Smart Cities need Smart Building

A Smart City project is much more than a technology project. In fact, it hides behind a city plan with the aim of improving the lives of its inhabitants in various areas such as improving services, efficiency in the use of resources, security, mobility or welfare, among others. Progressing in these areas, after all, allows us to move towards sustainable development that makes it easier for cities to be better places to live. 

To achieve all these goals, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) acts as a real engine. The key is to take advantage of the data that the city generates in its daily activity to feed information systems that, through its treatment, allow decisions to be made that have an impact on improving the quality of life of citizens. In a Smart City, some of this information generated comes from buildings as part of the ecosystem where people, living in the city, interact. 

Smart Building Terrassa 

In mid-2018, Terrassa took the initiative to apply to the call “National Plan for Smart Territories” of the public entity RED.ES, with a project called “Smart Building Terrassa: The buildings build the Smart City. ” The project was a finalist in the Catalan territory, together with the city of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat. 

The initiative consists of the deployment of smart sensors in a significant number of buildings (169) in the city belonging to different entities -City, Generalitat, UPC, CST, FGC, ADIF- and very different purposes: schools, libraries, sports facilities, social housing buildings, markets, cultural centers, unique or historic buildings, industrial buildings, car parks, health centers and hospitals, transport stations and other municipal facilities. 

Participatory process 

Through a participatory process, the citizens of Terrassa contributed ideas to generate new knowledge and new services through the deployment of smart sensors in the city’s buildings. Thanks to their collaboration, ideas, opinions and proposals were collected -which were later evaluated by a committee of experts- and it served to define a total of 19 functionalities that would be provided to people. 

These features, also known as “use cases”, are: 

1. Energy management and accounting of buildings  
2. City dashboard portal  
3. City energy policies and “smart grid” scenario 
4. Urban resilience “situation room” 
5. Security and fraud detection in supplies  
6. Safety and health of the elderly at home  
7. Real-time air quality map  
8. Light quality of the night sky  
9. Noise pollution  
10. UV index monitoring  
11. Noise prevention in hospitals  
12. Interior guidance of buildings  
13. Mobility in hospitals: smart parking & public transport  
14. Integration of emergency data into the city platform  
15. BIM Application for the building  management and maintenance  
16. Management of collaborative use of municipal facilities  
17. Recharge of electric vehicles  
18. Integrated mobility information at railway stations  
19. Guiding blind people at railway stations 

The project is currently in the characterization phase of the buildings, which consists of the on-site analysis of its current resources in terms of energy and communications infrastructures. This information -that characterizes each Building- is used as a starting point to take the necessary actions to implement the functionalities that were decided. 

Due to its characteristics and scope, this project will continue to need a high degree of collaboration from many people and entities, to whom we would like to express our sincere thanks. 

Generalitat de Catalunya 

UPC, UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya a Terrassa
CST, Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa 
FGC, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya 
ADIF, Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias