Porto deepens innovation partnerships with European cities

Porto recently embarked on a journey of sharing and collaboration, extending ties to Munich and Cartagena, cities where a series of European projects have gained prominence. Those projects, which cover areas such as mobility, positive energy and data-based decision-making, have been shaping the urban and sustainable landscape of the cities involved.

As part of the GEMINI project, Porto Digital, tasked with implementing innovative mobility solutions around Estádio do Dragão, was invited to visit the Mobility Living Lab in Munich. On this trip, it was possible to assess closely how similar solutions are being implemented in the vicinity of the Allianz Arena, specifically concerning the FC Bayern Munich-S.S. Lazio match. For two days, representatives of the Portuguese and German pilot projects shared knowledge and established the next steps to ensure the success of the project in both countries, with the participation of partners such as Futebol Clube do Porto and Via Verde.

The GEMINI project aims to help accelerate progress towards carbon neutrality by reinforcing a modal shift through the demonstration and adoption of new shared mobility services, active modes of transport and micromobility, as well as their integration with public transport in new generation MaaS (Mobility as a Service) services. In Porto, the pilot project focuses on integrated mobility management around Estádio do Dragão during sporting events or other events with a major impact on the city.

Creating positive energy communities

At the same time, Munich hosted two important meetings of the ASCEND project, which aims to create Positive Clean Energy Districts (PCED) by improving urban infrastructure (WiFi and urban sensors) and collecting data on energy production, consumption and mobility. Porto Digital played a key role in those discussions, with Porto occupying the position of 'multiplier city' in the project consortium.

Under the motto of achieving carbon neutrality, the great challenge of this project is to create 'Digital Twins' models of the areas to be intervened, which will make it possible to simulate several scenarios in order to identify solutions and generate a public policy designing tool. Porto is part of ASCEND with the participation of the Agência de Energia do Porto (AdEPorto), Águas e Energia do Porto (AEdP), the Serralves Foundation and, as mentioned, Porto Digital.

BeOpen aligned with the Municipal Data Enhancement Strategy

Finally, BeOpen was also highlighted in Cartagena, where a general meeting brought together partners to plan the future of the project, discuss common challenges and strengthen ties. In Porto, this project, also coordinated by Porto Digital, is focused on using data to improve decision-making in emergency situations such as floods, involving a wide range of local stakeholders.

We should recall that Porto elected the Integrated Management Centre (GCI) of the Municipality as its use case, with contributions from Civil Protection, the Fire Department, the Municipal Police, Águas e Energia do Porto and the Municipal Data Protection Department.

As a project closely linked to the sphere of data (especially High Value Datasets), BeOpen is perfectly aligned with the Municipal Data Enhancement Strategy and the Open Data Directive.

These efforts reflect Porto's commitment, along with other European cities, to innovation, sustainability and collaboration to tackle the urban challenges of the 21st century, in line with the objectives of the Horizon Europe programme, which is funding the three projects.