[ui!] Australia
[ui!] Hungary
[ui!] United Kingdom
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[ui!] EASY
Open urban data platform for easier access
Brief information
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Added value for citizens
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Implementing digitalisation
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Get started in the short term
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Gain experience
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Breaking down data silos
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Creating standards
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be prepared for future tasks
The open urban data platform with the entry-level package: [ui!] EASY
Have you ever found yourself in a conversation about smart cities where nobody knew exactly how best to get started with the smart development of their own municipality?
Everyone involved in the conversation typically agrees that local authorities should move from being the "drivers" to the "drivers" of digitalisation. It is also frequently said that digitalisation should not be an end in itself, but should instead serve the substantive goals of municipal development.
However, when it comes to implementing these guiding principles, there is often a lack of knowledge about which smart projects and solutions really work and what real added value they can generate.
This is exactly where we at the [ui!] Urban Software Institute come in. Since our foundation in 2012, we have been supporting cities, districts and regions in the implementation of their smart projects. Building on our experience, we have developed the entry-level solution [ui!] EASY, which is tailored to the initial phase.
[ui!] EASY is just the right thing if you
- ...work on innovative and digital projects in your municipality and start building your digital infrastructure and sensor technology.
- ...are the "doer" type and want to quickly implement your first smart projects with visible added value for your local government and citizens.
- ...recognise the value of data-driven decisions and therefore strive for a digitally mapped picture of their municipal infrastructures with the help of existing and new data.
- ...are looking for a cost-effective solution or are currently realising a time-limited funding project.
- ...look for concrete blueprints for a climate-friendly transformation that have already been implemented by other municipalities.
Building blocks for smart municipalities
[ui!] EASY is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that seamlessly integrates data collection, visualisation and a range of proven municipal applications in perfect harmony. It aims to free data from the silos of municipal infrastructures in order to make it usable for current tasks in key areas such as climate protection, environmental protection, energy efficiency, traffic control and multimodal mobility.
Imagine the following situation: You open your browser, type https://<municipality>.urbanpulse.de into the address bar and see at a glance the current status of your municipality in terms of climate protection targets, energy consumption savings in municipal properties, street lighting, air quality and the impact of transport on health and quality of life.
[ui!] EASY is used to manage data for smart applications by connecting it to the urban data platform [ui!] UrbanPulse and displaying it using the [ui!] COCKPIT visualisation tool. You can choose from a range of market-proven use cases to find the ideal entry point for your municipality and test it for a period of 12 months.
Our service
The solution name determines the programme at [ui!] EASY: To make it easier for you to use our solution, we take care of the installation, connection and operation of the urban data platform [ui!] UrbanPulse and the visualisation with [ui!] COCKPIT.
To ensure that everything runs smoothly, it is important that you comply with the obligations to provide data that are necessary for feeding your data into [ui!] EASY. You can find more information on this in the Technical description section.
The [ui!] COCKPIT visualises your data in an understandable, open and simple way, without requiring complex knowledge or expertise. This data visualisation allows your citizens and municipal stakeholders to participate in the digitalisation process right from the start.
Utilisation of the data by third parties is expressly intended and desired. Any rights of use are regulated separately.
The package includes the following functionalities:
- The minimum term for [ui!] EASY is twelve (12) months. The contract can then be cancelled monthly with a notice period of 90 days. Hosting - i.e. the costs incurred for hardware, monitoring and cloud - are included in the price.
- A maximum of two (2) use cases can be selected from one subject area, and a maximum of three (3) use cases.
The remaining three tiles can be filled with information on the respective projects of your municipality with a static text and associated image. - A total of 20 sensors can be connected in the [ui!] EASY entry-level package. If more than a total of 20 sensors are registered in the systems, only the specified number of sensors will be integrated into the data platform.
- Effective role and rights management gives you full control over when citizens and individual municipal stakeholders have which access rights to your data.
What happens to the data
The value of data and its potential uses depend to a large extent on its degree of "refinement". While raw data merely represents an unorganised mass of data from which no direct conclusions can yet be drawn, structured data as information already lays the foundation for further data analyses.
These analyses ultimately result in concrete knowledge that forms the basis for new innovative services. This knowledge gain creates significant added value for citizens, municipal companies and other organisations.
By refining the data with the open urban data platform
[ui!] UrbanPulse, data is efficiently collected, structured and analysed to enable a more liveable and sustainable urban development and to be able to react to challenges in a targeted manner and continuously improve your services.
