So there’s this city.
In it, citizens, business leaders, and government officials work together – seamlessly, easily – to achieve a high quality of life for everyone who lives there. It’s not a utopia. But it’s made some smart choices: public transport, for example. In this city, the train system wasn’t an afterthought. Instead, transport dictated development, making it easy (and quick) for people to get where they need to go. So now the air’s cleaner, the roads are less congested, and everyone’s saving money.
This city is growing, creating a need for expanded infrastructure. But this city doesn’t like to gamble public capital on “best guesses.” Sensors and other data-collection tech give decision makers concrete information to make the most efficient, people- and business-focused choices.
It goes without saying, every citizen has access to speedy, world-class internet and networking tech, which attracts businesses and creates a lot of economic opportunity. Even better, because the city is so well connected, citizens and business leaders can participate in government simply by using the device in their pocket.
This city is a Smart City. And Colorado’s Smart City Alliance, led by the Denver South EDP, is working to make it a reality.
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Businesses need future-ready cities. Colorado chases radical innovation.
Smart cities look to human innovation and artificial intelligence – communication tech, sensors, and network connectivity devices – to lower costs, create less waste and encourage easier, quicker, more satisfying communication. What business owner wouldn’t want to set up shop in a smart city?
Lucky for Denver South, we don’t have far to look for examples of smart city strategies:
- In August the City of Lone Tree launched the Link 2.0, an on-demand shuttle service powered by Uber to enhance mobility options within the city. Right now this service is being offered for free to users.
- “Smart irrigation” is happening on a municipal level. New, connected sprinkler systems check in with real-time weather data. The days of sprinklers running during a thunderstorm are numbered.
- New housing developments across Denver South are going fossil free with Tesla and Solar City solar panels. What better use for Denver’s record sunny days?
- In December 2016, the implementation of the first phase of Centennial’s $5.7 million Fiber Master Plan began. This initial phase is being built underground as we speak in conduit facilities known as the Central Backbone, which will deliver high-speed internet access to both businesses and citizens.
- Last year, Denver South became the first city/region member of the OpenFog Consortium, which counts companies like Intel, Cisco, AT&T, GE and LGS, among many others, as members. In coming years, Denver South will serve as the Consortium’s Open Fog @ Cities Testbed. Fog computing adds a hierarchy of elements between the cloud and endpoint devices, and between devices and gateways, to meet IoT demand challenges in a high performance, open and interoperable way.
