Shenzhen named Smart City of 2024 at Smart City Expo World Congress

The second Innovation Award went to the Riverside Education Foundation for a groundbreaking initiative transforming cities into child-friendly spaces. By reclaiming and reimaging public spaces, they empower children to be active participants in the creation of more inclusive and sustainable future.

In the Enabling Tech category, the winner was Madrid in Spain, for its Madrid Capital Digital initiative to accelerate the digitalisation of public services, improve the wellbeing of Madrid’s residents, and maintain the city as a digital benchmark.

Energy, environmental and governance projects 

In the Energy & Environment category, the award went to FCC Environment (Spain) for the development of the urban-service H2-cell chassis, a self-supporting modular hydrogen-fuelcell lorry chassis with permanent electric traction, plug-in function, high- power batteries, advanced low-entry cab that is suitable for all urban service purposes.

London’s GOL project was chosen as the winner in the Governance category. The Get Online London (GOL) is the first pan-city sustainable digital inclusion service, created to improve access to digital devices, connectivity and digital skills for London residents, addressing the deepening inequalities resulting from an increasing digital society.

Aiming to establish a new smart city model, Shenzhen’s project integrates high-speed broadband, digital twins, AI, and data-driven governance

The Infrastructure & Building award went to Envision Charlotte (US) for its Glass to Concrete project to process glass recovered in bars and restaurants to be used in place of sand in the making of concrete for local projects.

The last award, Living & Inclusion, was for the Compas project in Korea. The Korea Land & Housing Corporation developed the Compas data analysis platform to create a predictive model for visualising public safety big data that solves urban problems through crowdsourcing by engaging citizen participation and data analysis. 

Under the theme Live Better, the 2024 Expo gathered more than 1,100 exhibitors, representatives of 850 cities, and over 600 experts to outline a more ethical urban future together.