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

  • Wi-Fi win-win for mass transit
    October 31, 2014
    David Crawford explores passenger and operator benefits of on-board Wi-Fi Urban commuters’ growing demand for continuous – and reliable - internet connectivity is spurring network operators into the rapid installation of high-grade Wi-Fi access on their surface and underground networks, as well as in their stations. Such moves are often a key part of strategies to maintain and increase ridership levels.
  • Speed reduction measures - carrot or stick?
    January 23, 2012
    In Sweden, marketing company DDB Stockholm employed a mock speed camera as part of a promotional campaign for automotive manufacturer Volkswagen. The result was worldwide online interest and promotion of the debate over excessive speed to the national level. A developing trend in traffic management policy is to look at how to induce road users to modify their behaviour by incentivising change rather than forcing it through the application of penalties. There have been several studies conducted into this; an
  • LA solar powered parking meters boosts city’s revenues
    March 2, 2012
    IPS Group, a San Diego-based high-tech parking meter company, has announced the completion of the installation of 10,000 new coin and credit-card parking meters throughout the city of Los Angeles.
  • Keeping cool in LA
    November 11, 2022
    As the earth’s temperatures rise, cities are set to become hotter. A project in Los Angeles may point the way to keeping cool while improving access to transit services in an uncertain future