Founded in 1404, Tianjin is the biggest coastal city and largest seaport in northern China. It functions as neighboring Beijing's gateway to the sea, and is one of four Chinese municipalities under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. This city of 11 million has a strong industrial base in automobiles, pharmaceuticals, metallurgy, petrochemicals and such new fields as environmental services, and saw GDP growth of nearly 16% from 2003 to 2004, when its total output was worth US$36.3 billion. The city added 214,500 new jobs in 2004, 18% more than the prior year and saw per-capita income rise 14%.

The municipal government has nonetheless set its sights on building equally powerful information technology and service industries, and has eagerly embraced broadband and IT as means to make government more efficient and responsive, and business more productive. Northern China has been late to the Internet and broadband revolution, and there is a clear sense of urgency in Tianjin's efforts to catch up. Tianjin was among the Top Seven in 2005, and for the second year in a row, ICF recognizes the city for its aggressive application of the principles of Intelligent Community development in the unique political and economic environment of China.

From 20,000 to 2.7 Million in Two Years

Tianjin's Intelligent Community initiative is focused on broadband deployment for citizens, business and government; on e-government applications to make government more responsive and efficient; and on development of new high-tech industrial zones. The goals in its current five-year plan are to provide broadband access in 100% of the 12 km2 (4.6 sq. mile) city, have 80% of households own a PC and 55% of residents become Internet users, and have total broadband penetration reach 60%. Collaborating with telecom carriers, cable TV companies and equipment manufacturers, the city has deployed 20,000 km (12,500 miles) of optical fiber in multiple interconnected networks. The city had 2.7 million Internet subscribers at the end of 2004, up 35% from the prior year. (At the end of 2002, only 20,000 people in all of Tianjin used the Internet.) Broadband subscribers totaled 600,000 or 5% of the total population. A newly completed telecommunications hub in Tianjin provides switching and control for networks that connect the nine provinces of northern China.

Though part of the Beijing metroplex, Tianjin contains large rural areas where farming is the predominant industry. A “village to village” program has, with help from satellites, connected nearly 4,000 villages to the Internet and has helped to transform rural life. One small company, Jinmao Co. Ltd. In Wang Zhuang Village, was founded with the equivalent of US$62 in 1984 to manufacture manual agricultural tools. After setting up a Web site in 1996, the company began receiving orders from throughout China and expanded its products to include painting, cleaning, gardening and other tools. Their products are now available in five of the six biggest furniture chains in China, and the company's sales have reached US$18 million.

Online Government, Health Care and Customs

Tianjin's e-government programs have focused in increasing efficiency, improving connectedness and centralizing information on residents. To date, the city has implemented 600 e-government applications, including public finance, taxation, city planning, housing, commerce, education and justice. Proposed government policies are posted to the Web so that citizens can offer comments before the policy is implemented. Over 250 departments use the network for internal management. The broadband network also links the city’s 210 hospitals and clinics, and an online payment system settles almost all healthcare charges. A Distance Tax Collection System allows taxpayers to check their accounts and make payments online, while a Port Information System expedites customs clearances for ships' cargos in Tianjin's port. Cash transactions are gradually being replaced by three network-access cards – bank, bus and social security – that residents use to manage their financial and transportation needs.

In China, a Resident Registration System controls internal travel and residency. Tianjin recently introduced a second-generation system designed to reduce the inconvenience to residents of re-registering at district offices whenever they change housing. The former manual process, requiring visits to multiple offices, has been reduced by data networking to a single visit.

50% of Total Exports from Technology Sector

The city's latest project is the Digital City industrial park, designed as a home for China's fast-growing software, electronics, biotech and new-energy industries. Now under construction on 10 km2 (3.8 sq. miles) of land, the new park will become home to a sector that saw a 32% increase in total revenues from 2003 to 2005 and which now produces 50% of the city's exports.

The pace of Tianjin's transformation is set by many factors, from the sheer scale of effort required to have an impact on its large, urban-rural population to the willingness of the central government in Beijing to embrace change. Measured by how far it has come in a short time, Tianjin is a notable success. Measured against the scale of its ambitions, the city still has far to go.

