The helicopter landed in a rush of air. I’d called emergency services just 10 minutes earlier, and the dispatcher told me that no vehicular ambulances were available in my area. Real-time traffic information helped personnel make a split-second decision to dispatch an air ambulance to my street corner. It airlifted my mom to the nearest hospital, preserving her life and her quality of life.
Examples like these, and so many more, have led to the global rise of digital cities — cities where data-driven decision making positively affects citizen outcomes. As their populations grow, cities are showing signs of stress in the form of congested streets and highways, rising crime rates, rapidly spreading disease, and a host of other challenges.
