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Newcastle has been awarded
a AU$5million Australian Government technology grant to ‘switch on’ city-wide,
on-demand digital services.
The Smart Move Newcastle project has been announced as one of 52 successful
projects totalling AU$28.5million under Round One of the Australian
Government’s inaugural Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.
Under the Program, funding will flow to communities across
Australia, with 40% of successful projects located in regional areas.
Newcastle City Council will partner with a consortium of
technology businesses, to provide an integrated network for transport, energy
and digital infrastructure, building on efforts to transform the city into a
‘living digital lab’.
The funding will support initiatives including:
- an electric vehicle hub at the fringe of the
city centre as a park and ride, with chargers for electric cars, e-bikes for
hire and on-demand bus transport offering a personalised service for the user - bus stops with technology to provide users with
real time information – how long till next bus, how many seats will be
available - roads and intersections with real-time traffic
analysis – for example, emergency vehicles get green lights - parking sensors to provide data on parking
availability via apps - sensors into older buildings to monitor and
manage energy use - cameras in light poles to analyse cloud coverage
to estimate solar energy production - city-wide data analytics platform, collecting
data from sensor networks, vehicles and people – these insights can then be
supplied via apps and dashboards to help people make decisions such as: do I
leave for work now or wait 15 minutes? do I open my business later because
there's a lot of pedestrian traffic at my front door at 6pm?
In addition to the Australian Government’s AU$5 million
contribution, the City of Newcastle along with a substantial number of partners
will contribute AU$10 million to see the project become a reality.
The AU$50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program is a key element of the
Government’s Smart Cities Plan.
Round One of the AU$50 million program received more than
170 applications.
Details on each of the 52 successful projects are available
on the Smart Cities website.
