Milan

SMART CITY STRATEGY One of the high priority objectives for the city of Milan is to improve city services and sustainability implementing an effective Smart City strategy in order to be part of the European and international big cities network. The Smart City strategy started in Milan in 2012, when a specific mandate for this topic in the municipality department of economic development, university and research was created. This strategy is based on the concept that the public administration has to create a fruitful environment in which the different excellences of the territory can collaborate to pursue common objectives. It is also important to foster, not only the technological changes in the city but also improve the territory economy, the social inclusion, research and innovation and develop the legal framework to assure the feasibility and effectiveness of the different projects and initiatives. The strategy is strongly related to the Municipality Digital Transformation Policy consisting in infrastructures and services including a dense-fibre-optic-networks, wi-fi-hot-spots, digital-areas, portals and open-data.

CITY CHALLENGES The most relevant challenge in Milan are the following:

• Sustainability in urban mobility and regeneration of urban neighbourhoods.
• Social Innovation and Industry 4.0 policies.
• Physical and Digital Accessibility

CONTRIBUTIONS OF IOT SOLUTIONS TO SOLVE THE CITY CHALLENGES IoT can help the Municipality of Milan to face different challenges. Air pollution and their associated health risks due to mobility have already been faced through the use of IoT:

• 43 electronic gates equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology are already in use to support the congestion charging scheme (Area C) to forbid the entrance to pollutant vehicles in the city center.
• A Low Emission Zone (LEZ), that discourages the entrance in the whole city (not only in the center) of heavily polluting vehicles has been gradually introduced. Currently, the systems are set to control and manage the heaviest vehicles and those used for the transport of dangerous goods

The effects of these measures are monitored with the help of IoT sensors such as air pollution sensors, weather sensors and traffic loops. Other IoT sensors such as parking lots sensors, smart lighting, smart waste management, cameras and safety IoT solutions can help Milan to take smarter decisions.  By collecting, processing and storing data from these various systems, daily operating procedures can be improved, energy consumption can be decreased, operating costs lowered and security improved while optimizing living conditions.

RELEVANCE FOR THE CITIZENS The city of Milan ranks third amongst large European cities in its atmospheric concentrations of particulate matter, both in terms of average annual level and days of exceeding the European Union PM10 limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter. Milan has also one of the highest European rates of car ownership – one that is also among the highest in the world. It is relevant for Milan to reduce traffic congestion and CO2 emissions by improving control and visualization of transportation grid status across multiple transportation systems, increasing the efficiency and safety of the transport system. It is also fundamental to increase the efficiency of overall waste management and to reduce energy costs with intelligent, on-demand control, data analytics, and monitoring of multiple city services.