# A Comprehensive Study of the Use of LoRa in the Development of Smart Cities
## 5 Discussion
### Social Contribution  
Smart cities promote spaces of participation for citizens and establish communication channels among citizens, city administration (e.g., medical, transportation, and energy departments), and city services (e.g., parking, traffic management, and welfare systems). The interaction city-citizen can be improved with IoT-LoRa solutions. This type of technology inclusion promotes new dynamics in the social behavior of people. In the context of energy, citizens could find alternatives to reduce their energy bills. To this goal, research proposals are focused on designing smart home solutions. Smart home solutions allow tracking electrical devices and controlling their energy consumption. In the environment subcategory, the information generated by IoT systems could be shown in open-data portals. In public transportation, citizens could know the waiting times for a transportation or route changes. In the subcategory of waste management, citizens could monitor the level of waste and know the availability of waste recollection systems.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c p{142.3 pt}} \hline \hline
**Smart City** & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**IoT Applications in Smart Cities**} \\ \hline Buenos Aires & Buenos Aires uses IoT to monitor parameters such as energy consumption, water level in reservoirs, and environmental conditions in 40 schools in the city. Another project is focused on measuring the flow of rivers to avoid flooding in nearby towns. \\  & Additionally, Buenos Aires makes use of IoT to create a scalable lighting system to make the city safer, more sustainable, and energy-efficient and to reduce light pollution [80; 81]. \\ \hline Amsterdam & Amsterdam has developed projects that use IoT focused on solving traffic-related problems by installing sensors that monitor the state of traffic flow and parking availability. Such solutions have reduced the time of searching available parking lots by 43\% [82]. \\ \hline Sao Paulo & Brazil has 400,000 connected devices and invests around 25 percent of Brazilian GDP. \\  & Several cities in Brazil, including Sao Paulo, have promoted the development of applications for the measurement of electrical energy, irrigation systems for farms, and sensorization of street lighting systems [83]. \\ \hline Zurich & Zurich considers the use of IoT-LoRa for projects such as (a) no bike left (to recover abandoned bikes), (b) detection of power distribution grid failure, and (c) real-time occupancy rate monitoring in public transportation [84]. \\ \hline Ottawa & In 2009, the city of Ottawa launched a digital storefront using a sensor structure. In addition, the city works with the Centre for Excellence in Next-Generation Networks (CENGN) to accelerate the inclusion of ICT in the city. CENGN provides an LPWAN infrastructure (i.e., an antenna and a gateway) to develop smart health, smart farming, and other applications [85; 86]. \\ \hline Beijing & Beijing invests around \$5 billion in IoT projects related to transportation and environmental management. Beijing’s Palace Museum uses IoT solutions to detect the movement of relics that may be associated with a robbery. Another problem that the city of Beijing seeks to solve with the use of IoT and cognitive computing is the reduction of smoke in the environment by installing several sensors to determine the sources of pollution [87]. \\ \hline Boston & Boston works on smart city projects related to autonomous vehicles, intelligent parking lots, and interactive public art. The city uses cameras and sensors to learn how people navigate and interact with the city streets of Boston [88]. \\ \hline Mexico & Mexico City seeks to strengthen the domains of governance, public management, and transportation. Mexico City tries to solve transportation and traffic problems by determining car flow patterns and delivering information of available parking spaces [89]. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 13: Short description of IoT applications in smart cities.