Barcelona – spanish “smart” city

Together with the cities of malaga and santander, the catalan capital is now one of spain’s most advanced urban centres in terms of energy management, mobility, environment, building and use of icts in public administrations. this is the conclusion of a recent study undertaken by consultants idc in conjunction with bbva, ferrovial servicios, ibm, microsoft, sage, telefónica and urbiotica, designed to analyse plans to develop and introduce icts in the 44 spanish cities with a population of over 150,000 inhabitants.

"given that natural resources are finite, cities are obliged to find ways of becoming more efficient in how their inhabitants use energy, water, infrastructures, public transport or produce greenhouse gases. despite efforts being made by councils across the country, spain is still to reap the benefits of developing the “smart city” concept,” according to idc ibérica analysis director, rafael achaerandio.

the study placed barcelona as the country’s second smartest city for its use of ict solutions and urban transport network, as well as for its benchmark live project (logistics to introduce electric vehicles).

source: la vanguardia, 16/10/2011