‘Technology for us is a means not an end and becoming smarter is about a whole lot more’

In Ghent, we com­bine our his­tor­i­cal façades with a for­ward- look­ing vision. By 2020, I want my city to be open, inclu­sive, smart and child friend­ly. Key to this vision are our cit­i­zens – we want to build the Ghent of the future togeth­er.

Dis­cus­sions around smart cities are too often dri­ven by tech­nol­o­gy and indus­try. I believe cities, and their cit­i­zens, are at the core of the smart city tran­si­tion. Tech­nol­o­gy is an impor­tant ingre­di­ent of course: we are look­ing to inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to man­age our ener­gy and trans­port sys­tems bet­ter, man­age, process and visu­alise data, and make life eas­i­er for all.

But we’re not over­look­ing the low-tech solu­tions that com­ple­ment these: well-organ­ised bike paths, for exam­ple, and ver­ti­cal farm­ing.

Tech­nol­o­gy for us is a means not an end and becom­ing smarter is about a whole lot more.

We need to find new ways of work­ing togeth­er so we can make the most of everyone’s exper­tise. Pub­lic admin­is­tra­tions, cit­i­zens, busi­ness­es and research insti­tutes: we are all part of the same urban ecosys­tem and we all have some­thing to offer. By pool­ing our resources, we can cre­ate bet­ter solu­tions that tru­ly address our chal­lenges and are owned by the entire city.

In Ghent, we have sev­er­al tools to make this hap­pen, such as the Ghent Cli­mate Alliance, which is behind our vision of becom­ing cli­mate neu­tral. Our Ghent Liv­ing Lab is an inno­v­a­tive plat­form where cit­i­zens, devel­op­ers, researchers and busi­ness­es can co-cre­ate their city.

Smart cities rely on data, so open­ing up data is an impor­tant ini­tia­tive for Ghent. Stu­dents and devel­op­ers can use it to work on new solu­tions, includ­ing apps that make life eas­i­er for res­i­dents, such as a waste col­lec­tion cal­en­dar and an app to locate avail­able park­ing spaces in real time.

We’ve even turned it into a com­pe­ti­tion: our annu­al hackathon, Apps for Ghent, invites devel­op­ers to turn our open data into excit­ing new apps, such as Stu­dio Dott’s Pop­Bike, which enables users to cal­cu­late the best bike route and share bikes, and Ghen­det­ta, a game that encour­ages users to explore city dis­tricts.

One of the chal­lenges many cities face with open­ing data is pro­tect­ing pri­va­cy. Cit­i­zens need to be able to access, use and man­age their data, and for this they need ade­quate dig­i­tal skills. This is a pri­or­i­ty for Ghent as we want to make sure tech­nol­o­gy is acces­si­ble to every­one.

It is essen­tial then that we cre­ate a lev­el play­ing field. We need com­mon and open stan­dards and bet­ter inter­op­er­abil­i­ty between sys­tems. This would open the mar­ket to more actors and would also bring down costs, and max­imise the release, acces­si­bil­i­ty and usabil­i­ty of data, help­ing busi­ness­es grow.

Work­ing togeth­er on projects is a must for test­ing and scal­ing up new solu­tions. Ghent is involved in sev­er­al, includ­ing the Green Dig­i­tal Char­ter, through which we com­mit to reduc­ing our car­bon foot­print with smart ICT. We also need direct dia­logue with Euro­pean Union deci­sion-mak­ers.

With the Urban Agen­da for the EU and the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Part­ner­ship for Smart Cities and Com­mu­ni­ties, we see new work process­es that sup­port the join­ing up of dif­fer­ent lev­els of gov­ern­ment and dif­fer­ent sec­tors. This is a step in the right direc­tion to address Euro­pean and urban chal­lenges togeth­er.

I am look­ing for­ward to the jour­ney ahead and I am pleased to be shar­ing it with my col­leagues at Euroc­i­ties, the net­work of major Euro­pean cities. This is where I can bounce off ideas, dis­cov­er new solu­tions and find ways to address shared chal­lenges.

As a may­or, I know every cor­ner of my city and have dai­ly con­tact with cit­i­zens. This knowl­edge is cru­cial for mak­ing smart city solu­tions work. Work­ing with cities means work­ing with cit­i­zens, so by strength­en­ing the links between EU insti­tu­tions and cities, we are build­ing a stronger Europe.