A smart community is one that uses information technology, innovation and data to be more efficient, solve problems, and create new opportunities for people, businesses, and organisations. A smart community enables improved service delivery, economic development, and liveability with a reduced environmental footprint.
The Australian Smart Communities Association works with local governments, industry organisations, researchers, and individuals to build the knowledge, skills, capacity, policy, and confidence that drives smart communities. By leveraging a community’s existing skills and capacity, new policy and emerging technology can accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship, progress environmental goals, encourage organisational leadership and support interaction with the global economy.
With global rapid change impacting cities and communities across the world, there is a need for leaders to increase their agility and responsiveness to meet and exceed the growing needs of communities. Leaders need to be equipped with the right tools to make smart decisions, ensuring the best outcomes for society, the economy and the environment.
The list of services enjoyed by smart communities is long and extensive and is unique to each community. However, these smart services are based on key elements:
By appropriately collecting, storing, and analysing data about our city, town or region, we can support informed advocacy and decision-making.
By raising the level of digital literacy and skills of the people in the community, we see reduced social exclusion, boosted creativity and increased knowledge sharing and experimentation.
The digital economy is driven by new digital applications, services, and community enterprise, leading to job creation and economic growth.
A backbone of digital technology that connects, monitors, analyses, and reports on high-value aspects of our city, town, or region. This could elements such as Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, or sensors.
Digital technology is transforming the way we interact, communicate, make decisions and deliver services. Proactively modernising policies and regulations will help realise the benefits and mitigate the risks of digital technology