Blog - Event
Smart City at the heart of Municipalia 2024
On April 19, the Smart City Institute (SCI) was present at the 2024 edition of Municipalia, the annual meeting place for Walloon municipal representatives. The day was dedicated to the Smart City - with the contribution of the Agence du Numérique (AdN) - notably through conferences dedicated to the theme and awards, highlighting the Smart Region walloon dynamic resulting from the Digital Wallonia strategy.
What can we learn from this year's event? Our team takes stock of the day.
About Municipalia
Municipalia attracts over 10,000 visitors, 400 exhibitors and inspiring conferences to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing our local authorities. Why should you attend? On the one hand, the fair offers municipalities, provinces, intercommunales, etc. a wide range of concrete solutions to the problems encountered in the day-to-day exercise of their missions. On the other hand, it gives companies/startups offering innovative territorial products and services the opportunity to meet with municipalities, associations and other public interest bodies, in order to better identify their needs.
The Smart City Institute was present to represent Digital Wallonia's Smart Region dynamic, alongside other referents: how can it support localities? And what tools are available to them?
> Find out more about the Smart Région program
> THE SMART CITY INSTITUTE'S ROLE AS ACADEMIC SMART REGION REFERENT
Municipalia attracts over 10,000 visitors, 400 exhibitors and inspiring conferences to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing our local authorities. Why should you attend? On the one hand, the fair offers municipalities, provinces, intercommunales, etc. a wide range of concrete solutions to the problems encountered in the day-to-day exercise of their missions. On the other hand, it gives companies/startups offering innovative territorial products and services the opportunity to meet with municipalities, associations and other public interest bodies, in order to better identify their needs.
The Smart City Institute was present to represent Digital Wallonia's Smart Region dynamic, alongside other referents: how can it support localities? And what tools are available to them?
> Find out more about the Smart Région program
> THE SMART CITY INSTITUTE'S ROLE AS ACADEMIC SMART REGION REFERENT
Conferences focusing on both sustainability and digital technology
Throughout the day, the organizers offered visitors a series of conferences highlighting two fundamental aspects at the very heart of the Smart City Institute's definition of a Smart City: sustainability and digital. A special feature of the event was the sharing of experiences from Walloon municipalities, to provide inspiration for the delegates and government officials in attendance.
Sustainability and SDGs
The conference " 2024 - 2030, a decisive period for the transition to a sustainable communal territory? ", which our team attended, was an opportunity to review with the UVCW, SPW and Espace Environnement the 3rd Walloon sustainable development strategy (adopted in September 2022), but above all to discuss the actions undertaken to ensure the appropriation of the SDGs at local level, including in particular support for towns and municipalities. These actions include the provision of a best practice guide, the project self-assessment tool "Check ODD", and the organization of workshops. The municipality of Aywaille was also present to share its experience in this area, and to talk about the facilitators (management involvement and support from the college, integration of the SDGs into communication, etc.) and obstacles encountered (lack of funding, regional perspective, indicators and data, etc.).
> See also: Smart city strategies - A driver for the localization of the sustainable development goals?
Digital transition
On the digital front, in addition to topics such as cybersecurity, data governance and regional connectivity, we'd like to highlight a conference dealing with a particularly hot topic at the moment: Artificial Intelligence (AI). This conference, entitled " AI at the service of local authorities ", was an opportunity to promote the support dynamic set up at regional level: the "Digital4AI" program*.
So, as a local authority/administration, how should we view this controversial technology? Antoine Hublet - Artificial Intelligence Expert at AdN and representative of the program, rightly emphasized the importance of taking AI at face value. Rather than being afraid of it, wary of it and/or wanting to stay away from it, we need to ask ourselves: where can it add value? To support this approach, examples of projects developed by the cities of Namur and Liège, as well as by the BEP**, were highlighted. The experience of the town of Ath, represented by David Guilmot, one of the panelists present, was particularly telling. The town has implemented an AI-assisted mail management project in partnership with NSI (scanning, sorting, automated processing system). In this case, rather than replacing administrative staff, AI brings real added value: not only has it strengthened the traceability of processed mail, but above all it has saved staff time, enabling them to dedicate more time to higher value-added tasks.
*NB: a multitude of programs are set up by Wallonia via its Digital Wallonia strategy to support Walloon territories in their transition. These include programs such as Smart Région, Digital Wallonia 4AI, Giga Région, Cyberwal, Digital Wallonia 4 Circular and others. )
** Examples of projects - BEP : a system for managing citizens' complaints about waste collection. 70% of these complaints are justified, and the idea is to use AI to automate responses to the 30% that are unfounded. City of Liège: digital twin of the city by cross-referencing different types of data (roads, road quality, roadworks, vegetation, etc.) City of Namur: optimization of parking space management via a scancar (objective: redirect drivers to accessible/available areas).
Awards - Rewarding exemplary projects
The highlight of the day was the awards ceremony, which brought the conference sessions to a close. A few months after the designation of the 80 winners of the Intelligent Territory 2023 call for projects, the traditional Smart Region Awards 2024 ceremony rewarded the best Walloon projects in various digital themes, developed within the framework of the Digital Wallonia calls for projects and actions and/or the Wallonia Recovery Plan. A unique opportunity to discover innovative, inspiring and replicable projects in Smart City, connectivity, data management and artificial intelligence.
