Digital Investments

The City has implemented a variety of communication pathways from fiber to cellular cable with the ultimate goal is to have connectivity everywhere, to every person and every device.

We have transformed operations and infrastructure by evaluating our diverse environment and leveraged existing infrastructure to do more and purchase new infrastructure to enhance performance and last longer for less.

The Doral Digital Smart City Plan guarantees that the city has the digital infrastructures it requires for its overall management and to ensure a platform that gives citizens better ways to interact with government and improve how services are delivered for all the needs of city residents.

These infrastructures are the means for improving the services provided to city residents and to face such major urban challenges as housing, to resiliency, workability and sustainable environment.

Since 2015 our Strategic Smart City Initiatives have enabled upgrading our infrastructure, using sensing technology and data analytics to better manage our assets such as transportation, public safety and security. This “connected infrastructure” vision comprises what is known as Smart City 1.0

Connected sensors that collect data and enterprise systems have optimized the performance of our infrastructure, and are a key part of what it takes to build a smart city.

Within the last 3 years we have implemented 40% of The National League of Cities 17 distinct technologies trends that have been implemented in government.

Smart Cities Increase Efficiency, Safety and Sustainability

More cities than ever before are investing in smart city technology and changing how cities operate. There are many benefits that come along with making a city “smart.” It gives the city more information and data to help drive decision making leading to tremendous benefits that positively influence the lives of everyone who lives, works, and visits, such as:

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by building smart buildings that efficiently manage resources such as water and electricity,
• Less traffic congestion on the roads through solutions such as automated tolling, intelligent traffic lights, and fleet management, and
• Safer communities by reducing criminal activities through technologies such as license plate recognition, gunshot detectors and body cameras.

Doral City, Florida Improves Quality of Life

Doral realizes a portfolio of smart city initiatives, including one called “Quality of Place.” Because the safety and security that Doral residents experience are key to their quality of life, the initiative emphasizes security measures, which have intense data gathering and processing workloads. For example, Doral tracks vehicle traffic to deter crime. “Dell devices integrated with license plate readers have already read more than 10 million license plates and identified 3% of them as concerns,” says Gladys Gonzalez, IT director for the City of Doral. “This effort will eventually encompass the city’s entire periphery.”

Within the “Quality of Place” initiative, Doral will also implement new systems that will provide more environmental and background information to police officers responding to incidents. Location details and facial recognition enhanced by video analytics and artificial intelligence will help them act faster and strengthen their safety.

In just three years, Doral has implemented 40 percent of the smart city technology measures identified by the National League of Cities. Doral is already preparing a Smart City 2.0 strategy, which will focus even more on enhancing customer service on the city’s digital infrastructure. As a certified smart city, Doral has become highly attractive to families and organizations that have traditionally not had a strong presence there, such as medical service providers. The city’s population has grown by 77% during the last eight years. “With 14,746 businesses per 100,000 population, Doral has a WCCD ISO 37120 indicator of 5.6—better than Los Angeles, Amsterdam and London,” Gonzalez points out. “Our smart city successes help the economic development team invite companies to come here. This would not have been possible without Dell Technologies.”

Quick Wins on the Road to a Smarter City
Here are some of the most common first steps to realize quick wins on the road to a smarter city: Smart lighting, smart waste collection and crowd monitoring.

Smart lighting: Public lighting is a common entry point for new smart services. IoT technologies enable planners to deploy energy-efficient streetlights that detect human presence and consume energy only when needed. Combined with low-energy LED bulbs, these adaptive technologies can significantly reduce streetlights’ electricity consumption that now accounts for between 20% and 50% of local government energy bills.

Smart lighting technologies, combined with real-time mobility data coming from vehicles, can also help fine-tune traffic lights to limit congestion. For example, the French city of Nice is leading a trial project focused on smart lampposts in public spaces. The lighting can be adjusted for a range of situations via remote operation or sensors, helping to improve security. The project also considers real-time weather conditions like fog and rain to reduce electricity bills substantially.

Smart waste collection: Efficient and greener waste management is a priority for many cities. Some of them are promoting smart garbage containers, equipped with sensors that alert collecting serviceswhen a container is full. There is nothing less attractive for a city than waste being spread on the street. And it saves money for the City services as garbage collection rounds can be optimized. For example, smart waste is an essential part of the IoT-UK program, backed by a £40m investment from the British government to increase the adoption of high-quality IoT technologies across the private and the public sectors.

