Carbon Neutral Vaasa 202X

RDI Platform: Smart City

Language: Finnish

Project description

Achieving carbon neutrality by the end of 2029 is a key goal in the City of Vaasa’s strategy (Carbon Neutral Vaasa 202X). Achieving this goal will require the city to be proactive and take decisive action. Climate objectives must be taken into account in the city’s day-to-day operations and projects, as well as in the piloting, testing and development of new technologies and solutions. Cooperation with local actors (businesses, service providers, educational institutions, residents) is essential for sustainable development.

The aim of this project is to develop a system to monitor and verify the need for and effectiveness of climate measures. This information will be needed, for example, to plan measures and support decision-making. The project will promote good cooperation between the city and universities. By using the data more extensively, it is hoped that the results will be not only emission reductions, but also cost-effectiveness and new innovations. The project is closely linked to a separate investment project of the City of Vaasa, which will include an IoT platform, a peripheral computing device and various sensors.

Goals

The aim of this project is to develop a system to monitor and verify the need for and effectiveness of climate measures. The information is needed, for example, to plan measures and support decision-making. The project will also promote good cooperation between the city and universities. By using the data more extensively, the aim is to achieve not only emission reductions but also cost-effectiveness and new innovations.

The project will implement and strengthen the City of Vaasa’s action plan (Carbon Neutral Vaasa 202x) towards carbon neutrality. It will also enable the use of real-time data on transport, climate, energy production and consumption, and various smart energy solutions and applications. The project will collect urban data for research and development needs and to support decision-making and urban planning. It will pilot new technologies and approaches before they become established.

The project aims at dynamic and participatory R&D around climate objectives and between businesses and citizens. Cooperation with other cities in Finland and the Nordic countries on data processing will also be sought. Information on the implementation and results of the project will be disseminated and experiences will be shared externally (replication) and the aim is to inspire pilot-like activities – knowledge sharing & lessons learned.

Results

The pilots carried out in the project will provide confirmation and certainty about the functionality and requirements of the data platform and how the data collected there, e.g. on transport, climate and energy efficiency, can be analysed, utilised and presented in the most efficient way (different target group dashboard views). The project confirms the need for the development of a city-wide IoT data platform and provides clarity on the potential needs, benefits and costs. The project pilots will provide a testbed and a first step towards measuring many aspects relevant to the city’s low-carbon goals: transport and transport nodes, climate and emissions, energy efficiency, telecommunications, etc.

In the long term, the data platform will play an essential role in achieving the city’s carbon neutrality goals, in terms of transport, energy efficiency, smart energy and transport technologies (renewables, smart home technologies, charging infrastructure and technologies), consumer energy behaviour and service development.