Yesterday (Jan. 5 2017) the city authorities and the Flemish government announced Antwerp is going to be the first smart city in Flanders. In cooperation with IMEC, an organisation of IT-departments of Flemish univerities, the city of Antwerp is going to integrate smart sensors in hundreds of objects: waste baskets, sewers, delivery vans, traffic lights, …

Sensors in waste baskets can trigger messages to warn it is time to come and collect the waste. Sensors in the sewers can monitor the quality of rain water, which yields a lot of information about the quality of the environment in general, sensors in delivery vans can measure the quality of the air in the city, sensors combined with traffic lights deliver information which can be used to steer traffic flows in an optimal way, …

All the data collected allow for a more efficient organisation of city life and as the system is an open system anyone can use them to build his own apps.

Antwerp is the first city in Europe to host such a system, which in time will be rolled out in all Flemish cities, says Flemish Minister of Innovations Philippe Muyters.

Source: Gazet van Antwerpen