Edinburgh, Scotland has completed the first phase of its participation in Scotland’s 8th City – the Smart City program. The 8th City Programme was organized by the Scottish Cities Alliance, and runs from 2015 to 2023 involving seven Scottish cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth, and Stirling). The program seeks to enhance Smart City activity to accelerate and transform the delivery of city services and make Scotland’s cities more attractive, liveable, and resilient.
The City of Edinburgh Council has been working with CGI UK, the primary provider of end-to-end managed IT services for the council, to deliver the Smart City program. The council states it has saved £45m (~USD$55m) since the partnership began in 2015, with an additional £11m (~USD$13.5m) saved in 2018, and an extension agreed last year until 2029 that is expected to realize a further £12m (~USD$14.7m).
“I’ve long been a champion of Edinburgh’s ambitions of becoming a world-leading smart city – a digitally inclusive, data-rich, and sustainable capital with services that are easily accessible by all our residents,” said council leader Cammy Day. “So, I’m delighted that we’ve delivered a foundational platform to drive insights around how the city is operating, which we will build on into the future.“
Completed projects include:
- installing 11,000 smart trashcan sensors in litter and communal cans throughout the city;
- trialing humidity, temperature, and CO2 sensors in 500 city-owned properties;
- completed the implementation of Edinburgh Learns for Life, which enables equality of access to digital learning in schools and educational establishments. Under this program, all schoolchildren from P6 to S6 now have their own digital devices;
- introduced a digital urban traffic management and control system (UTMC) based on its intelligent infrastructure to monitor traffic and environmental conditions around the city; and
- established a new smart operations center will receive real-time data from the CCTV network 24/7. When that data is integrated with other technologies it will help to improve traffic flow, transport infrastructure, and city planning.
“I am delighted that Edinburgh is now officially a smart city through the Scottish capital’s continuing long-term partnership with CGI,” said Tara McGeehan, president, CGI UK and Australia. “Together we will further develop Edinburgh’s use of innovative technology, analytics and data to ensure the city continues to lead the way globally in smart city evolution. This will enhance Edinburgh’s ambitions to be a greener, fairer and more prosperous and vibrant city for every one of its 518,000 citizens.”