The residents of European cities may soon find their quality of life and relationship with their city improved thanks to an EU-funded project.

The Innovative Cities for the Next Generation (ICING) project is developing a citizen-focussed approach to city services and information through the use of mobile and online technologies that seek to break down barriers between citizens and their cities.

Bringing together universities, city councils and telecoms companies in three cities, Dublin, Barcelona and Helsinki, the project aims to develop a prototype approach for effective e-access to city administration and information.

Each of the three participating cities has designated a 'City Laboratory' pilot area and will work with residents in that community to try to match their requirements with the city council's objectives in terms of online access to services and communications. Incorporating sensor and communication networks and location based support systems, these city laboratories will provide the information from both citizens and the environment to the councils to improve the quality of life in that city.

In Dublin for example, the Grangegorman area has been selected and the Dublin City Council, the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the Irish geo-spatial technology company, E-Spatial, are working together and with the community to establish shared objectives in terms of developing new services and enhancing access to existing services.

'ICING is about e-enabling communities and making city government more sensitive to the practical needs of citizens,' explains Dr John Donovan, the coordinator of the project at the DIT.

According to Dr Donovan, in the future citizens will be able to choose from a menu of services through various devices online and customise their communication with the city council according to their needs and interests.

'Based on your location and your expressed interests, the system should be designed to communicate information in a manner that's relevant and important to you and in a manner that suits you - for example, that road works will be taking place in your area on certain dates; that your waste disposal charges are due; that a significant planning request for your area has been submitted; etc,' he said.

'It could also do things like mapping traffic flows to enable the city council to continually update infrastructural development - bus corridors, park and ride facilities, pedestrian crossings, one-way routes, on-street parking, and so on,' the coordinator added.

By the end of the project in 2008, the partners will have created a roadmap for the exploitation of the research results into real services. These should benefit citizens and could then be rolled out across many cities in Europe and beyond.

Innovative Cities for the Next Generation (ICING) is a €5 million project funded by the EU under its Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

Innovative Cities for the Next Generation (ICING) project

Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)