ten-reasons-why-barcelona-is-smart-city.pdf

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Barcelona is the first city in the Spanish State coined a Smart City and is named the fifth overall in Europe in 2013ahead of Paris,Stockholm, and London. And with all the noise about the Mobile World Congress this week (with Mark Zuckerberg as a keynotespeaker), Barcelona is the epicenter of technology and innovation.

But, its not necessarily technologythat makes a city Smart.

According to Boyd Cohen, a famed urban and climate strategist, a Smart City ranks high based on these six Smart indicators: SmartEconomy, Smart Environment, Smart Government, Smart Mobility, Smart Living, andSmart People. Its citizens live in a vibrant culturewith an open government trying to improve green living spaces, and it makes wise investments in the future.

Smarty pants of a city.

Lets look at a few things that make Barcelona a Smart City:

01. Its stellar bus transit system.

Barcelonas transport system, Transports Metropolitan de Barcelona (TMB)recently debuted a new orthogonal bus network(horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines), making it faster, easier to use, and more frequent, among other features. Its goal is for thetraveler to make one transfer between any two points in Barcelona in 95% of its journeys.

The bus system also has urban sustainable mobility, reducing emissions with hybrid buses. (In fact, when it stops, you cant evenhear the motor.) One of the cleanest surface public transport fleets in Europe, it also has smart bus shelters using solar panels andscreens provides waiting times. Three interactive bus sheltersare already installed, which has a touchscreen and USB ports.
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Smart bus stop: a solar panel to activate a screen that shows arrival times and a seat for a waiting traveler.

02. Its bicycle sharing system, Bicing.

With 6,000 bicycles circulating, Bicingis a sustainable and economical form of transport, designed for citizens to travel short

distances without consuming any energy.

You pay an annual fee, get a Bicing card, scan it at any of the 400 stations, check out a bike, then check it back in at the stationclosest to your destination. Most stations are located by other public transport stops or public parking. Recently, the new Bicingappbecame available for users to check out real-time availability at stations, making it easier to plan a route if one station hasunavailable bikes or parking spaces.
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03. Its installation of smart parking spaces.

Using light and metal detectors, sensors detect if a parking spot or loading area is occupied. Thesestreet sensors help motorists findparking, but they also provide data about parking patterns, helping officials improve management of urban mobility.

Drivers can get real-time information on their smartphone to best locate a free parking space using ApparkB so they dont have to goin circles. See more of smart parking in this video of Sant Cugat, an outside town of Barcelona that has already integrated parkingsensors into the infrastructure:

04. Its pneumatic waste management system.

Many 'barris' dont have to see (and smell) overflowing and oversized trash bins. These compact drop-off containers have asubterranean vacuum network through the pipes, sucking up trash below the ground. This automated waste collection systemdecreases noise pollution made by trash trucks (at 11:15pm in our 'barri') and keeps the public space and stench clear.

Drop-off bins on Gran Via de Les Corts Catalanes.

In the Poblenou and Sant Cugat neighborhoods, sensors on rubbish and recycling bins have also been tested. Through radio frequencyand WiFi, the sensor gives data to a central system, detecting the trash level. Sanitation workers can then plan the optimal route andtimes to collect it. [The company that makes the sensors, Urbiotica, has a booth in Hall 4 of Mobile World Congress 2014.]

05. Its installation of smart lighting.

More efficient lighting using LED technology is being installed in Barcelona to reduce cost and pollution.

These lights optimize energy and use a smart function: it activates when detecting motion, but also gathers environmentalinformation, humidity, temperature, pollution, and noise. Already installed in severalplaces such as the Born neighborhood, we canexpect 3,360 lights on 160 streets to be finished by 2015.
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Coming soon: more intelligent lighting.

06. Its use of renewable and more effective energy systems.

Do you think about where your hot water comes from? With seven hours of sunshine a day, Barcelona has taken advantage of theample solar energy. Barcelona Energy and the BarcelonaCity Council implemented a sustainable energy initiative, making Barcelonathe first city to require to use solar water heatersin 2006.

Energy au naturel.

In 2000, the Barcelona Solar Thermal Ordinance also regulated all new large buildings such as hotels, hospitals, gyms, or swimmingpools to produce their own domestic hot water, lowering emissions. This ordinance is the first of its type to be executed in a Europeancity, andother cities have followed suit.

What about heating and air conditioning? Already in use in 78 buildings and is expected to expand, the Districlima heating and coolingsystem produces green energy equivalent to planting 548,000 trees, or nearly 4 times the number of trees in Barcelona. Theheating uses steam from the incineration of urban waste and the cooling uses seawater for refrigerating, producing less fossil energyconsumption and carbon emissions.

Districlima plant uses local Mediterranean seawater to cool buildings.

You may have seen this interesting sea-facing structure by the Forum in Barcelona. As one of the largest photovoltaic installations inEurope, this solar panel produces550,000 Kw/h a year, which can generate power to over 160,000 households. This provides homesand businesses sustainable energy, reducing emissions equivalent to 440 tons of carbon dioxide. More solar panels are being installedin the city.

Check out this interesting video of ways that renewable energy is being used and spread across Barcelona.

07. Its the Mobile World Capital.

In 2011, Barcelona beat out 29 other citiesas the Mobile World Capital from 2012 until 2018. Barcelona was an attractive candidatebecause of its conference and exhibition facilities, tourism and transportation infrastructure, and its commitment to extending thereach of mobility locally and nationally.

