Recap of Day 2 - SCEWC 2022

"On November 15 our planet reached 8 billion inhabitants. It's time for change", said Carlos Moreno during his keynote on the Proximity and the 15-minute-city concept.

We have accepted long commutes, segmented cities, buildings with single uses, and a loss of social interactions. Mixed uses with proximity allow for new narratives. Urban and territorial proximity reconciles sustainability with quality of life. We are developing high-quality societal life in a polycentric sustainable city.

And how can we make our cities more sustainable?

"A multidisciplinary approach is absolutely necessary," says Anna Lisa Boni , Deputy Mayor of Bologna. "A coherent chain of frameworks to make it possible and binding partnerships at the local level in the metropolitan ecosystem."

And how may the private sector help? FCC Environment is committed to helping cities fight climate change. Susana Pelegrín Preixens explained FCC's #Sustainability2050 strategy. Key strategies include making recycling plants more energy efficient and part of a circular economy. They are also working on the electrification of municipal service fleets.

Jacques Beltran , VP of Cities and Public Services, Dassault Systèmes explained how technology could help in urban planning for making cities more sustainable. A city digital twin may help simulate the future of a city. In times of crisis, it helps visualize data in real-time helping make predictions.

World Smart City Awards Gala 2022

At noon we celebrated the World Smart City Awards Gala 2022. Seoul was this year's City Award winner for its Smart Seoul digitization platform.

We cried with emotion listening to the City of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The Jury of Honor decided to give a City Award Special Recognition to Kyiv for strengthening resilience and the continuity of citizens' services.

The WSCA are crucial in bringing light to the good work these projects are doing in making communities more sustainable and resilient against all challenges! Find a list of all the finalists and winning projects here.

Keynote by Hannah Fry

Amazing inspirational talk by Hannah Fry, Professor in the Mathematics of Cities, University College London, The Joy of Data!

Some data might be visible and some might not. Sometimes it is so easy to get sidetracked by the data that you have in front, you don't realize there's data hidden giving us the wrong assumptions.

"Uncertainty is everywhere in the universe. No matter how much data you have, you will never be certain about anything. But data can take you a long way if you treat it properly."

"Cities should be data-informed rather than data-driven."

Infrastructure Shaping Cities for the Better

Urban infrastructure, how they are remodeled or how it's designed for the future, is also crucial in making our cities more sustainable and resilient. We discussed "Infrastructure Shaping Cities for the Better."

The panel was chaired by Martha Thorne , Distinguished Professor at IE School of Architecture, Benedetta Tagliabue , Founder and CEO Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects Architects, Angela Heise , Worldwide Public Sector, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft , Matthias Schuler, Founder Transsolar KlimaEngineering , Michael Flynn , Global Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Government Leader, Deloitte .

Infrastructure is so important that it may make or break a city, and instead of attracting people, you might make them move out.

"If you don't have good infrastructure people are not going to come because interaction with it might be too challenging," said Michael Flynn .

"We design public spaces for cities trying to make them extensions of people's homes. It's very important for me to gain the data to know what people actually need," said Benedetta Tagliabue .

"Data can help drive efficiencies. There are so many parts data can have a critical part in building sustainable infrastructure. We must always know WHY are we doing things because the huge amount of data can be overwhelming," said Angela Heise .

What all panelists agreed on:

We should not focus on tech but on goals & people's needs. Data can help us make informed decisions when building new infrastructure that will affect people's lives and lead us to a more sustainable future.

Connected Cities Make It Further

Digital Infrastructure has become critical infrastructure for cities. We delved deep into this topic at Connected Cities Make It Further, chaired by Natalia Olson-Urtecho , with Ferry Chung VP of Asia Pacific Dell Technologies , Reem Asaad , VP of ME and Africa, Cisco , Jaanika Merilo , Deputy Prime Minister & Digital Government of Ukraine, Catalina Grimalt Falcó , Deputy General Manager of Organization and Internal Resources, Port de Barcelona , and Miguel Eiras Antunes , Smart Cities & Urban Transformation Global Leader at Deloitte .

"To retain and attract citizens, a foundational requirement is to have digital innovation," said Reem Asaad . "Great uses of digital technologies are AR and Digital Twins, as they simplify infrastructure work and urban planning."

"You must have the right use cases," said Ferry Chung , VP Asia Pacific Dell Technologies . "Automation is becoming more real. Sustainability, safety, and quality of life are more achievable. We partner with local governments and the ecosystem to provide the use cases and have created innovative living labs with this aim."

Jaanika Merilo , Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister & Digital Government of Ukraine, explained how essential it has been for them to invest in a robust digital infrastructure from the start for surviving the current war crisis. From the very beginning, they had a vision of having the city's public services accessible on the phone.

"We don't have legacy so this was a chance. Now we have a war in Ukraine. And digital twins are cool. But what is really important is to have agile, flexible, and accessible public services," said Jaanika Merilo . "Having it all in the cloud was absolutely key, as all physical infrastructure was being destroyed. Cybersecurity is crucial."

"what is really important is to have agile, flexible, and accessible public services"

Safety is essential when it comes to infrastructure and Ports can play an important role in helping secure cities. "We are building digital twins to simulate the impact of electrification of our docks have in our emissions. Another strategic project is coverage of land on the coastal area of 5G which could be critical in emergency situations," said Catalina Grimalt Falcó , Port de Barcelona .

The universe of technologies that are involved in furthering cities' development is huge and consulting firm Deloitte is helping cities navigate it. Miguel Eiras Antunes explained some of the projects they are involved in.

"5G and the metaverse, Data, and AI are big in our projects. We are developing Mobility monitoring and using micro-mobility data in order to shape regulation. We are working on a digital twin that links infrastructure with data that's called Synergy. At the EU level we are involved in creating a platform for AI with best practices, " said Miguel Eiras Antunes .

Interview with Raquel Sánchez Jiménez, Minister of Transport of Spain

Ending our sessions for the day, we listened to Raquel Sánchez Jiménez, Minister of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda interviewed by Anna Solana . A talk from the Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress co-organized by EIT Urban Mobility .

How can the Urban Agenda speed up the transformation of cities in Spain?

"The government of Spain is offering the tools to work in new mobility projects. We are helping municipalities by using Next Generation EU funds.

There is a true will for transformation in our national policies.

Raquel Sánchez Jiménez also expressed her satisfaction with the results of the free transport tickets for public transport, a measure to fight the crisis generated by the Ukraine war with multiple benefits including helping citizens save, decreasing fossil fuel consumption, and emissions, and increasing public transport ridership. More than 660.000 tickets have been already issued.

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this Day 2 at #SCEWC22 #TMWC22 possible!