Smart communities
CITY DEALS Dylan Bushell-Embling
T
he smart city revolution is being expanded to more Australian cities, with Darwin set to deploy a number of new and expanded technologies as part of a City Deal agreement with Canberra, and negotiations underway for another City Deal in South East Queensland. Starting at the top of the country, the federal and Northern Territory governments and the City of Darwin have announced the $10 million Switching on Darwin strategy, which involves the rollout of smart technologies across the city by May 2019. Half of the project’s $10 million budget will be provided by the federal government, with the territory government and the city itself splitting the remaining $5 million expenditure equally. The investment will include the deployment of technologies such as sensors for monitoring vehicle and pedestrian movement, CCTV upgrades, an extended city Wi-Fi
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network and a new micro-climate monitoring system. As part of the project, Telstra has been appointed to deliver a suite of smart technologies in the city centre such as LED smart lighting, smart parking, Wi-Fi, CCTV and video analytics. The company has already commenced the installation of smart sensor LED lighting at Bicentennial Park. The project is aimed at promoting sustainability, delivering more efficient council services and helping curb antisocial behaviour. More than 900 new LED lights will be installed within the City of Darwin’s boundaries. Each light will can be individually dimmed or brightened remotely, either programmatically or on an ad hoc basis. The lights will sense changes to light levels and brighten or dim as required, and will have the potential to be adjusted at the request of police to help deter crime or brighten the area for an event. As well as the smart street lighting functionality, the upgrade is expected to reduce energy
consumption per light by around half by switching from 80-watt conventional bulbs to 45-watt LEDs. The project will also include an expansion of the city’s free Wi-Fi network to other high-traffic areas, provided by Telstra Air, as well as more CCTV surveillance cameras that will stream live video to NT Police’s monitoring area. Besides increasing public safety, data from the cameras will be used to monitor vehicle and pedestrian movement data for improved city planning. Likewise, a network of 24 sensors will be deployed around the city to monitor factors including humidity, rain levels and other weather data, CO2, dust and and air pollution levels, and noise levels. Data from the sensors will be used for improved planning and service delivery. The data will also be made available at no charge to organisations on request, with key data published on the City of Darwin website. The Switching on Darwin strategy forms part of the $200 million Darwin >>
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THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S CITY DEAL INITIATIVES ARE SPREADING ACROSS THE LAND, WITH DARWIN AND SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND THE LATEST TO JOIN THE SMART COMMUNITIES REVOLUTION.