Streetlights boost storm resilience in London’s financial area

The City of London Corporation, the governing body of the capital’s Square Mile district, is using its streetlight network to better prepare for extreme weather events.

The organisation has been named the winner of the 2022 Itron Innovator Award, which recognises customers that have partnered to deliver a “breakthrough solution”.

Previously, all the City of London’s streetlights were upgraded to LEDs with a central management system and real-time controls. The City Corporation is collaborating with technology companies Itron and Urban Control to use the existing smart streetlight communications network along with industrial internet of things (IIoT) sensors to gather and analyse data to help determine the best way to prepare for severe weather events.

The project is part of the City of London’s Climate Action Strategy.

Sensors

New IoT applications will be added to the existing IIoT mesh network, including temperature, humidity and soil moisture sensors. Once deployed, the sensors will monitor trends over the next 20 years to identify whether interventions, such as sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and urban greening of ‘heat islands’, are helping to avoid disruptive temperatures and street flooding.

Ongoing monitoring of street temperatures and soil moisture aim to help reduce the costs of maintenance and irrigation and provide real-time data to help the City Corporation evaluate which climate resilience interventions are the most effective.

“We are pleased to be recognised for our work with Urban Control on this innovative sensor network, which will help the City of London avoid disruption from climate change-related weather events such as flooding, heatwaves and drought,” said Keith Bottomley, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Port Health & Environmental Services Committee.

“This scheme forms part of the City Corporation’s ambitious Climate Action Strategy, which commits us to achieving net zero carbon emissions for our own operations by 2027 and supporting the achievement of net zero for the City as a whole by 2040.”