Project Overview
The Knowledge Exchange Blog published this November 2016 article by Steven McGinty on Future City Glasgow, a programme run by Glasgow City Council. In 2013 the council won £24 million of funding from Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) to make the city a living lab for smart city projects. The article notes that three years on, with most of the work complete, the programme's success is still being assessed.
Aims and Context
The article notes that Glasgow has been associated with low life expectancy (the so-called 'Glasgow Effect') and urban deprivation. The funding was intended to transform the city into a world-leading smart city, with technologies piloted in Glasgow eventually used in other cities. The projects aimed to make the city 'safer, smarter and more sustainable' through technology and data.
Operations Centre and Public Safety
Just under half of the programme's funding went to a new Operations Centre, which integrates traffic and public safety management, public space CCTV, museum and gallery security, traffic management and police intelligence. The article links the programme to security for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. According to the text, the centre allows a 'proactive' approach, with video analytics giving operators better information, traffic operators able to prioritise late-running public transport, and CCTV upgraded to full HD for Police Scotland evidence.
Demonstrator Projects
According to Gary Walker, programme director, the demonstrators focus on four themes: energy, active travel, public safety and transport. Notable examples include:
- Intelligent street lighting, where the Riverside Walkway lights switch on as people approach and Gordon Street lighting provides real-time data on noise, footfall and air pollution.
- Low-cost sensors (the BuildAx and Eltek GC-05) deployed in Glasgow buildings to evaluate insulation projects.
- The Glasgow Cycling App, which lets cyclists share experiences and generates data for journey planning and council improvements.
The Data Challenge
Much of the programme depends on data sharing, but the article says freeing data went against the traditional culture of local government. Walker is quoted saying organisations were nervous about releasing data until they understood that sensitive or personal data was not requested. The resulting Glasgow Data Launchpad, a public repository, now holds over 400 datasets from 60 organisations, including Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Awards, Funding and Outlook
The programme won awards in 2015, including the Geospatial World Excellence Awards, the NextGen Digital Challenge (Digital Innovation) and Holyrood Connect ICT (Innovation). The article cites Alan Robertson in Holyrood magazine on financial pressures on councils, including Council leader Frank McAveety's warning of 'impossible budget cuts'. It also reports that Smart Cities Scotland, launched by the Scottish Government, has £10 million of European funding and involves Scotland's seven cities.
Purpose of Future City Glasgow and Its Reach
In the article's terms, the programme set out to make Glasgow a world-leading smart city and to pilot technologies that could later be used in other cities. The author concludes that the programme has provided smart city infrastructure able to support new projects, and says it will be interesting to see how the council responds to disruptive business models such as Uber and Airbnb.