More than 100 IoT sensors have been installed in public spaces across five Adelaide local council areas — Prospect, Burnside, Port Adelaide Enfield, Playford and Campbelltown — under a project funded jointly by the councils and the Federal Government’s Smart Cities and Suburbs program and supported by the University of Adelaide.
The federal Minister for population, cities and urban infrastructure, Alan Tudge, said the sensor network would tell councils how many people were using facilities, where they needed to mow, where to apply more water or save water and what play equipment required maintenance.
The mayor of the City of Prospect, David O’Loughlin, said: “The sensors can also tell us when bins in parks are full, when public barbecues are occupied or simply when sporting grounds are busy in real time.”
Port Adelaide Enfield mayor Claire Boan said the bin sensors would allow drivers, with the use of a tablet, to stop only at bins that needed emptying.
The federal member for Sturt, James Stevens, said the Federal Government had contributed $144,900 of the total cost of $289,000 through its Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, which “enables local governments to apply innovative, technology-based approaches to improve the liveability of cities and address urban challenges.”
The councils, along with the University of Adelaide, in June 2018, issued a call for expressions of interest for the project, saying they were seeking “to install remote sensors connected to an open low power wide area network to provide ongoing data about the usage of council assets such as parks and main streets.” However their announcement of the network last week made no mention of any third party provider.
City of Campbelltown CEO Paul di Iulio said the sensors would enable his Council and the City of Burnside to evaluate the impact of the Magill Road Upgrade on the local community.
“We are using the sensors to count people on Magill Road, helping to inform the design of the Magill Village master plan and evaluate the impacts of the streetscape upgrade. The trend data will also be provided to businesses and the broader community,” he said.
City of Burnside Mayor Anne Monceaux said the project introduced 29 smart sensors to measure live usage of facilities including tennis courts, the wading pool, playgrounds, barbecues and carparks.
“Data obtained will assist in providing an evidence base and inform future upgrades of the park, allow for improved maintenance response times and provide an accurate real-time source of information for our community.”
Adelaide and IoT
Adelaide has been at the forefront of using IoT for several years. In 2015 it became Cisco’s first f smart and connected ‘Lighthouse City’ in Australia. In September 2016 it became the first non-US city to join the US Smart Gigabit Communities program. SA Water has deployed an IoT network that has been able to detect over half the water main leaks and breaks in the Adelaide CBD.
Earlier this year the City of Adelaide announced it had installed some 2,800 in-ground sensors in on-street parking bays across the city to enable smart parking.
