Smart Cities: the transformation of our cities through technology

The most important cities in the world are being optimized by applying the latest technological advances. Large cities such as New York, Seoul, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Madrid or 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.

To analyze this urban optimization, the city's economy, human capital, technological innovations, environment, international projection, social cohesion, mobility, and public management are studied. And this defines the indicators to assess the development of cities. 

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

And citizens have increasingly more access to systems that allow them to monitor and analyze information about their environment. The growth of the “cloud” has had a great impact on smart cities, as information is better processed and it costs much less to store it. 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

During the last years, Barcelona has been working to develop this concept of a smart city, 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 to be more open and efficient. The purpose is to promote innovation and digitization to improve infrastructure and public services.

Modifications in the city to make it a smart city

Next, we are going to see some of the points with which Barcelona is on its way to becoming a smart city:

• There are more than 650 free internet access points
• Waste management collection points are monitored by workers, which allows for route optimization.
• 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 that help the city improve energy consumption:

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

Aticco within a Smart City

Seeing Barcelona as one of the major European technology hubs, we want to make it easier for all those startups that are committed to innovation and technology, so that through them, a city is built that manages energy resources more optimally. 

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