PROJECTS AND ENABLERS - Smart City Catalyst · is a crucial enabler, which has been one of the success factors of the ICT cluster in Stockholm. When it comes to mobility and waste

PROJECTS AND ENABLERS

07-12-2015

SMART CITY CATALYST – Arvin Ghasemi;Martin Tom-Petersen;Arvin Ghasemi

The Smart City

For more information on Smart city strategy or successful projects, Please contact 1

SMART CITY CATALYST, [email protected]

Introduction

This background report has been developed to provide an overview of the developments of Smart City

projects and some background on what is going on in the world with regards to Smart city

development.

What is a Smart City?

Even though there is there is no final definition of what a Smart City is, the collective consensus is that

Smart Cities are cities that use digital technologies or information and communication technologies

(ICT) to enhance quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource

consumption and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. It is ultimately the influence

from citizens that play the most central role in the city's development, no matter how intelligent the

infrastructure and city systems are.

What is the difference between a Smart City and a sustainable city (or a CO2 neutral city)?

The short answer is not much, apart from that many of the Smart City initiatives include a greater

focus on the use of sensor networks (Internet of Things), Big Data analytics and other digital services

to achieve the same objectives of sustainable economic growth, lower environmental impact and

better quality of life for citizens.

What is happening in the European Union with regards to Smart Cities?

In the EU there are a number of initiatives to promote the development of Smart Cities. Within the

framework of the Horizon 2020 for research and innovation, € 500 million has been allocated over for

the period 2014-2016, to support initiatives in energy, transport, ICT, and the European Innovation

Partnership on smart cities and communities. The first round of so-called lighthouse projects has

been awarded to three consortiums, including Stavanger and Stockholm.

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What are the enablers that make

Smart transformations possible?

In the project examples that will be presented

in this paper, the cities all had some sort of

driver or challenge that they wanted to

address. For some cities it might have been the

lack of green areas or public spaces, for other

it might have been water scarcity, climate

change or traffic congestion. These urban

challenges, and many others, are driving cities

to transform their urban areas and solutions

into smarter and more sustainable cities.

Aside from the challenges, they also had the

necessary infrastructure and enablers to be

able to invest in these projects. The enablers

differ from city to city and depend upon what

type of solutions which are relevant in that

particular city.

For cities that want to create a business and

growth-oriented region, the availability of a

stable and effective communications network

is a crucial enabler, which has been one of the

success factors of the ICT cluster in

Stockholm.

When it comes to mobility and waste treatment

another enabler is having the foundational and

basic infrastructure like functioning roads and

sewage systems.

If this infrastructure is a bottleneck for city

transformation, these should be dealt with first and

there’s no excuse not to do it in a smart and

sustainable way from the beginning. The same can

said about non-functioning local governance and

corruption.

Another enabler that serves as a foundation to the

different projects that a city commits to is the city

strategy. Having the guidance of a strategy when

working with projects, is something which cities

should get used to and use to maximize the

synergic value that can be created by the

initiatives. Strategies will enable more focused and

directed progress, as it should comprise and be a

product of the goals and visions that the city has.

Having the know-how and the experience of how to

administer city change is an enabler that explains

why it can be difficult for cities that haven’t started

working with Smart and sustainable projects to do

so. But once the process has started, the

knowledge will accumulate in the city as the need

for that knowledge increases.

On one hand, the access to innovative solutions in

your vicinity as a city is an enabler of city change,

but on the other hand, globalization has made

solutions global and translatable from city to city

across the world.

The last and often forgotten enabler in the Smart

and sustainable city transformation is the citizen –

which possesses the most valuable insight to the

city and the strongest commitment to societal

change. Why not harness this in the city

transformation?




What are some examples of

Smart city projects?

Stavanger, a small Norwegian town with

about 128,000 inhabitants, has decided to

reach their city motto "together for a vibrant

city" by using ITC in different ways. To do this,

they have created a digitalization strategy that

describes what strategic ideas and principles

should form the foundation in order to achieve

the goal of sustainable digital services -

internally and externally. Based on their

digitalization strategy they have identified five

areas where they want to use ICT to improve

the city. These are: architecture and

infrastructure, user-oriented services,

security, competence and employees and

finally green ICT.

At this moment, a particular area

(Paradise/Hillevåg) is being converted into a

living laboratory (living lab) - a community

where smart solutions can be tested and

evaluated. Within this area, major changes will

be made on buildings such as 100 homes

equipped with integrated solutions and smart

generic gateways. Services include heat

and light control, innovative video solutions,

security/safety functions and charging for

electric vehicles. Stavanger view smarter living

as a crucial part of building a smart city,

because of the opportunities in enabling the

people to join in the development of the smart

city.

