Dallas has announced that it will pilot six new innovative 'smart city' programs aimed to improve connectivity and mobility issues in the city. The program is being spearheaded by the Dallas Innovation Alliance, which is a non-profit organization that brings the public and private sector together to design and execute a 'smart city' strategy for Dallas.
It has been further disclosed that the solutions developed will be subsequently integrated into the 'living lab', which is a corridor located in the West End Historic District in Downtown Dallas.
Jennifer Sanders, executive director at the Dallas Innovation Alliance praised the progressive nature of the city of Dallas, and said its open approach towards innovation and technology allows it to introduce these smart city programs.
Sanders said, "It is only through key partnerships and the vision of the city of Dallas that we have been able to build the most robust and fastest-to-market smart city pilot in the country here in Dallas. With the launch of this second phase of projects in the West End, living lab data will grow more robust and provide even better insights as we look to scale more broadly across the city."
Some of the new projects are outlined in below:
- The introduction of smart irrigation that enables smart controllers to utilize weather data in order to improve water conservation and detect leakage issues.
- Smart water management will allow the introduction of metering to provide more granular interval data for customer conservation.
- Smart parking will help reduce urban congestion, improve traffic flow and flag vacant availability in parking lots due to the city's partnership with start-up firm Park-Hub.
- Public Wi-Fi will be deployed in the living lab to boost connectivity in the city of Dallas - the program will be powered by AT&T, Cisco and Nokia.
The Dallas Innovation Alliance smart cities living lab was launched in March 2017 - and it is powered by US telecommunications incumbent AT&T. It engages with over 20 city departments and 30 partner organizations in a bid to create solutions specifically designed to improve the lives of those living in the city.
The Dallas Innovation Alliance smart cities living lab, powered by AT&T launched in March 2017, and today works with more than 20 city departments and 30 partner organizations to create solutions to benefit the people of Dallas. Mike Zeto, General Manager, AT&T Smart Cities said investment in smart city solutions was an investment in people.
He said, "Investing in smart cities technology is a commitment to address the needs of citizens today and in the future. The city of Dallas is doing important work, testing solutions that can lead to improved public safety, citizen engagement and environmental sustainability. Key learnings from the Living Lab will prove invaluable as we work to scale these types of solutions to more cities across the country."