international case studies of smart cities

International Case Studies of Smart Cities

Tel Aviv, Israel

Dr. Eran Toch Eyal Feder

IDB-DP-444

Institutions for Development Sector

Fiscal and Municipal Management Division

DISCUSSION PAPER Nº

June 2016


Tel Aviv, Israel

Dr. Eran Toch Eyal Feder

June 2016

Contact: Mauricio Bouskela, [email protected].

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2016

T


TEL AVIV ISRAEL

IDB-KRIHS Joint Research

Abstract

This case study is one of ten international case studies developed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in association with the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS), for the cities of Anyang, Medellin, Namyangju, Orlando, Pangyo, Rio de Janeiro, Santander, Singapore, Songdo, and Tel Aviv. At the IDB, the Competitiveness and Innovation Division (CTI), the Fiscal and Municipal Management Division (FMM), and the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative (ESCI) coordinated the study. This project was part of technical cooperation ME-T1254, financed by the Knowledge Partnership Korean Fund for Technology and Innovation of the Republic of Korea. At KRIHS, the National Infrastructure Research Division coordinated the project and the Global Development Partnership Center (GDPC) provided the funding.

In recent years, Tel Aviv has developed a unique bottom-up approach toward its Smart City project, focusing its efforts on direct resident-oriented services rather than expensive, large-scale infrastructure. This case study explains Tel Aviv’s strategy, demonstrating how a high level of smart urban services was achieved using decentralized, low-cost methods. The report provides details on the approach, such as its reliance on the local startup ecosystem, its creation of services using open municipal databanks and public–private partnerships, and its emphasis on lightweight services that interact directly with residents. The case study analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Tel Aviv’s approach, discussing the technologies, processes, and strategies that can be used to implement a cost-effective smart city initiative.

JEL Codes: L86, L88, H72

Keywords: Smart cities, information systems, startup companies, municipal government, Tel Aviv

With the collaboration of:

Authors: Dr. Eran Toch and Mr. Eyal Feder

Table of Contents ExecutiveSummary.......................................................................................................................................................................1

1.Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................................3

2.ServiceSpectrum.......................................................................................................................................................................7

3.SystemConfiguration.............................................................................................................................................................11

4.OrganizationalStructure......................................................................................................................................................19

5.MonitoringandControl.........................................................................................................................................................24

6.LessonsLearned.......................................................................................................................................................................28

7.Conclusions.................................................................................................................................................................................30

ANNEXA–High-levelTechnicalSpecification................................................................................................................33

ANNEXB– Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................................39

ANNEXC– LinkstoBackgroundInformation.................................................................................................................41

ANNEXD–ServiceSpectrum..................................................................................................................................................43

International Case Studies of Smart Cities – Tel Aviv, Israel / 1

Executive Summary This report describes how the city of Tel Aviv,Israel, designs, develops, andmaintains a set ofsmart services, taking several important stepstoward fulfilling the promise of the Smart Cityinitiative.TelAviv’suniquesmartcityapproachof focusing on its residents rather than onphysicalinfrastructurewasacknowledgedwhenit received the World Smart City Award at the2014 Smart City Expo World Congress held inBarcelona. This case study describes how onecityachievedahighlevelofsmarturbanservicesand created impact using a decentralized andlow-cost methodology, building on a modularapproach and an open architecture. Thisapproach is innovative and cost effectivecompared to those employed in several othersmartcityprocesses,making itpossible to inferamoregeneralmodelfromthiscasestudy.

Tel Aviv’s core smart city project is Digi-Tel, aplatform that provides personalized access toservices and information via email, textmessages, a tailored website, and a tailoredmobile application.The informationprovided isuniquely relevant to the citizens, taking intoaccount their location, interests, needs, andother personal attributes. Digi-Tel creates aconnectionbetweenthecityanditsresidentsbyalerting them about neighborhood road works,showing them the nearest bike-sharing station,or offering discounts to cultural events. It alsopromotes active participation, as residents canreportonanythingfromactivitiesandeventstocityobstaclesorhazards.InadditiontoDigi-Tel,the city has several smart service projects inareas such as smart traffic management, safetyand security, emergency management, andparking. Many of these services are providedthrough partnerships with local startuptechnologycompanies.

The Tel Aviv smart city model has severalsignificantstrengths.Theseinclude:

• Afocusonresidents.• Relativelylowcost.• Theabilitytoreceiveongoingfeedback.• Collaborationwithstartupsandwiththe

privatesector.These strengths spur more businessopportunities for creative industries in the city,increase residents’ satisfaction, and createsharedownershipoftheSmartCityinitiative.Allofthesestrengthscombinetocreateanimageofthecityandthelocalgovernmentasinnovators,attracting desirable creative industries andyoungprofessionalstointeractwiththecity.

At the same time, since the smart city is beingbuilt piece by piece, its many projects do notalways coincide. The city currently supportsseveral control centers for different functions,which creates redundancy in human resourcesanddeficienciesindataintegration.

Overall, inaworldthatisrealizingthepowerofbottom-upprocesses in smart cities, TelAviv issetting an example of how to harness thisapproach for systemic benefit, putting forth anarray of practical solutions and conceptualframeworks.Thismodel,despiteitsweaknesses,mayserveasabeaconforsustainablesmartcityagendasaroundtheglobe.

2 / International Case Studies of Smart Cities – Tel Aviv, Israel


TEL AVIV, Israel

1. Introduction

1.1 Overview of the City

Tel Aviv is Israel’s second most populous cityanditsmainbusiness,technological,andculturalcenter. In November 2014, the city won firstprize in the Smart City competition held at theSmartCityExpoinBarcelona(EU,2014),shiftingglobal focus to its unique approach thatleverages technology to improve the quality oflife in the city. This report outlines Tel Aviv’sSmartCityandderivativeprojectsthataffectthecityanditsresidents.

Tel Aviv has been Israel’s main urban centersince its founding in 1909. From its veryfoundation by Jewish immigrants looking tocreate “theNewYork of theMiddle East” to itscurrent status as a global city, Tel Aviv hasalways had the beat of a metropolis.While thecityitselfhassome414,000inhabitants,itisthefocalpointoftheTelAvivmetropolitanarea,thecountry’s most populated region, home to 3.6millionpeople(46percentofIsrael’spopulation)in an area of 60 square kilometers (Statistical,2013). Therefore, some municipal policies areexecuted at the regional level by centralgovernment offices (such as publictransportation), and some are executed at themunicipal level(suchasparking).Thecity itselfis located on the Mediterranean coastline, inIsrael’sgeographiccenter,providingitwithfourtypical seasons and a warm Mediterraneanclimate.

SeasideViewofTelAviv(photo:Sergei25).


As Israel’s leading business center, Tel Aviv ishometotheTelAvivStockExchange,majorbankheadquarters,andmanyleadingmedia,law,andfinancialfirms—themainindustriesinthecity’seconomic structure. In the past few years,however, Tel Aviv became known throughouttheworld as the center of Israel’s vibrant high-techandstartupecosystem,boastingoneof theworld’s topecosystems(Milian,2012).Theself-proclaimed “Startup City” has more than 700startup companies and more than 1,000entrepreneurs, and the numbers continue togroweachyear.

This ecosystem is supported by many factors.First,asaleadingbusinesscenter,TelAvivisoneof Israel’s most affluent areas, supporting anaveragepercapitagrossdomesticproduct(GDP)of US$42,000 compared to Israel’s US$36,000average (Global Metro Monitor, 2015). Second,Tel Aviv, likemost of Israel, provides access tobroadband connectivity and high-speed mobiledata connections throughout the city, and hasclose to 100 percent mobile penetration. Morethan 80 percent of the population are activeInternetusers.Finally,themunicipalityhasgoneto great lengths to support the thriving startupeconomy. The city has recognized this sector’spotential and has made high-tech companies,startups, and creative industries its toppriorityforbusinessdevelopment.Theseefforts includelower city taxes, running several co-workingspacesforstartupsforwhichstartupcompaniesneed to apply, and special work visas forinternational entrepreneurs (Smart City TelAviv,2014).

Tel Aviv is facing several challenges, includingimproving the urban infrastructure,environment, and services (e.g., transportation,pollutioncontrol,socialinequality,publicsafety,energy efficiency), creating an appealing urbanenvironment, and maintaining the city as a

business and cultural center. At the same time,the municipality is aiming to improvecommunicationwithresidentsandbusinessesinthe city, improving trust and engagement withresidents.Alongsidethesechallenges,whicharecommon to many cities, Tel Aviv faces anunstable political and security situation in theregion.Over theyears, the cityhas experiencedsuicide bombings and other terrorist attackscarried out in its buses, streets, and cafes.Furthermore, during Operation Protective Edgein the summer of 2014, the city suffered dailyrocket attacks from Gaza, causing residents toregularly run to shelters to protect themselves.Thetoolsprovidedbythesmartcitywereused,andarecurrentlyused,todirectlyconfrontthesechallenges.

1.2. Smart City Overview

TelAviv’sSmartCityprojecttakesauniquepathwithregardtobothgoalsandprocess.TelAviv,aprosperous municipality, did not set out tobecome “smart” only for the purpose ofimproving resource allocation, like many othercities(Battyetal.,2012).Itsmainmotivation,ascanbeseenbythecity’sowndefinitionofsmartcity and consistent with the challenges the cityfaces,was to improve resident engagement andstrengthen trust between residents and themunicipal government. Tel Aviv’s municipalitydefines this process as “citymaking,” that is,transformingaspaceandaplace,whereaspaceis a physical entity, while a real place drawspeople, has a clear narrative, and is embeddedwithmeaning.

ThemainprojectinthisspaceisDigi-Tel,whichbegan in 2011. It aims to create multiplecommunicationchannelswiththeresidents.Inabooklet issued about smart cities, themunicipalitydescribesitsprojectasfollows:


Tel Aviv, the Nonstop City, considersengagement a key value in implementingSmart City principles. It actively involvesresidents in the urban experience and urbandevelopment,while emphasizing engagementin decision-making processes and wisdom ofthe crowd as a means for smart municipalmanagementinthenewage.

The city persistently acts to create a climatethatfacilitatestheformationofcollaborationsbetween residents, business establishments,third sector organizations and theMunicipality,whilemakinguseofcutting-edgetechnologies that enable learning andcreativity(SmartCityTelAviv,2014:6).

ThemaindriverforbecomingasmartcityinTelAvivwastocreateamoreopen,transparent,andtrusting relationship between the municipalityand its citizens (Shapiro, 2006). This visionpromotes more collaborative urban decisionmaking with residents and local businesses. Italso relates to Tel Aviv’s branding as atechnological innovation hub; the municipalitywas looking to be as innovative as its citizens,hoping to continue to luredesired startups andcreative industries through such branding. Thismotivation has led Tel Aviv to focusmostly oncitizen-orientedsolutions(Cohen,2015).

