Milano Mayor Giuseppe Sala was presented with the leadership award
Shenzen chosen as “Smart City of 2024” at Smart City Expo World Congress
The Chinese city of Shenzen has been awarded as “Smart City of 2024” this afternoon at the World Smart City Awards gala held at Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona. The awards acknowledge the most outstanding initiatives and projects in the innovation and urban transformation industry.
The Jury of Honor awarded the Chinese city for its Smarter City, Better Life initiative focused on transforming the city through digitalization, advanced urban management, and sustainable development to tackle challenges like dense population, resource limitations, and environmental concerns. Aiming to establish a new smart city model, Shenzhen’s project integrates high-speed broadband, digital twins, AI, and data-driven governance.
This year’s edition gave the special Leadership award in recognition to the continuing efforts to drive urban innovation internationally to Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milano (Italy).
Additional Award Winners
The Tomorrow.Mobility award went to the Dublin (Ireland) City Council for its Active Travel Dashboard, a one-stop shop for active travel that census commuting data, Google EIE trips data and EcoCounter cycle and pedestrian counter data to accurately build a picture of active travel in the Irish capital.
Aramco (Saudi Arabia) and the aProCh initiative in Ahmedabad (India) won the Innovation Award of 2024. Aramco’s myCommunity platform, developed within the Dhahram Smart City framework (Saudi Arabia), is a connected ecosystem that enriches and empowers over 100 different ethnicities across 14 communities, placing the power of community engagement directly into the hands of residents.
The second Innovation Award went to the Riverside Education Foundation for a groundbreaking initiative transforming cities into child-friendly spaces. By reclaiming and reimaging public spaces, they empower children to be active participants in the creation of more inclusive and sustainable future.
In the Enabling Tech category, the winner was Madrid (Spain), for its Madrid Capital Digital initiative to accelerate the digitalization of public services, improve the well-being of Madrid’s residents, and maintain the city as a digital benchmark.
Energy, Environmental and Governance Projects
In the Energy & Environment category, the award went to FCC Environment (Spain) for the development of the urban-service H2-cell chassis, a self-supporting modular Hydrogen-fuelcell lorry chassis with permanent electric traction, plug-in function, high- power batteries, advanced low-entry cab that is suitable for all urban service purposes.
London’s GOL project was chosen as the winner in the Governance category. The Get Online London (GOL) is the first pan-city sustainable digital inclusion service, created to improve access to digital devices, connectivity and digital skills for London residents, addressing the deepening inequalities resulting from an increasing digital society.
The Infrastructure & Building award went to Envision Charlotte (US) for its Glass to Concrete project to process glass recovered in bars and restaurants to be used in place of sand in the making of concrete for local projects.
last award, Living & Inclusion, was for the COMPAS project in Korea. The Korea Land & Housing Corporation developed the COMPAS data analysis platform to create a predictive model for visualizing public safety big data that solves urban problems through crowdsourcing by engaging citizen participation and data analysis.
Leading Global Urban Innovation Event
Smart City Expo World Congress is an annual event held in Barcelona with a focus on cities and smart urban solutions. 2024 marked holding its largest edition yet at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue. With a 30% growth in the exhibition floorspace and under the theme “Live Better,” the 2024 edition delves into the strategies needed to transform metropolises into sustainable, efficient, and livable spaces and has gathered over 1,100 exhibitors, representatives of 850 cities, and over 600 experts to outline a more ethical urban future together.