Santander City Lab, the research centre formed by the Santander Town Council, the University of Cantabria and Ferrovial Servicios (known up to now as the Intelligent Cities of Santander Research Centre – CiCiS in the Spanish acronym) is working on the definition of analytical models that will enable us to improve the efficiency of the provision of services through the intelligent use of urban information.
Íñigo de la Serna, the Mayor of Santander, explained that: “we continue to promote collaboration between institutions, research teams and the business sector in order to make Santander progress towards becoming an intelligent city, in which technology plays an active role in the provision of services, and helps us to make them more efficient, while also saving on costs.”
Urban Analytical Models Project
This centre has reached the conclusion that the strategy, regarding the urban information of the city of Santander, is in line with that of 11 international bench-mark cities such as London, Singapore and New York. This is one of the first conclusions of the Urban Analytical Models project – analytical models for urban services. As part of the project a study has been carried out of contracts that are representative of environmental services in cities such as London or Peterborough, both managed by Ferrovial Servicios.
For this project, a comparative study was also carried out of the main Big Data analysis tools that exist on the market, and an analysis of the usability of municipal, private or personal information in urban environments. Currently analysis is being carried out of the application of analytical models to the management of urban services.
Smart Parking Project
The second Santander City Lab research project, titled Smart Parking, has come to a close with a study and comparative assessment of the most prominent market solutions at a global level with regards to digital parking. A total of 31 solutions have been analysed, covering a range of requirements such as vehicle detection, parking space reservation, guiding to your space and fee payment. Furthermore, it has taken on board Ferrovial Servicios’ experience in the Madrid Smart Parking digital parking project.
The solutions analysed present great potential for dealing with the challenges of the city, such as the high levels of fuel consumption and emissions, high levels of traffic congestion, the lack of vehicle rotation in commercial areas, the high noise levels, problems finding parking spaces and making payment on certain parking meters.
Santander City Lab
Santander City Lab supports the vision of the city of Santander keeping to the forefront of urban innovation. Its fundamental activity is focussed on the intelligent analysis of urban information, which is based on data processing skills, technologies and applications. Santander City Lab has its operational centre at the University of Cantabria, and boasts a working team made up of a manager from the Ferrovial Servicios Excellence Centre for Cities and two researchers from the University of Cantabria.