Theprocessinwhichthesmartcityisbeingbuiltis also unique to Tel Aviv. Unlike many othercities, Tel Aviv does not have one “smart city”initiative, envisioned and carried out in a top-down manner. Instead, Tel Aviv has embarkedon a strategy that combines building specificsmart services and leveraging the city’s high-tech ecosystem to facilitate the construction ofothers. To describe and frame these serviceswithinamunicipalprocess,itusesdefinitionsbyHollands (2008) and Angelidou (2015). They

definethesmartcityasaprocessofembeddingtechnology into the fabricof thecity.Therefore,thesmartcityisdescribedasanongoingproject,ratherthanafinalizedreality.

All of Tel Aviv’s smart services are based on aconnected set of information sources andsystems. Tel Aviv has developed advancedsolutions for urban administration and, moreimportantly, civic engagement, that can inspirecontinuousimprovementthroughpublic–privatepartnerships.

Astrategicplanforcivicengagement,formulatedat the municipal level, defined how to adaptmunicipal tools and infrastructure to currenttechnological trends and needs. These includemobility, social media, big data, and others. Athree-tiermodelwasproposed:

• Applications: Applications and systems thataimtoaddressaspecifictask/need.Thelatterinclude providing access and managinginformation about a particular communitycenter, and messaging at schools and otherlocations.

• Logical infrastructure: Softwareinfrastructuredesignedtobeaplatformforawide variety of applications. The latterinclude the Digi-Tel project, an onlineresidents’ club designed to increaseengagement, the city’sMobileApp, the iViewGIS system, open data repositories, andothers.

• Physical infrastructure: Infrastructure thatconnects residents to the Internet, includingthe 1 Mbps free Wi-Fi in 80 locationsthroughout the city (Ziv and Ramati, 2013)and support for broadband connectivityinfrastructuredevelopment.


The result is that Tel Aviv has managed tobecome a smart city in many aspects in asurprisingly affordable way. Rather thaninvesting heavily in expensive deployment oflarge-scale hardware infrastructure, integratingexisting information systems, developing newsystems to interactwith residents, and openingmunicipal databases that can be used by third-party startups, the strategy supports the threemain objectives outlined in the City Vision:implementcitizen-orientedgovernment,createacity forall residents,andmaintainanappealingurbanenvironment.

The basic forces that shape the Smart Cityproject in Tel Aviv come from the bottom up,driven by the city’s Chief Information Officer(CIO), Liora Schechter, who is in charge of themunicipality’s digital policies, tools, and visionand the municipal Chief Knowledge Officer(CKO), Zohar Sharon, who is in charge of datacollection,management, anddissemination.The

projectsarestronglysupportedbyMayorHuldaiand his administration as a strategic effort tomeet the city’s goals. Other forces involved arestartups that build applications based on thecity’s information and drive the developmentand opening of information sources. Followingthe success of smart services with regard toimproving trusting relationships betweenresidents and the municipality, the city investsincreasing efforts in smart services. Moreover,themunicipalityisstartingtoaggregateitsmanyprojects under a wider umbrella of Smart Cityinitiativesandiswritingacomprehensivepolicyfor collaboration with startups and third-partyapplications.1

1 The guidelines were not published publicly as ofNovember2015.

Figure1:CategorizationofSmartCityActivitiesinTelAviv


2. Service Spectrum

2.1 Overview

TelAviv’ssmartcityservicescanbedividedintothree main groups of activities. The first iscitizenengagement,which includes thearrayoftools and services under the umbrella of theDigi-Tel initiative.Thisproject isthemainfocusof the Tel Aviv Smart City effort to date, withstrong interest from leading city officials. Thesecond isdeploymentof smart infrastructure inseveralareas, includingsecurity,publicwirelesscommunications(Wi-Fi),crisismanagement,andtransportation.Thethirdisthegroupofservicesthat comprise an ecosystemof startups, privatecompanies, and civil society. The initiatives ineach sector ofmunicipal services are discussedbelow.

2.2 Transportation and Urban Mobility

Transportation is traditionally one of the mosttechnology-driven sectors of every city, andTelAvivisnodifferent.Asfarbackasthe1990s,thecityhadalreadydeployedportableterminalsforparkingattendants,advancedtrafficlightcontrolsystems, and many other tools. Currently, TelAviv is focusing on specific issues: managingday-to-day traffic, reducing private vehicle use,and tackling the scarcity of parking places. Thecity is supporting several smart solutions tothesechallenges:

Trafficcontrol:Thecityoperatesan integratedtraffic control center, from which it overseestraffic flow and solves immediate issues. Thecenter uses an automated system, Avivim,developedincollaborationwithTechnion–IsraelInstitute of Technology, to oversee the city’s

trafficflow.Thesystemusesdatacollectedfromvehicle volume sensors, traffic cameras, andthird-party systems such as Waze, toautomaticallyormanuallyset trafficpolicies fortraffic lightsortointervenewithtraffic inotherways.

Image1.ExampleofParkingSensorsDeployedinTelAviv

Source: Tel Aviv Municipality.

Parking: The city provides several servicesdesigned tobetterutilizeparking infrastructureand increase revenue from parking. First, itallows drivers to pay for municipal parking onthe sidewalk and in public parking facilitiesthrough collaboration with two companies:Pango and Cello-Park (Annex B), which enabledrivers to pay for parking throughout the cityusingmobile applications. Parkingwardens usethesamesystemtoseeiftheparkingisvalidandhasbeenpaidfor.Camera-basedenforcementisalso used in specific locations around the city,including at busy intersections, handicappedspots,andothers,toautomaticallyticketparkingviolators.

Finally,allmunicipallyownedparkinglotssharedataaboutthenumberandlocationofavailablespots. The data are displayed on smart signs inthecityandarepubliclyavailablevia iViewGISandthroughmobileapplications.


Bike-sharingsystems:Thecityhasdeployedabike-sharing system, called Tel-O-Fun, aroundthecity(Photo3).Thesystemincludesamobileandawebapplicationthatallowuserstoseethelocationoftheneareststationandwhetherithasavailable bikes. A similar car-sharing system isplannedtobeginoperationswithinayear.

Image2:Tel-o-FunStation


Public transportation: The municipality andother entities provide several informationsystems that support public transportationcommuters. TheMinistry of Transportation hasdeployedinformationscreensatover100transitstops around the city. These stations, poweredby solarenergy, showwhen thenextbuseswillarrive at the station according to real-timeGPSdata. Moovit, a local startup, provides trip-planningcapabilitiesandlocaltransittimetables.Alternatively, an application by local startupZenCity, which won the municipal applicationcompetitionin2014,enablespeopletocomparetransportationoptionsinthecity,suchastransit,bus, car, and bike, by sharing data about theirtime,cost,pollution,andeffectsonhealth.

2.3 Safety and Citizen Security

TelAviv’ssecurityapparatusisfocusedonthreeobjectives: keeping the peace in public spaces,supporting law enforcement activities, andresponding to attacks. To achieve the first twoobjectives, the municipality and the policedepartment employ an extensive camerasurveillance system. The municipality installedaround 600 cameras (the number will beincreased to roughly 1,000 in the next twoyears). The municipality uses automatic imageanalysis to recognizeevents, suchasvandalism,andtodirectmunicipalsecurityorpoliceforcesto handle the event. In recent cases of terrorattacks (seeKubovichetal., 2015), the camerasweremanuallyaimedtosupportfieldforces.

The police department installed 150 cameras,whicharecontrolledbyitsIntegratedOperationandControlCenters(IOCC).However,inthecaseof security-related events, such as eventsreported through the 100 phone number (theequivalentoftheAmerican911),thepolicehavetheabilitytostreamvideofrommorethan3,000existing cameras, including municipal camerasandsecuritycamerasinstalledinprivatevenues(Hatoni,2010).Thecityalsoemploysacitywidealarm system, installed in schools and otherpublic places, which enables municipalemployees to request immediate interventionfrom the safety command and control center.The center coordinates the activities of themunicipal security forces, and, if necessary,requestshelpfromthepolice.

2.4 Emergency Response

Emergency response is one of the mostimportantservicesthatTelAvivisattemptingtoimprove via smart services. Specifically, due tothe tense security and political situation in


Israel, emergencies tend to include armedconflict,suchasthatbetweenGazaandIsraelinthesummerof2014.Themaintoolforhandlingsuch events is the IOCC, from whichrepresentatives of many different entitiesmanage the city in emergency situations.Preparation for emergencies includes mappingdifferentdatasetson themunicipalGISsystem,iView,suchaspeopleinneedofassistance,localcontrol centers, and so on. This area has alsobenefited from collaboration with the privatesector: a group of developers has created anapplicationthatsendsmobilealertsintheeventof missile attacks (Red Color, Annex B). Theintegration of the emergency centers isdescribedinthefollowingsections.

Residentscannotifytheauthoritiesabouteventsthrough two channels. They can dial 100 toreport events that require police intervention,and they can dial 106 (the local equivalent ofNew York City’s 311) to report hazards thatrequire municipal intervention. Incidentsdesignated as 106 can be reported via thedesignated number, the municipal website, orthe mobile app. Incidents are managed via anintegrated customer relationship management(CRM) system provided by Microsoft, to whicheach relevant municipal department isdispatched to provide the necessary response.Municipal authorities can engage externalagencies,suchasthepolice,ambulances,andthearmyifthesituationshouldescalate.

2.5 Environment

The most important smart environmentalproject is the city’s public irrigation operationscenter, targeted at conserving public irrigationwater. To accomplish this, the city deployed anirrigation system that is remotely controlled inreal time and oversees garden sprinklers. Todate, 72 percent of the city’s gardening sites

havebeenconnectedtothesystem.Thismethodof irrigation makes it possible to automaticallyopenandshutallsprinklers,monitortheamountofwaterallocatedtoeachsectionofthegarden,and receive detailed reports that track waterconsumptioninmunicipalgardens.Inthefuture,the local water and sewage company plans toinstallsmartmetersinresidents’homes.

Tel Aviv has several pollution-monitoringstations deployed by the Ministry ofEnvironmental Protection. These data areaccessible to the public via collaboration withanother local startup, Breezometer, which wasinitiated in one of Tel Aviv’s first applicationcompetitions. Breezometer informs residentsaboutthecurrent levelofpollutionatthestreetlevel.Thecity,togetherwithothersmallercitiesin the metropolitan area, has several projectsthat deal with solid and liquid waste, but theprojectsdonothaveexistingSmartCityprojectactivities.

2.6 Energy Efficiency

TelAvivendeavorstocreateamoreefficientandsustainableenergyusagepolicyinthepublicandprivatesectors.Atthemunicipallevel,thecityiscurrently piloting a LED program for publicillumination in one of its main streets.Furthermore,about340switchboxeshavebeenconnected to a single control center thatmanages all of the street lighting in the city,takingintoaccountthevaryinghoursofdaylight.Lighting in public spaces is reduced starting at10:30 PM. The city plans to deploy adjustableLEDsystemsinthefuture.