The preliminary benefits of the

measures are:

• Lowering emissions, both by nudging people to

make the right choices and the introduction of

equipment and infrastructure for electric

mobility.

• Meaningful involvement into the everyday lives

citizens; "What I do really matters."

• Improve the quality of public transport and

increase its competitiveness in relation to the

individual motor car traffic.

• Smarter houses create smart cities: decision

support systems, energy management, safety

and comfort.




In Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the two

districts will be transformed into sustainable

living environments as a part of an EU

project. The former Philips industrial complex

in "Strijp-S" neighborhood becomes a

creative Smart area. An innovative way to

clean up contaminated soil will double as a

means of producing energy. A district-wide

ICT solution will allow residents to access

different types of infrastructure, such as

booking electric cars from an area

carpooling scheme or by using the smart

parking concepts. In this way, the IT-based

tools help residents to develop sustainable

patterns of energy and mobility behavior.

One of the more important aspects of the

projects is a system of complex hardware

and software that monitors and controls

street lighting, mobility, houses, offices, etc.

of the Smart City.


measures are:

• A significant increase in joint ownership of

Smart City Eindhoven among the city's actors.

Citizens and other stakeholders will be engaged

in the process of investing in Eindhoven as a

Smart City.

• A boost in data infrastructure and sensor

networks as the open data platform further

facilitates Smart city development.

• Civic engagement processes through

consultations as projects are implemented

through co-creation.

• Sustainable transformation of the public

space, while maintaining housing affordability.




In the Smart City strategy of Stockholm

Sweden, environmental and informational

technology is being tested and used

extensively throughout the city's

infrastructure, with the aim of creating a

thriving ecosystem involving city residents,

the private industry and the public sector

and promotes a dynamic local economy.

The strategy is formulated with the citizen

at the center, with a focus on delivering

improved e-government services to the

public. Public services include online

governance participation services and

services for mobility and energy

improvement based on real-time data

collection on traffic and weather.

The city is also using pilot projects to test

technology solutions, but in a different

approach than most of its counterpart

smart cities: it uses large scale real

environment test beds.

One of these for example, is Kista Science City,

Sweden's world-class ICT cluster, where R & D

and technology transfer take place between

business and academia, which shows an

exemplary concentration of expertise, innovation

and business opportunities in ICT.


measures are among other things:

• With the goal of a sustainable transport

system, to facilitate changes in the mobility

patterns of citizens so that more people take the

bicycle and reject the car.

• An attractive business environment that

nurture regional growth.

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and

energy consumption, while involving citizens.




Barcelona's Smart city transformation is

one of the most exciting projects going on in

Europe at the moment. The city´s

revitalization-strategy has so far created

45,000 jobs and attracted about 1,500 new

companies. They also save $ 58 million a

year by using the Smart water technology,

such as an internet-controlled irrigation

system. The system is built up of sensors in

the ground that offer live data on humidity,

temperature, wind velocity, sunlight, and

atmospheric pressure. That means, for

example, that gardeners can decide what

the plants need based on that data and

adapt their schedule to avoid overwatering.

In South Korea, the government has

decided to apply technology in innovative

ways to improve education. By using the

"teachers as leaders of smart education"

they are able to create a learning

environment that is personalized,

interactive, and more environmentally

friendly. The students learn in exciting and

creative ways, using materials and

resources that are updated and goes

beyond the boundaries of traditional

textbooks

In Quito, Ecuador, a smart mobility system

has been put in place, where the city's

transport operators are able to monitor

and control traffic in real time, reorder

traffic flow according to existing needs and

respond quickly to any incident or

emergency across the road network. The

system helps reduce travel time for the 415,

000 cars in the Ecuadorian city, and to

improve road safety.




Santander is the Spanish city that invested

in more than 12.000 sensors to be

integrated into the city, in order to make the

government operate as efficiently as

possible. The data from these sensors flows

to banks of computers that analyze the real-

time information and give city officials the

kind of big picture that allows them to adjust

the amount of energy they use, the number

of trash pickups needed in a given week and

how much water to sprinkle on the lawns of

city parks. At the same time, the city is

opening up its data so that programmers

can create apps that help citizens find bus

arrival times or let tourists find out who is

performing at concert halls simply by

pointing their mobile phones at a bus stop

or building.

