Smart City: Hoboken

As the first pilot of the Intelligent Governance of Large Urban Systems (IGLUS) initiative, the Smart City: Hoboken project will work with the City of Hoboken, NJ and service providers such as NJ Transit, Port Authority of NY/NJ, PSEG, and others to establish Hoboken as a Smart city.

Extensive sensor networks will be installed all over the city and residents with smart phones will be enlisted to help monitor the state of the city’s traffic, energy consumption, telecommunication, city services, emergency services, infrastructures, parks, safety, and environmental sustainability. As of now, hundreds of sensors have been purchased for this project and discussions are under way with city officials to start the implementation of the project by 2012.

In the United States, IGLUS will collaborate with industry partners in embedding intelligence into the infrastructure and services provided to the residents of Hoboken and establish a joint data center with the city’s government (mayor’s office and city council), which will be located on the Stevens campus. To this end, the initiative has already acquired an array of sensors and enabling technologies and is in the process of establishing partnerships with the industry and Hoboken city government. The availability of the information will help citizens make better choices to achieve increased sustainability and allow the city and county governments to make better short and long-term decisions with regards to urban services planning. The goal of this case study is to develop the fundamental architecture and processes for intelligent urban governance, which can be applied to other cities in the future.