Auckland Council Safeswim initiative wins at Smart Cities Asia Pacific Awards

Auckland Council’s Safeswim water quality initiative has been recognised as the winner in the Smart Water Category of the Smart Cities Asia Pacific Awards.

Safeswim combines real-time data on the performance of the wastewater and stormwater networks with predictive models, to generate forecasts of water quality at 92 swimming sites around the Auckland region.

The water quality predictions include a range of factors such as rain intensity, duration and location, as well as tide, sunlight, wind speed and wind direction.

Auckland Council beat out competition from South Korea, Australia and Hong Kong to take the top honours in this category at an awards ceremony in Singapore.

From February to November 2017, Auckland Council and Watercare worked with Surf Life Saving Northern Region and the Auckland Regional Public Health Service to upgrade the Safeswim programme.

Safeswim now provides a fully-integrated web and digital signage platform to provide advice for beach users, allowing people to ‘check before they swim’ and make informed decisions about when and where to swim.

Auckland Council Head of Innovation Matt Montgomery stated “Safeswim is an excellent example of how Auckland Council, along with its partners, has innovated to deliver a world-class data analytics platform that has been able to engage and inform Aucklanders as to the condition of water quality across our beautiful beaches.”

Montgomery says the Council will launch the Smart City Programme in September, and will aim to deliver outcomes like these across a wide range of topics “to make Auckland the world’s most liveable city.”

The Smart Cities Asia Pacific Awards are organised by global market intelligence provider International Data Corporation (IDC) and were created to identify, benchmark and publicly vote on the best projects each year across 12 functional smart city strategic domains. It is an intensive six-month process that tracks and evaluates hundreds of smart city initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.

The award categories are: administration; civic engagement; digital equity and accessibility; education; public health and social services; public safety; smart buildings; smart water; sustainable infrastructure; transportation; tourism, arts, libraries, culture and open spaces; and urban planning and land use.

Commenting on Auckland’s award, IDC market analyst Jefferson King stated “what stood out about the Safeswim project was the high level of collaboration between the different organisations and the increased accuracy it delivers.

“The positive outcomes of the project itself are clear, helping locals make better informed decisions regarding swimming safety.”

King points out that with New Zealand experiencing tremendous population growth in its urban centres in recent years, putting strain on infrastructure such as roading and housing, that “to help cope with these growing pains, cities need to use resources more efficiently and that’s what Smart Cities are all about.

“Auckland Council is doing just that, with a range of innovative projects that leverage technology to provide positive social outcomes."

Safeswim predictions now have a 67 to 86% accuracy when identifying swimming conditions - a major improvement over earlier programmes.

The safeswim.org.nz website is the primary communication channel for Safeswim, supplemented with on-location signage. 

Images: Safeswim signage (top) and Orewa Beach (below). 

17th November 2017 - WATER SAFETY NEW ZEALAND INVESTS $1.66 MILLION INTO WATER SAFETY EDUCATION

28th September 2017 - REPORT SHOWS SMALL DECREASE IN PREVENTABLE DROWNING IN NEW ZEALAND

8th September 2017 - CONCERN OVER DECLINING SWIMMING SKILLS AMONG NEW ZEALAND CHILDREN

19th July 2017 - NZRA APPLAUDS FRESHWATER RESCUE PLAN

18th July 2017 - PRESSURE ON AS FRESHWATER RESCUE PLAN GAINS SUPPORT 

6th March 2017 - MAPS SHOW MOST NEW ZEALAND RIVERS EXCLUDED FROM SWIMMING STANDARD

24th February 2017 - NZRA SEES GOOD AND BAD IN NEW SWIMMABLE RIVERS TARGET

23rd February 2017 - NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES PLANS TO MAKE 90% OF WATERWAYS SWIMMABLE BY 2040

16th February 2017 - WELL BEHAVED DOGS WELCOME ON MANY AUCKLAND BEACHES 

26th January 2017 - AUCKLAND COUNCIL TAKES BACK CONTROL OF MOTUKOREA BROWNS ISLAND

16th January 2017 - ADVOCACY GROUP CALLS FOR AN END TO THE EXPLOITATION OF NEW ZEALAND’S RIVERS

28th December 2016 - HORIZONS REGIONAL COUNCIL INCREASES MONITORING OF POPULAR SWIM SPOTS 

13th January 2016 - COUNTING THE COST OF BEACH THEFT 

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