The world's first lab for planning future cities will officially open at the University of NSW today.
The City Analytics Lab supports collaborative decision-making across agencies in a dedicated space for smart city planning and design.
The goal is to improve information-sharing among agencies responsible for planning and designing smarter, more liveable future cities.
Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities, Paul Fletcher, will formally open the City Analytics Lab, which is housed within
UNSW Built Environment.
Fletcher commended UNSW for its important work in making Australian cities smarter and more liveable through the City Analytics Lab.
“This is an important focus for the Turnbull Government as we roll out our $50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, through which we are working with UNSW and other organisations including local councils, to make our cities better places to live using data and technology,” the Minister said.
Professor Christopher Pettit, chair of Urban Science in the Built Environment Faculty at UNSW, said the Lab uses interactive technology, big data, visualisation, virtual reality and planning models to support an interdisciplinary approach to decision-making for city planning and policy-making.
He said the lab is designed to help government and industry understand these technologies and new approaches to inform the planning of more liveable, productive, sustainable and resilient cities.
“Traditional technology such as websites and file sharing cause silos between agencies that impede collaboration and group decision-making. At the City Analytics Lab, digital artefacts in the form of data and models are easily viewed and shared in real-time,” Pettit said.
“The Lab brings down the barriers for information sharing, engaging with data, models and simulations. This is a room that supports the multidisciplinary approach that is required when you are looking at cities.
“Cities are not run by one department, one agency or one group. We are trying to get people working together on the same page.”