Portuguese cities become smart together
Cities, business and knowledge centres join forces
More and more cities in Portugal are developing policies to transform themselves into more sustainable and smart cities. While the bigger Portuguese cities such as Lisbon and Porto are already known for their innovative developments, also smaller cities face challenges for which smart city projects can help. Businesses, knowledge centres and innovators have joined forces in the Smart Cities Portugal Network in order to catalyse the development of smart city projects throughout Portuguese cities.
Over the last five years, this platform witnessed a growing need for cities to implement integrated and sustainable solutions to enhance their efficiency. The platform enables cities across the country to test and experiment with new technologies, products and urban intelligence in a real setting. By aggregating these experiences, not only do the cities enhance their policies but also the companies and knowledge centres can develop an international reputation with their solutions. Catherine Selada of INTELI, the coordinating organisation behind the platform, stressed that it is not the individual solutions that make a city smart but the comprehensive strategy which needs to be behind them. The strategy should be integrated in the municipality and should be based on an Open Database, available to the public in order to enable the optimisation of resources and their management.
Do you want to get to know more about this platform or the smart city developments in Portugal? Read the interview with Ms. Selada.