It’s no secret massive waste pervades the health-care industry. Some of that waste stems from unnecessarily complex interactions between doctors, patients, and insurance companies. By making the entire process hospital care more efficient, we could help limit that waste. By using electronic medical records and streamlining procedures, hospitals could save billions of dollars, which could in turn be spent on better care.

A collaboration between GOOD and Oliver Munday.

The ability to locate a shooting quickly can help police catch bad guys and save lives. In Richmond, California, acoustic gunfire detection is doing just that. With acoustic sensors distributed around the city, dispatchers can use the sound of gunfire to pinpoint where a shooting happened, the number of shots fired, and even the kind of gun that was used.

To keep citizens safe, city police departments are constantly looking for an edge to make themselves faster and more responsive in the face of criminal activity. Here are five cities that are using technological innovations to concentrate their efforts when and where they are most needed, and to get to crime scenes as fast as possible.

A collaboration between GOOD and Oliver Munday.

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

New technologies are constantly being deployed to help a city’s citizens get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. By monitoring and improving its traffic flow from a centrally located transportation systems center, a city can make everyone’s commute faster. Click here to see how it works.

A collaboration between GOOD, Oliver Munday, and Redub.

Each city is a collection of massive systems, all of which must interact seamlessly in order for the metropolis to function. This is a look at what makes up each of these systems. The numbers themselves are culled from New York, one of the world’s most quintessential cities, but they could be comparable to any urban center. From transportation to health care to the government itself, a city is only as good as the sum…

Currently, more than half the world’s population lives in cities. And the complex collection of systems that make up a city’s infrastructure have evolved, creating new and efficient ways to sustain and support a significant concentration of people. But inside all cities are problem areas that can be optimized and made smarter—improving the function of the metropolis and the lives of its citizens.

These pieces spotlight eight cities around the world that benefited by the introduction of…

Intelligent Utility Network: Copenhagen, Denmark

In 2006, six Danish utilities merged to form DONG Energy, the largest energy company in Denmark. DONG—with the help of IBM—installed a number of new remote sensors to make up an intelligent utility network that provides real-time information from the grid, allowing the utility to react much faster to outages than before. More data helps network planning: The program is projected to save the company up to 80 percent on upcoming…

Leakfrog: London

Leakfrog, a device customers attach to their water meter to determine if their pipes are leaking, has proved an invaluable resource in reducing the amount of water lost in London’s more than 10,000 miles of underground pipes. As Leakfrog usage has increased, Thames Water, the city’s water utility, has reduced its leakage for four years running, totaling a 20 percent drop in water lost to leaky pipes.

Helping Involve Parents: New York City

Parents of schoolchildren…

Crime Prediction Software: Richmond, Virginia

Starting in 2006, the Richmond Police Department didn’t just get  proactive about crime—it got predictive. The city, which had just been named the fifth most dangerous in the United States, turned to a strategy similar to that used in the movie Minority Report. Combing through reams of historical data, the RPD armed its police officers with the information necessary to assess where crimes were most likely to take place. It’s not…