Smart Urbana—innovative project under H2020 programme - started in January 2017. The project’s idea is about enabling municipalities with Cyber-Physical System (CPS) instruments and business models for digital transformation of real-time data about urban processes into digital services for the community. The Smart Urbana project is realized within the larger European project Smart CPS Engineering Labs under H2020 financial support.

There are 5 European cities from 5 countries participating in 'Smart Urbana':

Smart Urbana implements Smart City Monitor digital transformation platform that runs the customized urban models of relevant cities as complex Cyber-Physical Systems. It transforms actual big data streams from multiple interlinked heterogeneous CPS systems and data sources into rich set of customized digital services and analytics supporting smart interactions “Citizen <-> City Model <-> Governance”. 

The ICT platform, used for the project implementation, integrates Smart City Monitor and Sofia2 software system by Indra, Spain. The solution allows easy linking to the sensor networks and open data sources in different geolocations of the urban area to receive data streams (IoT, SCADA, databases, spreadsheets, etc.) as well as enterprises, energy, processing plants, buildings (KPIs, statuses, mapping, events, analytics).

During the experiments for ten months, at least two use cases are implemented: (1) “New CPS based instruments for Smart Local Governance of quality of life in European Cities in compliance with international standards” and (2) “Management of Quality of Environment and Air with Smart City Monitor”.

The Use Case 1 applies the urban CPS model developed in full compliance with the international standard ISO 37120 "Sustainable development of communities — Indicators for city services and quality of life" and provides practical instrument for measuring of quality of life and sustainability in the cities. Its easy cost-effective implementation in daily operational practices of municipalities opens broad range of novel applications and information services for communities presenting a city as a complete integrated ecosystem or "System of Systems" that is transparent for all stakeholders. New CPS thinking and systematic approach toward the urban model linking to local data sources and systems fosters operational relations between local service providers in the cities and urban communities receiving these services.  

The Use Case 2 experiments with continuous monitoring and control air quality in real-time by using multiple stationary and mobile sensors installed on public busses (Alba Iulia) well distributed over the urban area (Faro) and communicating its data for central hub processing in real time. Its results are integrated in the holistic vision of the Air Quality in the Smart City Monitor dashboards or alternatively within a more generic definition of the Environment accordingly to ISO 37120 urban model.

After the end of the project, its results become an essential part of the new digital transformation agenda in the cities assisting stakeholders in transparency of their smart, sustainable processes, continuously improved quality of life and governance, generation of employment and new business opportunities. Specifically several new use cases significantly reducing non-productive daily routines and improving transparency of results were identified during the project and its workshops in the municipalities such as automatic real time processing and integration of data in the multiple reports received by municipalities from their service providers (energy, water, waste, education, health, transportation, environment, etc) and consumers. The administrations showed their growing interest in providing transparency of ongoing processes by presenting its results and actual achievements to the local communities and its integration into relevant governance procedures.    

Association for Sustainable Innovative Development in Economics, Environment and Society (ASIDEES) coordinates the project, implements its major work packages and use cases (http://asidees.org) and provides continuous support to the municipalities and its service providers.

CPSE Labs Partner presented by Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain is a member of the consortium of CPSE Labs providing provides financial support to the Smart Urbana experiment and access to the Sofia2 services. (www.cpse-labs.eu)

The project participants and organisations interested in exploring its results, will discuss the experiments, its achievements, failures and insights for the future at the upcoming workshop “Smart Cities in practice” on 31st October in Vienna, Austria. (https://asidees.org/index.php?id=workshop). 

The practical options for implementations of Smart Urbana type projects in the small and medium cities fostering Smart Governance and Smart Management as well as available integrated solution ‘Smart City Monitor + SOFIA2’will be demonstrated on the upcoming workshop. The organizations working or planning to join Smart City, Circular Economy, Energy grids and various ICT and IoT projects are welcome to take part in the workshop and discuss cooperation in the upcoming calls H2020 and other international grants.