Smart cities meet in Alicante

Torrevieja was a major participant in Alicante’s inaugural congress on ‘Smart Cities’

One can’t help but notice the number of municipal video cameras and radar systems that provide the Policia Local with information about traffic and law breaking activates around Torrevieja. Former councillor for Technology Pedro Valero was the driving (no pun intended) force behind many of the innovative projects and such has been the impact of the VYRIATO Project (Intelligent Video and Radar Assertive Torrevieja) and others, that last week Torrevieja was a major participant in Alicante’s inaugural congress on ‘Smart Cities’.

The focus of the conference was to help local authorities how best they can work together on sharing of ideas, knowledge and technology through the development of Smart Cities, eventually creating a network of innovative municipalities. On opening day, Torrevieja’s Mayor, Eduardo Dolon, Sonia Castedo from Alicante and Iñigo de la Serna from Santander, presented information on their inner city concepts, all of which are designed to attract top talent and run along the lines of being both sustainable and viable economically. Eduardo Dolon presented one of the projects currently being undertaken in Torrevieja that is primarily directed towards public safety: the VYRIATO Project, which was explained in more detail through a unique presentation by the Director General for Development of the City and Districts of the Municipality of Torrevieja, Javier Minguez.

Dolon said that “this ambitious and modern project has as its main goal the broad aims to improve road and citizen safety and features a total of 192 sensors placed on the main streets and squares of the municipality, all linked to a municipal communications network.” This new project has placed Torrevieja in the forefront in terms of traffic and road safety plus public security, making the city one of the best protected in Spain, in terms of rapid response teams and links to local, national and Guaria Civil law enforcement services. In the ‘Big Brother’ vain, of major interest to the delegates was the way the system can read the license plates of all traffic entrances and exits of the city, monitor all municipal heritage areas, provide surveillance and control of forest fires and green spaces and in certain areas, offer remote traffic light control, making Torrevieja one of the cities with best remote surveillance system in all of Spain.

Following the meeting, the mayors of Torrevieja, Alicante and Santander signed a cooperation agreement for the development of eGovernment and technology transfer/sharing in the field of local council management, by which they will maintain a permanent public collaboration, sharing information on the conceptualization, design, development, implementation and validation of different projects at any stage, undertaken in the field of eGovernment and other modernization activities in Information Technology (ICT). Thus, the municipalities will share their experiences of both the complete infrastructure management local content, methodology and simplification of administrative procedures.
 
In terms of collaboration between the city of Alicante and Torrevieja, both administrations can share the benefits associated with the software licenses, rights of ownership or transfer of use within their respective departments. The collaboration will materialize through a coordination group whose members shall be appointed by the two councils, which have two coordinators, one for each of the municipalities.

Keith Nicol