Smart Cities lie at the heart of the country's digitisation process. The first ‘Italy of smart and sustainable cities’ report, drawn up by the TIM Research Centre with the ‘Smart City’ and ‘Startup Intelligence’ Observatories of Politecnico di Milano and the CNR Department of Engineering, ICT and Technology for Energy and Transport, was presented in Rome today.
Pietro Labriola, Chief Executive Officer, opened the event and, together with Elio Schiavo, TIM's Chief Enterprise and Innovative Solutions Officer, presented the development prospects for Smart Cities in Italy and the digital services that the Group provides to the Public Administration and local authorities. The event was also attended by the Mayor of Assisi, Stefania Proietti, and the General Manager for Technological and Digital Innovation for the Municipality of Milan, Guido Arnone, to discuss what had been done so far and the future of the two cities, both of which are very important despite having different characteristics.
From the study presented by Giordana Castelli, Coordinator of the CNR Urban Intelligence Project, it emerges that in Italy an increasing number of municipalities have started to plan Smart Cities and, according to estimates, by 2027 investments in ICT solutions for smart cities will grow to around 1.6 billion euros, while globally total spending on Smart Cities will reach a value of over 1 trillion dollars.
The reason for these choices is clear. Between 2023-2027, Smart City applications based on 5G, IoT and Artificial Intelligence in Italy will help to reduce city traffic costs by a total of approximately 6.5 billion euros and those linked to urban pollution by over 400 million euros through improved planning of the public and private transport system and tourist flows. The new technologies will also allow an annual reduction in CO2 emissions of about 650 thousand tonnes, guide the tourism industry and optimise services for the public.
The study analyses different use cases also implemented by TIM Enterprise, the TIM Group's business unit dedicated to companies and public administrations, which is supporting the projects of many municipalities through the TIM Urban Genius solution, on the model already successfully implemented in various municipalities, including Assisi and Cairo Montenotte, starting with Venice.
“There is a lot of confusion about Smart Cities, the term is often used as a catch-all and thus risks detracting from the choices of mayors and administrators who play a fundamental role in the innovation of the areas they govern. We are giving cities a tangible thing, a platform for collecting and processing data useful for expanding the economy, governance and sustainability of cities; that’s what a Smart City is” emphasises Elio Schiavo. “With TIM Urban Genius we have created the first urban intelligence platform allowing Italian administrations to make the areas they govern smart, since it is the primary source for collecting useful information for the lives of the public”.
The digital transformation of the territory also involves TIM's Open Innovation, which rewarded the winners of the TIM Smart City Challenge, the scouting initiative launched to encourage the growth of the Italian Smart City ecosystem, in collaboration with some of the main players in this field, which involved around 170 startups, scaleups and innovative companies invited to present solutions to make cities increasingly smart, safe and sustainable using applications that can be integrated into the urban intelligence platform ‘TIM Urban Genius’. Over 70% of the projects were Italian, and there was also great interest from foreign companies (Israeli, French and Spanish).
In particular, the TIM prize was awarded to Mine Crime for the solution that provides a source of geolocalised data on urban crimes that can be used to increase safety in cities. A collaboration agreement has already been signed with the company to develop and integrate solutions in this area.
Additional prizes awarded were:
· the CNR - Department of Engineering, ICT and Technology for Energy and Transport (DIITET) prize, awarded to iMOI for the iCAM3D solution, a 3D metric survey system which simplifies investigation and measurement activities, producing digital twins of road accidents, scenes, specific areas and objects;
· the Edison NEXT prize, awarded to the UTwin project which uses building data to create digital twins to optimize asset, facility, energy and sensor management;
· the eFM prize, awarded to the Foot Analytics solution which monitors the use of spaces in offices, enabling the efficient management of buildings in real time;
· the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center prize, awarded to G-move, a platform that provides statistics on the number of people present in order to optimise the management of physical spaces, for example in shops, urban areas and means of transport;
· the Bikeconomy Observatory prize, awarded to Pin Bike, a patented system for monitoring and certifying urban travel by bike, which issues economic incentives for users of this kind of transport;
· the Startup Intelligence Observatory of Politecnico di Milano prize, awarded to Open Stage for its ‘technological totem’, which can be booked via an app and provides street artists with a management platform and the technological equipment needed to perform live.
