The cities of the future will become ever more data driven. Smart city solutions will help improve private and public mobility and deliver more efficient energy systems and greener waste management. Information taken from satellites, sensors for city-wide data acquisition and machine learning technologies will be crucial for cities to become ever more digital. Representatives from the cities of Darmstadt, Glasgow and Tallinn discussed how to create smart cities on November 12, 2020 in a seminar organised by ESA’s Downstream Gateway department.
The seminar was presented by by Donatella Ponziani, Head of the Downstream Gateway Office at ESA, and moderated by Bianca Hoersch, Chief Digital Officer at ESA.
Toomas Türk, Chief of Innovation of Tallinn City Enterprise Department, presented several e-governance solutions put in place in the city that range across e-residency, parking management, a 3d city tour, e-democracy and a planning register. A special system for disaster early warning with satellite radar ground motion detection was also covered. It was highlighted the importance of having strong political support and educated, active and smart citizens in order to become a smart city.
Colin Birchenall, Chief Digital Officer at Glasgow City Council, illustrated the achievements as a “City of Innovation” with its four famous Universities, three innovation districts with world-leading Research and Innovation Centres. Another project presented involved a big data platform with the aim to combine satellite data with traffic data for smart mobility, public safety and smart street lighting management.
Michael Kolmer, of the Department of Economy and Urban Development in the City of Darmstadt, presented the “Digitalstadt Darmstadt”, an international pioneer and flagship project for the use of new technologies to improve everyday life in cities. Main areas of interventions cover Cybersecurity, Mobility, Big data, Environment and Energy.
Marc Paganini, Earth Observation Technical Officer at ESA, showed how the advent of steady satellite data streams can be the foundation of urban development policies and programmes implementations. Big data exploitation platforms and machine learning can give access or generate actionable information in support of sustainable and liveable cities.
Davide Coppola, Business Developer and Project Manager, presented the areas where synergies between space technology and the digital cities can be found. Satellite navigation data can be applied to smart street lightning, health, education, public transport, mobility and 5G deployment.
| Toomas Türk – Chief of Innovation, Tallinn City Enterprise Department | Tallinnovation – Space for Digital Cities | |
| Colin Birchenall– Chief Digital Officer, Glasgow City Council | Digital Glasgow – Beyond the Demonstrator | |
| Michael Kolmer– Head of Department of Economy and Urban Development, Darmstadt | Digital City Darmstadt – A Comprehensive Approach supporting a Sustainable and Resilient Urban Development Strategy – |
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| Marc Paganini – Earth Observation Technical Officer, ESA | Space for Twin Cities: Digital Cities | |
| Davide Coppola – Business Developer and Project Manager, ESA | Space for Twin Cities: Digital City |
Here the full recording of the event.