The Urban Development Arena was launched in November 2012, during the 2nd CISB Annual Meeting, as part of the Attractive Cities Workshop discussions, which initiated connections between different stakeholders in Brazil and Sweden.
In November 2013, the 2nd Attractive Cities Workshop gave impetus to the arena, enabling a more targeted discussion on the challenges facing cities in relation to energy efficiency, traffic management and urban mobility. The event was attended by experts in the field and saw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Municipality of Curitiba, Brazilian universities, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden and CISB, with the aim of promoting sustainable development in the city of Curitiba and intensifying cooperation between partners in Brazil and Sweden. This Memorandum was renewed in May 2022, including Chalmers University of Technology.
Building Sustainable Cities is made up of a series of factors such as public transport with low carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, sustainable buildings, waste management, reducing subsidies for fossil fuels (petrol, diesel, among others), digitalization and encouraging the development of clean technologies. When aligned, these factors generate many benefits that directly impact the population’s quality of life and generate cost savings.
Faced with this scenario, a consortium of Swedish and Brazilian stakeholders has been promoting system innovation, combining information technology with smart grids to develop electro-mobility, energy-efficient services and low-carbon transportation aimed at sustainable urban development and creating opportunities to rethink the development of cities.
Get to know Arena's featured project:
Smart city concepts in Curitiba: Low-carbon transport and mobility in a digital society.
Started in 2013, the project formed a consortium of Swedish and Brazilian universities and companies that has been carrying out studies and demonstration activities in the Brazilian city of Curitiba in order to promote sustainable urban mobility through the combination of information technologies and smart grids.
The project is in its third phase and the partners involved are Curitiba City Hall, Chalmers University of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR), Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Hexagon, Sweco, Vinnova, FINEP and CISB.
Brazil Sweden Cooperation
In 2016, Sweden and Brazil inaugurated the Steering Group of Innovation (SGI) between the Swedish Ministries of Enterprise and Innovation (MEI) and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), with the aim of creating favourable conditions for the implementation of strategic partnerships, with Smart Cities being one of the focus areas.
Find out more about the joint actions in the area of Smart Cities: https://www.sbii.org.
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