Photo: Smart City Development Research Center
Shenzhen wins top award at Smart City Expo
08 November 2024
by Christopher Carey
Shenzhen, China has been named Smart City 2024 at this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
The city was recognised for its Smarter City, Better Life initiative which focuses on digitalisation, advanced urban management, and sustainable development to tackle population density, resource limitations and environmental concerns.
“We’ve been able to build a better environment for entrepreneurship and a better living place for citizens [and] we see great potential for future worldwide collaboration for the construction of smart cities,” a Shenzhen city spokesperson said.
The Mobility Award went to Dublin City Council in Ireland for its Active Travel Dashboard, a platform that integrates commuting data, Google data and EcoCounter cycle and pedestrian counter data to accurately build a picture of active travel in the Irish capital.
Innovation
The Innovation Award was jointly awarded to Ahmedabad, India and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
The Indian city was recognised for its aProCh initiative which focuses on reclaiming public spaces and empowering children by providing them with tools to actively participate in community life.
Aramco’s myCommunity platform, developed within Dhahran’s smart city framework, was recognised for creating a “connected ecosystem that enriches and empowers” over 100 different ethnicities across 14 communities, putting community engagement “directly into the hands of residents”.
In the Enabling Tech category, Madrid took the honours for its Capital Digital initiative that aims to accelerate the digitalisation of public services and improve the wellbeing of residents.
Digital inclusion
London’s Office of Technology and Innovation won the Governance category for its pan-city sustainable digital inclusion service – created to improve access to digital devices, connectivity and digital skills for residents and to address inequalities caused by an increasingly digital society.
In the Energy & Environment category, FCC Environment (Spain) was recognised for the development of the urban-service H2-cell chassis, a self-supporting modular hydrogen-fuel cell lorry chassis with permanent electric traction, high- power batteries and an advanced low-entry cab that is suitable for all urban service purposes.
The Infrastructure & Building award went to Envision Charlotte in the US for its Glass to Concrete project that processes glass recovered in bars and restaurants to be used in place of sand in making concrete for local projects.
The Korea Land & Housing Corporation won the Living & Inclusion award for its Compas data analysis platform that creates a predictive model for public safety analysing urban problems through crowdsourcing and citizen participation.
Milan’s Mayor Giuseppe Sala took this year’s Leadership award in recognition of his continuing efforts to drive urban innovation internationally.
