Making Smart and Accessible Cities

An Urban Model based on the Design of Intelligent Environments

Raquel Pérez-delHoyo

, Clara García-Mayor

, Higinio Mora-Mora

, Virgilio Gilart-Iglesias

and

María Dolores Andújar-Montoya

Department of Building Sciences and Urbanism, University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig – Alicante, Spain

Specialized Processors Architecture Laboratory, Department of Computer Technology and Computation,

University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig – Alicante, Spain

Keywords: Smart Cities, Inclusive Cities, Sustainable Cities, Accessibility, Intelligent Environments, Smart Sensors,

Technology-Aided Urban Design.

Abstract: Improving citizens' quality of life is one of the main goals of Smart Cities development. Accessibility of

urban public spaces absolutely determines the living conditions for people. Technology provides new

opportunities of autonomy for an increasing group of inhabitants with specific disabilities. This work

proposes an urban model for improving accessibility based on the design of intelligent environments, with

the automation of processes and functions in urban spaces, as a safe and effective way to promote inclusion

and participation of all citizens. Finally, the most appropriate technologies to implement the model are

discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION

Over the last decade, the extraordinary development

of Information and Communication Technology

—ICT— is transforming both: the way we

communicate with others and how we relate to the

environment (Townsend, 2013). Constantly, new

technologies provide us with information on the

living context, mainly in the cities in which we live.

They offer us new and better opportunities to

interact and participate at urban environment,

substantially improving mobility and liveability of

cities (Dodgson and Gann, 2011).

Elderly and people with disabilities, among other

groups, are at the greatest risk of being excluded

from technological development but they are also

the most favoured by the impact of ICT in

improving their standard of living. ICT are enabling

move forward achieving personal autonomy, greatly

reducing dependency situations, as never before had

it been possible.

Technologies have much to offer, targeting the

constraints on universal design. Urban environments

are the scenes where can be achieved autonomy

levels much higher than the mere barrier-free

construction allows.

Thus, technological developments should not be

excluded from urban accessibility solution

proposals. It is imperative to implement innovative

technology solutions, preferably integrated into the

functioning of cities, able to facilitate participation

in urban life for people with the greatest difficulties

of development (Macagnano, 2008).

In this way, universal accessibility finds an

optimal scene of opportunity in the context of Smart

Cities (Neirotti et al., 2014).

This work is structured as follows: Section 2

describes the motivation and objectives. Section 3

gives an overview of the related work on urban

actions and technology used to improve accessibility

in cities. Section 4 explains the proposed urban

model for improving accessibility. In addition, the

most appropriate technologies to implement the

model are discussed. Finally, in Section 5, some

conclusions are drawn.

2 MOTIVATION AND

OBJECTIVES

Smart Cities are a concept of urban design

proposals, characterized by the research of active

Pérez-delHoyo, R., García-Mayor, C., Mora-Mora, H., Gilart-Iglesias, V. and Andújar-Montoya, M.

Making Smart and Accessible Cities - An Urban Model based on the Design of Intelligent Environments.

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2016), pages 63-70

ISBN: 978-989-758-184-7

participation in achieving sustainable development

through an intelligent, efficient and rational

management —without harming the environment—

of infrastructure, urban services and resources;

focused in improving the quality of life of the

citizens. All this, based on widespread use of ICT

(Angelidou, 2014). The level of accessibility of

urban streets and public spaces absolutely affects the

citizens' standard of living and limits their

possibilities of relationship and social integration.

Accessibility is an element of quality of life of

universal interest and a right of all citizens (United

Nations, 2006), therefore, implementing proper

urban design solutions becomes one of the main

challenges of the Smart Cities.

In this context, our research delves in the design

of intelligent environments as a safe and effective

way to promote inclusion and participation of all

citizens. Thus, Smart Cities concept can make the

most of their human capital (Cossetta and Palumbo,

2014); a key to guarantee and optimize their future

development at the present time.

The World Health Organization estimates that

more than a 1,000 million people in the world live

with some form of disability; about 15% of the

world population in 2010 (World Health

Organization, 2011). In the context of the European

Union, one out of six people has a mild to severe

disability, which means that over 80 million people,

more or less often stop participating in social and

economic life. More than a third of people over age

75 suffers some type of disability (Eurostat, 2015).

