IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The meeting was chaired by the Ministry of Finances and Public Administration, thus giving the project and the above announcement an unprecedented political backing.

The Spanish Open Data Portal published its source code for reuse under the umbrella of the Open Source Forge of CENATIC, the National Center for Open Source based Technologies (Centro Nacional de Referencia de Aplicación de las TIC basadas en fuentes abiertas, in Spanish). Moreover, a project has been created containing the additional software developed for  the datos.gob.es portal, based on open source software as Drupal. The publication of this source code allows any citizen, organisation or company to use it and create their own space dedicated to open data.

Itron’s Smart City Solution to Drive Digital Transformation and Improve the Citizen Experience in Fuengirola

Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, and the City of Fuengirola, Spain are joining forces to transform the municipality into a smart city. Home to more than 82,000 permanent residents and more than triple that during the summer months, the City of Fuengirola will deploy Itron’s smart city platform, which includes a city-wide mesh network optimized for industrial IoT (IIoT) devices and Itron’s device and data management platform, SLV. The primary objective of the project is to accelerate urban innovation, drive the digital transformation of city services and improve the citizen experience for those in Southern Spain. Deployment of the solution is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. The IIoT network will be operated by Itron as part of a four-year Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) agreement. This project is 80% co-financed by European Regional Development Found (ERDF) within the framework of the Pluriregional Program of Spain (POPE) 2014 – 2020.

The pilot project will try to deliver parcels virtually anywhere in the cities, even hard-to-reach spots without an address

A collaborative pilot project between Correos (The Spanish state postal services) and Telefónica, one of the major telecom providers in the country, will test the usage of 5G-connected drones to deliver parcels to virtually any urban environment.

The Smart City Expo World Congress will take place in Barcelona on 15-17 November, and several Luxembourg representatives will be present. Here are some of their visions of smarter urban design.

In its Smart City Strategy Index (SCSI) 2019, global consulting firm Roland Berger analysed 153 cities worldwide, ranking Vienna as number one. The Austrian capital scored a total 74 points out of 100. London took second place (73 points), while third place (72 points) went to St. Albert, Canada, which has a population comparable to that of Luxembourg City.

Barcelona has become one of the most technological cities in Europe. Its power of innovation has made it a Spanish benchmark.

A SMART CITY

A smart city is one that aims to give voice to the requests of its citizens, facilitating their mobility through the use of green technology. Among the clearest objectives of these places is the reduction of waste, the reduction of nuisances (such as noise or vehicle congestion at rush hour), or maximizing social inclusion.

The idea is to ease the healthcare burden on city hospitals.

About 18 percent of the region’s population is aged 65 and older, and many of the seniors have chronic conditions and reduced mobility. A centralized health platform focused on residents of Bilbao helps seniors gain healthcare access by phone, Internet and a patient monitoring system called TEKI, which Accenture helped develop.

An English case study on EPSA's use of open source software will be published soon by Red Hat. The Spanish text appeared already online at Muy Computer Pro, a Spanish IT news site, on 16 January.

Málaga TechPark, Málaga City Council and Endesa, with the support of the Andalucian Government, have started the path to promote the #eCityMálaga initiative in the Malaga technology park.

It focuses on a smart city model at the forefront of innovation in renewable energy, sustainable transport, efficient building, open data and digital infrastructure.

Alicante Town Hall began the installation on Friday 21, of a total of 156 cameras, in forty different locations in the city, that will aid with the recognition of license plates and traffic regulation, designed to improve mobility within the city.

José Ramón González, the Traffic Councillor has insisted that the cameras are not being installed with the intention of imposing fines, and that they are a part of “one more step” within the project ‘Alicante Se Mueve: Being Smart’.

The Councilor for Territory, Maria Josep Ripoll, gave a press conference this Friday to talk about the actions of the Dénia City Council in terms of lighting. The objective of these is to ensure that the town becomes a "smart city", or intelligent city, based on the investment in more ecological lighting that can be controlled in real time, adjusting it to the needs of each moment.

To this end, a new 15-year contract has been established with the energy services company, SITELEC, which had already started working with the city council in March 2023. "It represents a saving on the energy bill for the municipal coffers of 558.599 euros ( in the previous year) and the modernization of public lighting," explained Ripoll, who highlighted that in this way the Sustainable Development Goals regarding CO2 emissions and light pollution of the 2030 urban agenda are also met.

In 2008 the portal http://campus.easp.es/internetysalud was created as "a space that integrates all the projects of the Internet & Health Group, to give them greater visibility and reach, and to facilitate the immediate transfer of results to society," said team member Jaime Jiménez Pernett.

Almeria is blazing a trail in urban transformation with its ambitious Almeria 2030 Strategic Plan, focusing on technology, sustainability, and innovation.

Mayor of Almeria, Maria del Mar Vazquez showcased the city’s strides at the Greencities & S-Moving Forum in Malaga, where more than 75 cities gathered to promote smarter, sustainable city models.

This large-scale project aims to confront the commonplace issue of each city council administering its own infrastructure in an independent manner, leading to increased costs and incompatible operating systems. On account of a free and open source enterprise portal, the Asturian municipalities with less than 20 000 inhabitants will collaborate in order to implement their web portals under a common platform based on open source.

Digital Future Society and the City Council of Barcelona jointly organize the event "Humanism in the digital age: the urban contribution" this 15^th of November in Barcelona; where experts and opinion leaders will assess the impact of the current digital transformation in an urban environment, and discuss how to build a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive digital transition that strengthens human rights in the digital age, placing people at the centre of  the technological deployment.

The various sessions of the day will explore and analyse some of the main challenges arising from the digital transformation in cities, with a special emphasis on two thematic blocks: ethics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital rights. The program will host highly recognized international voices.

Urban development has come a long way from merely constructing buildings and laying roads. The advent of technology has sparked a revolution in how we imagine and shape our cities. Leading the charge in this new era of urban development is Barcelona, a city that artfully balances its rich cultural heritage with groundbreaking innovation.

A recent feature on TechApps takes readers through the transformative journey of Barcelona as it forges a path towards becoming a leading smart city. Even as it remains a treasure trove of Gothic architecture and Gaudí’s masterpieces, Barcelona is steadfastly integrating cutting-edge technology into its urban infrastructure. The city is boldly pioneering new ways to make urban living more sustainable, efficient, and citizen-centric.

Modernising public administration requires a massive use of technology, which makes investments sustainable, as well as openness and re-use essential, said the Regional Minister of Justice and Public Administration, Idoia Mendia in a Spanish newspaper, on 14 May 2012.

José Julián Mena explained that the municipality, together with the state public body Red.es, are in full tender for “an ambitious digitization project” that will strengthen it as a leading destination nationwide. It will have an investment of 5.6 million euros for the use of artificial intelligence and big data in the public-private management of the sector.

Last October, the tour operator Jet2 notably strengthened its transport capacity from the United Kingdom to Tenerife, increasing its offer to the Canary Islands by 7,000 additional seats from its ten operating bases, which underlines its strategic importance for Arona.