OGC hosts successful launch of Smart Cities Tech Pilot

SCIRA Pilot will help bring smart cities standards to the public safety community in the US and around the world.

30 August 2019: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), in collaboration with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the City of St Louis, Missouri, has launched a smart cities technology integration pilot, helping bring smart cities standards to the public safety community in the US and around the world.

Through this pilot, taking place at T-REX, the downtown St. Louis technology innovation center, the partners will research, design, and test the Smart City Interoperability Reference Architecture (SCIRA) as an interoperable framework that integrates commercial, proprietary Internet of Things (IoT) sensors for public safety applications at the community level. The intended outcome of this smart city effort is to enhance public safety by creating efficient and effective operations across all city departments.

“With this pilot, we will be able to engage stakeholders in St. Louis to test how their technology can meet real city needs,” said William Bryan, Senior Official Performing the Duties of Under Secretary for Science and Technology. “The City of St. Louis joined the federal Smart Cities Initiative in an effort to improve public safety, among other objectives. We, at DHS S&T, are honored to work with the city and OGC as we continue to serve our colleagues in public safety.” 

“Community level application of existing technologies is essential for a 21st century city to adequately deliver services to its residents, provide for their public safety, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of all city services. The way our residents live, work and play is continuously evolving and their government must evolve with them. I am excited to be partnering with DHS S&T and OGC on this very important smart city effort,” Mayor Lyda Krewson said.

The goal of the SCIRA pilot is to integrate and test existing real-world technologies that can augment, and even improve, all day-to-day city operations and emergency response capabilities. The pilot will test the technologies’ performances and ability to enhance public safety via a series of major flooding, flash flooding, vulnerable population outreach, and building fire scenarios. Through the SCIRA project’s findings, cities could have open, interoperable methods for incorporating smart city technologies across city services using shared technology standards.

For more information on the SCIRA project visit scira.ogc.org.

About OGC

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 530 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities driven to make geospatial (location) information and services FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

OGC’s member-driven consensus process creates royalty free, publicly available geospatial standards. Existing at the cutting edge, OGC actively analyzes and anticipates emerging tech trends, and runs an agile, collaborative Research and Development (R&D) lab that builds and tests innovative prototype solutions to members' use cases.

OGC members together form a global forum of experts and communities that use location to connect people with technology and improve decision-making at all levels. OGC is committed to creating a sustainable future for us, our children, and future generations.

Visit ogc.org for more info on our work.