The Nova Information Management School (NOVA IMS), from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and the Intermunicipal Community of the West (CIM Oeste) are preparing to create the first intelligent region in the country. The objective of creating this ecosystem is to implement models that help the public policy making process, as well as to help investors and economic agents to develop value-added activities, based on factual data.
The project covers the municipalities of Alenquer, Alcobaa, Arruda dos Vinhos, Torres Vedras, Peniche, Nazar, Caldas da Rainha, Lourinh, Sobral de Monte Agrao, bidos, Bombarral and Cadaval. The purpose of the Smart Region platform can then be replicated to all regions of the country, including the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores. In all, the project has a total investment of one million euros, with 57% co-financed by the European Social Fund over two years.
A return of 533 thousand euros is expected during this period, considering the automation of processes, the information of which is currently collected manually, savings from travel to the municipalities to clarify issues, reduction of expenditure on average mobile communication costs, among others. , referred to in the statement.
It is explained that this will be the first integrated analytical platform of territorial intelligence that, in a big data and data science approach, offer data collection, storage, processing and analysis capabilities generated by the public Wi-Fi networks of municipalities that, combined with data from operating systems and municipal sensor networks, will allow to leverage the construction of a smart and sustainable tourism region.
The platform aims to understand the interaction of people, not only those who live in CIM Oeste, but work or visit the region, based on registration data and use of Wi-Fi access points. In this sense, and as an example, to know the number and characteristics of visitors to events and places, the ability to distinguish new people in the place or applicants.
Checking peak hours and travel patterns, marking points of interest are also other advantages of the project. And through the crossing of data originating from the networks, provide contextual marketing, that is, personalized information based on the location and the person.
The capabilities that technologies offer today to capture gigantic amounts of data, lays the challenge of creating analytical capacities to promote their conversion into information and, thus, to have value for decision-making processes, for the creation of new products and services and for a more active and participatory citizenship, stresses Miguel de Castro Neto, Deputy Director of NOVA IMS and Coordinator of NOVA Cidade Urban Analytics Lab.
The president of CIM Oeste, Pedro Folgado, adds that the process of creating municipal public Wi-Fi networks generates the opportunity, for the first time, of the municipalities to own the necessary and sufficient data for the development of analytical and for creating valuable insights into the most diverse dimensions of land governance.
