Hamilton’s smart approach to improve services and wellbeing
5 October 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hamilton councillors were this week briefed on development of the Smart Hamilton project, an overarching partnership approach to improve the wellbeing of Hamiltonians.

Hamilton City Council’s Smart Hamilton initiative uses digital services, insights and technology to improve services to customers and better manage the city’s assets. Similar programmes have been developed in other cities around the world, as well as locally in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.

Through identifying problems, then identifying how collaboration and technology can assist, Smart Hamilton aims to provide an effective framework to deliver Hamilton’s outcomes:

A great river city
A city that embraces growth
A Council that is best in business
The programme is strongly based on partnership and collaboration with other organisations and is already delivering results. The most recent example is the city’s switch to LED streetlights.

The lights use about half of the power of the previous sodium lamps, last three times longer and have a guarantee for 10 years. NZ Transport Agency funded around $4.7M of the $5.7M cost of the first two stages of the project. The Council’s contribution will pay for itself in the next few years by saving more than $250,000 annually in maintenance and power costs.

Through innovation and partnership with the light manufacturers, the project has delivered specialised lighting to reduce light pollution near the Hamilton Observatory. Research into light effects also improved the ‘feel’ of the lights for residents and minimised the impact on bats and nocturnal animals.

Hamilton's size and scale mean the city is small enough to try things and big enough to make them meaningful. Other projects underway include online services to improve response times for customers, advanced transport operations, sensors in the city’s water networks, an open data portal and the provision of economic data and reports.

Improved technology is also helping manage the city’s wastewater network where ‘intelligent’ pumps have been installed which can sense a blockage in the network and , if possible, deal with it automatically, reducing service callouts and disruption for residents.

The next stage of Smart Hamilton will be to develop a ‘Smart Space’ where office space in the central city showcases technology and inventions being developed in the city. It will also be a way to engage with the community to identify new opportunities and support community-led innovation.

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