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This year, the first LNG-powered ferry set off along the Tallinn-Helsinki route, producing 25 percent less CO2 and 85 percent less nitrogen compounds. Now the Port of Tallinn is looking to up its sustainability game starting at square one with port traffic.

Tech corporation ZTE is looking to bring Hungary’s technology up to 21st century standards starting with one major upgrade: a 5G network. While small towns like Szentendre near Budapest have toyed with smart city solutions like Smart Parking systems, it’s up to larger metropolises to set the example when it comes to Smart City projects.

By transforming non-recyclable waste into “green” methanol, the facility will help lower carbon emissions by creating a raw material that can be used to replace fossil fuels, offering clean energy to fuel the chemical industry and transportation sector. Let’s take a look at how this facility—which is the first of its kind in Europe—will be revolutionary for Rotterdam.

Karlsruhe, the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, has had a three-prong plan in place since 2012. Working together with the administration, public and relevant companies, Karlsruhe developed the framework for a sustainable urban mobility system that not only highlights transportation development, it also ensures equal mobility opportunities for everyone in the city.

Austria’s fourth-largest city, Salzburg, may be known for its charming medieval and baroque buildings (as well as being the birthplace of famous composer Mozart), but the city is making a name for itself in the region as a leader in Smart Grids and electric mobility. Home to a population of nearly 150,000 people, this mid-sized city is making a major impact in terms of climate protection projects and emission-reducing solutions.

The 1st SmartCitiesCouncil® - Europe Stakeholders’ Assembly recently took place in Dublin, Ireland on the 9th of November. The day’s theme was Accelerating your innovation economy and focused on how smart city solutions can advance innovation and economic development. Honored by the attendance of the most reputable names in the Smart Cities industry, the stakeholder assembly quickly gained attention from all around Europe.

With the redevelopment of former harbours like Helsinki’s Smart Kalasatama, and projects like Interactive Cities, where Genova is leading the way with digital developments that impact city governance, both EU cities could benefit from Google Urbanism and its plan to “think about a city from the Internet up.”

Now Namur, once labeling itself as a “digital gateway,” is looking to earn another title: smart city. A new project in the historic centre is operating as a “living lab,” where citizens can gather and collaborate on creative projects. Here are a few of the ways Namur is working toward a sustainable revolution in the region, one solution at a time.

Trash management is an issuing authority constantly face as cities strive to keep their streets clean. Switzerland is known for being “stereotypically tidy,” but cities still have to determine how much time—and where—to invest in sanitation. A new digital system that counts and categorizes trash may help solve urban sanitation issues throughout Switzerland.

Skies may soon be safer, however, thanks to a world-first Radio Positioning System RPS) for drones, allowing air traffic control to track drones in real time. Recently unveiled in a trial in Isla Mayor, a town in the province of Seville, Spain, this IoT-based tracking technology may be the key to developing new pan-European rules to regulate the operation of drones.

Santander, the capital of Spain’s autonomous region on the northern coast of Spain, was once home to a royal summer residence and still seeks to showcase this “aristocratic atmosphere” while providing visitors and citizens with another view: waste-free streets. Below, we’ll take a look at how this summer tourist destination is getting savvy when it comes to strengthening its waste collection services, making it a more liveable city and inspiring leader for the rest of Spain to follow.

The historic city of Helmond in North Brabant in the southern Netherlands was one of the first cities to adopt intelligent lighting technology as a way to solve its challenges as a growing industrial hub, becoming more sustainable in the process by saving energy. Let’s dive deeper into why this Dutch city decided to become a pioneer in the intelligent street lighting movement and some of the immediate benefits they’ve seen in the process.

Ten medium-sized European cities—including Bruges, Delft and Mechelen—have partnered up with Cambridge Cleantech to develop solutions for urban environment challenges revolving around one main concept: open data. Here’s how these cities are looking at public service information in a new way, tapping into a market estimated to have a €300 billion value to tackle issues from parking to air quality.

