Spanish Cities are an International Benchmark in Smart Cities
According to Statista estimates, global investment in Smart Cities projects will exceed 1.12 trillion dollars by 2025. The actions planned in Spain include planning to bring broadband to the largest possible population, the deployment of secure 5G infrastructures, digitization of public administrations, the promotion of the data economy and AI.
English Translation:
At the Tomorrow City meeting organized by Gedeth Network and Kotra Spain, held within the framework of Smart City Expo 2020, and in which the Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI), Red.es, Indra Minsait, LG participated by exhibiting their projects. CNS and Dtonic, they talked about how smart city projects are advancing around the world, and in Spain in particular. Not surprisingly, according to Statista estimates, global investment in Smart Cities projects will exceed 1.12 trillion dollars by 2025.
In Spain, the most ambitious plans for the development of a transformation strategy for cities begin with the 2013 Digital Agenda and the 2015 National Plan for Smart Cities, which include planning to bring broadband to the greater possible population ratio, the deployment of secure 5G infrastructures, the digitization of Public Administrations and the promotion of the data economy and Artificial Intelligence, among others.
In his speech, Javier Ridruejo Pérez, general secretary of the Spanish Network of Smart Cities, pointed out that the challenges now involve working on a series of technical and legal challenges, among which are the conversion of all data to geospatial, interoperability between administrations with different applications and with legacy applications, technical simplification and the deployment of new infrastructures, among which are 5G networks, smart grids, chargers for electric vehicles, IoT networks and promotion of autonomous vehicles.
From a legal point of view, the challenge is the legal simplification when acquiring and standardizing infrastructures, data protection; and above all, ethical issues around Artificial Intelligence.
During the meeting, the example of South Korea was also discussed, whose government considers the Smart Cities industry as essential for the country and has the support and direct supervision of the president. To this end, the proposed objective has been from the beginning to solve urban problems through data-based services, create cities in which all citizens are taken into account and strengthen global cooperation through the development of an innovative ecosystem in the that the collaboration of the Public Administration with companies is key. Currently, the government has four types of projects nationwide.
“In technology, there are cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, New York and London that are very advanced due to the size of the resources they have, but in general, Spanish cities are an international benchmark in Smart Cities, both in platforms and in certain verticals, such as tourism, data analytics, or the IoT, and the management of public resources, such as water, or waste ”, highlights Ridruejo.
In order to develop a successful smart city project that, above all, improves the quality of life of citizens, it is necessary to have a data infrastructure that stores and manages all the information that is generated in the city in a standardized way, which is capable of analyzing them and helping to make the right decisions. "For this reason, it is essential that there is an ecosystem of collaboration between local companies, large corporations and all the Public Administrations involved, as is the case in other countries," said Juan Millán, managing partner of Gedeth Network.
The meeting ended with a series of basic recommendations for the deployment of a smart city, including maintaining a clear long-term vision, taking into account existing resources, both our own and those of third parties; progressive implementation through projects with short-term impact but without losing sight of long-term objectives; close collaboration with citizens and other prescribers to know their real needs and get them to be part of the project; develop service delivery models that promote innovation and public-private collaboration; actively involve officials to share the vision with everyone; and share experiences, knowledge and resources with other cities and territories.