The city of Logroño, capital of the Spanish region of La Rioja, is the latest city to become a member of Open & Agile Smart Cities. Counting more than 150.000 inhabitants, the city is a regional economic powerhouse and actively pursues digital transformation to provide better services for citizens and tourists.
Logroño embraces digital transformation on local, national and European level: Besides joining Open & Agile Smart Cities (OASC), the city is currently chairing the Spanish Network of Smart Cities, participates in the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge programme and is a beneficiary of the WiFi4EU initiative.
Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, Mayor of Logroño, said:
“As City Councils, we have a major task to develop a model of sustainable management and improve the quality of life of citizens, focusing on aspects such as energy-saving, sustainable mobility, e-government, care for people, safety, or development of new initiatives promoting economic development and employment. Matters such as decarbonisation, digitalisation and distribution are on our agenda, as well as the use of technology and innovation, aiming to reach the sustainable development goals and the European commitments for a CO2-free society in 2050.”
Open Urban Platforms: Driving Digital Transformation
Logroño counts on a horizontal smart city platform and is currently integrating services and tools for various departments across the city administration. Recently, several integrated vertical solutions have been recognised as good practices by the Spanish Network of Smart Cities. Among others, the Spanish network selected Logroño’s Emergency Coordination Centre, the citizen call centre for questions, suggestions and complaints, the issue management system, the smart irrigation system, the street lighting network management, or a budget viewer.
All the available information can be accessed through maps in the municipal GIS. It is structured in different layers allowing all departments to access real-time information about infrastructure breakdown, traffic cuts, and available resources.
Leading the Open Transformation of Communities
The Spanish OASC chapter currently counts 10 members, including the cities Valencia, Murcia, and Santander. Highly active in smart city projects and international programmes, the Spanish Cities are leading the digital transformation by example. Valencia, for example, is chairing the U4SSC working group on “City Platforms”, which has recently been launched. U4SSC is a United Nations initiative around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
Overall, cities are supported, by the Spanish National Plan for Smart Cities which is closely linked to the national and international standardisation activities.
Davor Meersman, CEO of Open & Agile Smart Cities, said:
“We are thrilled to see the Spanish network growing. Spain and cities like Logrono are an excellent example of how to link local, national, and supra-national activities for digital transformation for the benefit of citizens.”
Open & Agile Smart Cities brings together 153 cities across 30 countries on four continents. All member cities subscribe to the OASC Minimal Interoperability Mechanisms, a set of open APIs, standards, and shared data models to allow cities to remain agile and digital solutions to scale across borders.