In addition, we are facing unprecedented

demographic changes due to general aging of the

world population, which suggests that these figures

will increase. Therefore, it is urgent to rethink

environments, maximizing the opportunities offered

by technologies; so that, they are actually accessible

and respond to XXI century's social needs (Reeves,

2005).

Our proposal is also part of the objectives of the

European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 (European

Commission, 2010a), developed in the framework of

the strategy Europe 2020 (European Commission,

2010b). To this end, we propose to implement, in the

planning under the Smart Cities concept, a model of

integrated technologies which offered a set of

automated processes that could adapt a specific

urban space conditions to each user needs. Our main

objective is to research and propose some design

guidelines for really smart and inclusive

environments through the implementation of a

sustainable technological model, without excessive

cost and respectful with the environment.

Considering that currently over 50% of the world

population lives in cities, and this proportion

continues increasing (Vojnovic 2014), we believe

that improving urban accessibility, taking into

account social diversity, are not only an essential

issue, but also a priority one, in order to confer cities

the quality of smart.

3 RELATED WORK

3.1 Integrated Technologies in Cities

for Improving Urban Accessibility

Inside the context of Smart Cities, the field of

management of urban basic services and including

transport, has been the one that have developed

technological processes (Riva, 2014). Beyond this

field, the presence of technology is not so evident in

urban areas. Current urban design incorporates such

passive technologies that configure the urban setting

—i.e. non-slip flooring or standard curb ramps—.

Another type of technology is that one introduce by

each citizen —wheelchairs, prostheses or implants,

assistive devices such as canes or walkers— known

as autonomous technology. Furthermore, active

technologies are those that endow spaces the smart

category, but they have been developed more inside

buildings than in urban environments. However, the

combination of both types of technology, passive

and active, are necessary to improve the accessibility

of cities.

In some cases, individually, active technologies

have been incorporated into the elements of street

furniture, in order to develop different functions. For

instance, to organize pedestrian and vehicular traffic

flow, automatic bollards are arranged. This elements

can stay or hide allowing the passage of vehicles or

not. They can also be driven by remote control, by

authorized people and even can work in connection

with traffic lights. Another device to inform about

the time that pedestrians have to cross the traffic

routes, traffic lights that emit sound and light signals

can also be operated with remote control. Thus, the

times of the acoustic signal can be adjusted at the

beginning and end of the action and it is only

activated in the presence of the person with visual

impairment. Remote controls and other mobile

devices can also receive information from other

transmitters, for example: about a particular route

guidance or on the nearest accessible transport.

Also, to accommodate the use of mechanical

stairs to the needs of different people, mechanisms

to transform several rungs on a platform have been

SMARTGREENS 2016 - 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems

incorporated. Other mechanical ramps also have

devices to stop and activate the operation, as well as

systems of audible, tactile and visual warning.

Additionally, the snapshot must considered: exterior

lifts with accessible cabins, automatic opening

doors, that are mechanisms already integrated. It

must be considered also other lifting equipment such

as: platforms attached to stairs that by crushing,

automatically stop; or platforms located even under

stairs that are collected to allow their use when

required by people with disabilities.

In connection with some of the technologies

described, proposals based on the detection of

people with disabilities to implement devices for

facilitating their actions, occasionally have also been

implemented in cities. Such is the case of some

acoustic traffic lights or some pedestrian crossings,

which have incorporated sensors or cameras capable

of detecting the crossing intention to activate light

signals to alert drivers; there have also provided

sensors to inform real-time availability of parking;

or even containers that activate automatic opening

system for easy use when identifying people with

disabilities. Although these individual proposals are

not yet sufficiently implemented in cities.

3.2 Accessibility Enhanced by

Information and Communications

Technology —ICT—

The development of Technology of Information and

Communications Society contributes to new

opportunities for improving accessibility in modern

cities. The concepts of smart and ubiquitous cities

make use of processing technologies, sensing and

communications to provide knowledge and

intelligence to the city (Yigitcanlar, 2014) while

offering connectivity resources, power supply and

interoperability (Jackson et al, 2011). These

conditions facilitate the deployment of smart

interconnected elements that provide services to

citizens for efficient decision-making and make

better use of resources (Neirotti et al., 2014). For

example, interactive street maps that display in real

time elements of interest, or automatic identification

and traffic management (Mora-Mora et al., 2015a).

The use of technology to improve urban

accessibility has been traditionally associated with

information accessible proceedings to the citizens.

