Smart Cities: the transformation of our cities through technology

The world's most important cities are being optimized by applying the latest technological advances. Major cities such as New York, Seoul, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Madrid and Barcelona lead the world ranking of Smart Cities. Major global challenges, such as climate change, migratory movements, economic crises and social changes, have challenged cities to define their future.

In order to analyze this urban optimization, we study the city's economy, human capital, technological innovations, environment, international projection, social cohesion, mobility and public management. And this defines the indicators for assessing the development of cities. 

Many technology startups are working on projects that help urban centers to become more sustainable. From applications that improve urban mobility or the efficiency of public transport, waste management, building automation or education. 

And citizens increasingly have access to systems that allow them to monitor and analyze information about their environment. The growth of "the cloud" has had a major impact on smart cities, as information is processed better and costs much less to store. On the other hand, improvements in machine learning provide solutions to improve urban centers in terms of security and thus meet the needs of their inhabitants, making them safer, cleaner and offering quality services.

Barcelona, a smart city

Over the last few years, Barcelona has been working to develop this smart city concept, with different initiatives and the latest technological advances.

Being a smart city is currently a priority, and due to the startup ecosystem that is increasingly booming in Barcelona, Barcelona is becoming one of the most important technological hubs in Europe. 

This priority is given by the Barcelona Digital City Plan 2017-2020, which will benefit the city and help it become more open and efficient. The purpose is to boost innovation and digitalization to improve infrastructure and public services.

Modifications in the city to make it a smart city

Below we will look at some of the points with which Barcelona is on the road to becoming a smart city:

• More than 650 free Internet access points are available
• The waste management collection points are monitored by the workers and in this way can optimize the routes.
• The street lighting is made with LED lights, and pollution, noise and people can be measured.
• Use of electric vehicles in public transportation. 
• Water control systems in public areas, which help workers know how much water is needed at different points.

In addition to each and every one of these initiatives, companies have also emerged to help the city improve its energy consumption:

1. Bicing
2. CityBikes
3. Betterways
4. CAME Parkare
5. HelloLight
6. eCooltra
7. The parking lot
8. Capmar

Aticco within a Smart City

Seeing Barcelona as one of the most important European technology hubs, we want to facilitate all those startups that are committed to innovation and technology, so that through them we can build a city that manages energy resources in a more optimal way. 

And we are committed to this series of changes and advances in relation to the smart city concept, knowing that the goal is to make people's lives easier.