Population: 11,000,000

Labor Force: 5,500,000

Website: www.tj.gov.cn

Smart21 2006

Top7 2005 | 2006

Shanghai has been a major port at the mouth of the Yangtze River since it was opened to foreign trade in 1842. By the 1930s, it was an Asian hub of finance and commerce. But its current path was set in the 1990s, when the reforms of Deng Xiaoping made it one of China’s four “direct cities,” operating free from provincial rule, and liberated its private-sector economy. The non-state sector now generates 42% of the city’s GDP, which has grown at double-digit rates since 1992. Today, Shanghai is one of the world’s largest cities by population and the second busiest port in the world. Already home to over 30 major industrial parks, it is engaged in a development boom of historic proportions. The infrastructure includes broadband via wireless, copper and optical fiber. The Shanghai Medical University is a pioneer in telehealth in China and supports remote consultation and education in more than 20 provinces. More than 30 large multinationals have located wholly-owned R&D centers there because of the city’s rich knowledge assets, competitive market, existing IT cluster. The centers are producing new spin-off companies, new university-business research ventures and an overall increase in the skill levels of Chinese engineers and researchers.

Population: 19,000,000

Website: www.shanghai.gov.cn

Smart21 2011

Political reforms beginning in the 1990s unleashed the economic potential of Shanghai, one of China’s most important seaports, and helped create the megacity of today with its population of over 23 million. Jiading is the northernmost of 17 districts of Shanghai and home to the city’s Grand Prix racetrack. But the district has begun a different kind of race: to create a new satellite community of one million people that will set a standard in China for quality of life. Moving at the high speed of development in the Middle Kingdom, Jiading New City is already home to the regional headquarters of major Chinese companies, schools, hospitals, hotels, rail and bus lines as well as housing. A ubiquitous wireless network is being deployed to provide broadband. Yet for all its advanced infrastructure, Jiading New City encompasses one hundred parks, a network of lakes and rivers and a forest belt that takes up 40% of its land. Already called China’s “most livable city,” Jiading New District aims to become an important destination where the dynamism of China connects to the global economy.

Population: 538,000

Website: english.jiading.gov.cn

Smart21 2013

A satellite city of Shanghai known as an automative cluster, Jia Ding seeks to build quality of life and attract high-tech companies through a fiber-to-the-building network, science & technology investment funds, and advanced e-government programs.

Population: 1,157,381

Website: english.jiading.gov.cn

Smart21 2007

Long one of the most competitive economies in the world, Hong Kong seeks to maintain its edge with an IT transformation plan to make government more efficient, development of digital industry clusters such as Cyberport, and investments in intelligent transport and immigration to maintain its lead as a crossroads for the global economy.

Population: 6,965,000

Website: www.gov.hk

Smart21 2007

Located on the Yangtze River in Sichuan province, Chongqing was once known for its isolation behind high mountains, which led Chiang Kai-shek to make it his wartime capital. In 1983, Chongqing became the country’s first inland port open to foreign trade and was authorized to experiment with liberal economic policies. With the construction of the Three Gorges Dam nearby, Chongqing was named a “direct city” in 1997, joining Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai in independence from provincial government. Under its aggressive and popular Mayor Bo ilai, the city has grown explosively since then. In 1998, its GDP was $21 billion; by 2009, it had grown fourfold to $86bn, twice the growth rate of China as a whole. Fully 90% of the industrial goods manufactured there are sold in China. The city is investing heavily in its future by expanding rail lines, highways, the airport and digital infrastructure. Hewlett-Packard has a call center in Chongqing and plans a laptop factory. Chongqing attracts more direct foreign investment than any other city in central or western China - $2.7 billion in 2008 alone.

Population: 32,000,000

Website: www.cq.gov.cn

Smart21 2011

Every week, the city of Whittlesea gains 175 new residents, which adds up to 2,500 new households per year and makes it one of Australia’s fastest growing municipalities. While residential construction is booming, however, job creation is not. Whittlesea is a large urban/suburban/rural district on the northern fringe of the city of Melbourne, where two-thirds of Whittlesea residents earn their living. The city’s business community consists of a declining manufacturing sector made up for by growing construction, retail and services sectors. Nearly 80% of its businesses are small. Only 10% are exporters and only 25% of these provide online products and services.

A Foundation of Conduit

City Council began laying the foundation for a different economy in 2001, when it started requiring all greenfield developments to install fiber-ready conduit and transfer ownership to Council. Within a few years, this asset made it possible for the city to able to attract fiber network investment into housing and mixed-use developments. The large and growing conduit system also attracted Australia’s National Broadband Network to make Whittlesea a deployment site. About 40% of the city now has access to fiber and 70% of premises are expected to receive 100 Mbps service by 2015. User adoption is among the fastest in the nation.

