Smart cities and hydroinformatics

This book chapter describes the evolutionary journey of cities with relevance to hydroinformatics: all the significant steps and advancement in technology from the primitive form of urbanization to the conceptualization and creation of modern smart cities. A smart city is characterized by the interaction between three conceptual components: technology, people and institutions assessed and developed through six distinct characteristics: economy, people, governance, mobility, environment and living. With the growing world population, the amount of clean and fresh water required in cities is increasing. Although water is part of critical urban infrastructure, many smart cities do not include smart water management in their visions. Hydroinformatics is the key link between smart cities and smart water management. It is a science that is not only about modeling and decisions support, but it also considers the social dimension of water cycle management, including social needs, concerns, and consequences. Hydroinformatics takes full advantage of the proliferation of remotely sensed information from space and ground-based sensors with increased capabilities in terms of spatial and temporal resolutions generated by the advancements in smart city technologies. Applications of hydroinformatics in the urban environment have increased in recent years. Smart cities technologies and infrastructures offer the potential of linking together all the aspects of the urban water cycle and can lead to the development of an integrated smart water cycle management.