The city of Edinburgh in Scotland has published a new digital strategy. The intention is to build on progress on the city’s previous, 2020 strategy, to become a sustainable and inclusive Smart City.

The Digital and Smart City strategy 2024 – 2027, which aims to accelerate Edinburgh’s technological transformation, was approved by members of the Policy and Sustainability Committee in late October.

Since the launch of Edinburgh’s previous Smart City strategy in 2020, the council has achieved greater citywide connectivity through better digital infrastructure, including citywide fibre networks and public Wi-Fi. It has introduced integrated real-time public transport information and 24/7 monitoring of busy areas.

The city has installed 11,000 bin sensors around the city to help waste crews identify hot-spot areas for bin collections and plan routes efficiently, and installed damp sensors into 500 homes to help detect early repairs and to promote health and well being. It has focused on improving digital literacy, provided 1 to 1 electronic devices for all school children from nine years upwards, as well as staff, plus 1 to 5 shared devices for all other school children aged five to eight years old.

Council workers have also received mandatory cyber training for all council workers to improve cybersecurity as a response to increased attacks on organisations.

Council leader Cammy Day said: “Our biggest priorities for Edinburgh are to create good places to live and work, tackle poverty and inequality and become a net zero city. Our Smart City approach is central to all three of those aims. We plan to build on our use of smart technology to improve day to day council services, and we’re looking at using data monitoring to better understand how people get around and use the city. Edinburgh is a growing magnet for tech and we plan to partner with universities, companies and start-ups to further grow and attract global investment.”