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7.5 Governance

Since the process of digital transformation was initiated in 2004, the Rivas Vaciamadrid City Council
has revamped its services, adapting year after year to new requirements. In 2020, it created the
Department of Innovation and Modernization with the following objectives:

1 Promote and evaluate the execution of the “RivaSmart” initiative and its projects, guaranteeing
the achievement of the objectives based on the city council's guidelines.

2 Gather the know-how generated in the course of carrying out the projects to form a centre of
knowledge and specialized professionals, which would facilitate the sustainability and future
evolution of the RivaSmart City model.
3 Study the relationship between the objectives of the initiative, as well as the projects included in
it with possible additional financing models (e.g., public-private collaboration, aid or subsidies
at the European level).

4 Communicate the results and benefits derived from the initiative to those responsible for the
Rivas Vaciamadrid City Council and to Rivas society, while extending the bases of the smart city
to all the agents that interact with it.

The establishment of a management and control entity in which the different departments of the
city council are involved, constitutes two main elements for the success of the transformation of
Rivas into a smart city:

1 It is the organization that controls and disseminates the strategy and the initiative, assuming
the functions of evaluation and validation of the projects.

2 It is a consultative body that promotes the culture of creating a smart city, taking advantage of
the knowledge acquired through the implementation of the different projects that make up the
initiative, as well as promoting its re-use in the local environment and in the social and business
fabric of the city.

The Innovation and Modernization Department comprises an interdisciplinary team of 21 people
who manage the administrative, strategic and technical processes. They are, in turn, divided into
specific verticals, each taking charge of departments such as the Comprehensive Citizen Service
System (SIAC), Electronic Archives, Facilities and Telecommunications, Digital Services and Systems
and Delegation of Data Protection and Transparency. All these depend on the head of service
responsible for all the implementation and monitoring of the RivaSmart strategy.

All the elements have been summarized previously, but a key element is that a smart city requires
quality connectivity. In the case of Rivas Vaciamadrid, it is achieved with the deployment and
distribution of its infrastructure to all operators in the municipality. This has energized the bandwidth
and reduced the digital divide among citizens, companies, services and municipal contracts. The
deployment of 4G and 5G services has had a dynamic effect in the municipality, and some operators
have used the optical fibre installed by the Rivas Vaciamadrid City Council to deploy connectivity.

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