Today, nearly 80% of Europeans live in cities, and 85% of the EU’s GDP is generated in cities. Many European cities are pioneers in the transition towards a low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy. Cities are central to delivering on key challenges for Europe’s society and economy: jobs, growth, investment, innovation, energy efficiency, low-carbon development and CO reduction, to name a few. Smart Cities will be one of the key topics addressed on October 4th, for the 6th edition the Luxembourg Green Business Summit.

Linking and upgrading infrastructures, technologies and services in key urban sectors - transport, buildings, energy, ICT - in a smart way will improve quality of life, competitiveness and sustainability of our cities. This is a strong growth market, estimated globally to be worth €1.3 trillion in 2020 - a great export market for European business.

 

Cathedral builder of the Digital Ages

Ann Hellenius, who was named European CIO of the Year at ICT Spring Europe 2016, is the Chief Information Officer of the City of Stockholm. The capital of Sweden has the ambition of becoming the world´s smartest city by 2040. Ann Hellenius and her staff have developed a smart city strategy together with the citizens of Stockholm in order to reach this objective. She shared with BEAST her vision of the digital development of the city as a way to create efficient, coherent and sustainable operations and to procure and provide city-wide IT services.

 

In a smart city, the role of people individually, and in some cases collectively, concerns not only what the city can do for them – or to them, but also how they will participate in the smart environment. How can ICT-enabled cities improve everyday life for the urban citizen?

I completely agree that a key feature of a smart city is improving citizens’ daily lives. The smart city strategy we have developed in the City of Stockholm has two key objectives, of which one is to create the highest quality of life for its citizens, and the other to create the best environment for businesses. To reach these objectives, environmental, economic, social and democratic sustainability is sought. Projects that are carried out are categorized into these four sustainability areas.

 

In Stockholm, several projects are already ongoing in these areas. Within the economic sustainability area, one example that emphasizes citizens’ participation is the “Tyck till” mobile application, through which citizens can report problems or make suggestions for the city. This could include reporting a hole in the bike lane, which can then be swiftly repaired, or suggesting more park benches where needed. A type of development that does not require active involvement from citizens, sorted under environmental sustainability, is the smart trash cans implemented in certain parts of the city. By having automatic, solar energy-driven packing of trash and alerting the department when they are full, the trash cans contribute to more easily keeping parks clean, again to the benefit of citizens.

 

Furthermore, while developing the strategy a large number of projects were identified for potential future implementation. Citizens were asked in workshops, interviews and surveys to provide input, relating to how their daily life could be made easier. Within the social and democratic sustainability areas, examples include a mobile alarm to increase perceived and actual safety for the elderly when going out, and a “Welcome to Stockholm” mobile application that could help newly arrived immigrants navigating the city and feeling included.

 

To what extend can the use of technologies like Open Data, Internet of Things or Advanced Analytics combined with sustainable operations bring new opportunities for citizens, not only economically but also in their societal aspects?

Technology is clearly a central theme of the smart city, and technologies such as open data, internet of things as well as advanced analytics constitute some of the most relevant emerging examples. We are planning projects leveraging these technologies pertaining to all the focus areas that I previously mentioned: social, democratic and environmental sustainability in addition to economic sustainability.

 

As one example, open data is already used today in our “Open Stockholm Awards” hackathons to enable and encourage development of new innovative applications of many types. Another example, of an identified potential future project, is a virtual reality application where citizens can gain information about decisions being made and processes going on in the City, when passing the buildings where they are made. Multiple internet of things opportunities have also been identified, such as sensors helping patients with Alzheimer’s disease planning their daily lives and avoiding forgetting to turn off kitchen appliances, for example.

 

However, technology is only one of the pieces that have to be in place in order to build a smart city. In support of reaching our smart city objectives of highest quality of life for citizens and best environment for businesses, a number of enablers were identified. Technology is one of them, but we also consider organizational aspects such as internal processes, culture and leadership to be necessary for a truly smart city.

 

Interview by Michael Renotte