Copenhagen has been awarded the prestigious World Smart Cities Award in Barcelona for the plans to utilize Big Data in improving the quality of life.

At the World Smart Cities Awards in Barcelona last week, the city of Copenhagen became the recipient of the award for ‘best project’ – one of three categories. Copenhagen was given the award in recognition of the project ‘Copenhagen Connecting’ which gathers and uses data to create a greener city, heighten the quality of life and an even better investment climate.

Intelligent planning
Under ‘Copenhagen Connecting’ the intelligent use of wireless data from phones, public GPS systems, sensors in sewers and trash facilities are going to aid local politicians in reaching Copenhagen’s ambitious goals for decreased crowding and pollution.
In the jury’s reasoning it was explained that ‘Copenhagen Connecting’ constituted “innovative urban management driven by socio-economic priorities built on open standards and focusing on the use of real-time data from the whole city and its services to constantly adapt citywide operations to the needs of the city's inhabitants.”

The Economic Benefits of the Smart City Approach
The ‘Copenhagen Connecting’ project is already more than an award winning plan. The city of Copenhagen is already far along with smart data based investments in lighting and intelligent traffic signals and controls. Combined this means that towards 2018 cyclists and bus passengers will get their travel time reduced by 10 % while the travel time by car will remain unchanged. When fully implemented ‘Copenhagen Connecting’ will yield economic benefits of 4.4 billion Danish kroner (approx. 735 million dollars).

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Photo: Kim Wyon/VisitDenmark.com