Public administrations keep a large number of web

applications on accessibility of places according to

the user's position mainly based on the calculation of

proximity relationships and intensities of use (Comai

et al, 2015). The position and location on the map

are normally obtained by combining Global

Positioning Systems —GPS— and Geographic

Information Systems —GIS—. Their services allow

us to locate nearby resources and to plan itineraries

(Ford et al., 2015). Disability is taken into account

showing different routes and route times for people

with and without disabilities. However, the main

challenge of these systems is the evaluation of

resources and the analysis of their dynamics of use

to know if the urban environments that result from

actions to improve accessibility are used or they

cease to be used at some point (Church and Marston,

2003). To get this information, it is need to know the

habits of city movement paths for citizens with and

without disabilities. In this way, this information is

relevant to identify potential mobility difficulties

and to plan on necessary corrective actions (Gilart-

Iglesias et al., 2015). A study of this type has been

made in the public transport system in London

(Ferrari et al., 2014).

Locating and tracking people is an issue of great

interest as evidenced by the volume of research on

the subject (Mora-Mora et al., 2015b). In fact, there

is some concern among users and the authorities

about maintaining the privacy of individuals due to

the large number of devices connected at the users'

hands (Isaak, 2014). There are many benefits to

design cities that are obtained from the knowledge

of the habits of movement of citizens, for example,

to plan transportation lines, decide strategic situation

for urban utilities, or public safety.

4 PROPOSAL OF AN URBAN

MODEL FOR IMPROVING

ACCESSIBILITY

From individual proposals which have been

described in the previous section, this work outlines

an urban model of integrated technologies, able to

identify a pedestrian need in a specific city space

context, and manage a number of processes, in order

to facilitate an effective adaptation for this person.

The proposed model presents, as major

innovation, its ability to be integrated in the

everyday functioning of Smart Cities system; as well

as, its working capacity to improve access for people

with disabilities to urban contexts in a personalized

way. Thus, intelligent urban environments are those

that can be adapted to people with disabilities, and

not vice versa, as with the exclusive or majority use

of autonomous technologies, which are introduced in

the city by the citizens themselves.

Making Smart and Accessible Cities - An Urban Model based on the Design of Intelligent Environments

4.1 Conceptualization of the Model

Concepts that have served as the basis for designing

the model, and are used with a specific meaning in

this work, are defined as follows:

 Urban situation is understood by the set of

factors affecting the development of people in

a particular time and urban context.

 Urban context is understood by the physical

environment or the situation in which people

develop an action or everyday urban activity;

such as crossing a street.

 Urban element is understood by each of the

parts or components that may be involved in an

urban context; such as traffic lights or a traffic

signal at a pedestrian crossing.

Basically, the model proposed allows urban

elements involved in a specific urban context, in

certain urban situations where people with a

particular type of disability are detected, can set in

motion their own automated processes to

accommodate the particular needs of those people.

4.1.1 Urban Situations

Obviously, there is a close relationship between the

different urban situations that can be generated in

the city and the forms of disability that people may

suffer. Therefore, the model has been designed from

the differentiation of these forms of disability that

determine the different urban situations.

The World Health Organization considers the

concept of disability as a comprehensive term

comprising impairments, and activity limitations and

restrictions participation. According to this idea,

which is developed in the International

Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

—ICF— (World Health Organization, 2001), it has

been done a selection of different forms of disability,

related to different urban situations. As a result,

Figure 1 shows the forms of disability which have

been taken into account in designing the model, as

well as the process for their determination.

4.1.2 Urban Contexts and Urban Elements

Similarly, diverse urban contexts, encompassing all

the elements which define public space, have been

taken into account when developing the model. The

manual: Accessibility for the Disabled: A Design

Manual for a Barrier Free Environment (United

Nations enable, 2003) provided by the United

Nations, has been a basic reference for this task.

Table 1 shows the set of urban contexts which

has served the basis for designing the model and the

urban elements associated with each of these

contexts. In addition, every urban context is

accompanied by a brief description of the main

problems encountered by people with disabilities.

Figure 1: Forms of disability taken into account in designing the model. Source: Own preparation based on International

Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health —ICF—.

SMARTGREENS 2016 - 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems

Table 1: Proposed Urban Model for Improving Accessibility. They are indicated by (*) actions that need to be requested by

people with disabilities. Source: Own preparation.

