Living in a Smart City
After its forays in Singapore, Brisbane, and Stockholm on similar
projects, now IBM has gone to Italy to make city of Parma a little
smarter. The objective is to reduce both congestion and pollution
through intelligent transport solutions among other steps.
The
city of Parma has entered into a strategic initiative with IBM with the
aim of creating a Smart City. IBM consultants will serve on an
Innovation Board to identify and design a new model for a sustainable
city through a range of digital solutions.
Parma
is a modern city, home to approximately 200,000 people, and famous for
its culture, art, and food. The city's management is planning
citizen-focused innovations that will provide new "intelligence" for
existing infrastructure to optimize resources, reduce traffic
congestion, improve services to citizens and businesses, and make the
city more efficient, says IBM.
"This
strategic initiative, signed with IBM, allows us to create an Innovation
Board," said Pietro Vignali, Parma Mayor. "This Board has the mission of
finding innovative citizen services solutions leveraging new
technologies: from info-mobility to security, to social services. We are
the first town in Italy to engage in this initiative with IBM and this
puts Parma in the network of Europe's most innovative capitals, like
Stockholm and London."
"It is
vital for the future that we transform our cities into accessible,
dynamic, thriving communities," said Luciano Martucci, general manager
IBM Italy. "In cities like Parma, technology can make the local systems
and infrastructure smarter and create benefits directly related toward
improving the quality of life for all its citizens, in a cost-effective
way."
Initial
projects in Parma include a virtual teller in several locations around
the city. Citizens will be able to interact with the municipality as if
there were a municipal official in front of them, delivering and
receiving documents and cheques, filling in and signing forms, and
requesting support.
Parma
is one of the 6 Italian cities that have agreed on a common protocol on
IT innovation, and is the first to initiate the project.
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