Esch-sur-Alzette becomes a university town—and a smart city
Esch-sur-Alzette, the second-largest city in Luxembourg, is being schooled on becoming smart. Formerly the site of Luxembourg’s biggest ironworks, Esch became home to the University of Luxembourg in 2015. The city is also undergoing an ambitious urban development project, which is integrating parts of the city’s former industrial site (like old blast furnaces) into a new, state-of-the-art residential district.
Philippe Meyers, Chief Information Officer for the City of Esch, saw these transitions as an opportunity to transform Esch into a smart city—one that supports residents and the university while also honoring the city’s past, engaging tourists, and empowering citizens with optimized services. In 2016, his department began working with CityNext technology partner RMS and the university to create cloud-based Internet of Things solutions, which citizens and visitors alike can soon access through a Smart Esch mobile app and the city’s website.
Garbage-bin monitoring
Designed by a university student, smart sensors in garbage containers that are nearing capacity will wirelessly send alerts through the Azure cloud platform. The solution will help the city avoid overflowing bins and improve collection-route efficiency. It’s scheduled for deployment by the end of 2017.
Parking-space monitoring
In the second half of 2017, several parking solutions will go live. Citizens and tourists will be able to see where and how many parking spaces are available for drivers who are disabled. Eventually, this solution will be available for all parking spots in Esch.
Additionally, Henri Hinterscheid, the alderman responsible for IT and mobility, proposed a short-term parking option, which two university students then developed. When the free 20-minute limit expires on a parking space, a sensor will illuminate a red light nearby to alert parking enforcement.
Water, gas, and heat metering
The city will soon have centralized, automated readings to track water flow at the municipal level and identify leaks and monitor gas and heat data in citizens’ houses. In July 2017, the city will begin installing sensors for all three services.
Benefits of smart living and a mobile app
Meyers says the mobile app is “the Swiss army knife for citizens. They can use it to access all smart services and other high-tech solutions, including live video of city council meetings and cultural events.” City council members access the city’s SharePoint platform through an app on their iPads to see live voting results, read and share large documents from the SharePoint workflows with Office 365, and more.
The city is moving from relying on different providers and reporting systems to a centralized platform, where tools are virtualized on Windows Server. The smart city solutions will help save energy and money while improving services and citizen satisfaction.
The new solutions will also support easier parking and other conveniences, which will encourage people to come to Esch to live, visit, and attend university. For example, citizens now get an annual invoice for utilities. The cost is estimated, so the invoice is often inaccurate. Soon, citizens will get exact readings anytime.
Future plans
Esch is one of the smallest cities to be a candidate for becoming a European Capital of Culture by 2022. Meyers says, “I see a link between being a smart city and a capital of culture. One day, we can use augmented reality to superimpose images of structures from our steel-smelting past on the spaces they used to occupy for virtual historical tours. The possibilities are endless.”
