Delivering Urban Services Through Data – Smart AMB
City planning becomes more and more difficult as cities continue to grow – so cities around the world are looking to analyse their data, and improve the ways they collect that data. This is the story with Smart AMB, which is looking to manage this data, how it’s collected/stored and develop a platform to utilise it for projects.
Understanding Smart AMB
The Smart AMB Platform is an answer to the question: how can the data generated by a municipality be used in a way that allows them to help improve the services provided for citizens?
By incorporating various data streams and dissecting said data from both a practical and tech perspective, you can start to put together a comprehensive plan to improve public spaces and services that benefit all.
Barcelona has pioneered the development of the Smart AMB Platform (AMB stands for ‘Area Metropolitana de Barcelona’) and is using the platform to collate their management of various public infrastructures such as public transport and waste management. It’s an integrated control, management and info platform that has been made available to the 36 municipalities around Barcelona.
Looking to the future, and supporting areas around them, Barcelona is utilising the Smart AMB Platform to create effective and community based growth within their city.
Managing a Smart City
The initial vision of smart cities was the ability to convert cities into an effective data model that users could access through a platform to manage that data. As time’s gone on, this has stayed consistent, and we’re seeing interactive maps that display incidents and plans easily.
In the event an incident occurs, or an issue is highlighted by a member of the public, the management platform allows city management to record the incident and supply all the necessary data. This means the information is available in a timely manner and incidents can be attended to quickly. Apart from this, geolocation features can help track what incidents occur where, and use this data to plan larger scale infrastructure to address problematic areas ahead of time.
The end goal of this is always to improve a city’s public spaces and services. Collecting data in the right way gives a purpose and direction to this goal.
What’s involved in the SMART AMB Platform?
According to AMB sources, there are specific challenges that they want to target:
- Further developing management systems for existing public spaces and services
- Promoting strategic innovation at all levels
- Integrating IT systems to improve current management models
- The ability to log new data, and call on old data to develop trends and plans
- Improve the speed and quality of public works by town councils.
- Increase preparedness for unforeseen events and the ability to react accordingly.
At the root of smart cities is the UN Sustainable Development Guide – which focusses on things like effective energy use, respect for the existing environment/ecology, sustainable mobility, promoting engagement from the public, and a large focus on improved quality of life for those in urban areas like the AMB.