Crowd monitoring: Anonymized localization data from smartphones helps cities better manage big public events like concerts or marathons. This is good for security and mobility as police forces and public traffic managers have a better view of the different flows and can take appropriate measures. For example, the Belgian City of Antwerp uses cellphone-based crowd monitoring techniques to secure popular events like the Marathon or the Tall Ships Races.

With a rapidly growing population, smart cities are more important than ever. Dell Technologies offers the building blocks cities need to on their digital journey, as well as the continued applications and support to maintain and scale. Dell also creates cutting-edge solutions to enable and expand smart cities around the world. Find out more in worldwide Customer Solution Centers and Edge Innovation Centers. Get more detail about Doral’s smart city. Find out how Las Vegas increased public safety. Get a glimpse of other Connected Cities.

 DELL Technologies - Building the foundation for a Smart City

Projects

Equinix

Enterprise Security Management

Fiber Optics

Smart Benches

Interactive Digital Signage Kiosks

Public Safety

Smart Buildings

Smart Lighting

Smart Parking

Transportation

Solar Tree

Vehicle Fleet Communication

Public Safety Body Cameras

Security Cameras

Equinix

First, our investments focused on colocation space and technology infrastructure upgrades of the City of Doral, to enhance our data center operations, network systems, and bandwidth upgrade.

State of the Art Colocation Facility: The City of Doral moved our production data centers to Equinix’s NAP of the Americas (NAP) that provides much more than just state-of-the-art carrier-neutral colocation space and carrier-dense interconnections. The NAP provides secure hosted facilities, floor space, enterprise grade cooling and electrical power for IT systems from multiple providers.

This facility is home to the primary network exchange between the U.S. and Latin America. It is a network-rich site, allowing easy connectivity to key carriers and provides a pathway or data traffic from the Caribbean and South and Central America to more than 148 countries worldwide, making the NAP the gateway to the Americas. The NAP has an area dedicated to U. S. federal government customers with strict access control protocols. The facility is built 32 feet above sea level and is designed to withstand Category 5 hurricane-level winds. It is 6 miles from the Miami International Airport (MIA).

The NAP’s colocation services help us safeguard mission-critical data with the highest levels of security and operational reliability. The NAP data center provide access to vital ecosystems where major networks, enterprises and business partners interconnect to each other and to more than 1,500+ available networks.

Enterprise Security Management

The City of Doral complies with State, Federal and Public Safety security guidelines; by having an Enterprise Security Management program. Our Information Security Management processes that ensures Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (aka. CIA Triad) of our organization’s assets, information, data, and overall IT services. Enterprise Security Management is about being proactive (not reactive) and in the process implementing a layered approach to security, that leverages both investments in technology solutions and administrative processes. Security and privacy play a critical role in enabling smart cities because they build trust with residents, business and visitors that utilize our systems.

Our Smart City risk management framework is comprehensive, encompassing cybersecurity as well as the physical security of all assets; from intersection infrastructure to mobile devices. This framework encompass not just the necessary technical steps, but also a thorough program of education and training of City employees via our Annual Citywide Security Training Program.

Next-generation Bandwidth: The number one need a City must have is reliable, high-speed data network. The City worked with Fibernet Direct to connect fiber to all city facilities with 10G Internet bandwidth to main city facilities. By establishing next-generation, bandwidth to enable fast connectivity is how our Smart City’s devices communicate with each other and with the NAP data center, ensures that data gets from where it is collected to where it is analyzed and used. Examples include; City and Park facilities, Wi-Fi networks, License Plate Reader Cameras, and RF mesh networks.

Smart Benches: Solar powered outdoor furniture capable of USB phone and smart device charging and collecting data on usage and pedestrian counts in parks or outdoor public spaces. Additionally, the Smart Benches transfer’s data to a cloud based application used for enhancing performance management of parks and outdoor public spaces. Installation of six Smart Benches at Downtown Doral Park, Meadows Park, Veterans Park and Legacy Park.

Public Safety

To enhance Public Safety initiatives, the City of Doral invested in Smart License Plate Readers (LPR) and video monitoring cameras logically located throughout the City. The availability and use of LPR system have provided many opportunities for the enhancement of sworn members productivity, effectiveness, and safety. The City of Doral has the largest deployment of LPR is the State of Florida with 145 LPR’s.

