Philadelphia Launches Real-Time Smart City Project

Source: Gov Tech by Skip Descant

The SmartCityPHL project in Philadelphia is a partnership among the city, Comcast and US Ignite that aims to help collect real-time data related to air quality, weather, transportation and more.

A district in Philadelphia is moving forward with a smart city project to gain real-time insights into air quality, weather, transportation modes and more, providing a dynamic understanding of the urban environment.

SmartBlockPHL, part of the larger SmartCityPHL program, is a pilot project and partnership among the city, Comcast, US Ignite and Juganu. It will be deployed in Philadelphia’s Midtown Village with the technology installed on 14 streetlights.

“The goal of this project was to test and validate new sensor-based technologies against legacy methods of collecting the same information,” said Labonno Islam, digital engagement and communications manager for the city's Office of innovation and Technology. “As the city learns more about the quality of data from this project, its teams will develop ways to operationalize it in the future.”

The project is unique in its ability to collect data in real time, and then process it in the cloud.

“This project has been a very productive exercise in assessing and establishing how the city works with new technologies using edge computing, while addressing concerns around the individual privacy of people using the right of way,” said Islam.

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