# Cities Get Smarter with IBM’s Location-based Analytics

> Cities Get Smarter with IBM's Location-based Analytics:IBM is announcing Smarter Cities projects in Wilmington, N.C., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and new results from an IBM First-of-a-Kind Research project in Washington, D.C.   Increasingly, cities are using location-based technology to bring efficiency…
> URL: https://www.smartdatacollective.com/cities-get-smarter-ibms-location-based-analytics/
> Last modified: 2011-02-21T14:03:07+00:00

[Cities Get Smarter with IBM’s Location-based Analytics](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cities-get-smarter-with-ibms-location-based-analytics-117134818.html):

IBM is announcing Smarter Cities projects in Wilmington, N.C., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and new results from an IBM First-of-a-Kind Research project in Washington, D.C.  

Increasingly,  cities are using location-based technology to bring efficiency to their  operations and improve the customer experience. They are using IBM  software to get both a bird’s eye view of their city infrastructure —  roads, buildings and waterways — as well as insight into their  operations underground or on the street of the pipes, wires, street  lights, electrical meters, storm drains and other assets that make up a  city’s infrastructure. Some cities are using embedded sensors to detect  faulty pipes or broken streetlights to automatically generate a work  order for maintenance staff.

		
							
					
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“Cities around  the world are getting smarter everyday by monitoring and analyzing the  data in their streets, pipes and buildings,” said David Bartlett,  vice president of Industry Solutions, IBM. “IBM is delivering a new  level of intelligence that helps cities — big or small, new or old —  to gain more efficient, sustainable operations.”

			
				
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Cities around  the globe monitor and map their systems using IBM software with mapping  and geographic information software (GIS) from IBM business partner  Esri.  For example:

- With  digital history delivered in real-time to smart phones, workers in the  field can act quickly and efficiently to resolve — and even prevent —  problems by seeing exactly where a water main is, and its relationship  to other underground infrastructure.

- IBM analytics can uncover  hidden relationships such as pinpointing the cause of reoccurring issues  and pockets of inefficiency, such as one water main that causes  expansive seasonal flooding to prevent issues before they impact  service.  

- Repair crews address problems from a spatial  perspective such as optimizing the driving route of their service trucks  to reduce time on the road, prioritizing critical jobs and arming  themselves with the detailed history of infrastructure to speed repairs.