Urban contexts

—Problem identification—

Urban elements

Barriers and Hindrances → Facilitators

Pedestrian crossings

—Lack of safety and personal

autonomy to cross—

Traffic lights Disabled people are given the right of way

The crossing time interval is extended according to the

needs of individual people

Both visual and acoustic or vibration signals are provided

during the crossing

Pedestrian crossing signs Drivers are given flashing light signals (in the absence of

traffic lights)

Disabled people are given flashing light signals

Lack of curb ramps Mechanical ramps as a transition between the pavement

and the street are driven (*)

Street lighting Street lighting intensity is increased

Keep clear areas

—Lack of safety to cross keep

clear areas which interrupt the

path of travel on pavements—

Keep clear areas signs Disabled people are given flashing light signals when the

garage door is open

Additional acoustic or vibration signals are provided

Street lighting Street lighting intensity is increased

Roadwork zones, maintenance

works and other constructions

—Lack of safety around

temporary obstructions within

the path of travel—

Warning signs Flashing light signals are provided

Additional acoustic or vibration signals are provided

Indication signs with

alternative routes

Voice messages are provided (*)

Street lighting Street lighting intensity is increased

Access to public buildings

—Improper or inexistent

transition between the

pavement and the public

building entrances—

Stairs Retractable stairs and platform lift are driven (*)

(in case of space and architectural image problems)

Steps and other small

differences of level

Mechanical ramps as a transition between the pavement

and the building entrance are driven (*)

Automatic doors People are detected and doors are opened

Lack of curb ramps near

public buildings

Mechanical ramps as a transition between the street and

the pavement are driven near the public buildings (*)

Street furniture

—Street furniture and facilities

are not accessible for all.

Obstructed pathways—

Hindrances (in general) Acoustic or vibration signals are provided and are

intensified with proximity

Garbage bins They are automatically opened and closed

An additional automatic opening on the ground is driven

Postboxes A bigger slot is automatically opened

Ticket vending machines Voice messaging systems are available (*)

Street lighting Street lighting intensity is increased

Signage

—Signage is not effective for

all—

City information signage Personalized information is displayed on digital signage

Information about accessible routes is displayed on digital

signage

Voice messaging systems are available (*)

Warning signs Additional acoustic or vibration signals are provided

Additional flashing light signals are provided

Street lighting Street lighting intensity is increased

Public transports stops

Bus stops

—Lack of synchronicity in

actions for more effective use

of public transport—

Information panels and

displays (on routes, bus

stops, arrival times…)

Voice messaging systems are available (*)

Waiting area Disabled people are detected and bus drives are advised

to prepare assistive devices to access

Parking areas

—Lack of accessibility.

Improper use of parking

spaces—

Lack of curb ramps between

parking

areas and pavements

Mechanical ramps as a transition are driven (*)

Bollards / Access control

equipment

Disabled people are detected and bollards allow them

access to the parking

Information displays (on free

parking

spaces, traffic flows)

Voice messaging systems are available (*)

Making Smart and Accessible Cities - An Urban Model based on the Design of Intelligent Environments

According to the ICF, urban elements are

considered external factors that can have a negative

or positive influence on the development of

individuals. Therefore, the proposed urban model is

designed to implement the necessary automated

processes, associated with each urban element in

relation with different type of disabilities, in order to

improve its effects on individuals and enabling it to

act as facilitator element. A context with barriers, or

without facilitators, limits the participation of the

individual, comparing with other contexts where the

inclusion of facilitators increase it. In this regard, the

city can limit the participation of citizens both:

creating barriers and not providing facilitators. The

main target of the urban design model proposed, is

to provide enhanced solutions in order to reduce and

prevent these situations, maximizing ICT potential.

Most of the processes covered by the model are

done automatically by detecting the presence of

people with disabilities. Several processes may be

associated with a single urban element in order to

facilitate different situations to different people.

However, certain actions —shown in Table 1 with

(*)— have been designed to be necessary demand

by disabled people before starting functioning.

4.2 Types of Intelligent Environments

In respect on specific improvements on accessibility

introduced by this model, it must be emphasized the

ability to configure two types of intelligent

environments: those that increase the options of

movement and personal development; and, those

that decrease personal insecurity problems.

Integrated urban aids in Smart Cities offer citizens

new opportunities and facilities for movement and

participation. They decrease the insecurity problems

in the use of urban spaces and provide information

to citizens related to different environments, adding

additional safety to their actions.

Finally, to show the possibilities of the proposed

model, the simulation of specific cases in real urban

environments is proposed. Figure 2 shows three

possible scenarios or urban situations. By the time

that people with disabilities are detected trying to

access to a specific urban context, urban elements

involved in this context are informed to initiate

automatic mechanisms and processes to facilitate

their use and helping to improve environment

accessibility.