More broadly, the city resolved that all newbuildings receiving permits should adhere to aset of green building ordinances (Guidelines,2012). The municipality has been promotinggreen design of new educational institutions in


thecity,encouraginggreaterenergyefficiencyinbuildings, integrating green constructionprinciples in existing neighborhoods, andcirculating planning information dealing withgreenconstruction.

2.7 Citizen Interaction and Communication Mechanisms

Tel Aviv’s Smart City initiative is targeted firstand foremost at increasing citizen engagementand interaction,oneof thecity’s strategicgoals.Therefore, this sector has received specialattentionintermsofbudgetandmunicipalfocus,anditisthecornerstoneofallsmartprojects.TelAviv’sconceptionofcitizenengagementrevolvesaroundmeetingtheresidentswheretheyare.Ina tech-savvy city such as Tel Aviv, this meansproviding services and information digitally.Another strong agenda item is to match eachresidentwiththeservicesandinformationheorsheneedsaseasilyaspossible.Thecityachievesthisthroughseveralprojects.

Image3:IllustrationoftheDigi-TelCardProvidedtoResidents


Digi-Tel:Digi-Tel,TelAviv’s flagshipSmartCityproject,isanumbrellaforseveralcomponentsattheinfrastructurelevel.Digi-Tel’sgoalistobeaplatform that allows increased citizenengagement, on topofwhichother applicationscan be deployed. The heart of Digi-Tel is aresidents club through which residents canaccess personalized, curated information andservices relevant to them. Digi-Tel providesaccess to online services through the mobileapplication, throughmailings,andsometimes inphysical venues through a card, as shown inFigure 2. Registration is carried out in one ofabout 40 (Digitel, 2013) permanent andtemporary registration booths (see Photo 4).Upon registration, residents can share personalinformation,suchasinterestsandmaritalstatus,and can choose their selected method ofcommunication—email,SMS,ortelephone.Oncethey are registered, residents receive personalnotificationsonitemsofinteresttothem,suchasroadworkbeingperformedclosetotheirhomesor events thatmight interest them, through themethod selected. They also receive access to aprivateareainthemunicipalwebsitewheretheycan receive personalized information on manydifferenttopics,paybills,enrolltheirchildreninschool, and so on. To date, more than 110,000residents, or about 30 percent of Tel-Aviv’spopulation, have signed up for the personalservice.


Image 4: Registration Booth for Digi-TelRegistration


Mobileapplication:TelAvivdeployedamobileapplication, supporting services such asreportingpotholes,extinguishedstreetlights,orsewage problems, calling city hall, and findingattractionsneartheuser(Digi-Tel,2013).Inthefuture, Digi-Tel services will be accessiblethroughthemobileapplication.

Municipal Website: The municipal websitestores all relevant information and supportsmany services, including online payments,incident reporting, registering a complaint,receiving educational services, accessing data,andsoon.

Social Media: The city has a very active socialmedia department, operating more than 50Facebookpagesandgroupsaswellasprofilesonall other major social networks (Twitter,Instagram, etc.). The social media platformsenable the city to share relevant informationwiththepublicaswellasothercauses,suchas:

• “Residents Make a City,” a small-scale, localparticipatory budget initiative carried outthrough Facebook. Each year, themunicipality chooses two neighborhoods tobe renovated in the coming year. Theresidents of that neighborhood are then

invited to join a Facebook page openedespecially for the projects and present theirideasorneedsforrenovation.Therenovationbudget (around US$1M) is distributedaccordingtotheirproposals.

• Resident feedback collected throughFacebook via messages or posted on themunicipalwallisintegratedintotheCRMandrespondedtolikeanyothercomplaint.

Consultation platform: Tel Aviv uses a digitalplatformcreatedbythelocalstartup,Insights,tohold large-scale public engagements aroundspecifictopics,suchaswhatcommunitypurposea municipal building should serve or what thefocusofnextyear’sstrategicplanshouldbe.Theplatformallowsalargenumberofindividualstocontributetothedebatedigitally.Thecompany’stechnology collects and compiles the commentsto help officials understand the public’sconcerns.

Whilesomeoftheseservicesaredirectedonlyatresidents of Tel Aviv (such as the personalizedDigi-Telplatformandtheconsultationplatform),manyothers,suchasWi-Fiaccessandtheopendata portal, are accessible to all and even haveEnglishinterfacesfortouristsandvisitors.

3. System Configuration

3.1 Overview

Tel Aviv’s smart city configuration isdecentralized, based on several databases,command and control centers, and multipleapplications.Followingthebottom-upprocessofbuilding smart services, its configuration andintegration are tied to particular uses. Figure 3depicts the high-level configuration, illustrating


itscrucialproperties.Asthediagramshows,TelAviv does not have a single IOCC or a singledatabasethatholdsallthedatarelatedtosmartservices.Instead,severalcontrolcentersaddressdifferent facets of smart city operations, andseveral individual systems serve specificapplications. There are also several genericinformation systems thatprovide infrastructureforamultitudeofservices,suchasthemunicipalGISsystemonwhichmanyapplicationsoperate,theCRM,whichhasvarioususes,andothers.

Figure 2: Visual Representation of the DifferentIOCC

3.2. System Integration

The smart city architecture contains severalphysicalIOCCs.AsshowninFigure,twoofthemare controlled directly by the municipality andthe police, and the Ministry of Transportationoperates several others. Automatic algorithmsconfigured by various departments in themunicipality,especiallytheITdepartment,carryoutmanyoftheoperations.Forexample,inDigi-Tel, municipal departments decideindependentlyaboutnotifyingspecificgroupsofresidents.

3.3 System Architecture

3.3.1 System Layout

The smart city systems in Tel Aviv compriseseverallooselycoupledsystems.Severalsystemsareeitherindependentorrelyonmoderatedataflowsandcontrol flowsbetweenthem.Figure4providesanoverviewofthemainsystems(somesystems, such the smart irrigation system, areomitted).

A framework devised by Piro et al. (2014)illustrates how these systems work. Thecomponentsaredividedintodatasources(suchas parking sensors), data communication layer(suchasaSCADAnetwork),automatedanalysislayer (such as video analysis software), controlanddecisionmaking(suchasthevariousIOCCs),and various data outputs and deploymentoptions(suchasthemobileapplication).

The following subsections describe the layersandthesystems.

3.3.2 Information Flow

Tel Aviv smart services usemultiple sources ofinformation in several information flows. Dataarecollectedthroughseveralmeans:

• Sensors, such as traffic sensors for trafficconditions, dedicated vehicle locationsensors,irrigationsensors,andothers

• Cameras, including security and trafficcameras

• Third-party applications, such as Waze(see Annex B), providing informationabouttrafficconditions

• Municipal information systems fromvarious departments, including safety,security,education,andwelfare


The data and camera feeds are transferred tocentralized servers using a citywide fiber opticsystem build byMotorola,which also hosts thefreeWi-Fiservice.Videofeedscanbedistributedthrough a system called Vigilant to differentIOCCsinthedifferentofficesinthemunicipality.ThevisualflowisdescribedinFigure4.

Beyond certain analytical functions in specificsystems, detailed in the following subsections,the architecture includes several genericprocessingandanalyticalprocesses:

• iView: An advancedGIS platformwith bothan outbound and an inbound component.The outbound component is used to sharemany layersofdatawith thepublicandcanbeaccessedbydeveloperstocreateappsontop of it. The inbound component storesmoresensitivedataandservesasabaseformanyintegratedcontrol systems, aswell asa toolfor research by city officials. The platformwas built internally by the municipality’s

Yair department, which is in charge of GISservices and is based on an ESRI ArcGISserverandaMicrosoftSilverlightclient.

• Knowledge management infrastructure:As part of the Digi-Tel project, data can beintegrated and combined with otherinformation sources and then channeled todifferent entities from multiple informationsystems, according to a set of knowledgerules.

Figure3:High-levelConfigurationoftheTelAvivSmartCityArchitecture


Image5:ScreenshotoftheiViewOpenGISSystem,Displaying the Locations of Wi-Fi Hotspots andTrafficConditionsbyWaze


Similarly, the architecture contains severalgenericdatadeliveryservices:

• Open Data portal, a one-stop webapplications through which citizens anddeveloperscanaccessalldatapostedbythemunicipality.

• The Digi-Tel framework provides aninfrastructure for notifying andinteraction with residents through themunicipal mobile applications, emails,textmessages,andothermeans.

• Third-party applications such asMoovit and Waze (see Annex B),incorporate municipal data in theirservices, providing services throughmobileapplications.

• Thestrategicplanningdepartmentsofboth the municipality and the policedepartmentusebusinessintelligenceanddata mining tools to analyze variousaspects of the activities in the city. Forexample, theAvivim trafficmanagementprogram provides an analytical tool forinvestigating traffic conditions atdifferentintersections.

3.4 Integrated Operations and Control Centers

Tel Aviv has several IOCCs, operated by themunicipalityorothergovernmentagencies.

Municipal General Emergency IOCC. Thiscenter operates only in emergency situations,such aswars, floods, exceptional transportationevents (e.g.,marathon runs that require closingcentralroads),andsoforth.Thecenterislocatedinthebasementofthemunicipalbuildingandisstaffed onlywhen there is an event. The centercan receive all available video and data feeds.Thecenterwasinitiatedin2011butunderwentseveral renovations over the years. It receivesfeeds from all municipal systems, includingvideo feed from the municipal security center,trafficfeedsfromtheMinistryofTransportationtrafficmanagement center, andothermunicipaldatabases.

Municipal Security IOCC: The securitycommand and control center (Image 6) is usedunder usual circumstances and provides accessto all security cameras, communications, andunderlying information systems. An operationscentermanned24/7byoneortwoattendantsata time monitors the cameras and other datasources. The small number of attendants is dueto the usage of visual recognition software thatautomatically identifies events that can behandled by forces on the ground. The camerafeed is fed to the city’s safety IOCC, using asystem developed by Vigilant. From the center,the feed can be transferred to anotheremergency IOCC, a secondary IOCC in anothermunicipalbuilding,oramobileIOCC(carriedbyavan).Duringusualcircumstances,however,thedata are monitored automatically by a systemcalled AgentBI, which alerts the sole humanoperatorintheIOCCwhenpredefinedsituationshave occurred. The security department


configures these situations in anongoingeffort.Inthecaseofeventsandemergencies,thecentercanholduptofivestations.Thecenterwasbuiltin2014.

Image 6: A picture of the Municipal SecurityIntegratedOperationsandControlCenter


Traffic control center: The Ministry ofTransportation operates an integrated trafficcontrol center, from which it oversees trafficflow and solves immediate issues. Begun in2005,thecenterhasbeengraduallyupgradedtooperateautomaticallyratherthanmanually.

Police control center: The Tel AvivMetropolitan Police Department has an IOCCthat employs around 15 attendants undernormal load.Thecenter isdirectlyconnectedtoseveral hundred surveillance cameras and to acommandandcontrolICTsystemwithallmobilepolice forces. Under the system known asWatchful Eye, during an event requiringdeploymentofthepolice,thecontrolcanstreamvideo from over 3,000 private, municipal, andtrafficcamerasalloverthecity.

