At the BAIA conference (Business Association Italy
America), attended by Thales Italia and SELEX Elsag, speakers agreed
that all the tools are there to rebuild our cities in smart ways, by
respecting their specific qualities.

The growing use of ICT
technologies in sectors such as transport, energy management, health and
environmental monitoring will lead to the development of a new model of
sustainable city, in which citizens will have access to improved
services, thanks to sensors distributed around the urban environment and
the availability of a significant amount of information about the
function and use of urban infrastructure. An important conference held
at the Chamber of Deputies provided an occasion to probe the timeliest
issues for developing Smart Cities in Italy.

Speakers at the
event organised by BAIA (Business Association Italy America) agreed that
all the tools and “rules of the game” are there, to rebuild cities in
smart ways, while bearing in mind many of them are small and built up
around historic centres, many of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Businesses
such as Telecom Italia, Cisco, Enel, Carrick-Bend, Thales Italia and
SELEX Elsag presented their solutions for Smart Cities, while Professor
Carlo Maria Medaglia (CATTID coordinator – La Sapienza University of
Rome explained the philosophy of these cities of the future.

“Two
good examples of cutting-edge cities from the standpoint of technology
and services (though on completely different scales) are Amsterdam,
which aims to reduce CO2 emissions, and Paredes, a small city in
Portugal that by 2015 may be the first city in the world to be
completely connected by a network of 100 million sensors, to manage
traffic, lighting, public parks, and innumerable other services”,
Medaglia stated. “To continue in this direction will require national
investments in research and innovation, but that won’t be enough.
Innovation and technology must not be the end but the means for
developing awareness and competitiveness, aiming toward energy savings,
production of energy from renewable sources, sustainable mobility,
activating new services by optimising resources, and involvement and
active participation of citizens”, Professor Medaglia concluded.

Fonte: Planet Inspired