Los Angeles is testing road freight

transport powered by electricity: the

eHighway system combines the efficiency of

the railway with the flexibility of trucks to an

innovative freight solution that is efficient,

economical and environmentally friendly. The

experimental system will be built between

Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The project ‘Revival of City Squares in

Balkan Cities’ aims to address a significant

neglect of the public functions of city

squares as public spaces, by involving

people who use and live in those spaces. The

citizens were asked about the associated re-

use values and problems in order to create

new vibrant, creative and livable spaces to

use as city squares. The project stimulates a

community-based process that engages a

full range of local stakeholders, such as

citizens, professionals and policymakers.




With the water supply sources within South Africa becoming ever more limited, the city of Durban

put together plans for effluent waste-water recycling for reuse. However, this option posed a

financial and technical management challenge. The solution that emerged is an example of a Public

Private Partnership (PPP) that harnessed the synergies of the partners to achieve a viable and

sustainable solution for the city. The project reduces the city’s total treated wastewater discharge

by 10 percent and reduces the partially treated load on the marine environment by up to 24 percent.

Further, the volume of potable water saved on a daily basis afforded the opportunity to extend

supply to up to 220,000 households in the greater Durban area. This project has also changed the

way the industry in South Africa views wastewater. Sewage is no longer regarded simply as a waste

product, but a beneficial resource spurring many new initiatives which have unlocked innovation and

technology.

West of Copenhagen, in the municipality of Høje Taastrup, the residents of a communal housing

area has invested in the country’s biggest on-roof solar cell (PV) system. In one year it is estimated

to produce 750,000 kWh, equivalent to the consumption of 320 apartments. The system will produce

power for Taastrup’s communal areas, and it is expected that the plant will produce power at a value

of approximately 1, 5 million Dkr per year. With an annual cost of about 850,000 Dkr. going to finance

and maintenance of the plant, it provides the residents with a surplus of about 500.000 Dkr. per

year. The economic profit will entirely go to the 2500 people living in the area and to renovate the

common areas, such as playgrounds, new paving and improved lighting. The project has not only

been an economic success but has also improved the social status of the area.




A primary care health clinic in Rio de Janeiro was equipped with an e-health kit consisting of a

backpack that contained various tools to measure health indicators. For a pilot project, the clinic

staff made home visits to attend to a sample of 100 elderly patients suffering from chronic diseases

and mobility issues, with the goal of producing a comprehensive diagnosis using this e-health

backpack. Patient data was also collected using the kit. Enabling health workers to reach patients

who are difficult to access, the e-health model of primary care delivery makes it easier to monitor

health indicators in underserved urban communities, while at the same time bringing significant cost

savings to the public healthcare system. When factoring in the medical events avoided by this

solution, such as strokes, heart failures and hospitalizations due to cardiovascular conditions, the

cost savings amount to over $300,000 per year, with the cost of project equipment equaling

$42,000.




What can we do?

We specialize in developing executable strategies for Smart City, Internet of Things (IoT), climate

adaption and Innovation. We offer hands-on collaboration programs and communities; thought-provoking

research and publications; tools, best practices, and standards such as a Cyber-physical-security

baseline™; conferences and workshops; and training for business and IT leaders. Facilitating meaningful

collaboration and networking among our clients is at the heart of Smart City Catalyst’s mission.

Why we do it?

“We drive change” is the Smart City Catalyst’s core mantra, and we are passionate about helping our

clients become successful using customized tools. Yet to do so, all organizations – large and small, and

across a wide range of industries – need to address three major challenges:

Transform operations to reduce cost, minimize risk, and improve business agility and time to market

through technology

Deliver new value-added services quickly, easily, and securely with multiple stakeholders

Maximize market share and enhance user engagement, loyalty and growth

Because Smart City catalyst is able to “connect the political ecosystem” with the new opportunities

innovation brings, we are uniquely positioned to help you solve your challenges and rapidly innovate to

deliver new services, improve business agility, partner for success, reduce cost and risk, and enhance

user value and loyalty.

How we do it?

Three strategic programs – Agile Business and IT, Open Political Ecosystem, and User Centricity – are

the lenses through which Smart City Catalyst delivers on our collaboration programs, research,

standards, events, and training to our Clients. These programs focus on a wide range of pressing digital

innovation, Smart city, Internet of Things (IoT), user engagement, data analytics, and security and privacy

to name a few – to address the three major challenges outlined above and enable our clients to innovate

faster, better, and more effectively than they could ever hope to achieve on their own.




If you would like more information about how we can help you drive change, please send a mail on

[email protected].


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PROJECTS AND ENABLERS - Smart City Catalyst · is a crucial enabler, which has been one of the success factors of the ICT cluster in Stockholm. When it comes to mobility and waste