Whittlesea is already proving attractive to some large-scale industrial developments spilling over from Melbourne, including a wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market, as well as food processing, logistics and warehousing. While welcoming this growth, Whittlesea has focused on bringing its existing small business community into the digital age. An ICT scorecard project has evaluated ICT adoption at 1,600 businesses. Owners can now compare themselves to their peers, which creates pressure for progress. A Digital Enterprise program offers the technology training they need to increase their competitiveness. The Council is also encouraging the start-up and relocation of home-based businesses that can use ultrafast broadband to provide high-value services. For citizens, Whittlesea’s libraries offer training, technology and a demonstration center called the Digital Hub, where they can see 100 Mbps service in action.

Digital in Place of Physical Infrastructure

The emphasis on broadband and ICT has already moved the dial in terms of educational attainment. In 2011, just 21% of residents had completed higher education, compared with 32% in 2014. Professionals in the workforce have jumped from 17% of the total to 25% over the same period.

Each year, Whittlesea conducts a household survey to find out what is most on the minds of its residents. According to the latest survey, it is all about infrastructure failing to keep pace with strong growth, whether it is roads, public transportation, schools or social services. The city’s Intelligent Community strategy aims to help the community use ultrafast broadband to obtain services, expand e-commerce, improve education and reduce demand for transportation, so that the growth engine can keep running while delivering a higher quality of life.

Population: 197,500

Website: www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au

Smart21 2007 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015

The Sunshine Coast is a metropolitan area that spreads across 2,291 square kilometers of Australia’s coastline about 100 kilometers north of Brisbane. A sub-tropical paradise of beautiful beaches and scenic mountains, the Coast has experienced boom times and almost doubled its population since the 1980s from tourism and retirement relocation, which drove the growth of construction and retailing. But the ebbing of the commodities boom that fueled Australia’s economy has revealed the fragility of the local economy. Population growth has slowed to below the state average and demand for tourist accommodation has fallen year after year, creating an above-average unemployment rate that hits particularly hard on youth.

Speed It Up Program

To help its population overcome these economic challenges, the Sunshine Coast government introduced the “Speed It Up” campaign. The campaign is designed to spread knowledge of the benefits of high-speed Internet access as well as how to obtain it. As part of the campaign, Digital Sunshine Coast has partnered with a variety of telecommunications providers in the area to display coverage maps of business grade broadband availability on its website (digitalsunshinecoast.com.au). The site also provides a free Wi-Fi Locations tool for residents to find sites with public Internet access. Finally, the Digital Sunshine Coast website includes as Want Faster Internet page with a short survey that residents can take to tell the government more about their Internet needs. The website is experiencing an average of 1000 page views per month as of 2016, with hundreds of submissions on the Speed It Up and Want Faster Internet pages. The city council is using the data gathered to negotiate better coverage areas with local telecommunications providers.

Based on the data gathered by the Speed It Up campaign, the city has installed 178 free public Wi-Fi access points throughout the city with a further 187 access points to be finished before the end of 2018. With the new Wi-Fi availability, the Sunshine Coast has set up beacons to provide localized information for the community and visitors, including guided walks and art sculpture and restaurant locations. The free Sunshine Coast Council app allows anyone connected to the public Wi-Fi to access this information as well as pre-order food and drinks at the stadium, book restaurants and obtain event guides. The Council has also developed a disaster hub that may be accessed through the app or via the web to provide safety information, important warnings and breaking news in the event of a local emergency.

Beginning in 2020, the Sunshine Coast will deliver the fastest telecommunications connection to Asia from Australia's east coast and the second fastest to the US through a new 550km submarine optic fibre cable which will connect to the 9600km Japan-Guam-Australia submarine cable. Construction of a cable landing station also began in February 2019 and is due to be completed by the end of June 2019.

Engaging the Next Generation Workforce

As of 2016, the Sunshine Coast has lowered its youth unemployment rate to only 5.4% with a series of programs and initiatives. The city held its first ever Job Show in August 2015, showcasing current and upcoming job vacancies throughout the Sunshine Coast. More than 2000 people participated in the Job Show, including 62 of the Sunshine Coast’s largest public and private sector employers. The Show also featured workshops by industry professionals to educated job seekers about the knowledge and skills they will need to enter those industries.

The Sunshine coast hosted the Future Careers+ 2025 Expo in August 2016 and again in May 2017, providing a wealth of information on careers in technology and innovation as well as the education pathways required for them. More than 60 exhibitors showcased products and prototypes at the expo with 1,600 students, parents and educators attending. After the expo, the Future Careers content was serialized in magazine form and distributed to 60,000 homes in the city.

The city also hosted hosted its first CoderDojo in June of 2014. CoderDojo is a global collaboration that provides free learning to young people, particularly in the area of programming technology. The Sunshine Coast CoderDojo covers a wide variety of topics including basic web, app, and game development. While the first CoderDojo was held at the Institute of Professional Learning, in subsequent years the program has been expanded to three Sunshine Coast libraries due to its popularity.

In addition to training programs, the Sunshine Coast has offered a series of innovation-focused programs over the past several years. These programs include the Mayor’s Telestra Technology Awards, the Startup Weekend for Youth, and the Generation Innovation Challenge. All three programs feature youth entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, providing a platform for students to share their ideas with potential employers across the Sunshine Coast. The Y Shop program is a similar project aimed to help young entrepreneurs create their own businesses. The program offers a series of workshops by local business professionals at many of the cities libraries.

Building an Innovation Hub in Australia

Between 2014 and 2016, the Sunshine Coast has grown from having only one innovation center and public co-working space to seven co-working spaces, a new business incubator and five coding programs. The city council has taken a leading role in digital engagement to make this possible, including setting up the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem mapping project to coordinate and grow the local network of co-working spaces and programs. The map shows budding entrepreneurs where they can find support and resources from the government and business community as they start their businesses and provides an easy way for businesses to communicate and collaborate throughout the region.

The Sunshine Coast Innovation Centre, established in 2002 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of the Sunshine Coast, serves as central hub for startups in the city with dedicated facilities, a prototyping lab, powerful online platforms, grants and seed funding connections and readily available mentors for new startup companies. Over 40 businesses are located at the Innovation Centre as of 2017, and more than 160 have graduated from startup incubator and accelerator programs since the center’s establishment with 89% still operating successfully.

The Sunshine Coast Council has also served as an advocate and facilitator for the Smart City Living Lab and Smart Centre, which is a public shop front in the city. The area serves as a testing ground for Smart City technologies to enhance community education and stimulate ideas on adaptation and growth. The government has provided free Wi-Fi in 82 public areas as part of this effort to help gather data on movements and usage.

The Sunshine Coast Solar Farm

The 15 megawatt Sunshine Coast Solar Farm was completed in 2017, making the Sunshine Coast Council Australia’s first local government to offset 100% of its electricity consumption across all of its facilities and operations with green energy. These facilities include administration buildings, swimming pools, performance venues, community centers, libraries, and recreation facilities throughout the city. The Sunshine Coast Solar Farm is the only city-council-owned solar farm in Queensland and the first grid-connected, utility-scale facility of its kind in Australia. The solar farm is expected to save the city approximately $22 million over the next 30 years due to the council’s lower electricity costs.

The Sunshine Coast expects its population to nearly double again over the next two decades, but that growth will be based on a diversified, digitally-powered economy ready for 21st Century success.

Population: 294,000

Website: www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au

Smart21 2014 | 2015 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

Top7 2019

Like much of the nation, the state of South Australia has long depended on a mix of mining, agriculture and heavy manufacturing to sustain its economy. Today, all three are stagnant or declining in terms of job creation, due to slowing resource exports and the slow collapse of the Australian automobile industry. These global economy trends have put pressure on the small city of Prospect to the east of Adelaide, with its 1.3 million people.

High-Speed Access with NBN

Across Australia, the National Broadband Network Company is rolling out the National Broadband Network (NBN), replacing the old copper wire broadband infrastructure with fiber-optic, fixed wireless and satellite infrastructure that boasts download speeds of up to 100 Mbps. The city of Prospect has partnered with the NBN Company since 2012 to make the transition as seamless as possible and to make certain that all its residents and business owners know about the game-changing network now available to them. To further this effort, the Prospect City Council has posted numerous news articles about making the switch to NBN to its websites. The local magazine and newspaper have also published NBN advertisements aimed at local businesses. The City Council and NBN have held several community sessions at Prospect’s Digital Hub, and an NBN liaison has presented at multiple business networking events in the city to explain the process of switching to NBN.

While educating its citizens about NBN, the city of Prospect has also set up two other broadband projects to bring high-speed NBN access to the general population. The Broadband Cafés project offers public, high-speed Wi-Fi in a variety of cafés throughout the city. These cafés show videos about the project to their customers, which have been very well received; one particular broadband café had has many as 17,000 views since the project began.

The city’s other broadband project is the Public Wi-Fi project, which is currently under construction. The project aims to set up specific geographic zones throughout the city to provide seamless, free high-speed Wi-Fi access to the public. All buildings within the zones will have access to NBN’s 100 Mbps capacity fiber and will use a radio-based mesh network of access points with no connectivity black spots.

Prospect's Digital Economy Strategy

The city of Prospect has worked closely with the federal government and NBN Co to educate and support local businesses as well as residents. Together, they have implemented the “Next Generation” Digital Economy Strategy, which outlines projects and initiatives to encourage outside investment and local business use of digital technology. The city completed stage one of the strategy in 2016, launching the new Network Prospect brand and website (www.networkprospect.com.au) at the annual Tourrific Prospect Street Party. The Network Prospect website serves as a one-stop shop, promoting local businesses, investment opportunities, and economic development initiatives for the whole region. Hundreds of Prospect businesses have signed up for the site’s business directory, creating a network of local businesses with increased visibility to the community and abroad.

To further support the Digital Economic Strategy, the city rolled out Prospect Fast Wi-Fi in 2017. Prospect Fast Wi-Fi is a free public Wi-Fi system with 12 access points and 3 backhaul radio stations that offers some of the fastest free Wi-Fi available in Australia over a 500m area along Prospect Road. Plans are already in place to expand the coverage with an additional 3 access points and one more backhaul radio station, which would provide full coverage to the area around the new cinema development. The city makes anonymous usage data available to local businesses as well to let them track local retail trends.

The Digital Economy Strategy also includes a busy schedule of bi-monthly events geared toward the professional services sector. The events aim to foster local business-to-business transactions, particularly for the many local businesses run from residents’ homes. In addition to networking opportunities, these events provide marketing education and guidance, including search engine optimization and social media training.

Connected Cities

The Connected Cities project, proposed by the city of Prospect and the University of Adelaide in 2017 and funded in February 2018, aims to collect data on park usage and movements in Prospect to support future IoT infrastructure. Connected Cities will set up sensors in local parks and connect them to the LoRaWan network to monitor the use and maintenance of city council assets. The sensors will allow the council to understand what is happening in local parks and tailor maintenance to specific need rather than a fixed schedule. In addition, the information will assist the facilities booking system project in finding space and time availability.

Prospect has recently completed a pilot project with ConnectedParks, a local IoT startup to measure footfalls on its main street with sensor technology. Based on this success, Connected cities will also use sensors to track pedestrian movement on mainstreets in Magill and Port Adelaide to provide information to the council, main street committees and local businesses. This will allow businesses to adapt opening hours to foot traffic patterns.

A Collaborative Workspace

With the City Council’s support, a pair of Prospect entrepreneurs has set up a co-working space on Main Street called Little City Studio. Known locally as “a city within a city,” Little City Studio is a collaborative working space for residents who have outgrown their home offices or who want to build networks in a relaxed and affordable environment. Little City resident businesses have access to high-speed broadband, a boardroom, training events, and a Council-sponsored accelerator program.

Little City Studio has been so successful that the space is now full, and the City Council is currently considering plans for a new innovation center incorporating the Prospect Library, the Prospect Community and Civic Centres, and the Digital Hub and Gallery. The Digital Hub program was established in 2013 and funded initially by the Australian government to provide a community-centered technology hub at the Prospect Library. The hub offers a wide variety of free technology courses to residents, educating them in the opportunities provided by NBN broadband. As of August 2016, the Digital Hub has had over 7,300 registered customers.

These programs strengthen Prospect's appeal as a bedroom community for Adelaide while equipping its people and businesses for independent economic success in the digital economy.  

In the News
Read the latest updates about Prospect.

Want to know more about Prospect?
Prospect was featured in the Intelligent Community Forum book Brain Gain.

Population: 19,995

Website: www.prospect.sa.gov.au

Smart21 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019

Melbourne is Australia’s second largest municipality and the capital of the state of Victoria. A leading financial center, this city of 130,000 is at the center of a metropolitan area of 4.5 million people and is hub for the Australian film and television industries. In 2016, The Economist named Melbourne as the world’s most livable city for the sixth year in a row.

Filling the Gaps

Australia, however, ranks 48th in the world for the speed and services available over broadband, due to a long history of monopoly and duopoly markets. That has put Melbourne’s people, institutions and businesses at a disadvantage in reaping the economic and social benefits of the digital revolution. As a midsize city, Melbourne has many competing service providers but also significant gaps in coverage outside its central business district. A group of frustrated Internet users teamed with a community-led pilot project in Melbourne to create Lightning Broadband, which uses a mix of optical fiber and wireless to connect high-rise apartments and business customers at 100 Mbps. Rolling out in Melbourne suburbs now, it is targeting a national build-out in areas underserved by private carriers and bypassed by Australia’s National Broadband Network.

Extending Education

The Melbourne metro region is home to hundreds of two-year colleges and more than a dozen universities. Nearly 47% of its population has a graduate or undergraduate degree. City government and nonprofits have therefore targeted programs at segments of the population that are not participating fully in the knowledge economy. Code Like a Girl runs a series of tech-focused events around the city. Targeting females from 13 to 45, events like Creative Coding and The Internet of (Girl) Things teach basic programming skills while awakening girls and women to new career opportunities.

A small-scale program called Life Experience Skills Sharing pairs young people of post-secondary age with socially isolated older people in sessions where the youngsters teach digital skills. While older citizens learn to navigate the digital world, their younger companions gain in self-esteem, empathy and communication skills. The annual Melbourne Knowledge Week Festival, launched in 2010, consists of conferences, workshops and demos that showcase a smart and innovative city and brings the future city to life today.

Collaborative Innovation

Two projects, one in production and the other in development, are equipping Melbourne with new innovation districts. The Advanced Manufacturing Precinct at RMIT, a public research university, creates collaborative projects between researchers and industry, and equips them with technology and equipment to speed up prototyping and design of the manufacturing process. Early results include a 3D printed spine implant and an improved car seat for the Tesla Model S.

The Carlton Connect Initiative (CCI) aims to bring together people from diverse disciplines to one precinct, where CCI will create and curate partnerships between research and industry locally, nationally and globally. It has established the Melbourne Accelerator Project, whose 24 startup teams have already created 150 jobs and generated A$10 million in revenue. LAB-14 is CCI’s first small-scale demonstration site, where 270 people are at work on projects from computing through artistic creation. When CCI is complete, it will be Australia’s largest innovation district and home to the Melbourne School of Engineering.

Helping the Homeless Online

Like many successful cities, Melbourne faces sharp increases in its cost of living and a shortage of affordable housing, both of which contribute to the problem of homelessness. Though the city offers a wide range of support services finding is difficult for the homeless because information can be outdated, waiting lists long and the rules complex. Melbourne’s answer is Ask Izzy, a new mobile website that connects the homeless, or those at risk of homelessness, with essential services. Research showed that 80% of people experiencing homelessness in Melbourne own a smartphone. Ask Izzy is a free location-based directory that helps them find food, shelter, health and other critical services. It was developed by a partnership among a Melbourne nonprofit, Google, RealEstate.com.au and News Corp Australia.

Sustaining the Community

Melbourne makes sustainability strategy a community affair. Its Smart Blocks Solar Rebate program helps apartment owners and building managers install solar panels to reduce energy costs. The installation of a solar system on common property requires the owner or executive committee to work together to develop the concept, build a business case, and engage tenants, apartment managers and suppliers. The Smart Blocks program provides advice throughout the process. It had installed 144 KW of solar through the end of 2015 and is saving apartment owners an average of A$25,000 in energy costs per year.

Melbourne’s top score for livability is partly the product of a community plan called Future Melbourne. In 2016, the city began to refresh the plan, renaming it Future Melbourne 2026, through meetings of a Citizen’s Jury made up of residents, workers and business executives. To broaden participation, it created a digital forum called Participate Melbourne, which lets members of the community contribute to decision’s shaping the city’s future. The result has been 970 ideas for projects and a program of events that engaged participation from 2,000 people. Meanwhile, the 250,000 registered users of Participate Melbourne logged more than 50,000 sessions in a single year. Working together, the people, businesses and institutions of Melbourne are building a future that leverages the city’s strengths while working to close the gaps left by the past decade of development.

Population: 128,980

Website: www.melbourne.vic.gov.au

Intelligent Community of the Year 2017

Smart21 2006 | 2017

Top7 2017