Last year, over 72,000 people attended the Mobile World Congress, the massive international telecommunications event.Supposedly, the grand four-day affair has created more than 7,000 temporary jobsand added a whopping 350 million euros of extraspending to the local economy. And thats good news for the people.
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08. Its urban mobility through apps.

The Ajuntament de Barcelona recently rolled out some interesting and helpful new urban mobility projects, connecting its citizensusing some attractive and snazzy apps. Other than Bicing and apparkB, heres a rundown of some useful apps:

Trnsit app: checking out what traffic looks like.

TMB Virtual. Getting around through public transport is made easy. Point your smartphones camera in any direction, and bus stop

signs, lines and the distance to them in metres will appear on the screen, superimposed on real-world images. If you turn your phonesideways, it becomes a compass and each stop is shown as an arrow pointing in the direction to take.

Trnsit - If youre a driver and you want to navigate the city effectively, Trnsit helps you find the best route. You can also look atreal-time traffic updates through the municipal traffic cameras.

MapaTricentenari - Not really an app to help navigate the city, this is a fun app for history geeks. Commemorating theTricentenari,300 years after the War of the Spanish Succession on September 11, 1714, this augmented reality app uses a map of Barcelona onPasseig Llus Companys. Point your camera at any of the numbered places, and information of Barcelona in 1714 appears. I cant waitto do this.

Point your smartphones camera on this Barcelona map on Passeig Llus Companys.

And there are so many morehelpful apps by the Barcelona City Council for locals and tourists.

09. Participatory citizens and transparent government.

Administrators are providing resources to make living in Barcelona more accessible, effective, and democratic for its citizens:

BstiaCiutadana - Citizens can make complaints, file reports of city problems such as a broken street light, or make suggestions. Datais sent to a central location, and officials respond to the the user promptly. Watch this video.

IDBCN- This app enables citizens to digitally identify themselves remotely. They can get a Barcelona residence certificate, checktheir register details, or even locate their towed vehicle.

Open Data BCN - This is public information that isavailable for everybody to reuse it however they like. Citizens, businesses, and

other institutions can use theinfo such as electionresults, population, public facilities, or economy to generate new services insteadof starting from scratch.

For example, according to a Microsoft Case Studyof Barcelona, they can mine open data regarding Barcelonas citywide festival, LaMerc find out how people moved, their interests, or entertainment venues. Then they can use this data to improve the logistics forfuture 'festes'.
http://tricentenari.bcn.cat/enhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xczdtDXXbQghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwihWLurgGkhttp://www.mobileid.cat/idbcn/enhttp://opendata.bcn.cat/http://opendata.bcn.cat/http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Excel-2010/City-of-Barcelona/City-Deploys-Big-Data-BI-Solution-to-Improve-Lives-and-Create-a-Smart-City-Template/710000003415http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Excel-2010/City-of-Barcelona/City-Deploys-Big-Data-BI-Solution-to-Improve-Lives-and-Create-a-Smart-City-Template/710000003415http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Excel-2010/City-of-Barcelona/City-Deploys-Big-Data-BI-Solution-to-Improve-Lives-and-Create-a-Smart-City-Template/710000003415http://opendata.bcn.cat/http://www.mobileid.cat/idbcn/enhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwihWLurgGkhttp://apps4bcn.cat/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xczdtDXXbQghttp://tricentenari.bcn.cat/enhttp://www.tmb.cat/en/tmb-virtual


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More on Barcelona eGovernment here.

10. 22@ (vint-i-dos arroba), Barcelonas Innovation District

Last but not least, 22@, the (innovation district) was approved in 2001, and its a daring andexperimental project of urban planning and entrepreneurialism.

22@ is a regeneration project: the use of refurbished buildings in a neglected part Poblenou, a former industrial hub. Municipalleaders are engaging the private sector companies, universities, research, and communities work in close proximity in clusters inthese buildings to accelerate the pace of knowledge sharing and quickens innovation. Theyre also creating subsidized housing and

green spaces.

Green architecture, the Media TIC building in 22@.

Interestingly, theyve created the Barcelona Urban Lab, a public space where comp anies can pilot test their products that willimprove city living,such as the parking and rubbish bin sensors mentioned above.

22@ is proven to be successful because of its sustainability the five clusters are all united by green infrastructure. Also, from 2000to 2007, 1,000 new companies and 31,000 new employees were working, an impressive amount of growth in a short period oftime. Now, other international cities like Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, and Boston have followed Barcelonas lead.

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Barcelonas not a perfect city. But with an overall aging population and an economic recession, local government has found ways tocreate jobs and improve the quality of daily life for its residents and visitors.

Barcelona, now lets find ways to get rid of dog poop and minor theft. Whos with me?

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Sources

Barcelona Activa: Barcelona Smart City TourEl Economista: Barcelona, la apuesta de una ciudad smart cityEl Periodico: Barcelona Smart CitySourceable: The Worlds Smartest CitiesSustainable Cities Collective: Case Study 22@ Barcelona DistrictFast Company: Barcelona: A Smart Model City for the PlanetA Geeks Tour of Barcelona

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Justine Ancheta blogs at Latitude 41, where this articlewas originally published. It is reprinted here with permission of the author.

26 febrer 2014

Una notcia de VilaWeb.catEdici GENERALhttp://www.vilaweb.catEnlla permanent
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