Bradford to trial smart city tech as part of European project

Bradford is hoping to see a 10% cut in the cost of public services by taking part in a European ‘smart city’ project.

The five-year Smart Cities and Open Data Re-use (SCORE) project – which involves nine cities across Europe – aims to help save up to €50m (£45m) through the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to improve the delivery of municipal services in areas such as the environment, water, parking and sustainable transport.

As part of the project, researchers at the University of Bradford are working with colleagues at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Aarhus University in Denmark to develop innovative ideas including interactive dustbins that can sense when they are full, intelligent car parks that can highlight empty spaces, and real-time flood-warning information data that could save lives.

These ideas will be trialled and potentially implemented in the cities participating in the project: Aarhus, Amsterdam, Aberdeen, Bergen, Bradford, Dordrecht, Ghent, Gothenberg and Hamburg.

“The aim of the project is to improve the delivery of public services, using innovative software and data sharing” said Dr Dhaval Thakker, lecturer in computing and SCORE project principal investigator at the University of Bradford. “Our role is to use our expertise in creating IoT inspired solutions, to assist cities in developing new, and more efficient ways of delivering essential services.”

For example, sensors offer the potential to manage waste collection more effectively, Dr Thakker explained.

“Real time information from sensors within bins allows us to tell if they are full or not. This data can be used by planners to make positive changes. Using big data analytics on sensor data, we can improve route planning significantly, reducing wasted journeys which can save money and reduce pollution too.”

All cities taking part in SCORE are targeting a 10% reduction in the cost of service provision and a 20% improvement in the quality of these services, as measured by public perception.

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