According to Anne Hidalgo the future is not only about technology. The Mayor of Paris, who was re-elected in 2020 for a second six-year term, believes that a city is truly smart only when it is at the service of citizens. “The city of the future will have to satisfy the needs of a new age.” Anne Hidalgo has been using AI to manage Paris’s energy, upholding the use of innovative technology to improve energy efficiency and promote the use of renewables. The French capital is at the forefront of climate initiatives and the energy transition, and a specific example is Hidalgo’s support to the Paris Climate Action Plan, which aims to power the city with 100% renewable energy. “As all other cities, Paris is a meeting place for a multitude of intelligences and their vast and precious diversity,” Hidalgo explained in an interview to Il Mattino. “For a long time, the idea of a smart city was used to justify the massive importation of technology based exclusively on the criterion of efficiency. However, although this is a key criterion for the efficient operation of a city – to optimize energy flows and mobility, for example – but it cannot be the only objective.
The Paris Climate Action Plan, which is strongly supported by Hidalgo, calls for the use of digital technology to improve the management of energy and promote energy efficiency. Paris aims to develop a local governance system to consolidate its operative resources and promote a decentralized energy model. This will allow the city to directly control its energy networks and promote their integration with renewables. A crucial element of this strategy is the creation of a public energy data service, managed by the Paris Climate Agency, which will be responsible for analyzing a large quantity of data, guaranteeing its reliability, and sharing it with various stakeholders. This service will also provide custom-tailored consulting services and detailed analyses to support public policy.
Moreover, Paris will promote initiatives that employ digital platforms to improve the regulation of urban mobility services, simplifying the management of traffic and promoting the use of renewable energy services. Similarly, the city is also committed to improving the energy efficiency of its public buildings. By 2025, all municipal construction projects will benefit from digital building information modelling (BIM) to improve their management and share information on building planning and operativity. A further innovation will be the development of a three-dimensional Geographical Information System (GIS 3D) to promote urban development and simplify both the energy and the ecological transition. This tool integrates data concerning energy, water, and materials, and will contribute to the evaluation of the environmental impact of urban projects. These initiatives underline the commitment of Paris to digital transformation for the management of urban and energy issues. The objective? Developing a more sustainable and resilient city.
Sources:
https://www.ilmattino.it/tecnologia/moltofuturo/parigi_sindaca_anne_hidalgo_smart_city_inovazione-5649150.html
https://cdn.paris.fr/paris/2019/07/24/1a706797eac9982aec6b767c56449240.pdf
