Smart City Inspirations from Ireland
One of the most valuable resources on the BABLE Smart City Platform is the growing collection of nearly 400 Use Cases. Use Cases on BABLE are real-world reference projects sharing insights and learnings to show you what is already possible. These are uploaded by the implementers themselves, who can then be reached directly through the Platform by anyone interested in learning more. BABLE users from all over the world have uploaded Use Cases and offer a treasure trove of Smart City knowledge and inspiration.
In this article, I want to highlight some of my favourite ones from one of our core markets, the Emerald Isle of Ireland.
Let’s begin in the capital city of Dublin, from where we are proud to have dozens of Use Cases uploaded from our partners over at Smart Dublin.
One of my personal favourites from Dublin, Future Planning: 3D Data Modelling, shows how the Dublin City Council used a 3D Model of a part of the city to improve urban planning and allow for more citizen engagement and innovation.
The model has already been used to improve the design for a bridge and communicate proposals to the public, with over 160,000 views of the model. But what makes the Use Case particularly fascinating to me is the potential that it still has. What other uses for 3D Modelling and Digital Twins can you envision for your city?
Check out our Solution on Digital Twins for more information on how they work and how they can be implemented!
Another interesting one from Dublin is the work they did with Google Insights and University College Dublin to model greenhouse gas emissions and reduction capabilities using Google’s global mapping data. The Google Environmental Insights Explorer tool was used by Dublin to estimate the measurement of emissions from transportation and from buildings. It also showed the potential for rooftop solar energy production, which for Dublin was surprisingly high! The insights gained will inform the city’s decision-making, communications, and planning as they work to eliminate carbon emissions across the city. You can explore the Environmental Insights Explorer’s capabilities here.
The Google Insights Explorer Use Case revealed that 60% of Dublin’s emissions come from transportation.
Moving over a little to the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown, we can learn from a Use Case on how transportation emissions can be addressed.
There, the Fingal County Council launched an innovative Public Mobility Hub comprising of five parking bays with specific colour-coordinated functions including age-friendly, disabled, electric vehicle charging, bike rack (bike share and public), and car-sharing.
There are plans to roll out more of these across Fingal towns and advance Fingal’s climate action goals.
Check out our Solution on Mobility Hubs for more information on how they work and how they can be implemented!
Looking south to Ireland’s second-largest city, Cork has implemented an Urban Data Platform in the form of the Cork Dashboard.
The Dashboard provides citizens, public sector workers and companies with real-time information, time-series indicator data, and interactive maps about all aspects of the city and county. It enables users to gain detailed, up to date intelligence about the city that aids everyday decision making and fosters evidence-informed analysis.
Data is pulled together from major sources — including Cork City Council, Central Statistics Office, Eurostat, government departments and others, and includes links to a variety of existing external applications — to provide interactive data visualisations. The underlying data is freely available, so others can undertake their own analysis and build their own applications and visualisations.
Check out our Solution on Urban Data Platforms for more information on how they work and how they can be implemented!
Cities in Ireland are implementing cutting-edge smart city solutions to improve planning, reduce carbon emissions, and improve urban life for their citizens. And by sharing their experiences on BABLE, they are enabling other cities, towns, and villages to be inspired and hopefully draw on the information to replicate something innovative that improves life for their citizens.
And from ideation to implementation, the BABLE Smart City team is also there to help along the way!
Want to read more about Irish Use Cases? Find them on the BABLE platform!
Make sure to also take a look at our other Medium articles, and always feel free to reach out to us for any inquiry.
