London and Edinburgh top smart city ‘leaderboard’
Source: Smart Cities World on October 18, 2017
Edinburgh has been able to apply its 'One Council' principle to deliver better citizen services
London and Edinburgh are the leading smart cities in the UK, according to a new study. Analysis by Juniper Research identified the top 10 smart cities in the UK with London coming top of its “smart city UK” leaderboard.
The rankings were calculated over a range of city indices, including transport, healthcare, public safety, energy and productivity. Scores were calculated according to diverse metrics, including present state-of-play variables (such as congestion and crime levels) alongside smart city rollouts, vision and long-term strategy.
The ranking is as follows:
1 London
2 Edinburgh
3 Glasgow
4 Bristol
5 Manchester
6 Brighton & Hove
7 Liverpool
8 Oxford
9 Birmingham
10 Milton Keynes
With Glasgow ranked in third place, Scotland’s major cities were regarded as strong performers across the board.
Edinburgh’s 16-year smart city journey, for example, has allowed the city to learn from mistakes (such as disparate maintenance of systems and control of systems by separate council units) and apply its “one council” principle in order to better deliver citizen services.
“Glasgow has used the smart city concept to address a number of key challenges,” said Steffen Sorrell, senior analyst at Juniper Research and author of the report.
“The traffic system is integrated with emergency services, helping save lives. Meanwhile a £24m grant was used to plan smart CCTV rollout, using artificial intelligence to detect suspicious objects and terrorist activity.”