DALLAS—The Dallas Innovation Alliance's vision for its living lab in the West End is part of the burgeoning Dallas Innovation District. When the vision was revealed, it was done via concept renderings from BOKA Powell and a virtual reality experience from Dallas-based 900lbs of Creative. These visual and immersive tools provided a view into the previous West End and what it will look like with smart elements incorporated into the living lab. Many of the features are being rolled out this month, GlobeSt.com learns.
The Alliance will address key challenges faced by Dallas and cities around the world, with regard to aging infrastructure, strained natural and fiscal resources, and increased density in the urban core, while providing the technology and connectivity needed to power the future for all Dallasites. The Alliance operates from the definition that a smart city is one where technological and social infrastructures accelerate sustainable economic development, and conserves resources and improves the quality of life for its citizens. Data captured in the living lab will be available via the Dallas open data portal, as well as on an integrated platform.
The West End living lab includes smart city elements including:
Intelligent LED Lighting: Street lights in the living lab along Market Street installed last year were converted to LED and these lights will be managed by intelligent nodes, which allow for remote lighting management, outage alerts and operational efficiencies.
A series of interactive digital kiosks were deployed last year in the West End, which provide a key focal point for citizen engagement, alongside delivery of public services, provision of public Wi-Fi, USB charging stations, emergency services and wayfinding/transit options. Additional open source platforms make it possible to provide a key application allowing for direct engagement with the city, events and services. Exact components of the hardware and of the internal software were customized to fit Dallas' needs.
Network connectivity installed last year: Fiber, cellular and Wi-Fi networks provide full coverage, powering the living lab.
Public Wi-Fi will be launching this month in the West End living lab.
Smart parking to be launched this month: Infrastructure was installed, allowing for monitoring and visibility into available parking options, with the potential to locate and reserve parking ahead of time. Benefits include an improved citizen experience, increased parking utilization rates and decreased traffic congestion/CO2 emissions. A large proportion of urban congestion is directly related to cars looking for parking.
An advanced smart water metering infrastructure to launch this month will monitor usage, leak detection, water loss and other elements. This infrastructure allows for remote readings via wireless, as opposed to manual meter checks.
Intelligent irrigation monitoring will be installed this month in a downtown park that measures and manages water usage and the watering schedule, and determines the amount of water necessary to care for the specific vegetation present at the site.
With an estimated launch of first quarter 2018, an open source software platform will aggregate data and provide opportunities for citizens, entrepreneurs and organizations to build smart city applications on top of the platform.
Working with key partners, the Dallas Innovation Alliance will facilitate an end-to-end mobility application, allowing citizens a single-point solution, incorporating all modes of transit, including mass transit, car, rideshare, bike sharing, walking and smart parking solutions. Benefits include the ability to weigh mixed modes of transit, choose a journey based on user priority including length of trip, cost of trip or taking the greenest possible option. The Alliance is working with key partners on existing initiatives with an estimated launch sometime this year.
The Dallas Innovation Alliance is a 501c(3) public-private partnership dedicated to the development and execution of a multi-phased smart city strategy for Dallas.
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
