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Richmond City Council demonstrates its unanimous support for the city's final proposal in the Smart Cities Challenge.
Photo courtesy City of Richmond
City submits 'transformative' Smart Cities proposal
Thinking outside the box and
looking into the future, Richmond has submitted a ground-breaking final
proposal for the Smart Cities Challenge.
The proposal is highlighted by initiatives
to minimize community impacts from major disasters and enhancing quality of
life.
“Our Smart Cities Challenge
proposal would make our community more resilient and improve quality of life
for all our residents,” said Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “It will build upon
Richmond’s recognized best practises leadership in flood prevention, emergency
response and sustainability and our award-winning digital strategy.”
Richmond is a finalist for one of
two $10 million prizes in the national competition, created by Infrastructure
Canada that encourages communities to adopt a smart cities approach to improve
the lives of their residents through innovation, data and connected technology.
The city’s primary proposal is to create an Intelligent Operation Hub that will
seamlessly integrate data and coordinate emergency response, while also
enhancing day-to-day delivery of key local services. The Intelligent Operations
Hub will allow Richmond and its partners to better understand what is happening
in the city in real time. The enhanced situational awareness will enable
improved communication and data sharing that will drive critical decision
making for both day-to-day service delivery and emergency response, explained
city spokesperson Ted Townsend.
In addition to enhanced emergency
response and recovery, the proposal includes initiatives to improve traffic
management, reducing collisions and congestion and to mitigate the impacts of
climate change. Other benefits of the proposal will include: real-time incident
notifications; faster response times; safer streets; greater community
resiliency; early incident detection; improved communication and way-finding
and expanded on-demand e-services.
Richmond’s final proposal and a
supporting video are now available on the project website at
smartcity.richmond.ca.
The proposal was developed by
city staff teams, who worked alongside a variety of external partners from more
than 25 government agencies and First Nations, business and community partners
to prepare Richmond’s final submission. Through this process, the city is
already proceeding with a number of test-case projects to begin implementing
its Smart Cities vision. This includes an innovative partnership with
Richmond-based MDA and other partners to use remote sensing technology, drones,
and data sharing to monitor critical infrastructure and do rapid damage
assessment post disaster. A pilot project with the Province of BC and other
public agencies and a number of technology businesses will seek to create new
platforms for improved inter-agency communications during emergencies.
Extensive community engagement
was undertaken to ensure the final proposal reflects the needs and interests of
local residents and business. Community engagement continues with residents
being asked to show their support for the proposal through social media using
the words “Richmond is my favourite Smart City” and the hashtag
#smartcitiesCanada and:
• share your Richmond adventures
with us using the “Richmond is my favourite Smart City” Facebook Camera filter
• add a Richmond is my favourite
Smart City frame to your Facebook profile picture
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