Today, two key groups of stakeholders are driving this trend. First, cities want to improve the quality of their citizens’ lives by providing innovative services and optimising operations on a day-to-day basis and during major events or crises. And second,transport, security and public service operators are looking to organise their information systems as a network to make their

operations greener, less costly and more efficient.

By optimising how they manage the urban environment and offering a wider choice of new services, local authorities are also seeking to attract new businesses to drive economic growth.

 

Thales is positioned in two key segments, mobility and security.

 

With a proven track record spanning more than 25 years, a detailed understanding of its customers’ activities and a broad portfolio of solutions and credentials, Thales has the experience and expertise to meet the concerns of city authorities, with a particular focus on mobility and security. For Thales, the ultimate objective is to pull together all the systems used to manage city operations through its smart city platform:

 

Mobility solutions are designed to make transport systems more agile, optimise network capacity and efficiency, and facilitate travel while improving traffic flows, saving energy and curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Security solutions cover such areas as citizen protection, anti-terrorism, protection of critical infrastructure and information

systems security.

 

Thales’s smart city platform enables closer integration of these solutions and other systems to coordinate day-to-day operations, plan and manage major events and provide high-level oversight in crisis situations.

 

Thales offers customers a range of solutions for smart cities both large and small:

• major cities with an integrated approach to urbanisation: large-scale projects incorporating security management and intelligent transport systems;

• cities with a step-by-step approach: optimisation of transport and security infrastructure to improve public services and operational efficiency.

 

Three case studies illustrate the kind of solutions Thales is deploying around the world.

 

The world’s largest urban security system

In Mexico City, a megacity of 22 million people, Thales and telecommunications operator Telmex have implemented a solution including more than 8,000 video cameras, gunshot sensors, automatic number plate recognition cameras, aerial surveillance drones and emergency call points in the city’s streets.

All these subsystems are operated by five local command-and-control (C2) centres, overseen by a city-wide C4I centre (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence). This “megasystem” transmits alarms to police, fire crews and emergency services whenever unusual events or behaviour are detected. In a major emergency, the police can also deploy two mobile

tactical C2 centres that remain in contact with the C4I centre at all times.

The Thales solution offers much more than just technology. It is also vital to gain an in-depth understanding of the customer’s business processes and tailor the solution to each organisation's culture, business practices and legal and operating environment.

This insight into how customers operate is what makes the difference when deploying complex solutions.

Built around the intelligent use of data and multi-agency coordination, the solution implemented by Thales has significantly

increased the security of Mexico City’s population, shortening average response times by a factor of three. Crime in the metro has fallen by 80%, while car thefts have been reduced by almost 8% and criminal activity is down 35% in certain previously neglected areas of the city that are now thriving.

 

 

Urban traffic control system

On a smaller scale, Strasbourg, the seat of the European Parliament, illustrates the trend towards integrated city management by combining its traffic control operations with an urban videosurveillance centre. Close coordination of transport and security systems is key to effective management of a crisis or major event.

For the Strasbourg Urban Community and its half a million residents, Thales has deployed a traffic control system to regulate, vehicle flows, coupled to the city’s operations support and passenger information system. These systems work together to give priority to buses and trams and encourage use of public transport.

The automatic traffic information and control system, called SIRAC, has been extended to manage pedestrian areas and available parking spaces. The Strasbourg Urban Community has also decided to combine its videosurveillance and urban traffic control centres under one roof for better coordination, while each retains its own organisational independence and characteristics.

The Strasbourg Urban Community is now looking at the possibility of sharing data between the two systems to obtain as much information as quickly as possible and anticipate events before they occur.

These examples illustrate the smart city in which separate urban information systems are coordinated to increase operational efficiency and make cities more attractive.