Highway control center: The highway controlcenteroverseestrafficonthelargesthighwayinthe Tel Aviv area (Netivai Ayalon). The center

shares video feeds and traffic data with theMinistryofSciencetrafficcenter.

3.5 FieldSystems

The cityhasdeployeda limitednumberof fieldsystems, generally aiming to avoid installingphysical infrastructure wherever possible andrelyingmoreonmobileapplications forsensingand notification. However, specific types ofsensorsaredeployed:

Security cameras (around 600) and trafficcameras (around 40). Because of legalrestrictions, the cameras are not used for bothobjectives.

• Traffic sensors embedded at majorintersectionsandroads(around450).

• Variable message signs on localhighways(around20).

• Moisture sensors for irrigation in publicgardens(severalhundred).

• Pollution and climate sensors in 15locationsaroundtheTelAvivmetroarea.

3.6 Communication Systems

The city recently deployed severalcommunication systems. A citywide Wi-Fiinfrastructure was installed in 2013, providingfree Internet connectivity to residents andvisitors.Photo6showsasignforfreeWi-Finearthe deployment of the hotspot, and Figure 6depicts a map of the locations of the Wi-Fihotspots, which cover mainly tourist points ofinterest (e.g., the seaside boardwalk) aswell asdenseurbanareas.Currently,theWi-Finetworkcovers all major pedestrian streets of the citycenterandpartsofitsouterneighborhoods.

Currently,theinfrastructureincludesaround50hotspots, and the municipality is constantlyaddingmorecapacity.The infrastructure isalsoused to communicate video feeds from the


security cameras and to serve as a basicbackbone to all of the municipality’s systems.Thereisalogicalseparationbetweenthetwoonthe network level. The physical level uses thesameinfrastructure.Themunicipalityalsohasaradiocommunicationsystemforemployeesandsecurity staff that includes voice and datacommunications.

Image 7:Map ofMunicipalWi-FiHotspots in TelAviv


Image8:SignforFreeWi-FiinTelAviv


3.7 Subsystems and Functions

3.7.1 Transportation and Urban Mobility

The city operates an integrated traffic controlcenter, from which it oversees traffic flow andsolves immediate issues. The Avivim controlsystem oversees the traffic flow in the city andautomatically controls traffic light scripts basedonsensorydata.Avivimisbasedonseveraldatastreamsintothecontrolcenter.Ithasthreemainsources:

• Traffic sensors: They feed directly into thesystembasedontheroadsorontrafficlightsin main intersections, and report currenttrafficconditions.Thedataaretransferredtothe system through a SCADA2 sensornetwork.

• Cameras: Traffic control cameras aredeployed around the city. Their content isnot automatically analyzed, but they allowthe controllers to identify hazards andproblems on the road. Recently a law waspassed which allows the municipality toenforce transit lanes using these cameras,andthecityisexpectedtowidenitsnetworkto all transit lanes and deploy a relevantanalysis system to enforce the usageautomatically.

• Collaboration with Waze: The municipalityrecently initiated collaboration with thepopular Google-owned local navigationstartup. The company shares its data oncurrent congestion around the city in

2SCADA (supervisorycontrolanddataacquisition)isa network that operates with coded signals overcommunication channels so as to provide control ofremoteequipment.


exchange for receiving updates from themunicipalityonroadwork.

Data from the sensors, cameras, and Waze areanalyzedandstoredinadatabase,whichisusedto control traffic lights and highwaynotifications. The “EYAL” component of theAvivim system makes online decisions byassigningeachintersectionaselectednumberofscripts and deciding about the proper script inreal time according to the sensor data. Thesystem also supportsmanual script changes bytrafficcontrollers.Humancontrollerscanwatchand analyze the data using the INSYTEcomponent of the system, which providesintegratedanalysisofvideoandtrafficfeeds.

The city has several smart services related toparking,oneofthemainchallengesinTelAviv:

• Mobile parking payment: Throughcollaborationwithlocalcompanies,PangoandCello-park,parkingthroughoutthecity ispaidforusingmobileapplications.Parkingwardensuseasmartterminal tosee if theparkingwaspaidfor.

• Camera-based enforcement: In specificlocations around the city (busy intersections,handicapped spots, etc.) camera systemsautomatically ticket people who are illegallyparked.

• Parking lot data: all municipally ownedparking lots share data about the number ofavailable spots. The data are displayed onsmart signs in the city and publicly availableviaiViewGIS.

• An Israeli startup company is currently in apilot program that uses video feeds fromsecurity cameras to locate empty parkingspaces.

Thecityhasdeployedabike-sharingsystem,Tel-O-Fun, around the city. Data from the sharingstations are aggregated and transmitted to a

central database that keeps a record of thesituation at the different stations—how manybikesareavailableandwhattheirstatusis.

Thesystemprovidesamobileapplication(Tel-o-bike)thatallowsthecyclisttolocatetheneareststation and ascertain whether it has availablebikes, using API calls to the municipal server.The application was developed by a privatecompany for the city’s first applicationcompetition in 2013 and is still widely used. Aparallel car-sharing system is planned to beginoperatinginlate2016.

• Public vehicles: The city has acquired low-emission vehicles to be used for most of itsservices. The vehicles are being monitoredusingadesignateddataplatform.

• Transit: Transit is not managed or controlledby the municipality; therefore, few solutionsexist. Nevertheless, two important servicesexistinthecity:o The Ministry of Transportation has

deployed informationscreens inabout100transitstopsaroundthecity.Thesestations,powered by solar energy, show when thenext buses will be arriving at the stationaccordingtoreal-timeGPSdata.

o Moovit, a local startup, provides trip-planning capabilities and local transittimetables. The application relies on acombination of open data, GPS data frombuses, and data from users to provide themostaccuratetimesavailable.

• Alternative, an application by local startupZenCity which won the last municipalapplicationcompetition,providestheabilitytocompare transportation options in the city—transit, bus, car, bike, and others—by sharingdataontheirtime,cost,pollution,andeffectonhealth. The data collected by the applicationcan help the city manage and plan itstransportation system. The applicationwill be


launched as a pilot with the municipality in2016.

3.7.2 Safety and Citizen Security

To augment safety and security activities, thecity and other agencies developed several ICTsystems. The city has deployed around 600camerasaroundthecity,andthenumbershouldbe increased to roughly1,000cameras in2017.The city employs two types of citywide alarmsystems,bothconnectedto thesafetycommandandcontrolcenter.Thewiredsystemisinstalledin schools and other public locations. Mobilepatrolpersonnelusethewirelesssystem.

3.7.3 Emergency Response

ThemaintoolsusedforemergencyresponsearemunicipaldatabasesandaGISsystem, iView, tomap the resources in case of an emergency.Theseinclude:

1. Mapping shelters and makeshift shelters(such as underground parking lots) aroundthecity.

2. Mapping people in need of assistance, suchas elderly people living alone, to providetargetedhelp.

3. Mappingcontrolcentersandpoliceforces.

ThemunicipalsystemsarealsoconnectedtotheMinistry of Defense alert systems. Theemergencydatabasesallow interactionwith thepublic and the private sectors. For example,during the 2014 conflict with Gaza, a group ofdevelopers created amobile application knownas Red Color to guide residents towards thenearestshelterincaseofmissileattacks.

3.7.4 Environment

The city deployed an irrigation system that isremotely controlled in real time and overseessprinklersingardens.Todate,72percentofthe

gardening sites in the cityhavebeen connectedtothesystem.Thismethodofirrigationmakesitpossible to automatically open and shut allsprinklers, monitor the amount of waterallocated to each section of the garden, andreceive detailed reports that track waterconsumption.

Tel Aviv also has several pollution-monitoringstations deployed by the Israeli Ministry ofEnvironmental Protection. The data areaccessible to the public via collaboration withanother local startup, Breezometer, which wasinitiated in one of Tel Aviv’s first applicationcompetitions. Breezometer enables people tomonitor the current level of pollution at thestreetlevel.

3.7.5 Energy Efficiency

The city takes measures to create a moreefficient and sustainable energy usage policy inthe public and private sectors. First, at themunicipal level, the city is currently piloting aLEDprogramforpublicilluminationinoneofitsmainstreets.Some340switchboxeshavebeenconnected to a single control center thatmanagesallthestreetlightinginthecity,takinginto account the varying hours of daylight.Lighting in public spaces is reduced starting at10:30PM.

More broadly, the city resolved that all newbuildings receiving permits should adhere to aset of green building ordinances (Green, 2012).Themunicipalityhasbeenpromoting thegreendesignofneweducationalinstitutionsinthecity,encouraging greater energy efficiency inbuildings, integrating green constructionprinciples in existing neighborhoods, andcirculating planning information on greenconstruction.


3.7.6 Citizen Interaction

Digi-TelisTelAviv’sflagshipSmartCityproject.It is an umbrella for several differentinfrastructurecomponents.Digi-Telisaplatformthatallowscitizenstobenotifiedaccordingtoasetofrulesinitiatedbythemunicipality,withaninterface (in Hebrew) that allows residents toinput their interests and preferences. To date,morethan110,000residentshavesignedupforthe service. The platform has severalcomponents:

• Residentdatabase that includes informationabout the resident’s gender, age, address,andinterests(e.g.,pets,children,sports,etc).

• Notification rules that enable targeting ofspecific information to specific residences,according to the information in the residentdatabaseandanevolvingdatabaseofeventsand activities. For example, notificationssuch as “note that your street will berepairedoncertaindates,”“getaccesstotheTelAvivMarathon,” “story time forchildrenaged5to8intheneighboringlibrary,”“don’tforget to register your child at school next

month,” and “get discounted tickets totheatre shows this evening.” Some rules areconfigured using automatic scripts and areexecuted according to the resident’spreferences. City officials also configuresome rules manually, overriding automaticrules.

• Notificationchannelsthatcommunicatewithresidentsthroughemail,SMS,telephone,andinthefuturetheapplication.Personalizedservicesthatallowresidentstoaccess the private area in the municipalwebsite where they can see personalizedinformation on many different topics, paybills, enroll their children in school, and soon.

• Tel Aviv deployed a mobile application,supporting services such as reportingincidents, calling city hall, and findingattractions near the user. While theapplicationhasseveralthousanddownloads,it is far from reaching themobile potential,and the city is planning to deploy a newapplicationinthenextfewyears.


4. Organizational Structure TelAviv’ssmartcityisnottheproductofatop-down process; rather, it has been created fromthebottomupwithintheorganizationandisledbyseveralentrepreneurswithinandoutsidethemunicipality.Themostprominentdrivingforcesarethecity’schief informationofficer(CIO)andchiefknowledgeofficer(CKO),whoareinchargeoftheoverallmunicipalinformationsystemsandDigi-Tel,respectively.

