Governor Martin O'Malley, a renowned global expert in the use of geospatial technology in government, discussed why the nation's business and government leaders need to embrace advanced location-based analytics technology at the 2017 Australian Smart Cities Conference in Adelaide today.
Adelaide is perfectly placed to harness Big Data and the Internet of Things to make the city the smartest in the country; a global authority on smart cities revealed.
Best known for his work as Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore, Governor O’Malley’s results earned him the label of one of the most effective leaders in US government history.
By putting geographic insight at the heart of his governments’ operations, Governor O’Malley was able to cut crime rates, improve healthcare, drive down government expenditure and taxes, and transform environmental management practices.
Governor O’Malley says the insights delivered through Geographic Information System (GIS) technology enabled leaders to be on the front edge of the wave of change, getting inside the turning radius of problems to be able to deliver better solutions.
“When you have government, business community and thought leaders committed to embracing new technology, you can completely rethink how cities are planned and operated to develop economic and social growth,” Governor O’Malley said.
“I’ve seen a new way of governing emerging – a change that’s being brought about by smart cities. Cities that understand that spatial intelligence allows us to better reduce crime, better manage traffic and understand what’s going on at any given point in time in our city. This visibility to see, track and act ultimately delivers better data-driven decisions.”
Brett Bundock, managing director of geospatial technology giant Esri Australia, says GIS offers governments the ability to better understand their challenges. By integrating data sets from a variety of sources and visualising them across a time-space continuum, decision makers can see more clearly the cause and likely remedy of even the most complex of issues.
“Adelaide is showing real leadership in this space. Areas such as driver-less cars, smart lighting enabling lower energy consumption, environmental monitoring of CO2, sound and temperature to innovate solutions to improve the city and plans to make the capital a high-speed internet zone,” Mr Bundock said.
“The technology is here. By displaying Big Data, policy and program information on a map, a clear picture emerges that can show the best ways to target resources, track performance, and communicate with the public.
In Adelaide to deliver a keynote address for the 2017 Australian Smart Cities Conference, Governor O’Malley reflected on his time as Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore as well as his most recent work with the MetroLab Network.
Governor O’Malley currently heads up the MetroLab Network, a collaboration between dozens of US cities and universities to develop technologically-driven solutions to urban challenges in health, security, mobility, infrastructure and environmental sustainability.
“In Chicago we’re looking at close to 2.7 million people and growing so installing more than 500 sensors on city streets by 2017 to understand the movements of pedestrians and vehicle traffic and measure air pollutants is expected to give a sound data-driven vision of the situation,” Governor O’Malley said.
“This will provide the basis for clear decisions based on evidence for solutions – things like public apps that display safe walking routes at night or apps that monitor air quality.”
To find out more about how GIS technology can be used in your organisation visit esriaustralia.com.au/gis-in-smart-communities
If you would like to connect with our public relations team, submit a media enquiry.