At a conference and exhibition at the Chamber of Commerce on May 24, Secretary of State for the Economy Francine Closener underlined Luxembourg’s commitment to the Smart City model – an urban development concept designed to optimise daily management of city infrastructure through IT and Internet of Things technologies.

Smart cities are benchmarked against criteria in six fields: economy, mobility, environment, people, living and governance. European cities led by Barcelona, Amsterdam and Copenhagen currently head the list of global smart cities that are trailblazing with innovative ideas for lowering energy consumption, improving waste management and reducing congestion.

Luxembourg is not far behind, according to speakers at the conference, continues to explore creative solutions, particularly to issues of especial importance to the country’s economy and quality of life. Mobility has been a growing challenge in recent years because of the significant role in the economy of cross-border commuters.

This has prompted the launch of projects on multimodal mobility now underway at the Henri Tudor public research centre and the University of Luxembourg. Projects already underway include the construction of a tram system for Luxembourg City that intersects with existing train and bus services, as well as a progressive shift to all-electric public transport in the capital.

Other initiatives include the large-scale development of zero-energy districts, such as Hollerich Village on a 3.5-hectare former industrial site close to the centre of the capital, are exploring more sustainable lifestyles and energy systems to reduce the environmental impact on our future cities.

Open data is a fundamental aspect of ensuring the successful implementation of smart cities, available to anyone to access, use and share, ranging from government data on local housing, real-time public transport information, or the availability of local services such as supermarkets and other retail outlets, all designed to help the citizen better understand and interact with the city infrastructure.

The Data Public.lu portal, a scalable system enabling individuals to access open data, from the latest weather reports to identifying Luxembourgish place names, continues to evolve and expand, and is designed to provide a key building block in ensuring equitable and secure growth of the country’s cities.

Another component of Luxembourg’s Smart City concept is ICE Gateway, a system established by mobile telecoms provider Vodafone incorporating the hardware and software of wireless outdoor data infrastructure. ICE Gateway connects streetlights to a high bandwidth Vodafone network to facilitate services including outdoor lighting, traffic, parking, logistics, real-time marketing, tourism and security.