What is a Smart Island?

Just about everyone has heard of smart cities. Cities prepared technologically for the dizzying times that set the pace in this age, taking advantage of the frenzy of near-daily novelties to make life simpler in all spheres. But it is not only cities that are smart; islands which fulfil the typical requisites of a smart city can be classed as smart islands. An area where the Canary Islands are pioneers. A smart island is an island capable of managing infrastructures and services in an intelligent way, according to the variations that take place at any given time: management of traffic, public lighting, waste, fire control… Hence it makes intensive use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). While life for the inhabitants and visitors of the Canary Islands was already pleasant and comfortable, the commitment to becoming smart islands is increasing their quality of life even more.

In 2011 La Palma devised the Antares project, which started to bear fruit in the middle of the decade. The project was a proposal for economic and social transformation based on science and technology to provide a qualitative leap in the creation of ICT infrastructures, equipment and services that are fundamental for development, making them inclusive for citizens, tourists and companies. What are the core ideas? To strengthen the digital economy, sustainability (managing resources efficiently and limiting human impact on the environment) and safety (installing early warning systems and smart procedures in emergency and risk management).

But it was El Hierro, in 2013, which became the world’s first smart island, allowing people who visited the island to share their experiences on the Internet and social media. Its Wi-Fi network, with 26 access points distributed around the island’s three municipalities (El Pinar, La Frontera and Valverde), was on a scale that permitted the transportation of remote service management data (video surveillance of traffic, fire control, management of waste bins and drinking water silos…) by using sensors and centralised information processing.

They were initial, but highly significant steps. In 2015 the Spanish government launched the first announcement of Smart Islands aid aimed at local authorities which managed public services in the Canary and Balearic Islands archipelagos. The funding budget amounted to 30 million euros. Red.es financed 100% (the total, to 2017, amounted to 188 million) of the value of initiatives acting on areas of infrastructures and services via intensive use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with the aim of mitigating the insular factor in the region. Of the 10 initiatives presented, three were chosen, two of which belonged to the Canary Islands: those of Fuerteventura and El Hierro, which had already had superb prior experience. On Fuerteventura, ICT enabled the application of smart technology to reduce the digital gap and improve services, as occurs with the iLight project, which manages solid waste and the lighting of roundabouts on roads.

The conviction of the importance of smart islands within the Canary Islands is reflected in symposia like the Tenerife Smart Island, held for the third time in 2019. Organised by the Cabildo, or island government, of Tenerife, this event is designed to promote the development and use of new technology. It has dealt with the challenges of smart islands, smart mobility in an island-city, innovations in smart buildings and the Public Innovation Procurement (PPI), a new tool with which the public authorities support the design of new products and services.

These are just a few examples demonstrating that Canary Islands have become a smart destination in their own right. There will be more ideas, more projects, and more initiatives, because in the area of technology applied to public management, the domino effect is unstoppable and the advances made constant and countless.