ACSC 2023 - NSW Masterclass Summary

ASCA (Australian Smart Communities Association) is proud to partner with NSW Government (NSW Smart Places) in the Australian Smart Communities Summit.

Here's are some key notes from today's NSW Smart Places Masterclass.

Bradfield City Centre is an exemplar for strategic smart planning to create a place to live, work and visit via a flexible framework that can embrace innovation. Data and technology are enabling the secure sharing of performance indicator results at the micro level to change the way a city performs in what will be a car-lite place.

Smarts in Planning requires human centred design, community planning statements and state environmental policy and planning alongside two legal frameworks for (a) local govt act compliance on what councils provide with own money, assets, services for communities and long term infrastructure event plans that can lower cost over time and (b) private sector integration in the approval processes to state/regional systems for large scale works.

Change can happen if smart tech is embedded into regional or city plans and then into local strategy planning statements and environmental planning instruments. Legal conditions of development consent can include specific requirements such as fibre network and mobile broadband coverage.

Max at Wollondilly Shire explained how a set of standard specifications can effectively deal with evolving technologies and ensure strategies keep pace with evolving technologies.

Chris at Cumberland City Council emphasised the importance of a holistic approach for digital planning to create a vibrant recreational and meeting place for the community with community, affect lower cost council asset management and state guidance on telecommunication connectivity.

The NSW Telco Authority explained how they were collecting granular data and visualising it to better understand high and low speed connectivity needs. A NSW connectivity index will be launched in the next few months.? Minimum connectivity requirements and cross jurisdiction mobile comms infrastructure especially in rapidly growing suburbs is also being developed.? The Authority is exploring disaster ready connectivity kits and early warning systems to save lives whether this is from flood impacting or bushfires.

Jamie at Central Coast Council shared details of their multiple innovation precincts and plans for fixed and mobile connectivity. He shared key principles (tech as enabler to workers, residents and visitors; deploying several smart initiatives into a digital hub; co-designing a digital infrastructure blueprint tied to an outcomes and action plan).

SSROC (29 councils with approx. 230k street lights) shared their focus on better pricing, service levels and lighting technology achieved via this consortium. SSROC still had to manage multiple layers of governmentto move away from error prone out of date spreadsheets to newer City of Parramatta/Endeavor Energy smart sensor spatial data asset capture onto maps showing device GPS location, energy consumption and device warnings.?

Challenges remain in determining (a) who owns the tech (AusGrid, NSW Transport, Council), who makes technology decisions (5 regulator smart city perspectives), should we have 2 owners?

Michael at the Sunshine Coast Council explain the value of investing, operating and managing connectivity infrastructure that lower telco costs from $30k/month to $300/month, directly reported on mobile coverage blackspots with Telco to force change and that increased connectivity increased population growth from 4% to 7% and as one example, added 200 jobs relocated to the area.

Emily (Smart Place Policy & Engagement, Cities and Active Transport, TFNSW) defined smart places as places where place data can generate insights and make informed decisions in purposeful ways. Wayne presented details of government agency centric fragmented data and how this was now moving towards a more inclusive whole of goverment approach as 3d/4d enabled local digital twins with data shared across agencies.

Simone (NSW Transport Advanced Analytics) explained how technology was helping detect and respond to incidents; helping passengers decide on when to travel; helping inform capacity management and planning for the future; sharing open data supported for 7 years with developers of apps;. The NSW Government remains responsible for the ethical use of and maintenance of data.?

Vy discussed the 2-day Wynside Park Micro district event at Wynyard Park; to identify and assess potential co-creation, implementation and assessment based on data colltected and analysed to support people, place and community vibe.

The ASCA board, members, sponsors and partners are all looking forward to Day 2 followed by dinner tomorrow evening, it has been wonderful to meet everyone in person, many for the first time! Australian Smart Communities Association nbn? Australia NSW Government City of Parramatta #Smartcities #Smartcommunities