Two initiatives in Romania and Morrocco win the Innovation award
Curitiba chosen Smart City of 2023 at Smart City Expo World Congress
The Brazilian city of Curitiba has been awarded as Smart City of 2023 this afternoon at the World Smart City Awards gala held at Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC). The awards acknowledge the most outstanding initiatives and projects in the innovation and urban transformation industry.
The Jury of Honor, comprised of representatives from the Barcelona City Council, UN-Habitat, the World Bank, the EC Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, the World Economic Forum, SEGITTUR, and Smart City Expo World Congress, awarded the Brazilian city for its approach to smart urban planning, socioeconomic growth and environmental sustainability through which it faces present and future urban challenges. The approach has a central focus on enhancing the quality of life for citizens.
This year’s edition also included a special Leadership award in recognition to the continuing efforts to drive urban innovation internationally. The 2023 recipients were Anna Lisa Boni, Deputy Mayor of Bologna and Secretary General of Eurocities from 2014 to 2021, and Claudio Orrego, Governor of the Santiago de Chile Metropolitan Region.
The Tomorrow.Mobility award, went to the Konya Metropolitan Municipality for its project to restore old streetcars in the city of Meram (Turkey) to make them available exclusively to cyclists,with the aim of increasing bicycle awareness in the city and developing a new transportation model.
In the Safety & Resilience category, the the winner was Gangnam‑gu (Republic of Korea), for its active policy of supporting marginalized social groups. And the Enabling Technologies award went to Tampere (Finland) for developing an urban-social digital twin that harnesses information from its Data & Insights platform to make data-driven decisions that are purposeful urban services,
Environmental and management projects
In the Energy & Environment category, the award went to Bordeaux (France) for the design of a set of tools to obtain reliable indicators on the comfort temperature in the city; while the winner of the Governance & Economy category was the US Mayor Roundtable initiative from the United States for spearheading a digital transformation that not only modernizes cities but also enriches lives, paying special attention to underserved communities through a human-centric approach.
Saudi Aramco’s Dhahram Smart City (Saudi Arabia), a platform that integrates the advantages of IoT and AI to manage facilities and services was selected as the best initiative in the Infraestructure & Building category, and the city of Breda (Netherlands) won the Living & Inclusion award for Bereikbaar Breda Applicatie, an application to make it easier for people with disabilities to enter cities and events through accessible information.
Finally, the Innovation category had two winners: the SPIRE initiative for their work in renaturing polluted urban soil in Baia Mare (Romania) led by the UN and the European Urban Initiative, and to ECO-HEROES for their contributions to vocational training in the field of ecotourism in Marrakesh (Morrocco).
