How AVEVA is driving livability and sustainability in Smart Cities

As the world’s population grows and the focus on sustainability increases, many civic authorities are looking to smart city operations to drive efficiency and improve livability for their citizens. In technology terms, cities are considered “smart” when they integrate their information and communication technology (ICT) to improve operational efficiency and share information with different stakeholders, including the citizens they serve. Innovative software gathers, visualizes and analyzes data into unified dashboards to identify trends and provide action-oriented horizontal and vertical integration of existing systems. This enables civic authorities to make changes that improve asset and resource management, efficiency of service delivery, and communications with citizens. This is no easy task and thus smart city technology is constantly evolving, pushing the boundaries of what citizens can expect and what civic operations can achieve.

AVEVA’s vast portfolio of smart city software solutions spans applications including facilities management, utilities, transportation, and data centers. Taking an integrated approach, AVEVA’s solutions enables these disparate functions to collect, analyze, and then act on unified and holistic intelligence supported by the help of real-time data to enable civic leaders to make better decisions and improve living standards.

Many cities have become “smart” using AVEVA’s software and solutions. Three salient examples are the city of Bremen, the city of Barcelona and the city of Nava Raipur.

When the City of Bremen needed to modernize heating systems across several of its buildings, it analyzed the project and realized an opportunity to do more. Besides improving energy efficiency, there was the potential to implement a new building management system (BMS) that would bring greater control and provide far-reaching sustainability benefits for the city’s extensive portfolio of properties.

By using AVEVA’s software portfolio, the city leaders unified operations for over 160 properties into a single BMS, bringing together data from five disparate districts. As a result of the AVEVA implementation, the city of Bremen reduced energy consumption by up to 18 per cent.

Further cost savings have been realized because most modifications and extensions are implemented by internal staff rather than outside suppliers, thanks to the AVEVA software’s ease of use, standardized tags and repeatability. Moreover, with the AVEVA solutions in place across the entire City of Bremen system, engineers can share information and know-how, saving financial and technical resources. The shared user interface with its simple-to-understand visualization of the BMS makes training more efficient and has increased user acceptance of the solution.

Barcelona is home to more than 1.6 million people and boasts a thriving tourism market of more than eight million visitors annually. The city infrastructure must efficiently manage everyday services such as water, landscape, elevators, escalators, and wastewater.

The more effectively the team can manage services, the greater the contribution to the health and well-being of all who use them. To address the critical infrastructure challenges faced by the City of Barcelona and its complex network of public works, the team chose AVEVA’s software to drive efficiency throughout all municipal services.

Barcelona de l’Aigua S.A. is a municipal company that manages the water usage for the city. This includes operating, maintaining and planning the sewage network, ground water, city fountains, coastal waters, and drinking water. The company manages the water usage of different municipal services, as well as the distribution of water to homes.

AVEVA’s software operates like a central nervous system for the water system, receiving and transmitting information by means of a strategically distributed network of sensors located throughout the city. This system monitors the smart water operations and ensures efficient resource management. For example, water consumption is optimized and controlled via a communications infrastructure that integrates the existing irrigation network, a customized SCADA system and actionable Human Machine Interface software provided by AVEVA.

Nava Raipur in central India is the country’s first metropolitan greenfield smart city. It was planned from the ground up to deliver quality of life through safety, efficiency, sustainability, and livability. Adopting world-class land-use planning principles, the city has established a dedicated zoning system for residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, with recreational space accounting for nearly 30% of the geography. The city was designed to be a model for smart growth and resilience to accommodate a population of 600,000 citizens by 2031.

To form the city’s infrastructural backbone, AVEVA experts connected the city’s eight primary operational systems into an integrated command-and-control center (ICCC) powered by AVEVA Unified Operation Center. This platform acts as a hub for real-time system information, situational awareness, and response, including water, power, streetlighting, public transportation, traffic management, CCTV, contact centers, and e-governance. The combined smart city solution enhances sustainability and operational efficiency, delivering civic services to citizens, communities, businesses, and other stakeholders.

Through a digital approach, Nava Raipur is delivering value to its citizens as well as the municipal authorities with agile, resilient and sustainable civic services. It is considered a beacon for India’s smart city program.

….. and many more

Visit our website to learn how organizations like Seoul Metro (South Korea), Anglia Water (England), Barcelona Airport (Spain), Carson City (USA) and Gwinnett County (USA) use AVEVA software to manage their digital infrastructure and data to enhance livability for their residents, workability for their businesses and sustainability for the environment.