The city’s approach relies on promoting clearand specific projects rather than building largesmart city infrastructure. Liora Schechter, thecity’s CIO, explains that a gradual approach iseasiertoimplementpoliticallyandeconomically,providesmore tangible benefits, and allows themunicipality to learn and to adapt. Seeing thesuccess of such attempts creates the trust andsupport necessary from residents, from themunicipality,andfromthirdpartiestocarryoutincreasingly larger and more integratedprocesses.

4.1 Governance Model

TelAviv’s smart citymodel isbasedonproject-oriented service development and internal andexternal entrepreneurship. The city promotesspecific projects to tackle specific challenges,with the initiatives coming from both themunicipality itself and third parties. The focalpoint of all these endeavors is the Computingand Information Systems Division (CIS), whichservesadualpurpose—asboththedrivingforceforcreatingnewapplicationsand infrastructureand the implementer of the solutions. Asdepicted in Figure 7, the CIS division interactswithmanyotherdivisions.Thelogicbehindthisprocess is to build the smart city step by step,earning the trust of all parties involved, andshowing quick wins. This approach allows thecity to optimize its services according to thefeedback it receives from the various divisions,residents,andotherstakeholders.

The process usually begins with a specificdepartment working with the CIS division toidentify its main challenges and how a datasystem can help solve it. This makes theinitiativeverymuchinfluencedbytheinclination

Figure4:GovernanceModelforSmartCityActivities


of specific departments toward technologicalsolutions. While this could be considered aweakness, since less tech-oriented departmentsdonot enjoy thebenefits of the smart city, it isalsoanadvantage,asitmakesdepartmentheadsandotherofficialsownersofsmartcityprojectsand drives them to champion initiativesthroughout theorganization.The joint proposalis then referred to the city’s vice-president ofplanning,andifauthorized,iscarriedoutbytheCIS division. The CKO’s office participates inmany of these projects, building the datasetsnecessary for success and implementing theworkflowstosupportthem.

4.2 Human Resources

The municipal staff that handle smart citydevelopment and operations are scatteredthroughout several departments andgovernment agencies.While itwas not possibletocounttheexactnumberofemployeesineachdepartment, the followingsubsections includearoughestimate:

• Computing and Information SystemsDivision: the division is mostly devoted tocreating and maintaining the differentprojects.Headedby the city’sCIO, a leadingfigure in the process, it has a team ofapproximately 30 developers working tocreate in-house solutions and adaptprocured ones, as well as other employeesworking on support, integration, andprocurement.

• Emergency and Security Division: Thedepartment’sIOCCismanned24hoursadaybyoneor twopeople at a time.Theyare incharge ofmonitoring critical systems in thecity, dispatching personnelwhen necessary,and remaining in touch with lawenforcement.

• Transportation, Mobility and ParkingDivision: theAvivimcenter control room ismannedbythreepeopleatatime,24hoursaday.

• Knowledge Department: The CKO’s office,which manages Digi-Tel, has around 20people. The department uses employeesfrom many other municipal departments(e.g.,education,culture,welfare,andsports)to enter content into the municipalknowledgesystems.

• CommunicationandPublicRelations:ThePublic Relations department has a socialmedia team in charge of operating andmaintainingsocialmediaprofiles, aswellastakingpartinworkingwithstartups.Ithasatwo-persons team working regular workhours.

4.3 Information Control, Ownership, and Data Sharing

Tel Aviv shares data with a small number ofagencies, including various central governmentdepartments, especially the Ministries ofEnvironmental Protection, Education, Housingand Transportation, the Israeli policedepartment, the fire department, and othermunicipalities in the metropolitan area.Specifically,severalsystemssharedatainamorestructuredfashion.Onesuchsystemisthecity’ssurveillance system, which is completelyaccessible to lawenforcementagencies, and thecity’s traffic control system (Avivim), which isalso used by other municipalities in themetropolitan area. Similarly, the city receivesdifferentdatasetsfromtheseagencies,includingwelfare data from the Ministry of Housing andcrimedatafromthepolice.Mindfulofthelimitsof its jurisdiction, Tel Aviv opts to be ascollaborativeaspossiblewiththeseagencies.


Thecityalsosharesdatawithprivatecompaniesand the general public. Through the city’s opendata portal, developers and citizens can access,technologically or otherwise, the data sharedwiththepublic,andthroughdesignatedsystemsinformationflowsintothecity fromavarietyofsources.Buildingonitsstrongarrayofsystems,TelAviv’sopendataportalhosts all of thedatathat it hasmade publicly accessible. The portalcontains explanations on what the data meansand how to use it technically. This informationincludes data on property ownership, bike-sharing systems, and more. Furthermore, themunicipality shares the services it develops, inaddition to the data. One such service is theiView system, used regularly by other agenciessuch as NTA, the public company building TelAviv’s light rail project, as well as the generalpublic.

Finally, the city receives large amounts of datafrom third-party companies and agencies.Examples of such data include traffic controldata from Israel’s Ministry of Transportation,welfare data from theMinistry of Social Affairsand Social Services, and the city’s collaborationwithWaze (See section 2.2). The data are usedmainly for operational purposes, although thestrategicplanningdivisionaimstoemploytheminongoingbusinessintelligenceprocesses.

4.4 Protocols and Procedures

Themunicipalityandothergovernmentagencieshave an array of procedures formany differentscenariosandcontext.Themostimportantonesarehighlightedbelow:

• Emergency Response: Due to the politicalsituation in Israel, emergency response is aclearpriority forTelAviv.Therefore, the cityhas developed a clear protocol for differenttypesofemergencies.Duringemergencies,the

citychangesitsentireorganizationalstructureto deal with the matter at hand. The city’sleading administration, togetherwith liaisonsfrom relevant agencies, such as the IsraeliDefence Forces (IDF), the Israeli Police, andemergency services, the central governmententers into the IOCC, where they can get aclear image of the situation around the city,make quick decisions, and dispatch theappropriate personnel. All of their workingrelationships and jurisdictions are welldefinedtoprovidethemostfluidcollaborationwhentheneedarises.

• OpenDatarequest:In2015,themunicipalitydeveloped a standard protocol for makingdata available to the public. The protocol isinitiated by receiving a request to open aspecificdataset.Thecitycounselfirstreviewstherequesttounderstandifprivacyconcernsor other restrictions may prevent the datafrom being shared. If the request isauthorized, it is referred to the CIS division,wheretheamountofworknecessarytoopenthe data is determined. If the request isapproved, the data are shared with thegeneral public (regardless of who made therequest) via the open data hub and/or theiViewsystem.Allrequestsaresharedwiththepublic.

• Collaboration with startups: As a result ofthe great demand for collaboration andpotential collaborationwithstartups, in2015Tel Aviv defined a standard protocol forworking with such companies. For moreinformation on the protocol, see subsection4.6below.

• Installation of surveillance cameras:Because of privacy laws and regulations, themunicipalityandthepolicedepartmentfollowaprocedureformitigatingprivacyriskswhendecidingontheinstallationofcameras(IsraeliLaw,2010).Beforedecidingwhethertoinstall


surveillance cameras, the issuing body needsto review the privacy risks relevant to theparticular cameras, taking into account theobjectiveofthecameraandthepossiblethreatto privacy, specifically of minors. Followingthe review, the agency must hold a publichearing with regard to the installation. Afterthe hearing, a special committee, whichincludes agency officials as well as therelevant legal departments, decides on theinstallationandconfigurationofthecamera.

4.5 Cost System: Annual Budget, Capex, and Opex

To understand the cost system of the Tel AvivSmart City initiative, the 2014 budget wasanalyzed and verified through personalinterviews. According to the documentsdescribing the development and governanceprocesses, the CIS Division incurs alldevelopment costs andmostmaintenance costsand executes all projects. Tel Aviv has an openbudgetpolicyandpostsallof itsbudgetsonline(although not always in machine-readableformat).TheTelAvivbudgetisdividedintotwoparts: the annual, regular budget, which isfunded from city taxes andholdings and servesas the opex (operating expenditures), and theirregular budget, which is funded from variousleviesandservesasthesourceforallofthecity’scapex.

The total budget of the CIS division’s regularbudget (i.e., opex) in 2014 was 103M NIS(approximatelyUS$26.6M3),ofwhich52Mwereallocated to maintenance and upgrading ofexisting systems (including human resources).This includes 9M for the GIS system, 11M fororganizational information systems (CRM, etc.)and 10M for collection and online paymentssystem. Another 17M NIS is allocated forcustomer services, provided either to thedivisions’ internal customers within theorganization, or by outside vendors to thedivision.

Table1:SmartCityProjectsBudgetAnalysis

Examining the 2014 irregular budget (capex),theCIS divisionhad a budget of 60MNIS. 7.3Mwas allocated for the development of the Digi-

3 The exchange rate in 2015was approximately 3.8NISto1USD.

BudgetItem

Capex(irregularbudget)amount

Capex(%)

Opex(regularbudget)amount

Opex(%)

Digi-Tel 7.3 12 20.2 19.6

Paymentsystem

10 16 9.9 9.6

Trafficenforcement

3.5 5.8 6.1 5.9

MicrosoftCRM+KM

10.7 17.8 5.2 5

Total CISbudget

60 6.82(out oftotal)

103 2.37 (outoftotal)

Otherbudgetitems

820 93.18 4,247 97.63

Total 880 100 4,350 100



TelResidentsclub,10Mtoanewcollectionandpayments system, 3.5M to build the trafficcameraenforcementsystem,andanother10.7MtoMicrosofttoupgradetheirsystems,mostlyfordeployinganewresident-facingCRMsystemandanewknowledgemanagementsystem.

Overall,thecityemploysacombinedstrategyofprocurementandin-housedevelopment(capex)togetherwithsignificantbudgets forday-to-daymaintenance and feature development (opex)mostly done in-house, for an overall cost ofapproximately160MNISperyear.

4.6 Special Focus: Collaboration with Startups

AstechnologystartupsareamajorpartoflifeinTel Aviv and a great resource available to thecity, the municipality has recently created aformalproceduredefiningitscollaborationwithstartups. Based on the notion that startups canprovide application-based solutions to variousurban challenges and on the city’s desire toencourage this industry, the procedure definesthe benefits thatworkingwith themunicipalitycanprovide to startups and theprocess to takeadvantage of them. The municipality hasrecognizedseveralservicesthatitcanprovidetostartups:

• Data:Startupsfrequentlyneedaccesstodatacollectedbythemunicipality.

• Promotion: Startups might want the city’sstamp of approval for promotional reasonsor want to be exposed via the municipalcommunication channels, such as socialmedia,residents’club,orbillboards.

• Consulting: Many startups are looking toconsultwithmunicipalexperts.Forexample,transportationstartupsmaywanttoconsultwith themunicipal transportationauthority,

orapet-orientedcompanymaywish to talktothecityveterinarian.

Themunicipalityhascreatedanonlineplatformthat allows startups to contact it, describingtheir specific needs. A special municipalcommittee convenes to review these requestsand refer them to the relevant departments atcity hall. Each collaboration is paired with theappropriate function in the municipalgovernment that can provide it and with aService-level Agreement (SLA), making theprocesstransparentandaccessible.4

5. Monitoring and Control Evaluatingthebenefitsofsmartcityprojectsandtheir contribution to the city is oneof themainchallenges this field faces today. Leading cityconsortiumsandresearchinstitutes,suchastheCity KEYS project (Kontinakis, 2015), the ISOSmart Cities mission (ISO/IEC, 2014), and theCity Protocol Initiative (City Protocol, 2015),have promoted certain initiatives to define keyperformanceindicators(KPIs).However,thereisno standard way for a city to measure thesuccessofitssmartprojects,especiallywhentheemphasis is on resident services rather thaninfrastructure. This has led to the use ofnonstandard evaluation methods in differentcities around the globe—some are specific tosmart citieswhileothers aremore general.Thecity does measure several indicators for itssmart city projects, including congestion rates,customersatisfaction,andothers.

4 The SLA and the agreement documents were notpubliclyavailableasofNovember2015.


TelAvivisnotcurrentlyimplementingoneofthestandardized KPI systems, and, generally, it didnotappearasifasinglemethodwasbeingusedcitywide. Rather, Tel Aviv uses a mix of twolevels of evaluation throughout its smart citysectors. At the basic usage level, monitoredmostlyby theCISdivision, thecityusesspecificquantitative measures relating to informationservices,suchasthenumberofvisits to itswebservices or application downloads. On thestrategiclevel,smartsolutionsareseenasatoolfor reaching the strategic goals of the variousdepartments. The participating departments donot use specific methods to measure theeffectiveness of the Smart City project; rather,they incorporate them into other measures oftheir overall effectiveness in achieving goals,suchasreducingtrafficorcreatingpublicspaces.

5.1. Benefits to Selected Smart City Sectors


Themaingoalofthetransportationandmobilitydepartment is reducing the number of privatevehicletripsinthecity,thatis,reducingtheuseofautomobiles.Thecityistryingtoachieveitbyimplementing policies such as encouraging theuse of public transportation and reducing theamount of time spent searching for parkingspaces. All of these policies involve smart cityprojects. The traffic management systemmeasures congestion rates at different times ofdayandtrafficflowsalongcentralroutes.


Since the city does not have the responsibilityforcrimepreventioningeneral,5itsmainfocusisonmaintainingsafe,well-organized,andinvitingpublic spaces and institutions. This meansreducing vandalism, loitering, littering, andincreasingtheperceptionofpublicspacesassafeand welcoming. The surveillance system helpsachievethesegoals,aidinglawenforcementandenhancing the sense of safety. The AgentBIsystem, which automatically identifies eventsfromthesecurityvideofeed,isevaluatedmainlyaccordingtothesignal-to-noiseratio.


As emergency response is one of the city’s toppriorities,TelAviv’smainobjectiveinthisareaisto increase preparedness for emergencysituations, including reducing service-levelagreements (SLAs)6 and increasing the scopeofresponse.Themainmeasurement isqualitative,mainly in the form of feedback provided onlarge-scaleexercises.

5.1.4 Environment

Themainbenefit in theenvironmental sector isreducing water usage in the city. A scarceresource in Israel overall, water is the mainresource that Tel Aviv seeks to conserve. Themainindicatorusedistheamountofwaterusedper meter of vegetation, that is, the amount of

5CrimepreventioninIsrael fallsundertheauthorityoftheIsraeliPolice,anationalorganizationunderthejurisdictionofthenationalgovernment.6 A service-level agreement (SLA) is part of a service contractwhereaserviceisformallydefined.Particularaspects of the service—scope, quality, andresponsibilities—are agreed to between the serviceproviderandtheserviceuser.


water the city uses to irrigate each garden persizeofthegarden.Currently,residentwateruseisnotmeasured.


Considering that energy management does notfallunderthecity’sjurisdiction,thelocalbenefitof smart energy systems is focusedon reducingpublicspendingonenergy forpurposessuchasstreetillumination.

5.1.6 Citizen Engagement

Tel Aviv’s top-priority project targets a fewstrategic goals, first and foremost raising themunicipality’s approval rating by its citizens,creating a better public image, and increasingtrust between citizens and their government.Therefore,themunicipalityismeasuringseveralindicators:

1. Measuresofusageandutilization:Numberofregistered Digi-Tel users, number ofentrances to the service, number oftransactions, number of applicationdownloads,andnumberofapplicationuses

2. Measures of resident satisfaction:Satisfaction with residency in Tel Aviv,satisfactionwith variousmunicipal services,and satisfaction with interactions with themunicipality

3. Comparative measures of service utilizationbetweenofflineandonlineservices:Numberof service calls to human operators versustransactionsonthewebsite

5.2. Quantitative and Qualitative Measures for Benefit Analysis


With the benefit of reducing car use, themeasures applied survey the various policiesimplemented, and include levels of congestionovertime(usingWazedata),numberofusersofpublictransportationsystems,numberofcarsincentral intersections (using traffic sensors), andnumber of relevant traffic violations, mainlyabuseofpublic transit lanesbyprivatevehicles(enforcedbyanautomaticdetectionsystem).


Themainmeasureinthissectoristhenumberofevents recorded using the video surveillancesystem and reported to themunicipal responsecenter. Reducing these numbers is regarded asuccess. Another important measure is thepublicperceptionofpersonal safety indifferentpartsofthecity,measuredbysurveysconductedthroughoutthecityaswellasinspecificdanger-proneareas.


The city endeavors to improve its emergencyresponse. Itmeasures this improvement in realevents as well as periodic drills. These includeSLAsincaseofevents,percentageofpopulationreach, and damages to life or property.According to the head of the department, thenew information infrastructure yields moreeffort-effective response. Another importantmeasure is citizen preparedness, that is, thedegree of citizens’ awareness of what theyshould do in an emergency. This includesknowing the locationof thenearest shelter and


what to do in different situations. The latter ismeasuredthroughperiodiccitizensurveys.

5.2.4 Environment

Themainmetricsinthissectorarequantitative.Onesuchmetricistheamountofwaterusedbymunicipal departments, which is measuredmonthly. Another important metric is thequantity and type of pollutants in the air,measured by government-issued metersscatteredaroundthecity.


Since the benefit here is reduced spending, themainmeasureistheamountspentonenergyperyear.Othermetricsincludetheamountofenergyconsumed by various municipal properties andfunctions.

5.2.6 Citizen Engagement

On the operational level, the city employsdifferent metrics to evaluate its progress. ThemostimportantmetricisthenumberofcitizensregisteringfortheDigi-Telresidents’club,whichcurrentlytops110,000.Otherimportantmetricsare number and frequency of visits to thepersonal area by residents using the Digi-Telplatform. The most important metric, touchingon the strategic goals themselves, is the degreeof interactionwith information,mostly inferredfromthepercentageofmessagesthathavebeenread and the feedback received. As for socialmedia,themainmetricthecityusesisFacebookpage statistics—posts, views, and levels ofinteraction(commentsandlikes).Pagelikesarenotanimportantmetric.

On the strategic level, the city tries to assessquantitatively and qualitatively the levels ofapproval and trust and general perceptions ofresidents about various urban issues. This isdoneannually throughacity survey, inwhicha

sampleof several thousandresidents isaskedanumber of questions about the city and themunicipality.

5.2.7 Digital Services

Tel Aviv is working to digitize its services,project by project. Quantitative methods areemployedtoevaluatethebenefitofeachservice.Whilemostservicesareevaluatedbymeasuringthe number of visits to the website, specificservices employ other methods. For example,online payment components are evaluated bythe total amount of payments collected usingthem.

5.3. Integration and Synergy

Because of the city’s project-oriented approach,integration and synergy have not beenprioritized. The fact that various initiatives arecarried out simultaneouslymakes integration alowerpriority.Eachsectorisfocusedoncreatingits required solution and tackling its owntechnological challenge. This can be seen in thelarge number of control rooms operated by thecity, and the different adoption rates oftechnologies among different departmentswithin the municipality. While some sectorsmakeuseoftechnology,othersarefarbehind.

Nevertheless, Tel Aviv is in the process ofpromoting a few promising efforts in this area,some of which are yielding results. The mainexampleofsynergisticeffectscanbeseeninthesecond level of the city’s Smart City project,which includes systems on which applications,suchastheresidentsclubandtheiViewsystem,can be built. Although these systems weredeveloped for specific purposes, mostdepartmentsinthemunicipalityusethemtodayfor their own purposes. Whether it is theEducation Department using iView to divide


schoolzones,ortheArtandCultureDepartmentpromotingitseventsthroughtheresidentsclub,these systems are used citywide. Furthermore,they facilitate collaboration between agenciesand departments. Work on the city’s light railsystems began in September 2015. The work,coordinated byNTA, a public–private company,required the collaboration of many agencieswithinthemunicipalityaswellasthepolice,theMinistryofTransportation,andothers.Usingthecity’s IOCC and information infrastructure, thedifferent agencies were able to integrate theiractivities and data sources. Although this is notyet the standard in day-to-day operations, thisexperience shows the potential of integrationandthesynergythatcanbeachieved.

Looking forward,Ms.Schechterreports that theCIS division is leading an effort to improvesynergy among the different smart city sectors,based on the creation of a more synergisticpolicy.

5.4. Stakeholder Expectations

5.4.1 Government

Themain expectations on the government sideare increasing citizen satisfaction and makingthe city more competitive. One of the primarymotivations for the Smart City project was toincrease citizens’ approval ratings of themunicipality. The municipal government,recognizing that its residents tend to be verytech-savvy,aimsto“meetthemwheretheyare”by providing more and more informationdigitallyandthroughmobiletechnologies.

This also makes the city more competitive forcreative businesses, especially startupcompanies. The high-tech population has astrong inclination toward online services, andtheSmartCityprojectscanhelpattract themtothecity.

5.4.2 Citizens

The citizens’ main expectation is access toimproved services and information. This is thecomplementary side of the government’smotivation—citizens looking to accessinformation and services online. Anotherincreasingly important motivation istransparency. Tel Aviv has a very active andvocalcivilsocietythatdemandsahighdegreeoftransparency and accountability from localgovernment.

5.4.3 Private Sector

Themainmotivation for the business sector inTel Aviv is the wide array of businessopportunities emanating from this project. As ahub of ICT companies, the city’s new policiescreate opportunities to develop products andserviceswithfinancialbenefits.

5.4.4 Example of Benefit Analysis

The best example to consider is the Digi-Telproject. It aims to create increased engagementwithresidentsinordertoincreasetrustbetweenthe city and its residents and raise municipalapprovalratings.

Thebenefit analysishas severalparts.First, thecityusesquantitativemeasurestounderstandifthe project is working, specifically, how manypeople have joined the club and their level ofinteractionwiththeplatform.

After the level of adoption is determined, thestrategicgoalisthenmeasured.UsingtheannualCity Survey, the strategic goal is surveyed todeterminetheimpactoftheprojectonthemaingoals.


