https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Commentaries


Sponsored

Tearing down silos

Tearing down silos

Cary, N.C., is increasing interdepartmental cooperation to better serve its citizens.
  • Written by contributor
  • 10th October 2018

Cary, N.C., already has much to be proud of. The town of 162,000 was named the second-most livable mid-sized city in the U.S. with the sixth-best quality of life.

It’s attractive to businesses, too. It was named one of the ten best places in the South to relocate your headquarters. Business is growing there. Last year, it added 3,000 jobs.

But Cary wants to do even better. It wants its own identity of success, in addition to its Research Triangle one. And it wants to rank even higher on the quality of life rankings. Cary, one of five winners of the 2018 Smart Cities Council Readiness Challenge, believes that smart cities principles are key to accomplishing that and it used its Readiness Workshop as a vehicle to plot a roadmap forward.

“Our goal is to enrich the lives of our citizens,” said Mayor Harold Weinbrecht. “We hope that by strengthening our connection to technology and data that we can make this happen. Making more data-driven decisions is important, and that is the future of Cary.”


A 360-degree view

Smart cities tear down silos that keep their departments from working together. In Cary, this effort is part of building what it calls a 360-degree view of the city.

“The key thing about our efforts is meeting citizens where they are,” said Terry Yates, smart cities program manager. “We are putting the citizen in the middle of everything we do — interconnecting everything we do to create a 360-degree view of our citizens, our operations and our regional efforts.”

The opportunities are great. Imagine being able to present someone who’s thinking about moving to the area with a real-time simulation of the city, showing everything from traffic to water usage.

But there are challenges, too.

“It seems like every solution has their own platform, their own dashboard,” Yates said. “How do you tie that all together to get that one view, that one holistic system? How do you connect what, where?”

To that end, about one hundred workshop participants divided themselves into working groups to explore how to integrate data, improve the health of the community by improving sewer system reliability, and improve traffic flow without dramatically widening roads.


Integrating data

The integrated data infrastructure group focused on three key goals: finding ways to integrate operations, how to demonstrate value, and how to promote data standardization throughout the region by working with regional partners and businesses.

In the short-term, the group suggested the city work to establish a single source of truth with its systems and data. It’s going to take humans to bring disparate systems together before a comprehensive system can do much with the data.

It also suggested the city develop a data governance plan that emphasizes standardization and serves as a living document that’s subject to change as the city progresses in its smart cities journey.

Also, when working on any data project, focus on the function, rather than individual departments. The data needed may span several departments and focusing on the overall function improves effectiveness and helps tear down silos.


Reducing sewer overflows and streamlining maintenance

The ultimate goal of the Healthy Community group was to get the sewer and wastewater system to a state where it’s predicting and anticipating issues, and addressing them before they become problems. Working group participants outlined steps the city could take with data to advance toward that goal.

In the near-term, they suggested the city look at its existing data sources and determine if it’s using them to their potential. Moving toward real-time analysis of existing sensors is one top priority, as is overlaying flow data with rainfall, USGS and other data sources to better monitor conditions.

The group recognized that more field sensors are likely necessary to prioritize collection system maintenance and predict where sewer spills and overflows are likely to occur, but thought the city should first conduct an analysis to see how many sensors are needed and where they are needed. They suggested the city analyze its infrastructure to see where new sensors could provide genuinely useful information, and compare the investment costs with anticipated maintenance and capital cost savings.


Mobility: Efficiency and safety

While Cary is growing, it doesn’t want to be a community where massive thoroughfares crisscross the city. It has set limits on the number of lanes its roads should have and it’s looking for smart cities solutions to move traffic more efficiently on them.

Safety is another key priority. It not only wants to reach a state of zero fatalities, it also wants to eliminate all serious-injury accidents.

The mobility workgroup evaluated two potential projects. The first involved making use of its existing network of connected intersections. Two corridors have intersections that are wired and capable of receiving and sending information to drivers, such as when the traffic signals are about to change. The issue is few vehicles are equipped to make use of that.

The working group suggested the city look to partner with fleet operators — everyone from the police department to the school district — to find ways of using those connected intersections to speed response times, reduce delays in getting kids to school, and so on.

In addition to providing value to those fleet operators, it could also serve as a proof of concept to encourage others to adopt connected technologies in their vehicles. If a large enough base of vehicles participates, it could also help the city develop a more effective automated traffic signal management program.

The working group also suggested that the city look to more effectively use mobility data. In order to launch efforts and win funding for projects, the city needs to be able to work from a baseline and show progress.

Kevin Ebi is the global managing editor at the Smart Cities Council, which helps cities become more livable, workable and sustainable. Register for Smart Cities Week, October 2-4 in Washington, D.C.

Tags: homepage-featured-3 Expert Insights In-Depth Smart Cities & Technology Smart Cities Solutions Commentaries Smart Cities Council In-Depth Sponsored

Most Recent


  • Amid tech labor shortage, outsourcing digital services could provide relief
    The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated tech and digitization globally, forever changing the way local governments conduct daily business, along with the expectations of constituents. Over the last two years, smart city plans have increased in popularity; services like tax bill payments and licensing have mostly shifted into the digital realm; and town offices evolved into comprehensive […]
  • procurement IT
    The beauty of the beast: Why the pandemic & cybersecurity might actually improve procurement and IT collaboration
    For well over decade, IT managers have listed cybersecurity as their number one concern. Both the CompTIA Public Technology Institute (PTI) and the National Association of State Information Officers (NASCIO) have been tracking top trends in IT management, policy, governance and operational issues as they relate to state and local government. Only recently has “procurement” […]
  • public health
    Building the public health workforce of tomorrow
    Since the first case of COVID-19 hit the United States, public health units across the country have been working non-stop to contain this deadly disease. In the two years since the first lockdowns, we’ve all seen these professionals work diligently to help educate the public about the risks, give tips on how to prevent getting […]
  • Reno launches first-ever municipal blockchain app to track public transactions
    Much has been said in the last week about the ongoing meltdown of cryptocurrency, driven by an uncertain economic outlook and rapidly increasing inflation. Over the last seven months, Bitcoin, for example, has dropped to $21,000 from its $64,000 high. But while crypto markets might be in retreat at least for the moment, the underlying technology […]

Related Content

  • North Texas alliance partners with Marketplace.city on smart government solutions
  • Harris County deploys next-generation security in 150 public buildings
  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery
  • The Colonial Pipeline attack: What it means for critical infrastructure, and why businesses need to have a plan in place

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

Seamless Cooperative Experience Saves Indiana City Exponentially in Time and Money dlvr.it/SSxp95

27th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

10 best large cities for fishing dlvr.it/SSxbSZ

27th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Generational differences present an opportunity to reinvent public sector service delivery dlvr.it/SSxbN7

27th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Local and state governments are facing a retention crisis; the worst could be yet to come dlvr.it/SSnmS7

24th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Amid an unprecedented increase in federal spending, cities and counties stand to benefit from partnerships dlvr.it/SSkGBn

23rd June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Governments using technology to harness data and improve decision-making dlvr.it/SSk3H0

23rd June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Infrastructure highlighted by city leaders as top priority in analysis of 60 mayoral addresses dlvr.it/SSgBck

22nd June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Oklahoma City puts the focus on employees when implementing changes in office technology dlvr.it/SSfyns

22nd June 2022

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X