Smart City en La Coruña : creating an open innovation ecosystem

Coruña Smart City: creating an open innovation ecosystem

March 10th, 2016 - Libelium
Smart Coruña is the innovation programme which began in 2011 and whose objective is to transform the beautiful city of La Coruña into a technology hub where new services, which improve the city´s efficiency and the sustainability, are implemented. Smart Coruña has positioned the city as a benchmark for new investments and new R&D developments and has contributed to the creation of new jobs stimulating the growth of the IT sector.

A Coruña, Galicia, Spain

The project, 80% financed by European FEDER funds, provides a holistic view of the city and its services. It consists of 14 technological pilots including Libelium technology and the deployment of the Sofia2 Platform.
The urban services variety ranges from resource and environmental management to citizen and tourist services and its ultimate goal is to improve quality of life in La Coruña:

• Air and acoustic quality: This system controls the air quality and noise level conditions throughout the city. Different Libelium Waspmote Plug & Sense! devices are used to measure air conditions and noise levels at strategic points in the city. The system enables the identification of the pollutant sources and allows the decision making process regarding the implementation of corrective plans when the environmental quality or noise levels recommend so.
• Water quality Management: This area aims to remotely monitor the water supply and sewerage networks of the city, ensuring its effective distribution. It includes smart irrigation and different management systems to control water-flow, speed, rate and tubes conditions, any pressure changes due to leaks can be rapidly detected rapidly, minimising water losses. The system also has devices capable of measuring the physical and chemical characteristics of water in reservoirs, water treatment plants and city beaches. It ensures the quality of the drinking water supplied to the public is excellent and also warns about any possible anomalies.
• Energy efficiency: Implementation of an energy efficiency tool to monitor and reduce energy consumption in 55 public buildings and a system which automates the processes of the Potable Water Treatment Plant reducing its energy consumption as well. The aim is to reduce the consumption of electricity and gas to the minimum. Both initiatives generate economic savings, enhance environmental care and have positioned La Coruña as a benchmark in the field of energy management.
• Traffic control: the real-time traffic optimisation system collects information in order that citizens and managers can make better mobility decisions in real time. A series of cameras and devices have been installed in the monitored priority roads to determine and control the traffic situation. Likewise, a number of control cameras are installed at the access points of pedestrian areas. The smart parking system collects information about the free parking spaces, improving mobility as it helps citizens avoid wasting time looking for parking spaces. All the information is available to citizens and visitors through a web portal, a mobile app and dynamic information panels.
• Citizen interaction and tourism: this vertical brings together electronic administration possibilities, bidirectional citizen communication and tourism services. The electronic administration system allows citizens not only to start any official procedure through the electronic channel, but also to keep track of the status of the inquiry and attach any necessary documentation. The interaction system allows citizens to receive information about the events of the city and also participate, propose and report openly about its functioning. The guided visits system with augmented reality offer an interactive experience of the city’s main attractions.

Libelium Sensor Platform with Sofia2 Platform visualizer for Smart Coruña project

In the scope of this project, a specific Portal was published in the City Council’s website aggregating all public information to be presented to the citizens. Lots of different visualizers are accessible across the website, from traffic information to rental bike availability.

Smart City Coruña Brain

Sofia2 is deployed in La Coruña, centralizing information from various different city services and giving solution to specific needs across the whole area of the city. The combination of the information from all these verticals in one unique platform has allowed to build complex and smart solutions where each vertical, instead of working independently, can take advantage of information from the rest of the solutions to provide a better use of resources.

Sofia2 is Indra’s IoT Interoperability Platform. It acts as the middleware and repository that allows real time interoperability of multiple systems and devices, offering a semantic platform to make real world information available to smart applications (Internet of Things).