Figure 2: Simulation of specific cases in real urban environments that show the possibilities of the proposed model. Source:

Own preparation.

SMARTGREENS 2016 - 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems

4.3 Discussion on Appropriated

Technologies to Implement the

Model

The main technology to know the position and infer

the movement in an accurate manner is GPS.

However, only the use of GPS has disadvantages to

consider. The first one, it is related with the fact that

this technology only works outdoors and, therefore,

impedes the design of valid comprehensive solutions

for any scenario. Another aspect to consider, related

to the users, is the circumstance that they should

allow their devices to inform their position to a

third-party application (Chen, 1999). Finally,

although the GPS functionality is present in many

mobile devices, most of the time is off because of

the energy it requires.

Other wireless communication technologies such

as Global System for Mobile communication

—GSM— or local area wireless computer

networking —WIFI— and Worldwide

Interoperability for Microwave Access —WiMax—,

can also take advantage of the high penetration rate

of mobile devices in modern societies. These

networks are not designed for tracking and tracing

process, but, by the time that base stations are aware

of the presence of connected devices, it could be

calculated their route from one station to another

(Clarke and Wigan, 2011). However, they also

present some problems of implementation. First, the

accuracy for tracking tasks may not be sufficient. To

overcome this disadvantage, redundant infrastructure

that allows triangulate positions accurately at each

time, must be installed. Another problem is related

to privacy, since a unique identification of the device

occurs and can lead to knowledge of its user.

Finally, they require continuous power consumption

and mobile devices must be active even when users

are not using them.

A recent diffusion technology are the Bluetooth

Low Energy —BLE— beacons that allow

communicate with mobile user devices (Gomez et

al., 2012). These systems require little energy to

operate but also require the authorization of the

citizen to access their mobile (Talasila et al., 2015).

Other alternatives tracking such as video

surveillance cameras circuits, Closed-circuit

television —CCTV— cameras, have serious

technical difficulties to implement automatic

tracking methods and can cause a strong effect of

rejection by invading the privacy of people.

An alternative to the above methods is

—RFID— Radio Frequency Identification

technology (Ni et al., 2011). This technology is

playing an increasingly important role in the design

of user-centric applications, both indoors and

outdoors scenes. Currently, new mobile devices are

equipped with RFID readers. In addition, a great

display of RF tags among users, distributed in

multiple formats, such as prepaid plastic cards,

tickets, electronic keys and even clothing labels.

Several investigations seek to use this technology

for tracking people. The works have been done both

in indoor (Xiong et al., 2013) and outdoor

environments (Lin et al., 2010). The information

collected allows knowing the patterns of movement

of people through the studied scenarios and

designing strategies to improve user satisfaction.

Thus, RFID technology overcomes the

disadvantages of GPS methods on user cooperation

and energy costs. However, the scope of this

technology is not comparable to the GPS, which

coverage since it depends on the position of the

antennas and their scope. This tracking method does

not get exactly the position of the user, but the

position of the RF antennas located along the scenes,

so that, the received information should be

processed to obtain the effective route.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The urban model proposed enables the

implementation of various automated processes

associated with the functioning of different urban

elements. All of them are involved in specific

contexts and to diverse urban situations, that is,

when a person with a particular type of disability is

detected trying to develop an action in a specific

context. Thus, the spaces that form the city become

more kind and intelligent and are capable of

providing a wide range of actions to people with

difficulties who need it.

In summary, our proposal is presented as an

essential model of integrated technologies. First, by

becoming part of the urban environment and the

global system which Smart City is, in some way

improving its current technological weakness as

accessibility solutions provider. And secondly, to

encourage and promote the design of intelligent and

accessible solutions, capable of fostering autonomy

and independence of people with disabilities, with

the added value and appeal of having this action-

detection technology available in urban

environments.

This is an open urban model which should be

further developed to respond to new real demands of

society in the short, medium and long term.

Making Smart and Accessible Cities - An Urban Model based on the Design of Intelligent Environments

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the Association for Integration of

Mentally Ill in Alicante and Province —AIEM—,

and the Association of People with Cerebral Palsy in

Alicante —APCA— "Infanta Elena" Centers, their

support as the Observing Promoter of this project.

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SMARTGREENS 2016 - 5th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems