Guimarães, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto and Aveiro: the Portuguese cities visited by the Digital City Break Delegation. On the 26th and the 27th of June, the eyes were set on the future thanks to this mission organised by Ubiwhere and oriented to presenting successful cases of Portuguese Smart Cities with our signature.

The Digital City Break: a tile-by-tile Journey to the Future of Smart Cities consisted of a reverse mission to discover more about successful cases in implementing the Smart Cities concept in Portugal. Entities such as FIWARE Foundation, ERTICO, AIOTI and Amsterdam Smart City were represented in the delegation that participated in this program, which included two days of visitation to several cities in Portugal, aiming to inspire the adoption of Smart City initiatives and projects through the demonstration of use cases where Ubiwhere worked and implemented digital solutions and practical examples already in operation in Portugal.

During these two, the entire delegation experienced several moments of entertainment and networking and got to know Portugal’s tourist heritage. This way, creating a unique opportunity to exchange experiences between players in the urban intelligence ecosystem was possible. Four cities will be visited during the two days: Guimarães, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto and Aveiro. In each of these cities, we could contact the towns’ representatives and address current initiatives and prospects in the development and implementation of Smart City projects.

  • Guimarães: we visited Guimarães City Hall and the Guimarães Integrated Operations Centre, a space-oriented to collect and monitor data from several sources about the city’s sustainability performance, aiming to become the European Green Capital.
  • Vila Nova de Gaia: Gaiurb was our stop to visit. This agency deals with Urbanism and Housing issues, always considering the necessary community involvement for the success of the policies.
  • Porto: the whole delegation visited the Centre of Integrated Management, an integrated city management centre focusing mainly on the efficiency and responsiveness of rescue, emergency, mobility and law enforcement operations, and PROEF, a Ubiwhere’s partner company in the execution of technological research and development projects.
  • Aveiro: our last city on the itinerary was Aveiro, a Tech City that has armed itself with 5G infrastructure for the development of next-generation urban services. The entourage visited Aveiro’s headquarters, learned about innovative technology solutions from Ubiwhere, and learned about the Aveiro Tech Week initiative organised by Aveiro City Council.

Ubiwhere’s Urban Platform was in focus during the Digital City Break by Ubiwhere. A digital platform dedicated to efficiently managing a city and implemented in these four visited cities. Integrating information sources, warnings about traffic movements, electric chargers, car parks, the environment, events, or occurrences are some of the real-time information made available by the urban intelligence platform created by Ubiwhere. Its implementation in Guimarães was considered a “good practice” by the European Commission since it allows one to obtain answers to daily challenges, through digitalisation, based on data collected in an urban environment.

Ubiwhere gave ERTICO the opportunity to discover more about the successful implementation of its Smart Cities concept in various Portuguese cities. Our Portuguese partner invited us to a city break touring various cities in Portugal to learn more about the smart solutions they have implemented and enjoy their history and heritage.

Some of the highlights of the visit were the visit to the Guimarães Integrated Operations Centre on the first day. We learned more about the Urban Intelligence Platform (PIU), a technological platform that will support the operations centre, which reflects information collected in the city, such us urban mobility, energy efficiency and air quality.

Another highlight of the City Break was the visit to the Centre of Integrated Management of Porto, located in a firefighter station on the second day. The Centre focuses mainly on the efficiency and responsiveness of rescue, emergency, mobility, and law enforcement operations. One of Ubiwhere’s partner company, PROEF, is executing the technological research and development projects. Additionally, on the same day, we were also invited to Ubiwhere’s headquarters, and we had the chance to learn more about their company and solutions, especially the Urban Platform.

Not all was work and we also got the chance to enjoy a boat ride in Aveiro, a touristic visit of Guimarães and most relevant, delicious cuisine.

“I would like to thank Ubiwhere for inviting ERTICO to such a lovely city break where we could enjoy learning more about Smart City initiatives while experiencing the culture and history of Portugal. It was very easy to discuss innovative initiatives cities are implementing while enjoying an Oporto wine and listening to Fado”, says Lidia Buenavida Peña, Manager, Innovation & Deployment at ERTICO.

Source: Ubiwhere