Smart City, an ambitious project by the European Commission
A smart city embodies the ideal of an urban context where resources are managed with a view to achieving energy self-sufficiency and economic sustainability in order to guarantee its citizens a significantly higher level of quality of life.
In projects that involve the renovation of infrastructure and services provided to citizens, the use of IoT technologies has become of fundamental import for several reasons, for example: improved management and optimisation of resources, reduced environmental impact, the design and construction of environmentally sustainable urban transport networks, improvement and enhancement of services as well as the development of new ones.
Within a smart city, we also “work” to foster relations with intellectual, human and social capital: all citizens actively contribute to public policy and make city administration an interactive and responsive enterprise.
Furthermore, sustainability, efficiency and innovation make it possible to increase the level of safety in urban spaces, providing protection for the entire population.
Technology developed by DZ Engineering
The Smart City Control Room project is the result of the experience and know-how developed by DZ Engineering in both the motorsports industry and urban safety. The implementation of CCTV control systems at F1 and MotoGP racetracks (Singapore, Monza, Imola, Hanoi and Mandalika) and the city infrastructure in Ravenna, Forlì, Cesena and Crotone were the foundations for achieving a high level of excellence in the field.
A true gem of advanced technology that will allow the City of Florence to:
- increase the efficiency levels of its mobility management by facilitating complete information sharing;
- have total control over what happens every day regarding public and private mobility, security, lighting, traffic lights and infomobility;
- create a model to analyse joint urban functions where all data and information are leveraged to organise the day-to-day and extraordinary management of the city and to define strategies.
The IT infrastructure of the Control Room
The infrastructure of the SCCR has been designed to accommodate an operations centre that is responsible for communications and cooperation between the various stakeholders, the exchange of information and synoptic overview of shared information, and the integration of information systems and processes.
In order to foster collaboration and cooperation, a single workspace has been created where the hardware and software systems make it possible to:
- centralise the information contained in municipal databases and management systems regarding the street network;
- create a platform to interface with the systems of external operations centres;
- develop a monitoring and management system that provides a real-time view of the level of efficiency of systems and municipal services.
Activities carried out in the Control Room
Day-to-day work in the Control Room involves the use of predictive logic to plan for and coordinate all events that could have an impact on city mobility, for example, construction sites or public demonstrations.
The transparent management of scheduled and unscheduled events allows efficient solutions to be implemented and pertinent information to be shared in a timely manner with all parties involved.
This modus operandi makes troubleshooting and/or problem-solving faster and smoother.
Finally, the Control Room constantly monitors public services and the proper functioning of technological equipment installed on the streets, such as lighting and Wi-Fi antennas.
