Discover how digital citizenship platforms can help resolve local issues
With all the rights it affords us to gain, digital citizenship has become an integral part of the whole paradigm of being a citizen in the 21st century. Through the development of information technology and the future leap to ultra-fast 5G networks, the integration of the individual within this system becomes crucial for him to be able to become not only fully socially engaged, but also become better involved with the government’s institutions (both local and national) and the broader political and societal processes.
Read more: EU: Digital Citizenship Is The Future Of Every City
A new study covering eighty European cities and their efforts to exploit data to monitor and improve city infrastructure shows an increasing use of data in cities. Improving city operations, enhancing environmental sustainability, informing decision-making and a wish to spur innovation and new services are mentioned by cities as main reasons for setting up urban data platforms.
Urban data platforms (UDPs) enable digital technologies to integrate data flows via open standards within and across city systems used by both the public and private sector. For example, platforms can share raw data streams or show 3-D visualizations of how underground piping, bus lines, thermal grids, environmental data and a wide range of other information is connected.
Read more: EU: Cities are becoming digital, thanks to the urban data platforms that enable it
The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum recently published a whitepaper studying the use of blockchain alongside two other emerging technologies — the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). The paper titled ‘Convergence of Blockchain, AI, and IoT’ explores benefits, current trends and challenges of combining the technologies for building new services and platforms.
Blockchain or decentralized ledger technology (DLT) enables the immutability of data, which is the need of the hour for IoT and AI. IoT devices generate data that needs to be securely shared among stakeholders. Meanwhile, AI systems require immutable data to function correctly. Blockchain can provide much-needed support for advancing these technologies and bringing them into the mainstream.
Read more: European Commission explores blockchain, AI, IoT convergence
The idea of what a smart city is, and the technology that will be used to create it, is constantly changing.
Smart cities are regarded as an ecosystem of technologies driven by data and analytics to manage assets and resources efficiently. The idea of what a smart city is, and the technology that will be used to create it, is constantly changing. We’re now seeing the idea of smart city solutions come to the fore, where localities can rapidly shape and customise user-specific applications to enhance public safety.
The vision to create sustainable urban spaces is becoming a reality in several European cities, including Rotterdam, Umea and Glasgow. Thanks to the EU-funded Ruggedised project, Rotterdam is developing and implementing various smart solutions. One such solution is a thermal grid connecting various large buildings in the city to optimize the distribution of heat and cold among buildings, smart charging parking lots, large-scale deployment of zero-emission e-buses, and efficient and intelligent street lighting.
A team of researchers has recently released a study submitted to the journal Transportation Science that is available on RePub, Erasmus University Rotterdam's publications repository. As summarized in a news release on the project website, the research "investigates how a public transport operator (PTO) can best power a fleet of sustainable electric buses."
Read more: EU: Creating smart, resilient cities for a sustainable future