The French city is joining forces with surrounding towns to embark on a €105 million information technology project that will improve city operations while helping save money on street lighting, traffic management and public safety. Working together with EDF's Citelum—as well as major French companies like Bouygues, Suez and Capgemini—the city plans to connect services like lighting through open data and smart city apps, thereby saving up to 65 percent in public lighting costs.

As a signatory of the Green Digital Charter, Malmö is already helping cities achieve EU climate goals through sustainable IT, setting an example right at home with an infrastructure that “reduces the environmental impact of technology and also city operations as a whole,” according to TCO Certified.

As one of the leading smart cities in Spain, Valencia has introduced a few firsts in the country, including the integration of a smart city management platform. Now with a budget of over 1 billion euros, Valencia is undergoing a transformation to become a centre of urban innovation on par with some of the continent’s most progressive smart cities.

As a way to tackle urban environmental challenges and share common practices, Finland’s six largest cities—Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Oulu and Turku—have partnered up to form a platform dubbed “The Six City Strategy.”

Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana, is considered one of the most liveable cities on the globe, with a series of ground-breaking projects that have helped earn it the title of European Green Capital back in 2016. After taking on this role, Ljubljana continues to thrive as an example of sustainability, spearheading movements like the digitalization of bus stops in the city center.

As the country’s largest city continues to grow, it’s looking to achieve the title of “green capital” and become a model of sustainable development. As part of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan 2012-2020, Sofia is laying down a series of steps to help with everything from energy management to transport and waste management—and looking to technologies from around the globe to aid the process.

In the UK, air pollution is the cause of nearly 40,000 deaths each year and contributes to serious, long-term health issues for hundreds of thousands of people. Declared a national crisis, London mayor Sadiq Khan is looking to improve quality of life for Londoners by preventing air pollution—starting with traffic in Central London. The mayor is extending the city’s low emission zone to cover a wider span of London, extending from the center to the North and South Circular roads.

In addition to developing a wastewater treatment policy generating energy from wastewater, the city has also designed a mobility policy that focuses on the increased use of a clean transportation system. Lille plans to replace 20 to 40 percent of the energy for road transport with biogas-powered vehicles, saving nearly 120,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxide per year.

In Germany, the “car capital” of Stuttgart—one of the most polluted cities in the country—continuously reached levels of 82 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide per cubic metre of air, more than double the EU’s allowed limit. Covered in a blanket of smog, Stuttgart is now referred to as Germany’s “Beijing” because of its air pollution.

Milan is one of a handful of cosmopolitan cities thrusting billions of euros into neglected neighbourhoods as part of a modernization plan that will make the city more attractive—and sustainable—than ever. Dubbed CityLife Park, the inspiration for this new concept comes from the landscapes of the Lombardy region, with a design inspired to serve as “a park between the mountains and the plain.”

While Trondheim is emerging as Norway’s tech hub and gaining attention for innovative solutions like Wireless Trondheim, a network that drives progress testing future technologies and hardware development, the city is now making a mark in the transportation sector—specifically with its public bus system. With the introduction of an electric bus project, the city plans to go fossil fuel-free by 2019. L

When the city served as European Green Capital 2011, it reduced carbon emissions by 2 million tonnes, compared with 2007. Now Hamburg is hoping to cut carbon emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, in addition to significantly reducing both sewage and municipal waste. With the launch of electrically powered garbage trucks, the city can achieve both goals and improve air quality while transporting trash up to 27 tonnes.-Bruno De Man

At Smart Cities Week Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, California, one of the highlighted themes at this year’s conference was modern mobility and how city leaders can help “develop a roadmap for smart transportation.” Let’s look closer into this concept and examine some of the solutions already underway across Europe. 

If Europe replaced its current streetlight infrastructure with smart lamps, it could save taxpayers up to €2.1 billion per year. At the moment, Europe spends nearly €3 billion on street lighting—a sum that could be translated to other public services like employing tens of thousands of doctors or nurses.

