COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 12, 2024

QUESTION NO. 7

QUESTION: Councillor L.Guéret

To ask the Chief Executive to outline any current SMART projects in the County.

REPLY:

As part of its commitment to sustainable development and innovation, the Council's Innovation Strategy 2022 to 2024 sets the ambition to harness the power of innovation to deliver world-class public services, while also working as one of the four local authorities that make up Smart Dublin in which, together technology providers, academia and citizens we are working to transform public services and enhance quality of life. Some of the initiatives include:

Tallaght District Heating Scheme

One of the key initiatives that South Dublin County Council is involved with as a smart city is the Tallaght District Heating Scheme, which we have developed in partnership with Codema. This is the first large-scale district heating network of its kind in Ireland and uses waste heat from a local data centre to provide low-carbon heating and hot water to public buildings and residential developments in Tallaght. The scheme is Ireland’s first not-for-profit utility and will reduce carbon emissions by almost 1,500 tonnes per year, making Tallaght a leader in climate innovation.

Climate Action & Smart Cities

• Facilitate Smart Dublin thematic workshops to explore the data opportunities and challenges related to climate action and smart cities.
• The first workshop will be focussed on Active Travel and will be held on Feb 27th. It intends to bring together data experts, policy makers, researchers and practitioners to discuss how data can support the promotion and implementation of active travel modes such as walking, cycling and public transport.
• Engaged with defining requirements for more robust CAP (Climate Action Plan) reporting, based on the feedback and inputs from the DLAs and other stakeholders. It is intended that these requirements will inform a ‘build or buy’ decision for an appropriate reporting solution that can track and monitor the progress and impact of the CAP actions.

Open Data

• Extensive efforts continue to be delivered in the Open Data space through the Dublin region open data portal Dublinked. Together with Smart Dublin the Council participates in a programme of activities to unlock more datasets, improve the quality of existing and new datasets, provide insight/storytelling on key datasets, and use of open data to help reduce Freedom of Information requests through providing data at source to requestors.
• Improving the metadata and documentation of existing datasets, and implementing data quality checks and validation processes.
• With Smart Dublin we provide insight and storytelling on key datasets, such as the Dublin Dashboard, the Dublin Housing Monitor, the Dublin Economic Monitor and the Dublin Wellbeing Index, using data visualisation and analysis tools.
• Using open data to assist with FOI burden embracing the open by default possibilities, proactively publishing data that is frequently requested by the public and media.

Communications and Events

• With Smart Dublin the Council has held and will continue to hold a series of local events/roadshows to showcase project innovation from across all four DLAs.
• The events featured presentations, demos and Q&A sessions with the project teams and partners, and attracted a diverse audience of local residents, businesses, community groups, academics and media.
• The events highlighted the achievements and impacts of the project, such as the development of new data-driven solutions, the creation of new data skills and jobs, the enhancement of public services and the improvement of quality of life.
• The events also provided an opportunity to gather feedback and suggestions from the participants, and to foster collaboration and networking among the data ecosystem.

Smart Dublin

SDCC is a core member and work together with SmartDublin to deliver on a programme of work which in summary includes:

Business Development

• Manage Partnerships (e.g. EIT Urban Mobility), Filter Funding Opps, Filter Collaboration Opps
• Project example: South Dublin worked with private sector companies to develop Smart Ring Buoys which have since been installed and are operational across the County - The Smart Ring Buoy technology works through low-cost sensors paired with a mobile, map-based platform with real time monitoring. It will alert Water Safety officers when ring buoys are tampered with or go missing and ensure their timely replacement. This is an essential and lifesaving action as a stolen ring buoy could mean a stolen life. 

Facilitation (People)

• Smart City Coordinators, Smart District Programme Mgrs, All-Ireland Smart City Forum

Facilitation (Themes)

• Active Travel & Data (Dublin local authorities workshop), Next Climate Action Theme & Data (e.g. Energy & Buildings) 
• Communication & Content
• Engage with a communications programme for 2024, Quarterly Newsletter, Events/Roadshows, Social Media

Open Data

• Dublin Local Authorities Monthly meetings, Quantity & Quality Issues, Insight & Storytelling, Harmonisation of datasets, Governance & Culture, CAP Reporting, Tourism Hackathon
• Local Advisory Services

The Council’s smart city involvement leverages data and technology to enhance environmental, social and economic performance and improve the efficiency and quality of public services, such as transport, energy, waste management, health and education, while also fostering innovation, participation and inclusion.

For more information on Smart Dublin please visit Ecosystem - Smart Dublin