Du numérique, de l'astuce et de la raison

At the beginning of this month of September, the Federal Council adopted its new strategy, "Digital Switzerland", which includes among its new priority themes support for cities, municipalities and cantons in the development of smart cities, smart villages and smart regions. This signal is intended to support the innovation efforts made by the pioneers in the field and to help the less advanced cities benefit from the experience already gained. On the other hand, it also recognises that the introduction of new digital technologies to improve the quality of services provided by the public authorities is not just the responsibility of the municipalities, It is also the responsibility of local authorities, which clearly have an interest in mutualising their investments, and of the cantons, which play a key role, such as urban areas and economic regions, if we look at areas such as energy and transport, for example.

The presence of M. Benoit Revaz, Director of the Federal Office of Energy (OFEN), at the opening of the conference confirms that Smart City Day is an annual rendez-vous for professionals from all over French-speaking Switzerland. The morning will be moderated by Sébastien Kulling, Director of digital Switzerland, an initiative that links the political world, the economy, research and innovation to facilitate Switzerland's digital transition.

Un exemple : La ville de Pully
The city of Pully is one of the most dynamic players in the field of digital innovation. Already known for its analyses of mobility based on mobile phone data, Pully has led a number of research projects.

" Pully mène ses projets smart en collaborant avec des partenaires privés. »

avec succès des projets en collaboration avec d'autres communes de Suisse pour le développement de solutions logicielles. The collective intelligence of the actors in the field, the involvement of the parties involved throughout the project and the mutualisation of the costs of development have made it possible to implement solutions on a large scale for the services of the municipalities participating, without requiring significant investment credits that could provoke political opposition. Pully carries out its smart projects also in collaboration with private partners and university researchers. The innovations that result are ci-tées en exemple à l'échelle européenne.

In 2017, Pully introduced a system of key performance indicators (KPIs) based on a scheme proposed by the Union Internationale des Telecommunications (UIT), in line with other cities in the world with completely different dimensions such as Sin-gapour. These indicators cover a wide range and allow us to evaluate not only the smart aspects but also others related to sustainability, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations. The purpose of such a mechanism is to be able to measure the impact of policies and thus facilitate informed and transparent governance. Disposer de benchmarks communs permet aussi davan-tage d'échanges avec d'autres villes. If measuring is a first step, setting the benchmarks to be achieved for each of the indicators is also an opportunity. We also note that the indicators observed do not all depend on local competences. The cantonal and federal levels are also concerned, which supports the bottom-up dialogue.

La vue scientifique
The intelligent management of urban networks and services is clearly based on data available in large quantities and which can be exploited digitally. Philippe Cudré-Mauroux is the director of an internationally renowned research laboratory at the University of Fribourg dedicated to big data. In his intervention, he rappelle deux conditions supplémentaires au-delà du volume de données pour des ap-plications productrices de valeur: la rapidité d'accès au données et leur variété. During the round table, which placed the university at the side of industrial companies, cable offices and start-ups, the issue of data, their ownership, protection and sharing emerged as a major issue in the future development of smart cities.

Le Smart City Day proposait des sessi-ons de workshops dans lesquels les partici-pants sont invités à interagir. Within this framework, the public was able to discover the scientific work carried out by the Smart Living Lab, an interdisciplinary research group comprising the EPFL, the University of Fribourg and the Haute école d'ingénierie et d'architecture de Fribourg. En visant les objectifs de la société 2000 Watts, les recherches portent autant sur les aspects énergétiques que sur l'impact en-vironnemental et sur le confort des utilisa-teurs dans l'habitat du futur. The research questions cover all aspects from human beings to the city, passing through buildings and neighbourhoods.

Collaboration entre partenaires
The EPFL and its academic partners are centres where cutting-edge research advances science, as well as training centres for professionals, engineers and future decision-makers. In addition, federal polytechnic colleges, universities and universities of applied sciences act as catalysts for innovation, promoting the transfer of knowledge and technologies from research to applications. It is through partnerships between higher education institutions attracting young talents from all over the world, public bodies and private actors based locally that projects can be realised that are truly innovative and whose impact is measurable in practice.

We are also seeing the emergence of new models with structures such as CityZen, which brings together a network of complementary enterprises in an association whose mission is to support towns in their projects and strategies for innovation through a transversal and inclusive approach that breaks down the silos of conventional administrations. They are invited to join the association, which is about to open its structure to allow these new affiliations and thus bring together the various parties involved.

"Smart Cities " en toute la Suisse
We are paying a great deal of attention to the initiatives taking part in advancing the digital transition of Switzerland's towns and cities. While Smart City Day has adopted the practice of taking place every year in a different canton of French-speaking Switzerland, we are seeing the development of the annual Smart Suisse event in Basel, as well as of experimental sites such as the Smart City Lab Basel Wolf, piloted by the CFF in association with the Canton of Bâle-Ville. Les CFF, la Poste et Swisscom ont récemment fondé l'association Smart City Hub avec les villes de Zurich, Win-
terthur, Zoug et St. Gall.