The city of Bellevue has received a $75,000 grant from the White House Smart Cities program to find methods to monitor and study city generated data from a central platform, to facilitate better efficiency and enhance communications with its community members.
Moving forward, Bellevue is working with CH2M Engineering, an international engineering firm with a Bellevue office, and the government of Kansas City, Missouri, to develop and launch dashboard data tools that will be shared with other cities to better utilize information from multiple departments within city governments.
“Often cities install smart lighting, parking, water, and other systems in a vacuum that are costly to integrate together later on,” said Ken Thompson, CH2M’s deputy director of Intelligent Water Solutions. “Together, we’re creating a citywide platform with a vision for the future that breaks down silos, improves efficiencies, and provides substantial benefits for residents,” Thompson said.
The City of Bellevue is optimistic that this collaborative effort will produce some very valuable tools. It is clear that Bellevue will benefit from its participation in the Smart Cities program. Equally gratifying, is that the end product will be shared with other city governments across the US.
“We are thrilled to be selected as one of the lead cities and to collaborate with other communities and technology partners to develop a pilot smart city dashboard,” said Chelo Picardal, Bellevue’s chief technology officer. “Through this program, we’ll be able to address our need for a citywide digital platform in a way that other cities can benefit from as well.”
