Dive Brief:
- Singapore has been named the Smart City of 2018 at the Smart City Expo World Congress for developing an array of smart urban solutions including dynamic public bus routing algorithms, real-time parent-teacher portals and predictive analytics for water pipe leaks. Singapore was one of seven finalists that also included Dijon, France; Haifa, Israel; Florence, Italy; London; Melbourne, Australia; and Santiago, Chile, according to The Business Times.
- Six other cities received awards: Cape Town, South Africa received the Innovative Idea award for an initiative to address the housing shortage; Zibo, China received the Digital Transformation award for the ICT deployment model; The Hague, Netherlands received the Inclusive and Sharing Cities award for its e-health living lab; Doha, Qatar received the Governance & Finance award for the transformation of Msheireb Downtown Doha into a more welcoming and citizen-empowering environment; Atlanta received the Mobility award for developing a multimodal transit system in the North Avenue Smart Corridor; and Shanghai received the Urban Environment award for constructing smart buildings in the Jinshan District.
- The Smart City Awards jury recognizes cities that it views as having pursued applications for urban innovation and transformation — especially digital projects — to improve people's lives.
Dive Insight:
Singapore has undertaken a lot of innovative projects over the past few years, some of them within the standard realm of known smart city applications and others that were more radical and largely untested in other cities. It has readied for autonomous vehicles (AVs), allowed drone delivery testing and started developing a 3D map of its subterranean spaces for possible future underground development. The city also has forged partnerships to advance innovation, such as with Microsoft on machine learning and artificial intelligence projects like ride-hailing and mobility.
The city now ranks among other innovators like New York and Dubai, which previously have won that same award.
"Singapore has undoubtedly become a global beacon of the urban transformation and how to implement smart urban solutions in a meaningful manner that not only enhances the city's functioning but also improves the services provided to its citizens and through them their quality of life," the Smart City Awards jury said in a statement.
Singapore also is the current leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which just entered a partnership with the United States to create opportunities for American companies to develop digital infrastructure in ASEAN member cities.