Seen as the “smart city evolution,” Mantua has dubbed itself Italy’s first “Phygital City,” connecting physical and digital experiences residents can have. So what does this mean exactly? The 2016 Italian Capital of Culture, with the help of fabbricadigitale (the Italian IT company behind Telecom Italia’s digital experience at the Expo 2015), is working with big data-based, advanced machine learning technologies that can analyse smart city information in real time.

Sarajevo is home to 275,000 residents, and like most cities looking to become smarter, it faces one big constraint: finance. So how does a city dealing with technical debt and remnants of war rise from its ruins and rebuild as a technology-driven smart city? For Sarajevo, the answer may be in its youth. Let’s take a look at how the new generation may help pull the city out of its war-torn past thanks to a wealth of innovation and app-driven solutions.

Open data is one of the key elements when it comes to building a smart city and improving urban life. While open data can be seen as a gold mine in terms of driving forward smart initiatives, it can also pose a risk, with cities becoming just as hackable as smartphones and computers. Cities in Europe will have to re-evaluate the way they use open data once the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into play this spring.

Last month marked the anniversary of the 1910 “Great Flood of Paris,” one of the worst natural disasters to hit the city. The Seine rose nearly 8 metres, causing $1.5 billion worth of damage (in today’s terms), transforming the city into a French Venice and forcing thousands to evacuate as streets morphed into canals that destroyed basic infrastructure. At that point in time, the French capital was unprepared in terms of handling such a crisis, which lingered for two months.

One of 32 council areas of Scotland, Renfrewshire sits in the west central Lowlands, bordered by the Firth of Clyde and River Clyde. With nearly 176,000 residents, this council area is the 10th most populous in Scotland and may help propel a wave of housing reformation thanks to a new Internet of Things (IoT) initiative, which can help save local authorities millions of pounds on property management and repair bills.

While Iceland falls into the top 50 percent of countries by geographical size, most of its population of 329,000 is centred in and around the capital, Reykjavik. Iceland is proving, however, that having a small population can be used to a country’s advantage, pulling together and becoming more resourceful when it comes to utilizing the latest technology.

Certaines villes ont commencé à proposer des applications de partage d'espaces de stationnement. Dans le sud de la France, cependant, Montpellier se tourne vers les systèmes connectés d'Internet des objets (Internet of Things ou IoT) pour créer des espaces de stationnement intelligents.

For Albania’s capital of Tirana, the key lies in smart city solutions that address issues such as mobility, education and public spaces. During the Tirana Smart City Conference, representatives came together from the municipality, international organisations, and the community to share in the mayor’s vision of Tirana’s transformation over the next decade. Here’s a brief glance at the 112 projects designed to make a significant change to Tirana’s current infrastructure.

Santander está buscando modernizarse con medidas inteligentes para la gestión y tratamiento de residuos. A continuación, analizaremos cómo este destino turístico veraniego está aprendiendo a mejorar sus servicios de recogida de basuras, haciendo que la ciudad sea más habitable y convirtiéndola en modelo a seguir por el resto de España.

A series of smart projects is slowly seeping its way across Turkey’s cities with one goal in mind: transforming the country into a digital hub. Part of Turkey’s 2023 Goals, these smart city concepts are stemming from years of investments in smart technology, which will save the country billions of euros annually, as well as provide the infrastructure necessary to fuel these future-focused technologies.

As the EU looks to be a driver in terms of a low carbon economy, islands in Europe are becoming more aware of their role to serve as inspiration for sustainable, integrated solutions that “make the most out of islands’ competitive advantages,” according to the Smart Islands Initiative. Let’s take a look at this new effort inspired by Smart Cities and Communities and how Europe’s islands may play a vital role in helping Europe transition into a low carbon and sustainable economy.

In an effort to help push cities in an ecological direction, the "Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux" (IFSTTAR) will test out solutions in a mini-city that’s equipped with sensors. Below, we’ll take a closer look at the project underway and what it could mean for cities in terms of moving forward in the energy transition.

