euronews hi-tech – Santander gets smart

www.euronews.com Santander, in the north of Spain, is looking to the future and is styling itself as a “Smartcity”. Some 12000 sensors are installed on facades, lamp posts, underground, on the buses, and in containers. They measure levels of pollution, noise, humidity, light and traffic. The data they collect is sent to a central platform which automatically regulates street lighting, rubbish collections, and parking: people can use their Smartphones to keep up with what’s happening. Jose Antonio Gallache is a telecoms engineer at the University of Cantabrie. He said, “Here, we have underground parking sensors which detect the presence of a vehicle and send the information to other sensors. It’s a difficult area for parking, so the idea is to make it easier for people by helping find free parking places.” The central platform, the nerve centre of the system, is in the lab at the University of Santander. The engineers there are developing ever more powerful sensors, and a participation app. Using a Smartphone, people can report an accident in the town, a broken pavement, a leaking drainpipe, a badly-parked car. The information is transmitted to the municipal authorities who can solve the problem as fast as possible. Reports are also sent to the local newspaper. They might get a report about people driving too fast in front of the local school and decide to report on it. Editor Jose Miguel Santamaria-Alday said, “Our role is to be a communication channel between people and …
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