Smart regional spaces: Ready, set, go!

The NSW government is improving digital capabilities in regional and rural areas by providing new hardware, mobile connection and capacity-building through the Regional Digital Connectivity Project.  Smart initiatives can support in this process by integrating technology into the built and natural environment leading to improved public infrastructure, smart governance, improved asset management, and evidence-based decision-making.

Up to now, the ‘smart cities movement’ has been all about urban areas and the challenges that come with high density living, traffic congestion, and city open space. That conversation needs to turn to the regional areas so that regional councils and communities can benefit from innovations in community management, infrastructure and the design of public spaces. 

The Smart Regional Spaces: Ready, Set, Go! project, funded through a $2.2 million grant as part of the Digital Restart Fund under the Smart Places Acceleration Program, aims to address the substantial divide in digital inclusion between urban and rural Australia.

The Project Team will partner with three regional NSW councils to test and pilot the process of creating smart places and enabling equitable digital inclusion for all communities through smart tools, templates and development processes- assisting regional NSW councils to become ‘smart ready’.

The project’s multidisciplinary team includes expertise in planning, landscape architecture, architecture, environment-behaviour, and engineering. We are working together to collaborate with regional NSW councils in three ways:

• Firstly, to determine the relevance, applicability and transferability of smart places resources to a NSW regional context.  

• Secondly, to create a smart knowledge network of experts throughout the regions.

• And finally, to launch, in mid-2023 the ‘Start Smart-Ready Program’ free to all 91 councils for capacity-building. 

This project is producing the following digital outputs:

1. Start Smart Modules: A series of 12 digital smart places learning modules are being developed to inform and engage communities with people and place issues and the potential role of smart infrastructure and technology in the environment. 
2. Smart Precedent Projects: This collection of case studies presents a series of smart place initiatives, from around the world, relevant to rural communities.
3. Digital Regional Site Diagnostics: Diagnostic tools are being developed for assessing public spaces in the region for functionality, place-based strengths and weaknesses, and as potential sites for smart technology. Extensive readings, audit tools, place toolkits, and participatory methods for community inclusion will be digitally collated for councils to enable them self-assess in the future.  
4. Urban Expedition: Partner councils will visit Greater Sydney to see smart cities projects, precincts, programs, and infrastructure in action. Connection, collaboration, and mentoring will be facilitated throughout the course of the expedition. 
5. Smart Place Strategies and Digital Templates: An online, interactive digital template and suggestions for methods to develop a Smart Place Strategy will be created for other regional councils to use in the future. The benefit of having a Smart Places Strategy in regional councils created with the community and all stakeholders is that each council has a co-designed roadmap to increase smart infrastructure, smart governance, evidence/data-based planning, and digital asset management. For our partner councils, a bespoke strategy will be developed with them, shaped by local and state priorities. 
6. On-Site Smart Place Solutions and Digital Guides: For our partner councils, these will be interactive, custom-designed with the three partner Councils, and conducted on-site – adopting a ‘see one, do one, teach one’ – legacy model.

This 16-month project is led by Associate Professor Nancy Marshall at The University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, and Associate Professor Kate Bishop and Dr Christine Steinmetz at UNSW, Sydney. The project partners are Department of Regional NSW, The University of Sydney and UNSW, Sydney.