THE PROJECT
SmartKalea is the innovative initiative of Fomento de San Sebastián to establish a public-private collaboration model that integrates the different agents that coexist in a city environment from a Smart/sustainable perspective: citizenship, businesses, technological local companies and Municipal Departments, leaded by Fomento de San Sebastián. It consists on a pilot project based on Smart implementations to test and validate a comprehensive model for its expansion to other geographical areas and turn Donostia in a Smart City reference. More specifically, SmartKalea promotes environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, citizen participation and transparency using state-of- the-art technology from local technological partners, integrating data into the project's smart platform for monitoring and obtaining indicators that promote the improvement of the management of the city.
The SmartKalea Project has been awarded the PROGRESO prize in the Smart Cities category in 2020, the CNIS (National Innovation and Public Services Congress) prize in 2017 for the best public-private collaborative project, and received the Smart Cities award in 2015 from the SOCINFO Foundation.
OBJECTIVES
The objective of the project is to transform Donostia/San Sebastián into a Smart city that improves the quality of life of its citizenship and benefit local commerce / restaurants, due to the extensive use of ICT and the promotion of environmental sustainability. The specific objectives are:
- To turn Donostia/San Sebastián into a Smart city that improves the quality of life of its citizenship.
- To achieve greater energy and economic savings in 3 main areas: commerce, housing and infrastructures of the city, maintaining its environmental commitment.
- Foster citizen participation and raise awareness of citizens and commercial sector about energy savings and sustainability
- Generate new business opportunities for companies and technological collaborators: support processes for improving commercial management, external projection, showcase of products/services,etc.
- Shops/Hospitality: supporting processes to improve commercial management.
- Technology partners: outreach, showcase for products/services.
- New business opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs: providing the city with a space that serves as a laboratory for local companies to test smart products/service in real conditions and as a showcase for their products/services.
REPLICABILITY MODEL
SmartKalea is a pioneering initiative that integrates in a single street of the city different solutions of energy efficiency that requires on a small scale a very high level of coordination and integration that can serve as a pilot experience extrapolable gradually to the rest of the city. Thanks to the experience obtained, the replicability of the project in other neighborhoods can lead to energy saving and consumption reduction results in a shorter period since it can benefit from the know-how obtained: previous coordination between the different local public-private actors involved, a proven work methodology, good practices, savings measures depending on the type of housing and business, etc., helping to take firm stepts towards the materializations of the smart strategy of Donostia / San Sebastian city.
In 2014 SmartKalea began to be incorporated in the calle Mayor, the emblematic pedestrian street in the Old Part of San Sebastian. The excellent results archieved by the pilot scheme have made it possible to continue to move forward with the initiative, expanding the project both in different geographical areas and to include new activities and add new agents to the SmartKalea community. In 2016 the activities in the Old Part were increased, and the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council co-financed the replication of the project in the district of Altza. In 2021 - 2022, the project was launched in the new neighborhood of Txomin. In this process of settling, new attachments are being given to the citizens, shops, and landlords of the participating neighborhoods.
Project executed within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and financed by the European Union-Next Generation EU and by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, and by the Department of Tourism, Commerce and Consumption of the Basque Government.
