As early as 2013 and 2014, Lyon was awarded the title of “France’s leading smart city” for its innovative projects, and has continued to evolve ever since. Among the most important and innovative projects are the “Silk Square” urban project and its sustainable housing, the Gerland economic hub, which hosts the largest biotechnology laboratories and industries, and the Confluence project, with its innovative buildings and bioclimatic design, where a mix of uses is favored. The Part-Dieu shopping center, the largest urban shopping mall in Europe, promises to be a “green point of view on the city”.
A smart city is a city that relies on the collection and use of data to optimize its organization and management. Using sensors, the city analyzes the behaviors and habits of its inhabitants to provide them with better information and a better service offer in real time, while saving resources. These “smart” technologies can be applied to many areas such as transportation (traffic, parking, etc.), power and water supply, garbage collection, etc. In the case of waste, for example, the connected garbage cans measure the filling level and trigger the collection signal when they are full. This optimizes the circulation of garbage trucks (noise, pollution, traffic jams), avoids deposits next to full garbage cans, and also allows better thinking about the disposal of garbage cans according to needs.
The smart city project of the Lyon metropolitan area revolves around three main themes:
– the lifespan of the buildings, in a long-term construction perspective;
– the preservation of the environment;
– the appropriation by the population of the life of its neighborhood.
The metropolis is banking on sustainable development for its economic growth. In addition to new housing, the digital economy and the green economy should encourage the creation of businesses.
Digital technology plays a key role in Lyon’s global transformation project. It should, for example, give buildings the possibility of evolving without demolition or construction work, which will make it possible to do without interventions that have a much heavier environmental impact
Connected equipment, including the KONE DX elevator, will hardly need to be replaced, even in the event of a major transformation of the building. It will be possible to reprogram them at will to adapt them, while allowing them to communicate with the new environment.
In the context of the health crisis, the Lyon local authority has also created a participative digital platform “Lyon voisins solidaires” (Lyon neighbors in solidarity) to break isolation through volunteering (shopping, helping with homework).
A global project to adapt to climate change
Recent climate projections indicate that the city of Lyon will be particularly impacted by global warming, and the city is actively preparing for this, both through vegetalization and the deployment of green technologies.
The Lyon Confluence project is emblematic in this respect. It is home to the Lyon Smart Community, both a full-scale demonstrator and the first brick of a metropolitan-scale smart grid. 7,000 m2 of solar panels have already been installed in the neighborhood, with a target set by Greater Lyon of 20,000 m2 in the long term. The project allowed the construction of a “positive energy urban block” including housing, offices and shops, thanks to solar panels, a thermal power plant running on vegetable oil and a system of cold production thanks to the absorption of water from the Saône River. The architecture and the materials used also make it possible to regulate the temperature in the buildings: the buildings consume 50% to 60% less energy than a conventional building; 67% of the electrical needs, 87% of the heating needs and 80% of the air conditioning needs are self-produced. In addition, 275 housing units have undergone an “eco-renovation” through insulation work and modernization of their heating system. They have also been equipped with Consotab. These digital tablets allow residents to monitor their energy consumption in real time.
Finally, a Community Management System has set up a global management and control system for the energy data of Lyon’s Smart Community.
Lyon aims to be a model in the energy transition. The city was able to implement a Smart City strategy very early on to combine economic dynamism and sustainable development, inventing new development models for the cities of tomorrow.