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Examples of holistic urban solutions: a digital perspective

Creating liveable cities means taking a holistic approach to urban development. Doing so enables the development of smart, urban solutions that not only make cities sustainable, but also healthy, safe and attractive places to live in.

Danish cities, companies and consultants have a longstanding tradition in implementing urban development projects that have been conceived through holistic planning where concern for the environment, people and businesses go hand in hand. This means working across sectors and creating public-private partnerships that encourage the greening of our cities.

In May 2017, a broad range of Danish organisations united to create a knowledge hub for Danish city solutions – State of Green CITIES. Each month we will bring you a perspective from one of the members on how they work and contribute to holistic urban development in Denmark and around the world. This month, the Danish ICT and Electronics Federation provides you with examples of holistic urban solutions that ICT specialists contribute to.

Denmark is the digital smart city hub of the future
Applying new digital solutions are the main driver for fulfilling cities' ambitions to become more sustainable, liveable, mobile, efficient, resilient and save. As a leading digital hub, Denmark is one of the key countries to develop, test and apply new smart city technologies.

Denmark is in a strong position to embrace the digital future. We are a small country with a population that has great trust and confidence in each other and in the public sector. People and businesses have good digital competences and we are ranked highly as country in terms of our ability to adopt new digital technologies.

Based on the recognized “Digital Economy and Society Index” (DESI), Denmark is the leading European digital economy and society. The DESI-index is a composite index that summarizes the following five indicators, which emphasizes Denmark's leadership in digital competitiveness: Connectivity, Digital skills, Use of Internet, Integration of Digital Technology by businesses and Digital Public Services.

Open public sector data as a growth driver
In Denmark, there is a strong tradition for collaboration and finding new and practical solutions between public authorities, and across the public and private sectors. The central government, regions and municipalities have agreed on a Digital Strategy in order to accelerate the adoption of digital solutions in the public sector. The strategic digital initiatives allow the public sector to make joint investments in areas which are particularly complex and in which there are interdependencies across different authorities and sectors.

Businesses can use public sector data to optimize their business processes and to develop new products and services, which create value for citizens, public authorities and fellow businesses. The digital platform, OPEN DATA DK, includes hundreds of public dataset that are free of charge for businesses. From real-time traffic measurements to 3D city models as well as a number of IoT-data based on sensors to measure air pollution, noise, temperatures, energy consumption, etc.

Living Labs
Denmark is a perfect lab to test the integration of Smart City technologies. We have strong traditions for cooperation between companies, research institutions and public authorities. We also have solid experience of involving foreign companies and cities in our smart city projects by testing and applying new technologies in both small test cases and on a larger scale.

We run several Living Labs to support innovation, matchmaking, testing and validation of new technologies:

-          Smart mobility in loop city Platform for smart green mobility

-          Climate adaption Platform for climate adaption solutions

-          Doll living lab Living lab for intelligent lightning

-          Engerglab Nordhavn Platform for energy solutions of the future

-          Lightning Metropolis Platform for innovation, testing, applying and demonstrating new lightning solutions

-          Copenhagen solutions lab

Platform for testing smart city solutions in urban spaces

-          Silent city Living lab for urban noise reduction

-          Kalundborg symbiosis Platform for industrial ecosystems

About State of Green CITIES
The members of State of Green CITIES represent different Danish competencies within holistic urban solutions. The members include State of Green, Confederation of Danish IndustryDanish Energy AssociationDanish Association of Architectural Firms, FRI (the Danish Association of Consulting Engineers), DI Energy, DI Byg, DI Digital, DI Transport.

-Source: The Danish ICT and Electronics Federation

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