This annual ceremony has several aims:
- Demonstrate the replicability of these projects (for all localities);
- Promote existing actions already undertaken in the region;
- To publicize projects supported by the public authorities;
- Reward innovative, proactive players who act as a "locomotive" for the Walloon region.
A total of 7 projects in 6 categories were honored - by Isabelle Rawart, Smart Territory Advisor - Agence du Numérique - at the ceremony:
1. Smart Région Award - Smart & Data project category
This year's winner is the " Fais tes balises " project (replicating, improving and amplifying the project of the same name developed by the municipality of Chaudfontaine, winner of the 2019 Smart Territory call for projects), led by the Ouffet municipality. Developed in partnership with GREOVA and for all the communes affiliated to it, this project involves developing a user application for citizens and municipalities.
2. Smart Région Award - Smart Evolution / Replication project category
In this category, the municipalities of Bertrix, Courcelles, Jodoigne, Herve and Bièvre are the big winners, with their " Pentagon " project: 5 communes from 5 different provinces share and self-learn to design the establishment of a common digital zone through the exchange and replication of their respective smart tools. A multi-site platform project, reservations, ticketing, appointment booking, room rental, scouts always connected, forms, self-managed directory, etc.
3. Smart Région Award - category Grand prize Intelligent Territory 2024 project
Congratulations to the municipality of Héron, which won this prize for the Meuse-Condroz-Hesbaye region with their " Maillages " project for resilient territorial development. It consists of a centralized digital solution, pooling the resources of various players for crisis management, particularly in the event of flooding. It will enable better coordination, more efficient data collection, real-time analysis and faster response. SaaS platform and mobile app.
© Municipalia
4. Giga Région Award - POC 5G innovation category
2 prizes were awarded in this category. Winners ex-aequo: Cheap t' Chip's connected nesting boxes project and the predictive maintenance project from I-care, A6K, Multitel & Proximus. Cheap t'Chip's Connected Nest Boxes project uses 5G to develop an autonomous wildlife observation system, offering high-speed, low-latency connectivity for natural sites devoid of infrastructure. The example of the Han-Sur-Lesse cliffs equipped with a camera to observe a nest of eagle owls illustrates the concrete possibilities offered by this project.
The Industrial Monitoring 4.0 project for HVAC equipment at the A6K site is a joint initiative by I-care, Multitel and Proximus. This project uses private 5G and predictive maintenance technologies to ensure optimal temperature control in buildings, offering a robust solution with low latency and high sensor count potential. Real-time data processing on servers enables a reduction in sensor consumption and lower gateway costs, demonstrating the successful use of 5G technology to improve the efficiency of industrial systems.
The Industrial Monitoring 4.0 project for HVAC equipment at the A6K site is a joint initiative by I-care, Multitel and Proximus. This project uses private 5G and predictive maintenance technologies to ensure optimal temperature control in buildings, offering a robust solution with low latency and high sensor count potential. Real-time data processing on servers enables a reduction in sensor consumption and lower gateway costs, demonstrating the successful use of 5G technology to improve the efficiency of industrial systems.
5. Giga Région Award - connectivity category
The winner in this category is the network operator VOO, with its Last Mile 2022 project involving a total of 11 Walloon municipalities (Andenne, Tournai, Celles, Tenneville, Ohey, Houffalize, Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, Ellezelles, Durbuy, Celles, Bertogne and Bastogne), impacting almost 28,000 households. This regional connectivity initiative is in line with the Digital Wallonia regional strategy, and more specifically with its Giga Région program. The aim is to encourage investment in fixed telecoms technologies in order to extend the region's fixed connectivity as far as possible. Projects stemming from Last Mile actions also aim to meet European objectives ("Gigabit and 5G for all by 2030").
6. AI Award - Proof of concept category
Last but not least, BEP came out on top in the Proof of concept category, with its project to pre-treat unfounded complaints about waste collection. BEP Environnement is equipping itself with a chatbot-type tool enabling it to pre-treat the complaints, remarks and requests for information it receives daily from citizens concerning waste collection. See the video presentation of the project.
In concluding the ceremony, Isabelle Rawart commented: " This ceremony honors the local authorities, but of course we're not forgetting all the service providers who are behind these projects, without whom they wouldn't be possible". A reminder of one of the objectives of the Smart Region dynamic: the reconciliation of supply and demand.
A stand entirely dedicated to the Smart Region
Throughout the day, experts from the Agence du Numérique and all members of the Smart Region governance team were on hand at the Digital Wallonia stand to welcome local players keen to find out what the Smart Region can offer them, and to discover our actions and concrete tools developed to help them.
An annual event not to be missed
Once again this year, the Municipalia trade show has established itself as a particularly relevant meeting place for all those involved in the sustainable and smart transition of territories. Both the conferences and the awards are sources of inspiration, thanks to the sharing of experience among the Walloon localities present for the occasion. Municipalia is a real forum for exchange, where promising ideas and projects can be born.
Published on 5/6/24
