EGovernment

Governance as the axis of the intelligent city is of central importance because here is the contact of the citizen with the Local Authority for his service but also his participation in the life of the city.

Online Services

The fast and efficient service of citizens and city visitors is an important part of the governance axis. For this reason, initiatives in this area were among the first activities of Heraklion in the strategy of a smart city that started in 2007 and gave it not only local but also international recognition. Some of these services are:

• City Portal – The web portal (www.heraklion.gr) is the central location from where all e-government e-government services are offered. It was one of the country’s first web portals to offer eGovernment services when it began its current form in late 2007. It is the first triple of traffic between the country’s municipal e-gates.

• Electronic Services and Electronic Request Processing.
The Municipality of Heraklion is one of the first municipalities in the country to offer a total of 163 e-services to its citizens. Users can download the official forms, fill in and submit them online or print them and fill them out manually.

• e-payments – for payments of debts to the municipality

• e-library – to book books to be borrowed from the public library online

• Database of administrative decisions – an electronic database of all administrative decisions taken by municipal councils of the municipality from 01/01/1990 onwards.

• GIS Urban Planning – a GIS system for organizing urban design data for faster, easier and better citizen service.

We focus on enhancing our focused personal service, improving interactivity, and lowering the cost of services. Personal service through ICT can reduce service costs but at the same time significantly improve their quality. Efforts will continue in the years to come, so that more and more services are provided to citizens, such as the provision of e-payment services for social benefits. This avoids traditional queues in the services, and there is the possibility of paying back payments to those in need.

Broadband Infrastructure.

Because broadband reaches the point that it is as important as running water and electricity, the City of Heraklion has realized the importance of promoting and improving its penetration. Since the introduction of broadband products in Greece, the market penetration rate of these services has been among the largest in the world [1], and as a result, almost 100% of the population currently has access to some form of broadband connection. The infrastructure described below is a major cause of this effective penetration.

Wireless Wi-Fi coverage
As part of the City’s efforts to bring broadband and new technologies as close as possible to the citizen, the wireless free-access network offers free wireless access to the Internet in the densely populated areas of the city, as well as in some remote areas of the city. This has been added to the broadband connectivity available, especially to road users with mobile devices. The wireless network is continuously growing in size, capacity and quality of service with more than 132 access points across the city and planned upgrades in data volume as well as new technologies. We are growing in streets, squares and other gathering points for residents and visitors, wireless access points to the internet. Our main goal is to fully cover the historical center of the city, the coastal avenue and the most important squares in the city and the villages.

Broadband Services Coverage

A major contributor to this broadband boom in Heraklion City is the installation of proprietary fiber optic networks in the city. The right of transit has been granted by the Municipality to four telecommunication service companies for the installation of their networks throughout the city, thus increasing the penetration of services as well as improving services and competition. In addition, the Municipality of Heraklion, through another call for proposals from the Information Society, has installed its own Metropolitan Fiber Optic Network for use in the public sector. This network already connects 150 public sector buildings including schools, sports centers, hospitals and higher education institutions with more than 80 km of fiber optic cables. In this context, we are increasing, with appropriate policies, the speed and security of Internet access (broadband) by increasing the size of the Metropolitan Fiber Optic Network. Each road constructed will now have a ready piping infrastructure for the installation of fiber optics.

Sensor Coverage

We place sensors for collecting and transmitting data of the everyday life of the place. Climate, transport, energy consumption, etc., will be collected in the Municipality’s information system and will be used for the management and solving of the problems. The citizens will also be provided with the opportunity to present useful information Information collected through the Smart Sensor Network to be deployed in various locations in the city of Heraklion and based on Object Internet technologies. In more detail, citizens will monitor in real time the collected data on urban environment quality (eg traffic, electromagnetic radiation, noise levels, air and water pollution, etc.). Below are examples of environmental factors measuring nodes: Developing novel environmental node measurement nodes, each node being able to include sensors for:

• Temperature and humidity measurement of the atmosphere

• Measurement of noise levels (sound)

• PM10 particulate measurement

• Gas sensor

• Light level measurement

• rain sensor

Other types of nodes include:

• Water quality and water measurement nodes for the irrigation tank network

• Smart parking nodes

• Smart lighting nodes

Open Government

With spatial planning options, we strengthen urban equipment at selected locations to facilitate access, movement, information and service to residents and visitors. We will invest in external and internal “info-kiosks”, electronic billboards, “intelligent stops” of vehicles, LED lighting fitting and electronic parking control systems, thus improving our competitiveness. We create a single framework for the management of geospatial information. The organization of data and information, taking into account their spatial (and temporal) dimension, will be the tool for the development of value added services and the creation of a common operational picture, both in the competent services of the Municipality and in the Administration.

The design includes:

• Adoption and application of common rules for the collection, management and processing and verification of the institutional or otherwise nature of geospatial information

• Creating a single data repository

• Adoption of openness principles and international standards

• Development of interoperable e-services

O Access
O Processing
O Listing
O Sensor Web

Open software, open data, open standards

A key element of our policy is the choice of open standards in the storage and distribution of information, as well as the use of Open Free Software. We open the “digital content” of the Municipality, the information, that is, the data it has, to all citizens. This enables us to use this data to improve local entrepreneurship, participation and quality of life. We follow the example of all the world’s leading cities for investing in open digital infrastructures.

Mobile Apps Applications

We place weight on the development and availability of information, service and participation of residents and visitors in the life of our country. Particular weight will be given to the development of applications for mobile phones and small laptops (Tablets). Some examples of applications are:

• Enhanced reality applications for multimedia content presentation.

• Walkthrough applications in the city of Heraklion for mobile devices through alternative routes and themes tailored to each user’s interests.

• Citizen service e-services for all services provided by the Municipality of Heraklion.

Privacy Policy

The Municipality of Heraklion, recognizing the personal data management problems, will guarantee civil protection policies against malicious use of data resulting from their transactions with the information systems of the Municipality. These policies are already in place in cooperation with European institutions through the RERUM (Reliable, Resilient and SecUre IoT for sMart city applications) program. The program aims to develop, evaluate and test an architectural framework for reliable and secure smart grids Supporting innovative Smart Cities applications. This framework is based on the concept of “security and protection of personal data as an integral part of the design” to address the most critical factors for the success of smart city applications.
Smart management of cities.

By exploiting the Internet of Things, we will be collecting urgent measurements of critical city life in areas such as Transport, Environment, Energy, Participatory Management, Civil Protection, Local Government Partnerships, Managing the above data through “smart” systems will help local authorities to make decisions to improve the quality of life.

[1] http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadband/1.5-BBPenetrationHistorical-Data-2014-12.xls