center collects data as to the existing problems and enables the required improvements. The data is collected by means of the placement of sensors and cameras, the use of mobile apps that allow the citizens to report the issues, and, possibly, the engagement of the social networks. The city of Barcelona also employs smart city initiatives. Among the issues tracked by the initiatives is the consumption of resources, city planning and zoning, urban decay, and noise pollution. The projects produce positive results but are likely to result in privacy violation claims from the residents.
Key Issues
The key issues of the case are the optimization of various aspects of the “smart city” initiatives such as the problem of data access and use, in a combination of possible privacy violation concerns because some footages recorded by the multiple cameras around the city may contain private information the residents would not want to share. Besides, one more set of issues is the processing of data and the provision of a speedy response to the collected information. Finally, the data collection is another problem as the “smart city” initiatives’ leaders offer using social networks as the sources of public opinions, and these sources are not always reliable as the basis for policymaking.
Alternative Courses of Action
To address the privacy concerns of the “smart city” initiatives one may use various courses of action. The first alternative course of action is to provide the data access to all of the users and ensure equality of sharing (for instance, to enable all the drivers to see what the drivers around them are doing, and with what speed they are going). The second alternative is to hide the data from public use and only enable the authorized services to access it (the police, for example). The third alternative is to reveal a part of the data helpful for the users (for example, show the speed of the other cars but not the “driver states” such as texting or holding a cup or looking away).
Evaluation of Course of Action
Showing the drivers the information about the other cars would reduce the likeliness of road accidents. However, it may serve an additional concern for the drivers in terms of distraction. For instance, while checking whether all the drivers have eyes on the road and follow the speed limits, an individual looks away and endangers themself and the others. Besides, seeing what the other drivers are doing may become a reason for aggression and violent behaviors on the road and increase the rates of accidents instead of minimizing it. Providing access to the data only to the authorized services will allow them to have better control over the city roads but also will deprive the drivers of better awareness.
Best Course of Action
The access to “driver states” should be granted to the police only so that they could monitor and prevent potential accidents and issue the traffic and speed limit violation tickets quicker and more accurately. This course of action will ensure the protection of the drivers’ privacy and prevent the attacks based on the personal actions of certain individuals made visible to many drivers around.
“Smart City” Considerations
Technologies New York and Barcelona are employing to run cities efficiently
New York gathers data from all around the city concerning various aspects of the quality of life of the citizens (noise pollution, water consumption, urban decay, traffic, city planning, to name a few). The data is collected involving the researchers, public service agencies, as well as the residents. The collection is enabled via mobile applications. In Barcelona, the technologies are employed to optimize the operations of the public services (sensors on the trash cans) and to reduce the consumption of resources such as electricity and water.
Issues that should be addressed by “smart city” initiatives
First of all, the technology issue of smart city initiatives involves the storage of large amounts of data (terabytes of data are gathered and sent every day). Secondly, the processing of such huge amounts of data and organization of the results into the plans for action requires smart approaches that would address the problem of time taken to act on the recorded events. Finally, the growing number of cameras and sensors in the cities calculating every move of every resident is likely to be perceived as a privacy violation.
Problems solved by “smart cities” and drawbacks
The “smart cities” successfully address such problems as the optimization of the work of the public services through automated data collection; they also manage to reduce the consumption of water and electricity, provide better connectivity of the areas, and minimize urban decay. The drawbacks of the initiative are the potential privacy violation claims possible in the future and the need for policies in terms of the interpretation of the results recorded by the sensors and cameras.
Decisions that would be improved in a “smart city”
The four decisions that require improvement in the “smart city” are a) the clarification of the users by whom data about the vehicle speed and the “driver states” will be shared; b) the interpretation of the data by the law enforcement (for instance, automatic traffic violation tickets should be given under a set of conditions); c) the footage from the street cameras should be only available to the users who have permission to watch it (security, law enforcement); d) the speed with which the data is processed for quicker decision and policymaking.
Use of social media data to improve the delivery of municipal services
If social media data were used for the improvement of the municipal workers and public services, it would likely result in some progress and quality growth. However, the data on social media can be easily framed or fabricated resulting in inaccurate decisions and changes. Some services or institutions may be negatively affected by such an approach. I do not believe it is wise to base responsible decisions on the data from social media.
How Much Does Data-Driven Planting Help Farmers?
Facts
Just like most of the modern industries, farming and agriculture are heavily affected by the technologies (GPS navigation for combines and tractors, programmed and computer-controlled fertilizing and irrigation). The technologies increase the cost-effectiveness of the operations. One of the most recent ideas in farming technologies is prescriptive planting (based on data about soil condition, fertility, climate, and seed performance, the farmer would receive recommendations as to the techniques to increase their crop output. The recommendations are then loaded into the software responsible for planting.
Key Issues
The problem with prescriptive farming is that the companies that analyze the data about fields and seeds and provide the recommendations may be biased. They could attempt to steer the farmers to plant more and to use certain brands of fertilizers and seeds. Also, the data provided by the farms may be abused (Wall Street bets manipulations) or sold to the competitors. Besides, some farmers are worried that big data may disrupt their businesses and operations. There is also a possibility that the new purchase strategies of the farms may facilitate the growth of the seed prices.
Alternative Course of Action
The seed prices have already increased, and the revenues from seed sales have grown for the two companies who are involved in both seed sales and prescriptive planting recommendations. One action may be for the government to issue a policy that forbids the wholesalers of seed to engage in planting recommendations due to bias. Another action is for the farmers to protect their data from spies and to secure their contracts with the prescriptive planting companies to avoid the misuse of data.
Evaluation
It may make sense to regulate the prescriptive planting and avoid the monopolization of the market by a few companies that push their products and produce adverse impacts on smaller farms or seed wholesalers and brands. After all, prescriptive planting is done for a purpose to maximize revenues due to the increased efficiency of the planters. However, the advantage is likely to be erased by increased seed prices. Also, the farmers are to protect the data they do not have to share for the recommendations and make sure that their information is secure with the prescriptive planting companies.
Best Course of Action
Prescriptive planting is a massive happening, and soon it will become difficult to stay away from. The farmers should not be worried to use this technology. However, they need to be careful using it because the information the farms provide to the prescriptive planting companies is rather valuable and needs to be secured properly.
Predictive Planting Considerations
Technologies used in the case study
The main technology mentioned in the case study is called prescriptive planting. It allows farmers to increase their crop output and revenues. The companies specialized in the prescriptive planting use the data about the soil composition, climate, seed performance, and fertility history to generate recommendations as to the future planting that is loaded into specialized software that creates the program of planting making it more effective and maximizing the crop output.
Provision of operational intelligence by the described systems
The technology uses two types of intelligence – the data collected from the farmers about their experience with the land, and the data about soil in their region, climatic conditions, and seed performance collected from other sources. Based on these variables, the companies are able to project which seed types would generate the best crop outcomes under the given climatic and soil conditions.
Predictive planting in support of decision-making
The recommendations as to planting strategies facilitate the decision-making process of the farms. Some of the decisions it helps to make include: a) the choice of the seed type and brand the most suitable for their soil; b) the amount of fertilizer required to stimulate better crop output; c) the techniques used to manage and support the crops while they grow.
Benefits of predictive planting for individual farmers and the agricultural industry
In terms of crop outputs, prescriptive planning is very helpful, and it allows maximizing the efficiency of the farms. However, the bigger picture shows that the use of technology resulted in the rapid increase in seed prices which puts smaller farms out of competition and moves the market towards the monopolization by the prescribers. In general, it does not seem to be a helpful technology in the long term.
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