Page 199 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

 Citizen services unit

This is the unit that is responsible for informing the citizens and increasing their participation and involvement within
the municipality. In this sense, this unit should include new ICT based services in their technology roadmap, to
promote efficiencies and cost savings on a city level. This unit will have to be in touch with all the others in order to
report to the citizens on the projects that are being carried out in the city.
 Unit dealing with infrastructure and ICTs
The deployment of SSC requires significant new infrastructure, especially technological such as communications
networks or the addition of smart meters on the existing water and energy infrastructures. This unit will have a very
important role on integrating the different city systems and technologies based on a holistic ICT‐based management
approach.
 Environmental unit
In line with the focus of SSCs, this unit must promote, coordinate and evaluate the actions taken by other units to
achieve the environmentally conscious and efficient use of scarce resources at the city level. ICT technologies will
help to optimize resource management. For example, it can collaborate with the transportation unit in smart
transport programs such as the regulation of the access to the city by car depending on the pollution values measured
in real‐time. With the cooperation of the housing unit, they can also lead campaigns to promote efficiency in buildings
through smart buildings, or measure the improvements that are achieved as well as cooperating in the deployment
of new ICT‐based environmental quality sensors in green areas within the city like parks or green corridors. SSC
technologies should be considered as part of the technology alternatives in climate change action plans.
 Transportation unit
Mobility is one of the most important issues that cities have to tackle. Many of the projects implemented in SSC are
related to this unit. The objective of this unit must be to build a smart transportation network that meets the
requirements of the population maximizing the efficiency and comfort and minimizing the environmental impact.
 Financial unit
This is a very transversal unit. Considering that municipal treasuries must face heavy financial burdens, the units of
finance have to evolve to more innovative business models and make partnerships with private enterprises, based
on sustainability performance KPIs. Innovations can be also made regarding collection of taxes, increasing the level
of personalization of the due amount to pay in order to achieve behaviour changes in the population. ICTs can
become a great tool to improve efficiency in financial processes on a city level. New SSC projects must impact the
financial performance of the municipalities on a positive way.
 Legal affairs unit
This unit is responsible for establishing the legal and operational framework needed to guarantee the new city
services development. In this sense, it is very important that these legal units understand the new vision that smart
sustainable cities must have.
 Water & sanitation management unit
Some municipalities have this unit, and some others delegate this function directly to a service company. The function
of managing water resources and sewage system of a city is a challenging task. Cities are experiencing a growing
stress in relation to the water resources and a proper and effective use of ICT can help deal with this issue in a
sustainable manner. It is therefore a responsibility of this unit to implement smart and sustainable management of
the water resources that guarantees access to water and sanitation services to current and future city dwellers.
 CERT/CSIRT unit
The role of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) or the Computer Security Incident Response Team
(CSIRT) is to provide services and support for preventing, handling and responding to computer security incidents. To
do so, it is key that this unit acts as a central trusted point of contact for cyber security incident reporting and for
general security issues. This unit should also build expertise in information security, incident management and
computer forensics as well as enhancing information security awareness.
Other functions this unit can also develop are to assist in improving the cyber security law, disseminating information
about threats, vulnerabilities, and cyber security incidents and coordinating with other domestic and international
CERT/CSIRTs and related organizations as well as sharing information and lessons learned with them.
For more information, please see Annex 2.

ITU‐T's Technical Reports And Specifications 189