5.5 Examples of Data Collected

Thecitycollectsseveraltypesofinformation:

• Demographic information andpreferences: Through the Digi-Telregistrationprocess,thesystemcollectsdataon the resident’s age, gender, and interests,including activities for children, the elderly,pet owners, the arts, sports, and similaraspects. The city also collects contactinformation, including email addresses,telephonenumbers,andmailingaddresses.

• Surveys: The system continuously surveysresident about their satisfaction withmunicipal services (including new digitalservices).

6. Lessons Learned Tel Aviv is a unique case, which promotes aninter-organizational, bottom-up approach tosmart cities.This approach cangreatly improveservices,efficiency,andqualityoflifeinthecity,at low cost. From the opinions collected duringthe interviews, the following lessons can beextracted:

Entrepreneurship as Policy—Building the Smart City from the Bottom Up

TelAviv’sSmartCityprojectwasnottheproductof a strategic management decision, nor was itimplemented all at once. Instead, leadingentrepreneurs from the organization promotedspecificprojectstoanswerpressingneedsusingsmartsolutions.Thisproject-orientedapproach,inwhich small-scale, leanprojectswere carriedout,madetheprocessmucheasierforthecitytomanage, fromthestandpointofboththebudgetand the city’s image. Tel Aviv was becoming a

smart city by solving pressing problems. It alsogave local leaders a strong sense of ownership.By promoting projects from within thedepartments, managers became stakeholderswith a strong incentive to make the projectssucceed.

Recommendation: Start with implementingspecific, lean projects in areas with pressingneeds,measuresuccess,andmoveontothenextproject, earning the trust of the stakeholders intheprocess.

Investment in Data and Information Infrastructure

OneofTelAviv’smainprioritieswastocreateastrong physical and logical informationinfrastructure. From fiber optic cables tocentralized data management, infrastructureenables the municipality and externaldeveloperstodevelopapplications.

Recommendation: Invest in planning andimplementing a modular, robust datainfrastructure as a way to enable smart cityapplications.

Using Startups is an Effective Way to Make Simple but Meaningful Changes

OneofthegreateststrengthsofTelAviv’ssmartcity is its ability to harness the potential of itsthriving, innovative startup ecosystem to drivesolutionstopressingneeds.Forexample,thecityissupportingat least three transportationapps.Thebenefitsofthiscollaborationarethreefold:itprovides a great service to citizens, which iscontinuously improvingdue tomarketdemand;itdecreasespublicexpenditure;and it supportsand encourages new, innovative businesses inthecity.


Recommendation: The relationship betweenthe municipality and local industries should benurtured to incentivize business activity andcreate sustainable solutions. Bureaucraticsupport and open data are importantfoundations;eventssuchascompetitionscanbegreatcatalysts.

Market Limitations and Enablers—Learn Where to Invest

When collaborating with local industries, it iscrucial to understand the market. Perfectmarkets with high demand, such astransportation, are a good place to rely onmarket solutions, while private corporationscannot expect to meet other needs, such aswelfare. Direct investment enables those areaswhere the market is active and answers socialneedswhereitisnot.

Recommendation: Development focus shouldbe placed on inbound products, informationinfrastructureonwhichapplicationscanbebuilt,and sectors where there is low or no marketactivity.

Engagement Builds Trust and Support for the Smart City

The main focus of Tel Aviv’s smart city is thewellbeingof itsresidents.Developingsmartcityservicesthatimprovethedailylivesofresidentsis creating new channels of communicationbetween the city and its residents, whichconstantlyimprovesthecity’spublicimage.Itisimportant to involve citizens in the process ofimproving the city, which makes the processmoresustainableandcollaborative.

Recommendation: Make citizen services a topprioritywhenplanningthesmartcity.Residentsneedtoseeandfeeltheimpactoftheprojectson

their lives for the smart city to reach its fullpotential.

Internal Knowledge Management Processes are Crucial to Success

ZoharSharon,thecity’sCKO,spentseveralyearspromoting internal data and knowledgemanagement before shifting his department’sfocus to sharing that data with the publicthrough Digi-Tel. The internal process, heemphasizes, was crucial to the success of theexternal one. Only when the city becameinternally data-driven and all of the relevantinformation was stored and regularly updatedwas it able to offer significant services to sharethisinformationexternally.

Recommendation:Existingstaffshouldmanagetheprocess.Datamanagersshouldbeappointedin each department to implement informationworkflowswithinthemunicipality.

7. Conclusions The Tel Aviv Smart City case study provides astrongexampleofhowtoachieveahighdegreeofsmarturbanservicesandcreateimpactusingadecentralized,low-costmethodthatbuildsonamodular approach and an open architecture.This approach is innovative and uniquecompared to that of most other Smart Cityinitiatives. This is largely due to the intra-organizational, bottom-up approach adopted inTelAviv.

While this model has great advantages, it alsosuffersfromimportantweaknesses,chiefamongthemalackofintegration.Sincethesmartcityisbeing built piece by piece, the projects do notalways coincide.Thus, the city supports severalcontrol rooms that perform different functions,


creating a redundancy of human resources anddataintegrationdeficiencies.

Itssignificantstrengthsincludelow-costprivatesector participation—which spurs morebusinessopportunities forcreative industries inthe city—its impact on resident approval, andshared ownership among a number of sectors.Allofthesestrengthscombinetocreateanimageof the city and the local government asinnovators,attractingdesiredcreativeindustriesandyoungprofessionalstointeractwiththecity.

Anotherimportantlessonfromthiscasestudyisthe power of individuals. Tel Aviv’s smart citystatus isadirectresultof the individuals inkeypositions who have identified the potential ofdifferent projects and pushed them forward,takingownershipovertheprocess.

Ananalysisofthecasestudyalsohighlightstwomajor weaknesses. First, the number ofoperations and control centers, including themunicipal emergency center, the municipalsecurity center, the police center, thetransportation center, and the highwaymanagement center. These centers point to theneed for more streamlined and efficientimplementation. The reasons for thenumber ofcenters can be traced to the diffusion ofresponsibilities between central governmentagencies (e.g., police and transportation) andmunicipalagencies.Anotherreasoncouldbethedownsideofthebottom-upapproach,whichhasthe potential to generate a large number ofprojects with various levels of integration. Thedownside of the bottom-up approach is alsoevident in the relative lack of performancemeasurement and clear quality performanceindicators.

Overall, inaworld that isunleashing thepowerof bottom-up processes in smart cities(Paskaleva, 2011; Townsend, 2013), Tel Aviv issetting an example of how to harness this

approach for systemic benefit, putting forth anarray of practical solutions and conceptualframeworks.Thismodel,despiteitsweaknesses,mayserveasabeaconforsustainablesmartcityagendas around the globe. Specifically, thismodel is especially relevant for cities that aresupporting an active tech and ICT community.


ANNEX A – High-level Technical Specification FigureA1:TechnicalDiagramoftheCentralSmartCitySystems

1.1. CentralSystem(IntegratedOperationandControlCenter)All of the commandand control systems relyon several information systems to carryout theircoreactions:

• Video management systems: In the municipal IOCCs, the Vigilant system is used tomanagevideofeeds,recordandstorevideos,andtransfervideofeedsbetweencenters.Inthe traffic management IOCC, an internal system (INSYTE) integrates video feeds withtraffic conditions. Technical information regarding the police department IOCCwas notavailable.

• Informationmanagementsystems formanagingoperations:Each IOCCusesproprietarysystemstorecordevents,recordactions,anddispatchteams.

• Supportingsystems:BothmunicipalandpolicedepartmentsrelyheavilyonGISdatabasestocoordinateresponses,recordconsistentandtemporalknowledge,andintegratevideofeedswithothertypesofdata.

• The municipality has developed its own GIS system, iView, used both internally andexternally.ThesystemisbasedonanESRIArcGISserverandaMicrosoftSilverlightclient.

1.2. FieldSystems

The field systems rely on several types of sensors and actuators that respond to informationsystemsinput.Theseincludethefollowing:

• Trafficsensorsthatrelyonsensingvehicleweight• Surveillancecameras• Moisturesensorsinpublicgardens• Lasersensorsforlocatingcarsinmunicipal• Othersensors,describedinthemainreport


1.3. CommunicationSystems

AsFigure8describes,theSmartCityprojectsuseavarietyofcommunicationnetworks:

• The traffic management system relies on a SCADA network, which serves mainlyindustrialcontrollersorlarge-scalehardwareinfrastructure.Itincludeslocalroutersneareveryintersection,whichareconnectedthroughadedicatedIPnetworktotheIOCC.

• A dedicated fiber-optic broadband network, deployed byMotorola, connectsWi-Fi andmunicipalsurveillancecameras.Thecamerasareconnectedtoavirtualsecurednetwork(VPN),butsharethesamephysicalinfrastructureastheWi-Fiantennas.Eachaccesspointhasaround20Mbbandwidth,andthemaximalnumberofdevicesthatcanbeconnectedtoeachhotspotis25.

• OthersensorsystemsareconnectedthroughthegeneralInternetnetwork.

1.4. SubsystemsandFunctions

Theurbanmobilitysystemsrelyonseveralsystems,includingthefollowing:

• Proprietary traffic management system (Avivim), which allows automated and manualmanagementofhundredsofintersectionsinTelAviv.

• Businformationsystem,whichincludesabuspositioningcomponent,centralinformationmanagement,publicdisplays,andAPItoservicessuchasGoogleMapsandMoovit.

• Parking sensors in municipal parking lots, which include plate recognition software inentrances and exits of the lot. In several large parking lot, the municipality installedsystems that sense whether a particular parking place is occupied or not using lasercapacitysensors.

• Parkingpaymentsandvalidationusingmobileapplications(PangoandCell-o-Park).• PublictransportationinformationsystemsprovidedthroughMoovit.

1.4.2. SafetyandSecurity

The municipality and the police department employ video feed management software. Themunicipalityemployssystemsforbehavioralrecognition(AgentBI).Othersystemsareemployedforalertmanagement,eventmanagement,andinternalcommunications.

1.4.3. EmergencyandResponse

The emergency and response system is based on the municipal data warehouse for storingresident information for a targeted response. The iView GIS database is used as a tool todocumenteventsandcommunicatethemtoallmunicipalandexternalteams.

1.4.6. CitizenInteraction

Citizeninteractionsystemsrelyonseveralsystems,includingthefollowing:

• Datawarehousesystemsthatintegrateseveralinternaldatabases• KnowledgemanagementsystemsbasedonMicrosoftSharePoint• Residentrelationshipmanagement,handingcallsandresidentrequests,basedonMicrosoftCRM


Smart City Applications in Tel Aviv Smart City

Applications by Tel-Aviv Municipality

Municipal Digi-Tel app

Tel Aviv deployed a mobile app, supportingservices such as reporting incidents, calling cityhallandfindingdifferentattractionsneartheuser.While the application has several thousanddownloads,itisfarfromreachingmobilepotential,andthecityisplanningtodeployanewapplicationin the next few years. The application wascommissioned by themunicipality and developedbyalocalvendor(Matrixtechnologies).

iView GIS

AnadvancedGISplatformwithbothanoutboundand inbound component. The outbound sharesmany layers of data with the public and can beaccessedbydeveloperstocreateappsontopofit.The platform was built internally by themunicipality’sYairdepartment,whichis inchargeof GIS services, and is based on an ESRI ArcGISserverandaMicrosoftSilverlightclient.

