Madrid administration

2014: Contract with IBM for the introduction of smart city technologies for 14.7 million euros

Madrid is among the five most densely populated municipalities in Europe. For reference, the city produces about 1 million tons of household waste per year, and its residents consume about 15 million cubic meters of water in 12 months. In addition, the city is engaged in the management of multiple property assets, for example, its own fleet of 1.7 million transport units, more than 250 thousand lighting fixtures, and also monitors the condition of 287 thousand trees.

In July 2014, it became known that Madrid will use IBM Smarter Cities technologies to improve the services provided to citizens by the city administration, as well as the work of communication tools and interaction with residents. IBM's INSA division claims that this project is the largest in the field of creating a service ecosystem in Spain, its main goal is "to improve urban life for the entire three million population of Madrid."

The project cost is 14.7 million euros, the basis of the solutions being implemented will be technologies for analyzing and managing big data. With their help, the city administration will manage the work with each service provider and pay for it accordingly, depending on the level of services. We are talking about administration contractors who monitor the state of the streets, lighting, irrigation, green spaces, clean the territory and remove, as well as process garbage.

See also: Why does Madrid need analytics and big data ?

The city is implementing more than 80 "smart" initiatives from an application portal to schemes for encouraging short-term use of free urban lands. In Barcelona, ​ ​ information from all city sensors, and there are more than 600 of them, is collected by a special integrated Sentilo platform.

These data are open, and on their basis the city authorities are planning the development of the city limits, the laying of highways and engineering communications.

The garbage collection system in this metropolis is also distinguished by intelligence. Ultrasonic sensors mounted in garbage containers will notify utilities that it is time to start removing waste. The system independently calculates the schedule of movement of communal special vehicles in order to save fuel, human resources and timely export waste.

Recently, thanks to the improvement of video surveillance systems, the safety of residents of the city has improved. According to official data, the city has a decline in criminal activity, while the share of thefts, which accounted for more than half of all crimes in 2014, fell by 30.2% over the year.