The consortium led by Indra completes the first phase of Coruña Smart City with the launch of the urban platform's operations

Coruña Smart City is Spain’s first project that aims to use technology to achieve full cross-disciplinary city management. This urban platform is already installed and operational in the Council's Data Processing Center (DPC) of this Galician city. This way, the temporary joint venture led by Indra and comprised of Altia, Ilux and R as telecommunications operator, closes the project's first phase, which began in 2013.

The city's "brain" has already begun receiving data from 3 of the 14 pilots that make up the project: multichannel events, guided visits system and electronic administration. Thereby, citizens may use the first services, including mobile applications for the city's cultural and leisure calendar of events and guided visits with augmented reality, amongst others. The town council's electronic headquarters, sede.coruna.gob.es, part of the electronic administration pilot project, is also available.

All of these services are accessible through the Coruña Smart City portal, smart.coruna.es, where useful, dynamic and real-time data is displayed for the citizen. This initial catalog is completed with the Open Data portal that includes freely accessible information for all citizens to use, with over 130 data sources of diverse types. Its goal is for entrepreneurs to use this data for developing new applications and innovative services.

These applications are just a part of the smart city project, which will be completed over upcoming weeks with new services and applications while crossing data that the pilot projects contribute to offer a comprehensive vision of the city.

A great “integrating brain”

The Coruña Smart City platform is based on SOFIA2 (http://sofia2.com), Indra's Internet of Things (IOT) solution with cloud and big data capabilities. SOFIA2 makes it possible to integrate and share information from different systems, mobile devices and social networks in a simple manner. This is a big management center ("integration brain") that enables communication between the services and solutions of the city’s ecosystem (mobility, water, energy, environment, leisure and tourism, etc.) and provides a full overview of its activity. It also includes analysis tools to predict the city's behaviors as regards service use to adapt them in a better and more proactive way to real needs.

For instance, smart cameras will control traffic and predict situations that can help improve both decision-making and mobility, and automatic watering systems in municipal gardens will function depending on requirements rather than timers. Residents will also be able to access information about parking space availability so that they can plan their route before leaving home, and it will be possible to control and implement measures to avoid raising noise levels in areas where this would have a very negative impact (near hospitals, schools, parks, etc.).

The first phase of the project also involved designing, developing and installing the first gateways in parks and public buildings to connect, using the high-speed fiber optic network provided by R, the sensors and other information-gathering elements with the urban platform.

 

Next steps

Another pilot project currently in its execution phase is the meter telemanagement project. In early January, the Town Council began installing smart meters in over 1,000 households and establishments in the city to enable water usage control at any time, enabling better planning concerning needs.

The remaining pilots underway are: smart parking, water quality and early alert system, supply network telemanagement, energy efficiency in council buildings, smart irrigation, air and noise quality system, energy improvement at the A Telva wastewater treatment plant, traffic optimization, interaction with residents and the BIO project. All of these pilot projects will be part of the urban platform.

The Coruña Smart City project aims to design a new city model by using new technologies to meet the increasing demand for efficiency, sustainable development, quality of life and resource management. The A Coruña Town Council and EMALCSA submitted the project and applied for ERDF funds; their innovative proposal was co-funded in 80% with a total of €11.5 million.

Coruña Smart City was designed in two phases: the first phase was awarded in April 2013 to the consortium comprised of Indra, Altia, Ilux and R, and involved designing and starting up the technological platform, the city's "brain". The second phase will take place in 2015 and will involve 14 pilot projects in different areas, which will gradually connect to the urban platform.

Recognition

Since its launch, this project has garnered major recognition. For instance, it was one of the six finalists (out of 200 initiatives) in the project category of the World Smart Cities Awards 2013; recently, it received an Honorable Mention at the 2014 Public Procurement of Innovation Award ceremony from the European Commission. Additionally, it has been considered the Best Council Initiative by the association Ingenieros de Telecomunicación de Galicia and the engineering college Colexio Profesional de Enxeñaría en Informática de Galicia, and it has received an award from Fundación Dintel.

Indra, overseen by Chairman Fernando Abril-Martorell, is Spain's leading consulting and technology multinational and one of the most prominent in Europe and Latin America. Innovation represents the cornerstone of its business and sustainability. In the last three years it has spent more than €570 million on R&D&i, making it one of the biggest European investors in the industry. With a revenue of approximately €3 billion, 61% of its income is generated by the international market. It employs more than 43,000 staff and has clients in over 138 countries.