Clark Green City, Project NOAH among the SCAPA 2016 finalists

The International Data Corporation (IDC) named the Philippine’s own Clark Green City and Project Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) as finalists in the Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA) 2016. 

 

SCAPA recognizes deserving Asia-Pacific countries and organizations that have the best smart city projects. IDC uses its Smart City Development Index Research to choose the best projects in the region.

 

"The smart city index was created to help city leaders understand the strategic impact and maturity of their smart city initiatives," Gerald Wang said in a statement. 

 

Last year, 14 projects from different categories were hailed the best in the region for their smart city initiatives. The categories included:

 

 

The Clark Green City was nominated under the Land Use and Environmental Management category. It is designed to be the country’s first green metropolis, which also hopes to generate over 800,000 jobs. 

 

The country’s first green city can be found at the Clark Freeport Zone, Angeles City, Pampanga. It is strategically structured into five districts defined by their main functions: educational hub, a government district, a central business district, an agri-forestry research and development district and wellness and eco-tourism district.

 

It was once part of the next wave cities program of the Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO).

 

“We are pleased that Clark Green City has been nominated," DOST-ICTO spokesperson Roy Espirutu said in a message to GMA News Online. "Our next wave cities program aims to develop cities outside Metro Manila and Cebu as IT-BPM destinations. Other than developing the local manpower we are also focusing on developing the local business ecosystem.”

 

Public votes

 

Meanwhile, nominated under the Public Safety category was Project NOAH, a flagship disaster prevention and mitigation program of the DOST.

 

Project NOAH has seven major components which includes rain gauges and water level monitoring, flood and landslide hazard mapping and more. All these information are readily accessible to the public through the Project NOAH website.

 

The project also developed an Android mobile app which allows access to flood reporting and real-time weather updates. 

 

The IDC is bestowing the SCAPA for the second time, and is once again giving the public a voice as to who has the best smart city initiative to represent the Asia-Pacific. 

 

This year, 50 percent of the judging criteria will come from public votes while the other half will be based on IDC Research Team and from the Advisory Council. 

 

“Last year, we had an exciting first year indexing myriad innovative Smart City projects. This led to several interactions with public sector organizations, city leaders and urban planners,” Wang said.

 

“We believe this has deepened our understanding of Asia Pacific Smart City programs- their challenges and the major Smart City solutions to digitally transform the domestic Smart City ecosystem so as to stimulate socioeconomic growth and long-term city sustainability,” he added.

 

The public may cast their votes for the best smart city project through https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/smartcityawards2016. Voting started Thursday last week and will end on June 23.

 

“We encourage our citizens to vote for Project NOAH and Clark Green City in order for them to get the international recognition that they deserve,” Espiritu added. — DVM, GMA