The long term-impact of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and the country’s poor performance in the Covid-19 pandemic, are among the complex set of challenges it faces if London is to remain one of the world’s most influential and enviable cities.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ challenge was launched in January 2021 and will select 50 “champion cities” to test their ideas for several months this year.
Using the B-Local mobile app, shoppers earn rewards automatically at hundreds of participating local businesses across the city which can be converted to cash discounts.
Drawing from case studies around the world, a new report highlights how a new generation of smart lampposts is helping cities to respond to and tackle the pandemic.
Joe Biden has hit the ground running as US president, determined to make up for the somewhat eventful four years of his predecessor in office, rebuild international alliances and, critically, put climate at the heart of his presidency.
The Baltimore Health Corps launched in June 2020 as a way to recruit, train, and employ 275 new community health workers who were unemployed, furloughed, or underemployed.
The initiative, in collaboration with the Partnership for Healthy Cities global network, will track progress against 23 key indicators that act as determinants of health and wellbeing.
The programme aims to incentivise employees returning to work and workers who currently drive to work to use public transit and also seeks to lessen vehicular traffic.
It’s a strange time. Of course, it has been a strange time for well over a year but optimism surrounding vaccination rates in countries like Israel, the UK and Chile is being sharply tempered by fresh and sudden lockdowns in Europe, vaccine scepticism in some countries and a deadly and passive approach to the virus in Brazil.
The city’s Mobility and Environment Agency will use the mobility and kerb managment platform to ensure the post-Covid world is greener, fairer and more resilient for citizens.
First off, I would like to apologise to you for being unable to find a smart cities angle on the hapless ship stuck in the Suez Canal. I am sure you all have been as horribly fascinated with the story as I have and I regret being unable to write about it.
Can simplicity be damaging? This is a question I have been chewing over for most of the week. Many careers, journalism included, reward keeping it simple. It doesn’t mean limited or unambitious - it means engaging and inclusive.
The Shed in Manhattan is implementing GoGuide, which can be integrated with existing building technology systems for capacity-monitoring across the location as well as for individual spaces.
The City of Austin has partnered with local start-up Augmented Training Systems to develop programmes that allow skills to be quickly refreshed, without needing the physical equipment or set-up.
Sadiq Khan and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg are announcing a joint investment worth almost £1.5m to help ensure recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is green and clean.
George Orwell had a point when he once wrote: “The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.”
Esri UK and Tetra Tech are combining their technologies in response to the increasing demand for indoor mapping for facilities management and indoor navigation at large offices, campuses and hospitals.
Lime plans to expand its e-bike service to an additional 15 European cities in 2021, while continuing to scale its scooter and moped fleet to offer a multi-modal electric vehicle offering.
Here in the UK, the phrase "build back better" is an inescapable mantra of the government as it looks to rebuild the economy following a successful vaccination programme (and take attention away from its chaotic handling of the pandemic itself).
Sadiq Khan is inviting applications to a £1m Resilience Fund and also wants to harness the capital’s design talent to make a vital contribution to its recovery from Covid-19 in a separate initiative.
Mutualink is working with the US state to instantly link public safety agencies, public safety answering points, hospitals, colleges and universities, along with critical assets.
The transformation of the airport’s operational management systems will fast-track its ability to scale up operations efficiently when international and domestic travel fully resumes.
Net-zero climate targets are ambitious and essential. But they can be onerous to some. How best to manage reducing emissions alongside fiscal challenges, generating employment, managing traffic networks and the myriad of daily challenges you face with the uncertainty of Covid-19 thrown into the mix?
Smart city technology has proven powerful at helping cities around the world battle Covid-19, as our annual review shows, and it will continue to be required throughout 2021.
