Cities today run many independent systems — telecom networks, energy grids, water infrastructure, transport and public-safety platforms — each with its own data, tools and procedures. Yet urban infrastructure does not work in isolation. A disruption in one sector can affect others, especially where systems are technically or operationally interdependent. The information needed to understand those dependencies often remains fragmented.
Why this matters at EU scale
With three-quarters of the EU population living in urban areas, cities play a central role in Europe’s climate and digital transition. Globally, urban areas account for more than 65% of energy consumption and over 70% of CO₂ emissions.
The European Commission’s Cities Mission reflects this challenge. It selected 100 cities from all 27 EU Member States, together with 12 cities from associated countries, from 377 applicants. Its initial 2022–2023 phase was supported by €360 million from Horizon Europe.
In 2026, the Commission opened a further €85.5 million call covering areas such as energy-efficient urban transport, low-temperature heating, AI-based tools for urban planning and management, and circular construction. Digital technologies and cross-sector collaboration are becoming increasingly important elements of urban transformation.
From isolated systems to interoperable data environments
Smart-city development is moving beyond isolated applications and sensors towards interoperable, cross-domain data environments.
Local Digital Twins are part of that shift. They are increasingly used across mobility, energy, planning and sustainability, helping cities analyse relationships between systems rather than treating each sector separately.
At the same time, interoperability, open standards and measures designed to reduce vendor lock-in are becoming more important in smart-city procurement. Closed systems may solve a specific problem in the short term, but they can make future integration and data exchange more difficult and expensive.
The objective is not necessarily to place all information in one central database. Cities can also use federated architectures in which data remains in different systems but can still be exchanged and analysed through common interfaces and standards.
Data silos as a major barrier
Telecom infrastructure supporting traffic monitoring, the energy network powering street lighting, and water infrastructure may all be documented in separate applications, formats and databases. Some information may still exist in spreadsheets or disconnected documentation.
Reliable infrastructure data is increasingly treated as an asset because it supports better planning, lifecycle management and risk assessment. Its value comes not only from collecting data, but from being able to connect it and use it in the right operational context.
What integration actually delivers
When infrastructure data from different sectors can be connected and analysed together, cities gain a clearer view of dependencies.
During an incident, technical teams can identify affected assets and assess which other systems or services may be impacted. During investment planning, integrated data can help reveal potential conflicts and improve coordination between departments and infrastructure operators.
It can also support cost reduction. Adaptive street-lighting systems, for example, can reduce electricity consumption for public lighting by tens of percent, with some implementations and scenarios reaching savings of around 50% or more.
Lessons from telecom and transport
Telecom operators have dealt with this problem for years. They need to know what assets they own, where they are located, how they are connected, and which services depend on them.
The same logic applies beyond telecommunications. Network Inventory systems can support the management of energy, transport, road and municipal infrastructure. SunVizion, for example, is also used in environments such as airports and road infrastructure, where accurate information about assets, locations and dependencies is essential.
A reliable resource inventory is therefore more than technical documentation. It can become a shared data layer supporting planning, maintenance, incident analysis, automation and integration with other systems.
Smart cities start with connected infrastructure data
Before investing in another wave of sensors and analytics platforms, cities should ask whether they have a reliable foundation of interoperable, up-to-date infrastructure data.
Without that foundation, even advanced smart-city technologies may operate on an incomplete view of reality. The real value of Smart City solutions emerges when information from different sectors can be connected, analysed and used together to support better decisions.
