Ubi Zones

An *Ubi Zone* or *UbiComp Zone* is an area which possesses the full complement of modern interactive city services, with responsive sensor networks and AI systems running all roads, buildings, resources, services and maintenance.

Ubi Zones are *green* in the technological sense of the word. Here you’ll find driverless electric vehicles, smart buildings, drone-based delivery systems, solar power collectors, recycling systems, vertical farms, sustainably-landscaped parks and a host of automated public services, all using green technology, and all managed in an optimally-efficient manner by the *CitySystem* AI.

The Ubi Zones of Union City include the Central Business District, the Corporate Enclaves, and, to a lesser degree, the Corporate Projects. Ubi services in the Sprawls are often down or overloaded.

#### CBD & Enclaves

Nowhere are the city's amenities nicer or more advanced than in the CBD and Corporate Enclaves. A person transported to these districts from 100 years in the past would believe they'd arrived in a techno-utopia. Everything is automated, interactive, responsive, even predictive, from the driverless minibuses and hovering vehicles to the friendly advertisements that know your name and remember your interests.

#### Corporate Projects

In the Projects, systems are usually serviceable and generally of good quality, but you don’t often see the luxurious state-of-the-art amenities available in the Enclaves. Branded advertising in these districts is ubiquitous, shareable, and occasionally invasive.

#### Sprawls

By contrast, connectivity in the Sprawls is spotty, and city services are mostly limited to police and traffic control. Individual complexes or companies sometimes have local sensor networks and enough processing power to connect with CitySystem, but cannot provide the full compliment of city services.

#### Dynamic Data

In Ubi Zones, citizens can interface with *CitySystem* to view the entire city as the sum of its processes, witnessing how their own actions contribute to the city as a whole. CitySystem tracks, analyzes and displays information on traffic, crime, CO2, energy and water consumption, noise levels, air and water quality, waste disposal, recycling patterns, etc. By connecting with other home and personal devices, CitySystem can also monitor (and in some cases modulate) the health, finances, diet, social media presence, resource use, advertising exposure and entertainment selections of all connected citizens.

The aggregation and storage of city data takes place in the *CityCloud*, and is made available by the *Citizen’s Dashboard* app which can be accessed by all citizens. All resource systems can be monitored and controlled from the COC, or *Civic Operations Center*, located in the heart of the CBD downtown.

Dynamic data collection influences the activities that take place minute by minute in the city’s *Supply-Response System*. Needs are tracked in real-time, allowing people, energy and resources to be routed appropriately and conserved optimally. All resource-consuming activities – from your personal carbon footprint, to the energy efficiency of your home and office building, to the locations of available taxis or parking spaces – can be tracked and displayed instantly.

#### Distributed Access

*Tanya and her friends have finished attending a lecture, and are looking for something interesting to do for the for the rest of the day. They seek out one of the public kiosks placed at specific points in the city, all displaying information about different events taking place in the city. These screens are located near important monuments, in tourist information points, inside museums, or in public spaces accessible for the general public. Tanya and her friends can interact with the screens, using their mobile phones, personal computers or laptops to get more information about art in museums, city monuments, download virtual trips inside museums and access information in different languages. They can even find weather and traffic information or other services with information useful for planning the rest of their day.*

#### Ubi Buildings

Commercial buildings and housing developments in the Ubi Zones are “smart,” equipped with solar power and energy storage, as well as dedicated AI software systems that use sensors and meters to control and monitor everything from mechanical and electrical equipment to heating, ventilation, air conditioning and LED lighting both inside and out. Many possess vertical gardens and rooftop farms to provide food for their inhabitants.