South London Partnership has worked with Microsoft to deliver a programme using Azure and the Internet of Things (IoT) to understand how digital technologies could help enhance its services for the benefit of the five boroughs’ residents.
Covering five London boroughs – Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton – the partnership built a data platform with an aim to connect the physical world to the digital world.
One of the drivers behind the project was for “new forms of data to bring new insights to how the environment can be improved” and to “use tech to improve the day to day live of residents”.
The project included monitoring movements of some at-risk residents, monitoring the flow of water in selected gullies and culverts and monitoring air quality in over 440 locations. The partnership stated: “We can now see how many people are walking on a foot path, the number of vehicles going past, and the air quality.”
The future plan is to connect the system with the Health Information Exchange used in the region, to share data with health and care.
Rebekah Brown, IoT Project Delivery Manager, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, said: “By being able to see all this information together in one place, you can get a definitive answer in order to help people quickly and effectively. How can we use technology to improve the day-to-day lives of residents in the five boroughs of South West London? It’s seeing how small things can lead to big changes.”
Pierre Venter, Digital Connectivity and Infrastructure Project Manager at the Digital & IT Service for Kingston and Sutton, added: “IoT helps to enable our physical world connecting to our digital world. It’s about collecting new forms of data that can bring new insights into how our environment can be better improved.”
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