Stadt Zürich

Strategy

SMART
CITY
ZURICH

Responsible
Zurich City Council, December 5, 2018
2 Strategy Smart City Zurich

CONTENT
 Strategy Smart City Zurich 3

Page

1 Where does Zurich stand today? 4

2 What purpose does Smart City Zurich serve? 6

3 What are the focus areas of Smart City Zurich? 10

4 How do we make the City of Zurich smarter? 12

4 Strategy Smart City Zurich

1
WHERE
DOES
ZURICH
STAND
TODAY?
 Strategy Smart City Zurich 5

By 2050, two thirds of the world’s population will be living Many different kinds of projects are already making use of
in cities. Similarly, the population of the City of Zurich could digitization options in their implementation. Building on an
well increase by around a quarter over the next twenty efficient, modern and highly available urban IT
years. Cities will be the driving force behind societal infrastructure, such projects will continue to be managed
developments. And yet this growth is also presenting cities by the individual departments.
around the world with major challenges, such as
maintaining or improving the quality of life of the population The Smart City Zurich Strategy is designed to help bundle
while reducing the consumption of resources. New the future needs of the population, promote innovation and
technologies and the digital transformation offer great position Zurich as a Smart City. In this way, Smart City
potential to achieve this. Zurich supports the implementation of the «Zurich Strategies
2035» and of a number of specific strategies.
The City Council has defined the fields of action with
concrete perspectives for Zurich in their «Zurich Strategies The strategy was developed in close cooperation with
2035» as well as in specific expert strategies. experts from both inside and outside the administration.
6 Strategy Smart City Zurich

2
WHAT
PURPOSE
DOES
SMART ClTY
ZURICH
SERVE?
 Strategy Smart City Zurich 7

«Smart» means connecting people, organisations or Equal opportunities and high quality of life for all: Smart
infrastructures in such a way as to create social, ecological City Zurich actively involves the entire population. This
or economic added value. includes everyone who lives or works in Zurich as well
as visitors to the city.
The strategy Smart City Zurich establishes a framework for
making the most of the opportunities offered by the digital Conservation of resources and sustainable
transformation. Smart networks that connect data, sensors development: The City of Zurich is making use of the
digital transformation to improve the quality of the
and applications facilitate new, more efficient solutions for
environment and to bring about the 2000-Watt-
users as well as for operating infrastructures. Stronger
Society.
networks encourage contact between the population and
the administration and foster opportunities for participation. Innovation and attractive business location: The City of
In this way, the strategy reinforces the connectedness of Zurich is committed to providing a modern, reliable
politics, business, science, culture and society for the digital infrastructure along with attractive conditions for
benefit of all – with the following objectives: innovative entrepreneurship.
8 Strategy Smart City Zurich

2
WHAT
PURPOSE
DOES
SMART ClTY
ZURICH
SERVE?
 Strategy Smart City Zurich 9

Digital connectivity can make it easier for the population to

give feedback to the authorities and the administration, as
well as facilitating the accompanying dialogue. Besides
being even better informed, citizens are able to make use
of the many avenues for participation, and so play their
part in permanently shaping the city in line with their needs
– both digitally and in direct contact.

The implementation of Smart City Zurich follows four key

guiding principles:

Focus on the needs of the target groups and the Availability, self-determination and privacy with respect to
challenges facing the city: Smart City Zurich is aligned to data: Smart City Zurich promotes a reliable and open data
the city’s long-term goals. New technological solutions are infrastructure. Data and information of the city
being adopted to help meet urban challenges. A user- administration that is not subject to specific confidentiality
oriented development as well as a focus on people’s constraints is made available to the public. In dealing with
needs are at the heart of this effort. personal data, data protection and informational self-
determination have the highest priority.

Networking and cooperation of people, organisations, Innovation and agile developments: Smart City Zurich
infrastructures: Smart City Zurich promotes internal and gives the city greater agility in the face of accelerated
external collaboration across the boundaries of the technological change. Innovative approaches are
organisation's units and departments as well as between developed in experimental open spaces and tested in pilot
the city administration, the population, business, science projects or living labs. This is an approach that allows
and culture. This approach also places an emphasis on promising solutions to be identified and implemented early
digital options for public participation and infrastructure on.
sharing.
10 Strategy Smart City Zurich

