The City of Rotterdam has launched a multifunctional modular unit for smart city applications, fitting the changing needs and scales of an evolving city.
The City of Rotterdam has launched a multifunctional modular unit for
smart city applications, fitting the changing needs and scales of an evolving city.
The module unit, called CENT-R (City, Connective
Energy Network Tool - Rotterdam), is designed to be equipped with an array of smart city applications for an ongoing basis. With a combination of different masts and electrical equipment to a single unit, it is able to continuously adapt to the latest technology applications in a smart city.
It’s applicable to electric vehicle charging, converting uninterruptible power to a DC power network,
5G cellular networks,
video surveillance or traffic cameras, LED-based smart street lighting, parking availability monitoring, and a variety of sensors such as air quality and sound monitoring.
A pilot project of three CENT-R units deployed in Rotterdam’s Reyeroord district, home to many startups, is expected to start at the end of January 2020. Many new and innovative smart city applications are also scheduled to showcase and launch trials.
The CENT-R is a co-creation project between the City of Rotterdam and
smart lighting firm Lightwell, and in partnership with the Da Vinci College Dordrecht and Hogeschool Rotterdam educational institutes.
“The CENT-R has come to characterize Rotterdam’s approach to digitization. Rotterdam is highly ambitious in this area: we want to be a prime example of a sustainable and accessible digital city by 2025, where people enjoy living and working,” said Barbara Kathmann, the city’s Alderman for Economy, in the statement.
“The process will only begin in earnest once the first units have been installed in Reyeroord. We will provide a future-proof, plug-and-play solution for combined charging applications and smart cities and smart lighting applications. We will examine the issues that must be resolved so that we can make a large-scale rollout in the city. We will bundle many objects with an electrical plug into a single standard object,” said Peter Wijnands, Public Works Administrator for Public Lighting in Rotterdam, in the statement.
The city plans to run the pilot until late 2020. The results will be added to Rotterdam’s city planning roadmap to 2030, in which it aims to become a climate neutral city.
Amsterdam ranked in world's top 3 smart cities
Speaking of smart cities, Amsterdam is standing at the leading position in the Netherlands, and even the whole world.
According to the recently published EasyPark Smart Cities Index 2019, Amsterdam was ranked third in the world, only falling behind Oslo and Bergen two Norweigen cities.
Cities were given a score out of 10 based on 24 factors in a smart city, including transport, mobility, sustainability, governance, innovation economy digitalization, living standard, expert perception and two newly-added variables blockchain ecosystem and government digitalization.
Amsterdam attained high scores in areas such as smart parking, citizen participation, traffic, waste disposal and E-charge spots, digitalization of government and blockchain ecosystem.
Other top 10 cities listed on the EasyPark Smart Cities Index 2019 include Copenhagen, Stockholm, Montreal, Vienna, Odense, Singapore and Boston.