Smart City Concepts in Curitiba: Low-carbon Transport and Mobility in a Digital Society

The project explores the transformational change needed to make urban Transport and mobility more energy-efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable. The project will provide concrete ground for testing technological transformation in an urban context in Latin America, capitalizing on Swedish and European experiences. It will contribute new insights and tools for addressing mobility in urban areas, exploring multi-level infrastructure transformation and technological innovation in a transdisciplinary cooperative platform.

Background

Equating sustainability and prosperity in urban environments involves finding solutions for the challenges of mobility. There is a need to articulate synergies between stakeholders and different infrastructure sectors in urban planning. Therefore there is a need for collaboration among stakeholders to take the most advantage of innovative technologies to improve mobility services and management of the urban space.

This project strengthens the collaborative platform and expands it to include new partners and address innovation challenges in transport systems and mobility planning. We approach mobility from a transdisciplinary point of view, exploring the creation of multi-sectoral platforms to promote the transition towards sustainable and smart mobility of people and goods in the urban environment. The activities proposed for 2020-2022 align with the Swedish and Brazilian innovation programs, global agendas for climate and development, and goals defined by the City of Curitiba.

Aim and objectives

This project aims to:

Develop innovative and smart solutions for promoting low-carbon transport pathways for citizens and goods;
Identify ways to improve resource and service efficiency in the urban context; and
Explore how digitalization can catalyze system transformations for improved sustainability in transport and energy service provision while also promoting emissions reduction and prosperity.

The project includes data and technology sourcing and analysis, energy and emissions balances for different transport solutions and fuel alternatives, culminating with designing scenarios for smart mobility and a digital reality platform in 3D. Ultimately, this coordinated effort and the results shall provide decision-making support for transport and mobility planning. Scenarios for smart mobility of people and goods will be developed using real data from Curitiba, exploring technological shifts and low-carbon solutions that meet ambitious emissions reduction goals at the local and global levels.

This transdiciplinary project provides concrete ground for testing technological transformation in an urban context in Latin America, capitalizing on Swedish and European experiences. It will contribute new insights and tools for addressing mobility in urban areas, exploring multi-level infrastructure transformation and technological innovation in a transdisciplinary cooperative platform.

The project team includes multiple stakeholders from academia, business, government, and society. The interaction with planning organizations in Curitiba throughout the project makes it possible to integrate the findings into planning practices in the city. The collaborative platform of the project shall become a reference in terms of the model of stakeholder collaboration proposed, as well as the concrete examples it brings for addressing the challenge of low-carbon mobility.

Project partners

The project is led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and Federal University of Technology – Paraná UTFPR in Brazil.

Partners include KTH, Hexagon/Leica Geosystems, Sweco, Sustainable Vision – Global Ventures AB, UTFPR, UFPR, the planning organizations IPPUC and URBS in Curitiba, and CISB.

Funding is provided by VINNOVA and partners.

Time period: 2019-2022.