Big data is an intangible means of production in the information society, and its concept has been interpreted in various ways by different sectors of society. However, many people are unclear about the relationship between big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and smart cities. Zhao Ying, Technical Director of the IoT Industry Application Division of Tongfang, provides a detailed explanation in this regard.
In simple terms, the relationship between big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and smart cities is as follows: the development of big data stems from the application of IoT technology and supports the development of smart cities. IoT technology, as an extension of internet applications, is currently in a phase of rapid development. IoT is the foundation of smart cities, but the scope of smart cities is much broader than that of IoT; the metrics for measuring smart cities are reflected in big data, and big data promotes the development of smart cities; IoT is a catalyst for the generation of big data, and big data originates from IoT applications.
China has entered the era of big data.
Some say big data has arrived, but only in the US, not China. Tongfang, a company specializing in government data management, believes that while China's understanding of big data is generally not as deep or differs from that of the US, it cannot be denied that China has entered the big data era. Many Chinese ministries are now researching and utilizing big data. The US has elevated big data to a national strategy, while China hasn't explicitly stated it, but it has already placed it on par with national defense, with multiple ministries jointly issuing incentive measures. The Chinese government's sensitivity to big data is rapidly increasing, and it is taking measures. Therefore, China has entered the big data era, and this emphasis is being disseminated from the government level down, perhaps not yet reaching the general public, but governments at all levels are paying close attention. Academician Wu Hequan also stated, "my country will generate the world's largest amount of data, and we must attach importance to the development, utilization, and management of big data."
The key to big data lies in sharing. A bottleneck in the development of smart cities in my country is the information silo effect. Government departments are unwilling to disclose and separate data, resulting in data fragmentation and hindering the generation of deep data value. Some government departments are aware of this problem and have begun to seek solutions, driven by their own needs. For example, some government departments that were previously unwilling to share their data are now seeking data exchange partners because they are gradually realizing that isolated data cannot achieve maximum effectiveness, and inter-departmental data exchange has become a development trend. At the same time, with the development of various aspects and the advancement of policies, much previously undisclosed data is gradually becoming public, which strongly supports the development of big data.
Internet of Things (IoT) technology drives the development of big data
Regarding the significance of the Internet of Things (IoT) for big data, Zhao Ying cited an example to illustrate how IoT technology advances big data. Following the devastating 7.21 rainstorm in Beijing last year, the government implemented numerous solutions. A key example was the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission's swift establishment of a special fund to enhance the emergency management capabilities and information technology infrastructure of the affected Fangshan and Mentougou districts. Tongfang participated in the Mentougou project, helping to improve its early warning capabilities. Tongfang upgraded and improved Mentougou's existing emergency platform. For instance, in water level monitoring, water level gauges were installed under some key overpasses. When the water level reaches a certain level, an early warning is issued, allowing relevant departments to take appropriate measures. This is an application of IoT technology.
What is the relationship between IoT technology and big data? As the number of water level gauges increases, more data is collected, making it easier to discover patterns and issue early warnings—a natural consequence of using big data technologies. With fewer gauges, the data volume is insufficient, only solving a portion of the problem. Therefore, because of the IoT, with the increasing number of big data points, the analysis of real-time data becomes essential. Data mining, originally focused on historical data, is now increasingly centered on real-time data, demonstrating that IoT technology is driving the development of big data-related technologies.
Big data supports the development of smart cities
Urban operational indicators are quantified through data, but this data is scattered across various government departments. Tongfang's responsibility is to collect relevant data on urban operational indicators from these departments, help urban managers to summarize and analyze the data, and ultimately manage the quantitative forms of urban indicators, i.e., various types of data, for use by government managers.
Every decision made by government departments requires long-term research, and the research data comes from the long-term accumulation of government and city operations. The rapid development of government informatization has generated hundreds of terabytes of data. However, data itself has no meaning; only after systematic analysis can its value be realized. Every detail of a smart city generates massive amounts of data, and the operational foundation of a smart city also relies on in-depth analysis of big data.
On the surface, big data appears as a static collection of data, but its essence is a dynamic process of deriving patterns from complex data analysis. Government departments themselves haven't undertaken this task, which necessitates support from enterprises. Tongfang recognized the crucial role of big data in urban operations and chose the government as its entry point—a requirement of current developments and a unique aspect of Tongfang's big data strategy. It's worth noting that Tongfang's big data does not participate in government decision-making; it merely provides data support. It uses data to visually represent relationships between business processes, depict urban development changes and trends, analyze and summarize existing urban problems, and assist government decision-making.
The management of urban operational indicators also requires the impetus of big data. When reflecting urban operational indicators, big data does not need to understand the main business and operational processes of urban departments. Simply from a data perspective, after analysis by computer software, patterns can be derived from the data. These patterns are unrelated to business operations or results, but they fully reflect the correlations between data points. Driving the development of urban operational indicators from a big data perspective is a purely computer-driven operational model that can eliminate human intervention in the early stages of decision-making. The advantage of this is the quantification and standardization of operations.
Regarding the development of big data, the Internet of Things, and smart cities, Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and head of the State Council's Internet of Things Leading Group, once offered a profound statement: The journey from the Internet of Things to big data and then to smart cities is a process of "investigating things to acquire knowledge," achieving "unity of knowledge and action" through analysis and decision-making.
Smart cities benefit everyone
Smart cities driven by big data affect everyone's life. The most common example is weather forecasts. Previously, weather forecasts only predicted the weather, but now they provide much more information, such as meteorological indices, air pollution indices, clothing recommendations, driving safety indices, and even whether it's conducive to exercise, and its impact on hairstyles and makeup. This is a smart life that ordinary people can directly experience. In the future, education, transportation, and all aspects of people's lives will become smarter. In education, we can look to the US approach. Every university in the US displays its college acceptance rate, employment rate, and graduates' annual salaries equally and truthfully, providing valuable data support for students choosing schools and majors. In transportation, how to streamline urban traffic, how to find parking spaces, and which mode of transportation is more convenient and safer are all aspects of the future of smart cities.
When discussing the future development of smart cities, Zhao Ying stated: Smart cities originate from smart decision-making, and smart decision-making originates from human wisdom. When everyone is wise, a city will also become wise.
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