Your data always remains under your control!
As the owner of large volumes of urban data, you should organise your data sovereignty using an integrated, open and real-time-capable data platform including analysis tools. This gives you an overview of all your data and its utilisation at all times. Existing and new urban data can be used to create new added value and added value for your citizens.
If, during the utilisation phase of [ui!] EASY, you are convinced that you have found the right solution, you can upgrade to the full version of [ui!] UrbanPulse and [ui!] COCKPIT at any time - even at the end of the entry-level package. All data, information and results will of course be retained.
Use cases
Climate protection
Climate protection
Overview: We offer you three different tiles for the climate protection use case.
You can use these:
- The data for the land utilisation (available green space in comparison to the built-up area) are shown.
- Information on waste management (amount of waste compared to the proportion of recycled waste) can be visualised.
- CO2 savings: This tile offers the option of listing the CO2 emissions saved in the various areas and comparing them on a daily basis.
- Energy mix: The energy efficiencies of the various municipal properties can be presented and compared here in a very comprehensible way - in the same way as the energy performance certificate. At the same time, a target value can be defined.
- Energy history: Here you can see how much energy has been generated from various sources over the last 7 days, including renewable energy sources compared to fossil fuels.
- Renewable energies: In line with the "Energy history" tile, you can view the generation and share of renewable energies in a pie chart.
Tiles: Land use, waste management, CO2 savings, energy mix, energy history, renewable energies
Connectors: Connector for manual data input
Environmental protection
Environmental protection
- Environmental measurement data: There are several tiles to choose from for this use case.
You can integrate data from up to 2 different systems. This includes data from Vaisala, Libelium and HLNUG. We reserve the right to expand the list in the future. If you also opt for our entry-level environmental sensor package, these sensors can also be integrated free of charge beyond the contingent.
- Smart Waste: Intelligent waste bins of the "Big Belly" or "Mr Fill" type can be connected.
- Noise pollution: For this use case, sensors can be integrated that continuously record the noise pollution. These are clearly displayed on a tile.
- Flood protection: A tile is available for the flood protection use case, which both citizens and decision-makers can use to constantly view the current water level.
Tiles: Environment (in 3 variations), Urban rubbish bins, Noise pollution, Water levels
Connectors: Vaisala Connector, Libelium Connector, HLNUG Connector, MrFill Connector, BigBelly Connector, DuoSmartNoiseMonitor Connector, ICEGateway Connector, SentryMqtt Connector, Manual Data Entry Connector, Fleximoto Connector, OlbringMqtt Connector, YmatronSmartBin Connector
Energy efficiency
Energy efficiency
- Charging infrastructure: The charging stations of a provider can be integrated. A suitable connector must already be available for the provider.
- Street lighting: Municipal street lights can be integrated and displayed. The luminaires must come from the same system - this currently includes Schréder Exedra, Philips CityTouch and Schréder Owlet IoT.
- Astro clock: The planned individual switching times of the street lighting depending on the times of the sun are graphically processed and clearly displayed here. This allows the municipality to estimate how much electricity will be consumed by the sun-controlled switching times on a daily basis.
- Presence-dependent lighting control: If you have installed a lighting control system that regulates brightness depending on presence, you can connect it to [ui!] EASY and display both the current brightness and the course of the day in the [ui!] COCKPIT.
- Energy saving: In addition to the "Energy history" tile, you can view the total annual energy saved here. This is compared with the previous year and displayed as saved CO2 equivalents.
- Solar energy: The output of a PV system varies and naturally depends on the available solar radiation. With this tile, you can see directly how much the municipal PV systems connected to the data platform are currently generating, as well as the accumulated energy over the day.
City information: This tile displays information on the area of the city, the current number of inhabitants, the number of data sources and other important key figures. This tile is always automatically included in the [ui!] EASY solution.
Tiles: Smart charging, smart lighting, astro clock, presence-dependent lighting control, energy savings, city information
Connectors: ChargeCloud connector, ChargeIt connector, ChargingStationYellowMap connector, ModbusChargingStation connector, connector for manual data input
Mobility, traffic & parking space management
Mobility, traffic & parking space management
- Smart Parking: The percentage occupancy of parking spaces can be displayed in a tile. This includes both on-street parking sensors and camera-based systems that record the occupancy of a parking space.
