Skip to main content

Smart Cities Council launches Readiness Guide

In advance of the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Smart Cities Council, comprising some of the foremost experts and leading global companies in the smart technologies sector has released its first version of the Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide. The say this is the first comprehensive, vendor-neutral smart city handbook for city leaders and planners. Designed with input from leading smart city and urban planning experts as well as top global technology companies, the guide enable
November 19, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In advance of the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Smart Cities Council, comprising some of the foremost experts and leading global companies in the smart technologies sector has released its first version of the Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide. The say this is the first comprehensive, vendor-neutral smart city handbook for city leaders and planners. Designed with input from leading smart city and urban planning experts as well as top global technology companies, the guide enables city leaders to assess their current state of technology and its readiness to become a smart city.

The guide includes vendor-neutral technology recommendations on all eight of a city’s most important responsibilities -  the built environment, energy, telecommunications, transportation, water and waste water, health and human services, public safety, and payments.  It contains guidelines, best practices and more than fifty case studies and is designed to help a city create its own customised smart city wish list. The Guide outlines 27 proven principles to follow in order to guarantee success and avoid pitfalls.

Hartford, Connecticut, tested an earlier version of the guide.  Its mayor, Pedro E Segarra, said “Critical to our future success as a smart city is a clear understanding of how to procure technology effectively.  In fact, our core values drive us to create a collaborative work environment that promotes sharing, creativity, and openness to new ideas. The Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide offers us new ideas and has helped set the foundation for our 2030 planning. It is the tool that will help Hartford move forward.”

“Over the next twenty years, the world’s 700 largest cities are projected to make a cumulative infrastructure investment of US$30-$40 trillion,” said founding Smart Cities Council chairman Jesse Berst. “It is essential that they invest wisely. Because it was produced collaboratively by some of the world’s top smart city experts, the Readiness Guide prepares city leaders to make informed decisions that will enhance the liveability, workability and sustainability of their cities.”

Related Content

  • ‘Shining moment of opportunity for tolling’
    May 5, 2021
    Climate change is already affecting tolling operations in many parts of the world. IBTTA’s Bill Cramer explains how the sector can be seen as a proven funding and financing mechanism for surface transportation
  • TomTom partners with UN-Habitat
    November 29, 2013
    TomTom has announced a partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. TomTom’s global Traffic Index data will be used by UN-Habitat and its stakeholders around the world to make strategic decisions when tackling urban congestion. Recently TomTom released the sixth edition of its Traffic Index which revealed a clear pattern of increased congestion. Commuters around the world are spending on average eight working days stuck in traffic. This shows that traditional responses li
  • Phoenix rises to the Smart City challenge
    December 10, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at the City of Phoenix where voters backed a $30bn plan to revamp its transportation network to cultivate a more connected community. According to a Land Use Institute study, half of all Americans and even more millennials (63%) would like to live in a place where they do not need to use a car very often. The City of Phoenix is putting in place plans to revamp its urban development and transportation policies to meet these changing quality of life perceptions.
  • US infrastructure: once in a lifetime
    April 23, 2021
    Expectations are sky-high for Amtrak Joe and Mayor Pete as they use infrastructure spending to rebuild the US economy post-Covid – and ITS firms should be able to get a share...