The Adelaide, Prospect, Townsville, and Sunshine Coast councils have been named as Smart21 Communities of 2021 by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF).
The ICF assesses communities across the world for their strengths in categories such as digital equality, innovation, sustainability, and technological connectivity.
Joining the four SA and Queensland local governments in the list of the Smart21 Communities of the Year were Wellington (New Zealand), Moscow, Philadelphia, Belfast, and Vietnam’s Binh Duong Smart City.
Speaking about Townsville’s award, Mayor Jenny Hill said: “Our Smart Townsville strategy is focused on opening space for conversation, collaboration and partnerships to achieve the best outcomes for our city.
“It’s rewarding to see our city’s efforts being recognised on the world stage. We’re in great company … in our mission to harness the potential of technology to help make Townsville a fantastic place to live now and into the future.”
The ICF will now send detailed questionnaires to each of the Smart21 communities, with seven to be named as Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2021 in June and one announced as Intelligent Community of the Year in October.
In other smart city news, the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council has been nominated for an IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Award for its Googong Smart Social Spaces project.
Googong is a new community on the NSW-ACT border with integrated smart infrastructure across five neighbourhoods, including a wind turbine, solar-powered “smart poles’’ supporting 5G, free public Wi-Fi and smart parking, waste, irrigation, and monitoring technologies.
The project includes a repeatable open-source Smart Suburbs Blueprint for other councils and developers to use.