Skip to main content

Madrid and IBM partner on smarter cities project

The City of Madrid and IBM, through its subsidiary INSA, have announced the start of a ‘smart city’ project, designed to improve city life for Madrid’s three million inhabitants. The contract, with an estimated value of approximately US$20 million, will IBM’s Smarter Cities technology, including Big Data and analytics, to transform the city’s supplier management model, allowing the city to manage and pay each service provider based on service levels in an effort to improve the management of public servi
July 10, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The City of Madrid and 62 IBM, through its subsidiary INSA, have announced the start of a ‘smart city’ project, designed to improve city life for Madrid’s three million inhabitants.

The contract, with an estimated value of approximately US$20 million, will IBM’s smarter Cities technology, including Big Data and analytics, to transform the city’s supplier management model, allowing the city to manage and pay each service provider based on service levels in an effort to improve the management of public services such as street maintenance, lighting, irrigation, trees and green spaces, cleaning and garbage and waste management.

Madrid is one of the five most populated municipalities in Europe, producing one million tons of household waste and using some 15 million Cubic meters of water every year. The city also manages and tracks numerous assets including 1.7 million vehicles, more than 252,000 street lights and 287,000 trees that are cared for by the city.

The city will begin using an innovative technology platform called Madrid iNTeligente (MiNT) – smarter Madrid which will help improve quality of services, communications with citizens, anticipate issues and coordinate resources. By using smart phones, tablets other Mobile Devices and social media, it is expected citizens will be able to instantly communicate with the city about issues such as broken traffic signals or pot holes, receive instant feedback and track progress or the status of an event or issue.

“This project will serve as an example for other European capital cities which will be able to follow Madrid´s model as the first European capital with comprehensive public services integration, ” said Marta Martínez, general manager for IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel. “We are proud that the City of Madrid has relied on IBM Group for this innovative initiative.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ‘Explosion of interest in smart cities’ says report
    March 5, 2013
    According to a new tracker report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, the past twelve months have seen an explosion of interest in the smart city concept. Cities around the world have announced new smart city strategies and innovative projects, and many existing programs have been rebranded as smart city initiatives. More than fifty per cent of smart city projects are focused on innovations in transportation and urban mobility. The tracker identifies and details 130 smart city proje
  • Hello LA! It's showtime!
    September 19, 2022
    Welcome to this year’s ITS World Congress, organised by RX Global. Jaime McAuley, the company’s event director, provides some highlights of what will be an amazing and unforgettable show
  • Turning information into stories
    April 16, 2018
    IBTTA says its TollMiner tool can transform transportation planning. Here, the tolling organisation explains how it works – and what part it might play in Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan. Imagine being able to turn the black-and-white numbers in a spreadsheet into graphics and visualisations that tell a compelling story about essential transportation infrastructure. Having easy access to the solid, reliable data you need to plan surface transportation projects and assign project resources based on
  • How public transit improves quality of life
    June 29, 2022
    There are various reasons why Mobility as a Service is catching on more in Europe than the US – but there are still other ways in which access to mobility can be improved across the states, finds Gordon Feller