Zurich, Copenhagen & Amsterdam - Smart Cities in Europe

A lively smart city at night Photo: Unsplash

Smart City Zurich

According to the IMD Smart City Index Report 2023, Zurich is the smartest city in the world - for the fourth time in a row. The Swiss financial metropolis with a population of 1.5 million achieved first place out of 141 cities, primarily for its infrastructure and technology concepts. Top marks were awarded for its digital services and smooth public transport processes as well as the online accessibility of official information and documents. All in line with the goals that Zurich has set itself: "to be an open, collaborative and inclusive city that focuses on the needs of its residents".

Smart City Copenhagen

Copenhagen is also consistently among the top 5 smartest cities in the world. Denmark's cultural and economic centre wants to become the first CO2-neutral capital by 2025. The action plan for this includes 50 different projects - from the expansion of wind energy and smart waste management to a foundation that promotes environmentally friendly technologies in water management. Urban planning should design streets and squares in such a way that they encourage cycling and walking rather than driving. The basis for this is a digital infrastructure and a desire to experiment, which is actively encouraged here.

Smart City Amsterdam

The Dutch capital Amsterdam also has exciting smart city concepts to offer. The metropolis focuses primarily on collaboration and citizen participation. For example, the city has joined forces with local companies and organisations to redesign the Utrechtsestraat shopping street. The result was approaches for better lighting, less pollution and new tram stops. With the "Amsterdam Smart Citizens Lab" platform, science, citizens and research can jointly develop ideas for the city of the future. Traffic is recorded by a system of vehicle detector stations and cameras, which identifies free spaces in car parks, for example. All data collected by the city can be accessed via a portal, which also applies to tens of thousands of open source data records from the city administration.