3
WHAT ARE
THE FOCUS
AREAS OF
SMART ClTY
ZURICH?
 Strategy Smart City Zurich 11

For the coming years, the City Council has set three Smart Participation: Specific urban projects are used to
strategic focus areas with respect to Smart City. test innovative forms of participation and the involve
ment of various stakeholders, with subsequent
Future forms of integrated public mobility: Social and evaluation. «Smart Participation» connects the
technical trends such as the sharing economy, aspiration for participation by the population and
individualisation, multimodality, digital booking platforms, stakeholders with the challenges ­of urban growth and
electric mobility and autonomous driving are already technological change. Solutions that prove successful
changing the mobility market today. The City of Zurich is will be rolled out citywide. One of the first such projects
seeking to expand its range of public mobility services in a is the process of reviewing the city/neighbourhoods
resource-friendly manner, allowing users to also experience interface, involving the use of eParticipation.
them during trial operations: by replacing diesel buses with
trolleybuses or e-buses, by setting up a mobility platform
for the Zurich urban region, by conducting a pilot trial of
demand-driven transport options and by carrying out tests
in the area of autonomous driving.

Digital City: The City Council wants to step up the

digitization process in the city administration for the benefit
of the population and businesses. This includes the
expansion of the city’s online portal, “My account”, and the
development of new online services, e.g. in the area of tax.
The further modernization of the digital infrastructure in
schools is ongoing. Internal administrative processes are
being optimized and consistently digitalized, and
technologies such as the Internet of Things are being used
citywide.
12
12 Strategy Smart City Zurich

4
HOW DO
WE MAKE
THE CITY The strategy Smart
City Zurich

OF ZURICH
promotes inno-
vation, cooperation,
communication and
dialogue. The

SMARTER?
following tools are
being implemented,
effective from 2019.

Smart City Strategy

 Strategy Smart City Zurich 13

TOOLS OF THE STRATEGY SMART CITY ZURICH

Fostering innovation Innovation grant to support novel projects

Innovation box to support staff ideas
Innovation Fellowships

Collaborations Smart City Lab

National und international collaborations
Kickstart
Hackathons

Communiation and dialogue Project website

Participation portal
Monitoring and reporting

Smart City
14 Strategy Smart City Zurich

4
HOW DO
WE MAKE
THE CITY
OF ZURICH
SMARTER?
 Strategy Smart City Zurich 15

FOSTERING INNOVATION IN THE CITY Kickstart: This innovation programme brings together
ADMINISTRATION start-ups, companies and the public sector. Smart City is
a complex of topics in which start-ups develop solutions
Innovation grants to support novel projects: An innovation for urban challenges..
grant provides initial financing for innovative projects of the
city administration – especially if they are submitted jointly Hackathons: Within a defined framework, various groups
by different service departments and have a pilot from Switzerland and abroad draft innovative solutions to
character. specific issues facing the city.

Innovation box for staff: Staff of the city administration are COMMUNICATION AND DIALOGUE
given the opportunity to develop and concretise their own
ideas and thus participate in an open innovation process. Project website: Anyone interested in current Smart City
This supports the cultural shift towards thinking and projects of the City of Zurich can find the details on a
actions that are more goal-oriented, customer-focused, central website, which makes the projects more concrete
innovative and interdisciplinary. for the broader public.

Innovation Fellowships: This program lets experts from Participation portal: The population is given a single point
companies or universities contribute their expertise on ICT of access that enables them to participate in urban
and innovation. The «Fellows» work in the city projects and processes. At the same time, participation
administration for six to twelve months. This fosters options are being developed further and new forms of
knowledge-sharing and innovation. digital participation are being tested and established.

COLLABORATIONS WITH THE CITY Monitoring and reporting: We publish an annual report to
update the City Council, local council and the public each
Smart City Lab: The Smart City Lab facilitates the year on the progress of the implementation. In addition,
implementation of projects with different partners. Digital the tools and the implementation thereof are regularly
transformation ideas are tested in pilot projects. reviewed, evaluated and, if necessary, modified or
supplemented by new tools.
National and international collaborations: Participation and
exchange improve collaboration with the private sector, the Smart City Zurich is coordinated and guided by a lean
canton and other cities at national and international level. organisation, and implemented incrementally. Our clear
communication conveys the goals of Smart City Zurich
Datenpool: The administration is pursuing the option of
both internally and externally, itself becoming part of the
sharing internal and external administrative data with
dialogue between all those involved.
institutions or the public, as well as of integrating and
visualizing sensor data from public infrastructures. The
protection of personal data is ensured at all times.