How Data and Insight can make cities more welcoming, livable and sustainable

Below the contribution I shared at the 2024 PDAYS event held at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence and organized by AIPARK in May 2024

The Need for Change

Our cities face complex challenges driven by three key factors:

• Urbanization:? By 2050, the United Nations projects that 68% of the global population will live in urban areas, up from the current 55%.
• Complex Systems: Urban areas? are complex, with components like mobility, lighting, security, and energy networks interacting. Inefficiencies in one area can affect the entire system.
• Dynamic Nature: Cities continuously transform due to climate changes, health crises, and tourist flows. Changes can be gradual or rapid.?

In this scenario, technology and digitalization in smart cities are essential for managing complexity. The United Nations's "People-first" approach prioritizes human needs and well-being in urban policies, for the people today and in the future, making livability and sustainability key challenges.

The Role of Mobility and Parking

Mobility and parking are central to this ecosystem, becoming increasingly significant:

• Scarce Parking Space:? Only about 4% of urban space is allocated for parking, with demand often exceeding supply.
• Economic Resource: Parking generates independent revenue for administrations, funding various needs.
• Citizen Perception:? Research indicates parking is a major urban issue.

There's a clear imbalance between supply and demand. Mobility policies aim to address this issue with public transport promotion, inter-modality, structured or peripheral parking, new pricing policies like dynamic pricing and limiting the car in the city centers.

Whilst these solutions are seen more and more across Europe, the real impact of these measures on daily life remains often unclear.

A New Approach

A new method is needed, one that measures impacts, understands changes, and optimizes decisions based on current data. Technology supports this through digital city representations, like Urban Digital Twin s, which simulate and optimize traffic and parking flows in real-time. This requires a comprehensive digital data foundation.

Many cities have available data, but often it’s unstructured or not integrated. Technology helps collect accurate data through traffic sensors, parking payment systems, and mobile apps. Digital parking management and payment solutions in fact provide end-to-end digital information, essential for data-driven models.

Current State and Future Directions

Some cities ?have implemented integrated digital parking management systems and end-to-end digital solutions, which often include enforcement. These cities have a clear advantage, since they benefit from real-time dashboards, allowing for informed decisions to optimize parking tariffs and space utilization.?

Beyond parking, some cities are mapping urban spaces by categorizing them for comprehensive spatial organization, aiding in strategic evaluations, like for example the identification of the most crowded areas at certain times of the day or the week .

Last,? large and technologically advanced cities like Milan, The Hague, and Oslo are adopting integrated systems for real-time updates and predictive mobility policy assessments, those allow decision makers to test in the digital world first before applying in the real one .?

While case studies are starting to be seen,? yet Italy has a long way to go.

Moving Forward

Accelerating the digitization of parking management and payment creates the foundation for data-driven mobility policies. Currently, only about? 40% of parking payments in Italy are digital, compared to over 90% in Northern Europe. This is not enough and Italy must speed up. To do so, the companies must provide accessible solutions for all citizens, including the elderly and less digitized. The administrations should allow? different solutions to be available, so as to ensure the user choice, as emphasized by the Antitrust Authority in Italy and European payment regulations .

Promoting digital skills, especially within public administration, is also crucial. Interdisciplinary teams, private and public collaborations, and common KPIs are necessary for effective urban projects. Whilst private organizations must overcome the resistance to share their knowledge, those projects require the clear sponsorship of the political side to avoid remaining a technological effort instead of a project which drives a real transformation

Last, continuous exchange and learning between cities is crucial to foster a digital culture, driving repetition of the succesfull case studies, hence the national progress

We have started the journey toward a data-driven approach in the smart city but have a long way ahead of us. The collaboration between public and private sectors is essential for creating a better future. Together, we can navigate the evolution toward smarter, welcoming and more sustainable cities.