Today, 75% of European citizens live in cities. This percentage is expected to grow to 80% by 2050. Cities consume about two thirds of the world’s energy and are responsible for more than 70% of global man-made CO2 emissions. Thus, cities play a crucial role for reaching the European Union’s CO2 reduction goals and the UN sustainability goals. Information and communication technologies are of key importance for enabling cities to become sustainable. The concept for ICT-enabled sustainability on municipal level is called “smart sustainable cities”.

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Today’s urban sprawl can easily be summed up by one figure – 75% – which corresponds to the EU’s urban population. It is easy to imagine the resulting high level of resources used and the devastating effects on the environment. The solution? Transforming our cities into smart and sustainable innovation hubs by using the latest findings in the fields of energy, transport and information and communication technology (ICT). This is what STARDUST is all about.

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Interview with Covenant of Mayors board member Eckart Würzner
on the sustainable development of European cities

Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner
(photo: @ 2019 Julian Beekmann)

One of the major initiatives promoting the development of smart sustainable cities in Europe is the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. It was launched in 2008 with the ambition to gather local governments voluntarily committed to achieving and exceeding the EU climate and energy targets. Currently the Covenant of Mayors comprises more than 10,200 municipalities worldwide with a total population of 322 million inhabitants. Eurescom message editor-in-chief Milon Gupta interviewed Heidelberg’s mayor Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner about the progress towards sustainable development in his own city and the cities of Europe. Prof. Dr. Würzner has contributed to this progress not only as mayor, but also as political board member of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and president of the climate protection network Energy Cities.

What is your city’s most important sustainable development goal for the next 10 years?

E. Würzner: Heidelberg has been committed to sustainable development since the 1990s as a direct result of the Aalborg Charter [Charter of European Sustainable Cities and Towns Towards Sustainability, 1994 – the editor]. Since then, the urban sustainable development plan has been continuously updated. The newest update is currently running, which is for the first time based on the SDGs [17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations – the editor]. One of the most important goals is SDG 13 – Climate Action.

Our climate protection concept passed the city council 25 years ago and has been constantly renewed. In 2019 Heidelberg declared the climate emergency. This created new measures and accelerated the implementation of local climate protection measures for achieving Heidelberg’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050.

Which activities have you planned and launched to achieve your city’s sustainable development goals?

E. Würzner: Climate protection in Heidelberg extends into numerous administrative areas and also into further important SDGs, including SDG 7 [Affordable and Clean Energy], SDG 9 [Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure], and SDG 11 [Sustainable Cities and Communities]. In addition to the energy transition, there is also a need for a traffic transition towards environmentally compatible transport and energy-efficient technologies.

In Heidelberg the greatest savings in CO2 emissions can be achieved in the area of building renovations, renewable energies, energy efficient buildings and the transport sector. That is why our focus is on sustainable renovation and sustainable mobility. Therefore the municipality cooperates in various fields of action with local stakeholders like the university, the municipal utility, and the enterprises.

What is the role of ICT for achieving your city’s sustainable development goals?

E. Würzner: Heidelberg is very active in the field of digitisation. The city continues to make steady progress towards becoming a smart city. From broadband expansion and public WiFi to online public participation and open data, digitised infrastructure is set to become as much a part of essential local authority services like electricity, gas and water. The objective is to use new technologies to sustainably improve the lives of all our citizens.

We implement intelligent solutions for different areas of urban development with the help of innovative technologies. In the area of climate protection, for example, these are intelligent house controls to increase resource efficiency. In the case of municipal buildings, energy consumption has been reduced by 50{b28ae05319d94bff0b4d65c5a9f4524dd588360f05c61ef440e1608e0a1c4144}.

How are Energy Cities and the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy contributing to achieving the vision of smart sustainable cities in Europe?

E. Würzner: The political goals of the networks are to empower the cities in their actions and to strengthen collaboration between them. It is important to give the cities a louder voice at the international level. Therefore, we must link the political commitment of the cities to advocacy on European level. The networks should act like a lobby for financial resources, programmes and European laws for climate protection at city level. The cities put policies and institutional settings, frameworks of climate and energy goals into concrete practice. It is not enough for mayors to be experts at negotiations or conferences. It is most important to give them the right to be a part of the decision-making process. Energy Cities and the Covenant of Mayors can provide the framework for this work. Climate issues must become the guiding principle of EU politics, not only in position papers. The European Green Deal is a first and important step. In cooperation with other networks, Energy Cities should ensure that the Green Deal becomes a reality.

Which major societal, economic and technological challenges need to be tackled in the coming years on the way to smart sustainable cities in Europe?

E. Würzner: The question is if smart cities will be low-energy cities with energy-saving and climate-protection objectives. We have to offer solutions for the contradiction between promoting energy-saving objectives and increasing the number of electronic devices exponentially. More importantly, digital technology may one day be able to optimise the urban system. We need a complete change of paradigm.

Inventing short-distance cities, reclaiming urban space monopolised by cars and returning it to pedestrians and cyclists as well as relocating a significant share of the production – including food production – to the city are just a few examples of urban policies that are more important for smart cities than just achieving the energy transition.

Ultimately, smart sustainable cities are first and foremost cities designed for enabling their inhabitants to lead a free, low-energy life, without being trapped in a technical system.