As part of the six-year mySMARTLife project, European Lighthouse city Helsinki is looking to urban solutions to cut 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Along with Nantes and Hamburg, Helsinki is part of the mySMARTLife plan to transform cities into “more sustainable places where smart people and smart economy become reality.”

Start-ups such as Berlin-based door2door are looking at ways to supplement public transport instead of replacing it. Launching just last month, the app is helping to connect the country with the first on-demand local public transport system in a rural area, the Freyung Shuttle, in the Bavarian Forest town of Freyung.

Dans l'est de la France, Dijon s'efforce de renforcer son statut de ville intelligente en impliquant ses voisins. La ville française joint ses forces à celles des localités environnantes pour se lancer dans un projet informatique de 105 millions d'euros qui améliorera son fonctionnement, tout en permettant la réalisation d'économies sur l'éclairage public, la gestion du trafic et la sécurité publique.

What does it take for a city to make the switch and become “smarter”? This is the question Oradea in northwest Romania is looking to answer with its plan to become the first Romanian smart city. With the Oradea Smart City strategy, the city is drafting a long-term plan based on a series of ICT-based solutions aimed to be put in place by 2025. Not only will these solutions help Oradea earn the title of Romania’s first smart city, it’ll also solve a number of public issues it currently faces.

Two major companies are teaming up to develop a project that could help as many as 8.5 million drivers on the road. The joint venture between BMW and IBM will deliver a cloud-based data management system as part of a new connected car initiative, all based on real-time performance.

Sicily is not seen as a tech hub and faces issues from crumbling infrastructure to overflowing trash. However, the largest island in the Mediterranean is working on a small, crowdfunded budget to solve these issues and boost its evolving tech scene, with the local government investing a portion of the €13 million needed for technological projects.

A lack of public funding may be considered a major inhibitor in smart city development, but cities are turning away from traditional financing methods and are instead coming up with creative ways to finance the city. Citizens are willing to get involved to make their city the best it can be, instead of developing an entirely new city. Here’s where the revolutionary concept of crowdfunding comes into play.

Dans un effort pour amener Municipalité et habitants à collaborer sur des solutions durables, Mons s'est tourné vers la technologie. Résultat donna naissance à la « Creative Valley », un conglomérat d’acteurs publics, d'entreprises privées, d'universités et de centres de recherche travaillant côte-à-côte afin de transformer une « économie traditionnelle » en « économie créative ».

Despite a recession less than five years ago, Lisbon is proving that cities can quickly recover and rise from economic struggles with the help of a strong digital infrastructure and start-up culture. The Portuguese capital is now making this a key focus in order to operate an integrated management plan for the city, which will utilize a cloud operation centre.

The city has been strategic in its use of digital technologies to improve urban, health and governmental services, as well as the daily lives of its 76,000 citizens. By making it a priority to engage actively and effectively with citizens, Trikala has managed to deliver a number of sustainable initiatives and services, serving as a 21st century model for other cities across Greece to follow.

Shared mobility may still be in its early stages, but this is one trend that could have a major impact not only on the automotive industry, but also on cities themselves. Shared mobility is predicted to only partially replace car ownership, but by 2030, this part could equal up to a third of vehicle sales. Europe currently ranks third in the market in terms of shared mobility, with the challenge of lacking a “one-size-fits-all” model, since each city has its own regulations.

Desde 2009 que Portugal tem como objetivo ser um líder em termos de mobilidade elétrica, ao desenvolver novos modelos de energia para a sustentabilidade. Uma cidade, em particular, Évora, capital do Distrito de Évora, na região do Alentejo e sub-região do Alentejo Central, serviu como o primeiro projeto-piloto para o desenvolvimento da cidade inteligente.