DigiTel Personal Zone

A private area in the municipal website whereusers can see personalized information on manydifferenttopics,paytheirbills,enrolltheirchildreninschool,andsoon.


Open Data Portal

TelAvivoperatesanopendataportalthathostsallof the data it has made publicly accessible. Theportal contains explanations on what the datameans and how to use it technically. Thisinformation includes property ownership, bike-sharingsystems,andmore.

Applications by External Developers

Moovit

A local startup provides trip-planning capabilitiesand local transit timetables. The app relies on acombinationofopendata,GPSdatafrombusesanddatafromuserstoprovidethemostaccuratetimesavailable.http://moovitapp.com/

Waze

A Google-owned local navigation startup, which isvery popular in Israel, provides driving navigationthat takes into account traffic based on socialcapabilities.http://www.waze.com


Red Color

During the 2014 war with Gaza, a group ofdevelopers developed a mobile application namedRed Color to guide residents toward the nearestshelterincaseofmissileattacks.

Pango/Cellopark

The parking throughout the city is paid for usingmobile applications. Parking wardens use a smartterminal to see if the parking was paid for.http://www.pango.com

AlterNative

An app by local startup ZenCity, which won the2014 municipal app competition, provides theability to compare between transportation optionsin the city—transportation, bus, car, bike, andothers—by sharing data about their time, cost,pollution, and effects on health. The data collectedby the app can help the city manage and plan itstransportation system. The app began a joint pilotwiththemunicipalityinJanuary2016.


Tel-o-bike

An application that allows Tel Aviv’s bike-sharingplatform’suserstoseewheretheneareststation isandwhetherithasavailablebikes,usingAPIcallstothe system’s server. The app was developed by aprivatecompany,Citylifeapps,forthecity’sfirstappcompetition in 2013 and is still widely used.https://itunes.apple.com/il/app/telobike-tel-aviv-bicycle/id436915919?mt=8

Breezometer

AcompanythatwasinitiatedinTelAviv’s firstappcompetition in 2013. Breezometer reports on thecurrentlevelofpollutiononastreetlevel,accessingdatafromvarioussourcesandcombiningtheminasimple,map-basedUI.http://breezometer.com/


ANNEX B – Bibliography

Articles and Papers

Albino,V.,U.Berardi,andR.M.Dangelico.2015.“SmartCities:Definitions,Dimensions,Performance,andInitiatives.”JournalofUrbanTechnology22(1):3–21.doi:10.1080/10630732.2014.942092

Angelidou,M.2015.“SmartCities:AConjunctureofFourForces.”Cities47:95–106.Batty,M. et al. 2012. “Smart Cities of the Future.”The European Physical Journal Special Topics214(1):

481–518.CityProtocol.2015.RetrievedNovember23,2015,fromhttp://cityprotocol.org/Cohen,B.2012.“WhatExactlyisaSmartCity?”Co.Exist19.Digi-Tel - How to Join the "Digitel" Club (Hebrew). 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2015, from

http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Tolive/digitel/Pages/joiningdigitel.aspxEU Smart Cities Project. 2014. “The Best Smart City Is...Tel Aviv!” RetrievedNovember 17, 2015, from

https://eu-smartcities.eu/content/best-smart-city-istel-avivFrostandSullivan.2014. “SmartCityMarketAnticipated toCreateHugeBusinessOpportunitieswitha

Total Market Value of $1.5 Trillion by 2020, states Frost & Sullivan.” Retrieved (15.7.15) fromhttp://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/press-release.pag?docid=289282032

Global Metro Monitor. 2015. January 22. Retrieved November 18, 2015, fromhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/01/22-global-metro-monitor

Green Tel Aviv Municipality. 2012. Regulation for Green Building Construction (Hebrew). RetrievedNovember 24, 2015, from http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Tolive/Infrastructures/Pages/VideoItem.aspx?ID=10

GuidelinesandConditionsforConstructionof"Green"Buildings.2012.October31.RetrievedNovember18,2015,fromhttp://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Tolive/Infrastructures/Pages/VideoItem.aspx?ID=10

Hatoni, Y. 2010. “The100PoliceCenterwill beConnected to3,000Cameras.”RetrievedNovember21,2015,fromhttp://www.pc.co.il/it-news/30675/?redirected_from_ad=true

Hollands, R. G. 2008. “Will the Real Smart City Please Stand Up? Intelligent, Progressive orEntrepreneurial?”City12(3):303–20.

ISO/IEC JTC 1. 2014. Smart Cities—Preliminary Report 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2015, fromhttp://www.iso.org/iso/smart_cities_report-jtc1.pdf

Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority,Ministry of Law. 2010. Installing and Using PublicSurveillance Cameras (Hebrew). Retrieved November 24, 2015, fromhttp://index.justice.gov.il/Units/ilita/MainDocs/draftguidelinecctv.pdf

Kontinakis, N. 2015. “Key Performance Indicators for Smart City Projects: Have Your Say!” RetrievedNovember 23, 2015, from http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/Key-performance-indicators-for-smart-city-projects-have-your-say-WSPO-9UQDRV

Kubovich, Y., C. Levinson, N. Hasson, and I. Efrati. 2015. October 8. “Five Stabbed in Tel Aviv in FifthTerror Attack since Wednesday.” Haaretz. Retrieved November 24, 2015, fromhttp://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.679402

Milian,M.2012.“TelAvivPickedasTopPlaceforStartupsAfterSiliconValley.”RetrievedNovember18,2015,fromhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/tel-aviv-picked-as-top-place-for-startups-after-silicon-valley


Paskaleva,K.A.2011.“TheSmartCity:ANexusforOpenInnovation?”IntelligentBuildingsInternational3(3):153–71.

Piro, G. et al. 2014. “Information-centric Services in Smart Cities.” Journal of Systems and Software 88:169–88.

Shapiro,J.M.2006.“SmartCities:QualityofLife,Productivity,andtheGrowthEffectsofHumanCapital.”TheReviewofEconomicsandStatistics88(2):324–35.Chicago.

Smart City Tel Aviv. 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/eng/GlobalCity/Documents/SMARTCITYTELAVIV.pdf

StatisticalBureau Israel.2013.StatisticalAbstractof Israel2005 -No.56Subject2,Table25.RetrievedNovember 17, 2015, fromhttp://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_25&CYear=2013

Townsend,A.M.2013.SmartCities:BigData,CivicHackers,andtheQuestforaNewUtopia.NewYork,NY:W.W.Norton&Company.

Ziv,A.,andM.Ramati.Undated. “TelAviv'sFreeWi-Fi:YouGetWhatYouPayFor.”Business.RetrievedNovember18,2015,fromhttp://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-1.548760

Stakeholders Interviewed

1. ZoharSharon,Manager,KnowledgeManagementandDigi-Telproject2. EitanScwartz,AdvisortotheMayor3. Mr.DavidAharoni,HeadofOperationsandSecurityDivision4. YifaatMor,Manager,ResidentialRelations5. AssafFrancis,Manager,TechnologyInnovationProgram6. AmitKachvan,Manager,StartupRelations7. YaelWeinstein,Director,InternationalEconomicDevelopment8. MichelleSofge,Coordinator,UrbanAffairs9. LioraScechter,ChiefInformationOfficer10. AsherBen-Shushan,Manager,TransitandParkingDivision11. AdiRaptov,Manager,SustainabilityDivision12. DoronBrankin,HeadofYairdepartment(GeographicalInformationSystems).


ANNEX C – Links to Background Information a. SampleofDataCollected

1. Digitelregistrationinformation:http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Tolive/digitel/Pages/joiningdigitel.aspx

2. RegulationforGreenBuildingConstruction(Hebrew):http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Tolive/Infrastructures/Pages/VideoItem.aspx?ID=10

3. SmartCityTelAvivleaflet:http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/eng/GlobalCity/Documents/SMARTCITYTELAVIV.pdf

4. StatisticalAbstractofIsrael2005-No.56Subject2-TableNo.25(Hebrew):http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_25&CYear=2013

5. TelAvivMunicipalitybudgetoverviewfor2014(Hebrew):http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Pages/ArticlePage.aspx?ListID=48221491-7974-46cb-8fa7-acb804f1b8dc&ItemID=1172&WebID=0fbc63bb-5e6c-4555-90d3-f9ad2c4e1204

6. TelAvivMunicipalitybudgetoverviewfor2015(Hebrew):http://tel-aviv.gov.il/Pages/ArticlePage.aspx?ListID=48221491-7974-46cb-8fa7-acb804f1b8dc&ItemID=1438&WebID=0fbc63bb-5e6c-4555-90d3-f9ad2c4e1204

7. TelAvivdetailedbudgetfor2014and2015(Hebrew):http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/Cityhall/Pages/Budget.aspx?tm=69&sm=&side=107

8. TelAvivStatisticalInformationCenter:http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/TheCity/Pages/StatisticalReview2014.aspx

FigureC1:OuttakefromTelAviv’sPromotionalMaterialsontheSmartCityProject


ANNEX D – Service Spectrum TableD1:ServiceSpectrum

Servicespectrum Smartcityfunctionsandmedium

Servicedomain Servicesystem

Monitoringanddatacoll3ection Control

Dataprocessingandinformation

production

Informationcommunicationwithcitizens

Informationsharingwithagencies*

Signalcontroller,imagedetector,BIS,CCTV

Smartcitycentersystem…

VMS,VDS,BIS,Internet,mobile,callcenter,e-government,Open-API,

broadcasting…

Informationplatform(control,ownershipand

sharingsystem)…

Transportationandurbanmobility

AdaptiveTrafficSignalControl

System4 4 4 3 4

AdvancedTraveler

Information3 2 1 4 3

BusInformation

System4 0 0 4 3

IncidentManagement

System4 3 2 4 3

AutomaticEnforcement

System3 1 1 0 2

…

Safetyandcitizensecurity

CrimeManagement

System4 1 3 0 3

…

Emergencyandresponse

DisasterManagement

System4 4 3 4 4

…

Environment

WaterManagement

System3 2 2 2 2

WasteManagement

System0 0 0 0 0

EnvironmentalPreservation

System3 0 0 4 2

…

Energyefficiency

EnergyManagement

System2 2 0 0 2

… Citizen

interactionandcommunicationmechanisms

PublicCommunication

System2 3 4 4 4

… *Agencies:Policeofficersandpatrol cars, communitygroups, fire stations,militarybases, relateddepartments (roads,public transportation,rivermanagement,watermanagement,environmentalpreservation,etc.).Note:Thenumbersrefertothedifferentlevelsofperformanceaccordingtothefollowingreferences:4:Advanced;3:Moderated;2:Basic,1:Tobeintroducedinthefuture;and0:Absent.