Page 48 - Digital solutions for integrated city management and use cases: A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

4.2.3 Broken Hill, Australia 49

Broken Hill is Australia’s first city to be included in the National Heritage list. With an economy
originally rooted in mining , its city council is actively investing in opportunities to promote Broken
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Hill as a liveable city steeped in cultural and tourism experiences. Investment in technology is key
to making the city more dynamic, productive and safe for this purpose.

To this end, Broken Hill is implementing an IoT-based city platform that will be supported by a
myriad sensor applications to manage all aspects of life and governance in the city. The areas of
focus for the city platform are:

• City and community planning.

• Visitor experience.

• Facility and services management (buildings, energy, waste, utilities).
• Public administration and customer service.

• Public safety (crime and disaster prevention and management).

The city platform aligns with Broken Hill’s Smart Cities Plan, which will affect a transition of the city’s
economy beyond mining and will revitalize the central business district (CBD) by creating a smart
cultural hub in the CBD and attracting new businesses.

It will act as a key competitive advantage by allowing Broken Hill to become a smart community
that relies on smart, integrated technologies to promote synergies and growth across the region .
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It will lead to more intelligent and evidence-based decision-making, which would be essential
during such growth.

The platform design is scalable, enabling Broken Hill to add manageable projects when its budget
presents such opportunities to invest. This approach allows for the flexibility needed to align the
platform with future changes in community characteristics and priorities.

The various projects that complement Broken Hill’s IoT platform:

• Smart bins trial, including an extension to the Council’s free Wi-Fi programme.

• Smart parking sensor trial, which will help inform the planning of a new library and cultural hub
and potentially reduce on-street traffic congestion by more than 30 per cent.

• Environmental sensors in the city’s main event park.
• BBQ sensors on new park development for a reduced cost.

• CCTV for improved public safety and protection of assets, especially to grow the night-time
economy.
• CBD smart lighting.

36 U4SSC: Digital solutions for integrated city management & use cases