The 5G SOLUTIONS project

Prof. Annemie Wyckmans
NTNU

Dr. Dirk Ahlers
NTNU

Dr. Per Jonny Nesse
Telenor Research

Håkon Lønsethagen
Telenor Research

In 2050, two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, according to the United Nations [1]. In order for cities to handle this growth in a sustainable way, they have to become energy efficient and climate resilient, improve mobility and healthcare, as well as become inclusive and attractive for all citizens. ICT solutions and especially 5G, the next generation communication technology, can become an important enabler for solving these challenges.

5G SOLUTION is one of eight projects under Phase 3 of the 5G-PPP, a private-public partnership initiated and funded through The European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, with the aim of supporting research and innovation within the smart city vertical along with other adjacent verticals [2]. This is a consortium of 26 European partners from academia, research centers, telecom operators, large industries and SMEs in 5G SOLUTIONS [3]. Telenor is a 5G experimental facility provider in the project leveraging the 5G-VINNI platform [4]. While the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering is a partner in the project addressing “Factories of the Future”, the NTNU smart sustainable cities is a cross-department and cross-disciplinary knowledge cluster and an external partner collaborating with Telenor to address “Co-creation for smart sustainable cities”.

Smart city use cases

In 5G SOLUTIONS an array of smart city use case scenarios are outlined and specified for upcoming trials and validations both technologically and business wise.

The smart city use cases outlined in 5G SOLUTIONS include:

• Smart street lighting: Electricity consumption is estimated to increase up to 80{b28ae05319d94bff0b4d65c5a9f4524dd588360f05c61ef440e1608e0a1c4144} in cities until 2030 compared to 2005 [5]. Reducing the electricity for lighting up streets and public areas is one area to become more energy efficient. Dimming or even switching on and off street lamps in low-traffic areas can be activated through sensor- or camera-monitoring persons or vehicles passing by. This will help the municipalities saving money and becoming more eco-friendly, while avoiding negative effects such as car accidents.
• Smart parking: Thirty percent of traffic in cities are looking for a parking space [6]. Smart parking solutions using 4K video cameras for real-time detection of occupancy and frequency/turnover of use of metropolitan area parking spaces will contribute to reduction of congestion and emissions, improve traffic safety, and simultaneously allow higher quality of life for the residents. This solution can also be combined with optimizing charging and electric network usage of electric cars and other electric vehicles such as buses or bikes.
• Smart buildings and campus: Internet of Things sensors can be deployed in private office buildings and public facilities to measure air quality, room occupancy, etc., reduce the energy consumption, allow for predictive maintenance, and utilize proximity lighting turning off heating or air conditioning when no one is present. 4K video cameras monitoring and automated detection of dangerous situations can help improve the physical security of the campus as well as the safety of its occupants. Understanding how buildings are used through sensors can also help with better planning of spaces and energy reduction for buildings.
• Smart harbour and ports: The Yara Birkeland fertilizer plant at port Herøya in Norway aims to have the world’s first fully electric autonomous container ship with zero emissions, replacing 40.000 diesel powered truck haulage journeys a year. 5G infrastructure will be deployed on the port premises supporting self-driving vehicles in addition to digitalizing working processes, e.g. remote VR/AR enhanced maintenance and operation, also providing a safer working environment.

Examples of smart sustainable city use case scenarios enabled through 5G technology (Source: AdobeStock)

Social innovation

In addition to these four vertical use cases, a new cross-cutting case for smart cities co-creation will be designed around social innovation. This will entail, amongst others, virtual and distributed co-creation between citizens and professional stakeholders and decision makers, supported by reliable live visual distribution and interactive communication with multiple remote areas, the use of digital twins, the exploration of sensor deployment, support for citizen science, and mixed reality media.

All the use case scenarios can be realized through support from 5G technology with higher data rate and lower latency, as well as massive machine-type communication such as connecting high numbers of sensors and IoT devices. A precondition is that the smart city ecosystems of partners and stakeholders are present, starting with municipalities and local governments enabling collaboration with potential industry and academic partners across several sectors [7].

Business model enablement and outlook

Information from these scenarios on energy consumption and behavioural patterns, whether it is data generated by citizens, IoT sensor networks or city level data that has broad communal use and is privacy-protected, could be made available across vertical silos proposing new collaborative frameworks and business models rewarding openness, transaction and data sharing. This can enable start-ups, SMEs, NGOs and local communities to take advantage of this data and build new apps and services relevant to the wider community. Applying machine learning or artificial intelligence techniques and algorithms on these data sets can also be an important enabler for detecting cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions beneficial for the ecosystem players and in the end for the citizens’ well-being.

References

[1] United Nations, “The world’s cities in 2016,” 2017.

[2] 5G PPP, “5G empowering verticals,” 17 May 2020. [Online]. Available: https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/BROCHURE_5PPP_BAT2_PL.pdf

[3] 5G SOLUTIONS (5G Solutions for European Cities) project –
https://www.5gsolutionsproject.eu

[4] 5G-VINNI (5G Verticals Innovation Infrastructure) project – https://www.5g-vinni.eu

[5] Worldbank.org, “LED street lighting: Unburdening our cities,” 2020.

[6] Nettavisen, “30 prosent av all bytrafikk er ­unødvendig,” 2017.

[7] E. Almirall, J. Wreham, C. Ratti, P. Conesa, F. Bria, A. Gaviria and A. Edmondson, “Smart Citites at the Crossroads: New Tensions in City Transformation,” California Management Review, vol. 59, no. 1, 2016.