- Parking: In addition to the "Smart Parking" tile, various parking spaces and their current utilisation can be integrated here. These are displayed in rotation so that the user has an overview of all the car parks in the municipality that are recorded and connected.
- Modal split: The "Modal split" tile can be used to visualise how the modal split is used in the municipality. It can be used to answer citizens' questions, e.g. how many people use public transport, the bicycle or their own car.
- Charging stations: The occupancy of several charging points at one location is shown in a list. At the same time, it is also recorded whether the associated car park is also available. In this way, users can see in advance whether it is worth travelling to the charging point.
- Digital city tour: With this tile you can invite your citizens to a digital city tour. Of course, you can also link another application here that invites citizens to interact more.
- Traffic monitoring: This tile shows you the current traffic volume and the vehicles counted over the last 24 hours at a glance. You can immediately see anomalies and recognise recurring patterns and take specific and targeted measures to deal with any increased traffic volumes.
- Traffic-dependent lighting control: As with presence-dependent lighting control, which is primarily aimed at pedestrians, it is of course also worth adapting the lighting control of street lighting to the traffic. With this tile, you can view both the counted vehicles and thus the current traffic, as well as the progression over time.
- Traffic information: This tile displays the current roadworks in the area of the municipality in a user-friendly way. The map view complements this tile perfectly, as users can view the current and even planned roadworks directly on the map.
Tiles: Smart parking, parking, modal split, charging stations, digital city tour, traffic monitoring, traffic-dependent light control, traffic information
Connectors: INRIX connector, Cleverciti connector, Bernard Brenner connector, Gospace parking connector, connector for manual data input, ChargeCloud connector, ChargetIT connector, ChargePoint connector, ChargingstationYellowMap connector, IPS403-Traffic-Connector, OCIT-C-Connector, Swisstraffic-XML-Connector, VDHTraffic-Connector, CSV-Traffic-Connector, Speedcamera-Connector, SpeedDisplays-Connector, CiventoConstructionsites-Connector, NetInfomap-Connector, TrafficObstructions-Connector
Standards and availability
[ui!] EASY meets the requirements of DIN SPEC 91357, a standardised framework for open urban data platforms developed by the German Institute for Standardisation in collaboration with Fraunhofer FOKUS.
With the [ui!] EASY solution, we offer you a guaranteed availability of 95%. Planned and announced maintenance periods are excluded. The installation is continuously monitored by our monitoring system.
As shared hardware resources are used, the update frequency of the data may be limited depending on the registered sensors. You can find more information on this in the FAQ on our website.
Historical data is stored for up to 12 months - older data is automatically removed from the data platform once this period has expired.
Data sources and obligations to provide data
In order to set up [ui!] EASY in your municipality quickly, we rely on you to provide us with the necessary data. The specific obligations to provide data depend on the selected use cases and the associated data sources. If the data is not publicly accessible, we may need your access data to the respective systems - this includes either a specially set up user account or an API key.
In the case of sensors or systems that actively send data, we will provide you with an endpoint for receiving data shortly after installation. You must enter this in the relevant systems yourself. The systems must already be in active operation, i.e. actively providing or sending data. Subsequent integration of new systems is possible at any time via the full version of [ui!] UrbanPulse.
You only need at least one of the above-mentioned systems in active use in order to integrate the data into the data platform and the cockpit.
Your data remains protected at all times and inaccessible to other customers. In addition, the available resources are guaranteed in accordance with the service level agreement. This means that the access times for your data platform and cockpit remain fast, reliable and stable, even when the overall load is high.
Representation
In [ui!] EASY, the number of data-driven tiles is limited to a maximum of three (3). The remaining three tiles can be filled with information on the respective local authority projects with a static text and associated image. For this purpose, we offer a prefabricated, static tile to provide the length of the text or the size of the image as a format template.
Either a dark or a light standard theme can be selected as the "theme" for the [ui!] COCKPIT in the [ui!] EASY solution. A logo or coat of arms of your municipality can be integrated.
Georeferenced weather data is provided as standard in the [ui!] COCKPIT sidebar. [ui!] EASY is displayed as the solution name in the header area of the [ui!] COCKPIT. The [ui!] COCKPIT is delivered in German and English as standard, whereby the user can select the language in their browser.
Users can also access a map in the [ui!] COCKPIT, on which all sensors - where possible - are geographically located. The data that can be found in the tiles is also displayed on the map. In addition, the data can be displayed here for each sensor in a time series view.