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

  • Kapsch says US purchase will have world-wide impact
    June 3, 2014
    Peter Ummenhofer, head of the ITS Business Unit at Kapsch TrafficCom, discusses what the recent acquisition of US ATMS specialist Transdyn will mean for the company and the ITS sector. Even a brief perusal of Kapsch’s portfolio lends credence to the company’s assertion that it is more than ‘just a tolling systems and services supplier’. Over the past few years, the company has added road safety enforcement to its offering with significant commercial vehicle operations capabilities, including weigh in motion
  • EU approves US$660 billion to transform Europe's transport network
    March 23, 2012
    The EU's Council of transport ministers met in Brussels yesterday and approved a proposal for a new regulation of Trans European Transport – Network (TEN-T) guidelines, in a package for a Connecting Europe Facility. The proposal approved yesterday, and which will cost US$660 billion by 2020 if fully implemented, is aimed at establishing and developing a complete TEN-T, consisting of infrastructure for roads, railways, inland waterways, shipping ports and airports. It also defined a comprehensive network and
  • Getting ready for AVs? 93% of US municipalities say yes
    June 28, 2024
    Verra Mobility research finds city technology leaders will also use AI for road safety
  • New approach to data handling aids development of smarter cities
    January 14, 2013
    David Crawford has been to the Irish capital to see a potent memorandum of understanding at work. An imaginative collaboration between the world’s largest IT company and one of Europe’s smaller capital cities is demonstrating a new approach to data handling that could have far reaching implications for urban public transport worldwide. A close working relationship between IBM and Dublin City Council (DCC) dates from 2010.