We hope you’re safe and you’re enjoying your summer break.
As we all know, 2020 is bound to be reminded as the year of COVID-19.
However, as Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff to President Barack Obama once said: ‘Never allow a crisis to go to waste’. Last months were a real stress-test for smart cities, as we highlight in the homonym article. The current crisis is dramatic but can also be seen as a global testing laboratory.
Lots of digital innovations and smart mobility ideas bloomed in the last period and this is a sign that cities are ready to change and eager to improve their urban environment.
Indeed, this issue focuses on ICT solutions and mobility actions in our Smart Cities. Our lighthouse cities are improving their digital side and the urban mobility services: the city of Dresden is increasing multimodal mobility with several MOBIpoints around the city and the installation of fast chargers and battery storage. Valencia as well is improving its urban mobility with e-ink panels installed at multimodal points and the VeLOCK project. A transversal activity of high interest for all Smart Cities is the work on indicators to measure the citizens response. We’ve also published a series of video, which are collected on the website and on our YouTube channel.
During the lockdown we had the pleasure to present the international role of Valencia in a joint SCC webinar to show how smart cities are responding to the COVID-19 challenge and to lead the EUSEW2020 side event about cities and the EU Green Deal where a representative from Antalya showed their new high-performance district.
Get inspiration, tell us your stories and let your comments on our website, Twitter or LinkedIn.
The more we share, the more we learn.
Enjoy the newsletter and the summer!
Ernesto Faubel
Ayuntamiento de València
MAtchUP coordinator