Smart projects typically inspire urban visions: connected skyrises, autonomous vehicles, high-tech transport. And while these are important elements to consider when it comes to urban planning for a city, there’s also a side that can benefit from smart solutions—nature. Islands such as Menorca in the Spanish Balearic archipelago are looking to smart ways to “reduce human pressure and environmental impact.” (article available in Spanish)

With a population of over 1.7 million in metropolitan Oslo, the city realized that to protect its citizens, it needs to focus its smart city efforts on one major issue: climate-friendly urban development. The 10-year-plan behind FutureBuilt is just one of the projects underway in the Norwegian capital, as the city looks to build climate-friendly buildings that not only appear aesthetically beautiful, they are also designed to reduce carbon footprints by 50 percent.

Established around 700 A.D., Somerset in southwest England boasts one of the oldest local governments in the world. But despite its age—or perhaps because of it—Somerset County Council has proved itself to be one major example of how the UK is looking to “rethink and revamp” its technologies to better serve its citizens and its goals.

The German town of Monheim am Rhein, whose population measures about 40,000, will act as a guinea pig for a project aiming to reduce energy consumption by up to 70 percent. The tiny town sitting along to eastern bank of the Rhine is partnering with a national telecommunications company to develop a smart lighting service that will improve the quality of life for citizens and make the location an even more attractive one for businesses headquartered in Germany.

Les villes d’Europe s’attachent à devenir plus en plus « intelligentes » en créant des quartiers et des habitations dotées de technologies de pointe. Une ville est tout particulièrement est en train d’étendre ce concept aux logements pour étudiants.

Thanks to autonomous mobility and parking, companies like Hitachi are paving the way for an infrastructure of the future to ensure more efficient (and safer) commutes for citizens. While some of these technologies are still under development, one area of connected mobility has recently rolled out: autonomous parking technology.

While the Finnish town of Tampere may only have 200,000 residents, it’s the largest inland city in Scandinavia. Set on an isthmus between two lakes, the city is dominated by old industrial buildings, original architecture and a stunning natural backdrop of ridges formed thousands of years ago. Yet despite its small town vibes and compact city centre, Tampere is poising itself to become a frontrunner for 5G technology.

As countries like India urbanize at rapid-fire pace, they may need a little help from more developed friends around the world when it comes to establishing and implementing sustainable smart city solutions. Here’s where Sweden steps in. The Scandinavian country is partnering with India to develop a plan to promote sustainable and green-friendly public transportation solutions, making cities across India smarter thanks to Swedish technologies.

To fight against global warming, the Dutch government plans to slim down its carbon emissions to zero by 2050. One island is paving the way toward energy-efficient solutions with a smart public lighting project. Last summer, Texel, an island in North Holland with 13,000 residents, started rolling out an intelligent street lighting network that controls when and where lighting is illuminated.

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI), more of the global population will be using mobile phones than bank accounts or running water by 2021, with numbers estimated at 5.5 billion.

Del mismo modo que un director ejecutivo es esencial para la gestión de una empresa, las ciudades están creando un papel igualmente fundamental para los proyectos de ciudades inteligentes, un director general de tecnología. Ahora, con estos directores de tecnología ayudando a preparar el terreno para las estrategias de solución inteligente, las ciudades de toda Europa están incorporando un elemento importante en la mezcla: Wi-Fi gratis.

If the “city of tomorrow” always needs to be connected, one of the simplest solutions is to give citizens and travellers access to free Wi-Fi, especially in the most public places.

Following the example of London, Singapore is one of the few cities on the globe—and the first in Asia—to look at contactless credit and debit cards in a different way: for public transport.

Intel has partnered up with GE to reimagine the way buildings use energy, testing the concept in its own headquarters.

In Copenhagen, going green goes way beyond biking around town. The solution? The government’s green energy policy is looking to electrical vehicles (EV) to make the city free of fossil fuels in the future.

The key attributes of 5G that will benefit Smart Cities include higher network speed and more connections, enabling wireless connectivity in unprecedented locations; quicker and more adaptive response times.

This article highlights some examples of cities which are embracing smart technologies and show how they are having a positive impact on daily life.