This technology uses fiber optic high availably services and incorporates the cameras into the City's Wide Area Network. This initiative enhances our Smart City high-speed data transmissions throughout the City of Doral. The high-speed fiber ensures all intersections successfully demonstrate the functionality of the design installed for the LPR Alerting Integration and video management systems.

Since FY 2015, the City of Doral Police Department has successfully used the license plate reader system to identify criminals in the area of a crime that aided in City investigations and the apprehension of criminals. The cameras have also assisted detectives in the recovery of stolen vehicles. The system further provides analytical data in categories such as: Missing Person, Amber Alert, Child Abductor, Homicide, Sex Offender, Terrorist and Wanted Vehicles to name a few.

In addition, the LPR platform’s analytical tools is essential to improve investigations. It allows for easier sharing, storage and management of the captured data, which are key benefits, while at the same time fighting crime, which is the real purpose of this technology. Using the analytic capabilities of the LPR to look for patterns to solve crimes is where the real value lies.

Smart Buildings

City of Doral Smart Buildings use automated processes to control the building’s operations, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security and other systems. We use smart building sensors, actuators and microchips, in order to collect data and manage it according to a business’ functions and services. This infrastructure helps operators and facility managers improve asset reliability and performance, which reduces energy use, water loss and minimizes the environmental impact of our buildings.

Some potential advantages of working in a smart building include:

• High-speed connection
  Your building isn’t connected unless the people inside are. Smart buildings can be outfitted with high-speed internet and voice over internet protocol services. Since businesses increasingly rely on the internet, an increase in speed could mean an increase in production and revenue.
   
• Self-monitoring
  Smart buildings are designed to constantly gather data and monitor themselves for problems in the structure’s facilities. So, for example, if an elevator breaks down, the building could find the problem, self-diagnose and communicate with the appropriate organization to get it fixed. Smart buildings can also monitor system performance to increase energy savings.
   
• Comfort factor
  Smart buildings are set to adapt to the way people work. They have control of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting, learning the schedules of those who operate these systems in order to optimize comfort.
   
• Increased safety and security
  It is becoming increasingly important for people to feel safe at the workplace, and smart buildings can help in those efforts. Take, for example, a situation in which a fire alarm goes off. A smart building can detect smoke, tell occupants to evacuate the building, contact the correct authorities and prepare the structure for minimizing the spread of risk. Security also is an important issue, and the deployment of cameras and the ability to stream footage from a surveillance camera to a laptop can increase safety and provide peace of mind to tenants.

Smart Lighting

Our building’s lighting controls are connected, intelligent, and human-centric. LEDs have brought lighting into the digital age.

Energy Efficiency gives us visibility into our building performance to uncover valuable insights, improve building operations and save money.

Smart Bathrooms/ Smart water faucet
Our buildings now have LED Waterfall Bathroom Sink Faucet with electronic touchpad eliminating turning of faucet handles, which saves time, effort and water, This makes them more sanitary since they can be activated with your knuckle, thus qualifying as ADA Compliant.

Smart Parking

Our parking facilities contain Electrical charge stations contributing and improving air quality providing benefits for all living beings and for the sustainability of life on the planet. We provide EV charging stations at our locations sending a message to employees about the values of the City of Doral environmentally friendly, conscientious and forward thinking. It encourages and empowers employees to hold the same values.

Transportation

Improving transportation infrastructure and services are a high priority for the City of Doral. The connection between transportation and our built environment is straightforward which includes roads and trolleys. An essential component of a smart transportation is our intersection cameras technology that provide valuable data analytics on how many cars enter and exit the City. Since December 2016 on average, over 100,000 cars enter and exit the City of a daily basis and on a monthly basis; we have over nine million cars travel throughout the City. We have insight into which are our busiest intersections by day of the week and time of day. This provides valuable insight into our traffic patterns and improving public safety.

Smart transportation has a strong link to public safety and our Public Safety Dispatch Center has insight into all intersection cameras that empower them to see potential traffic snarls in real time so they can select the most efficient travel routes for our Police vehicles.

Transportation Roadmap

Using Smart Technology to reduce traffic and congestion is an integral part of our transportation initiatives. Smart transportation gives residents, businesses, and visitors the power to make better transportation decisions. The City encourage the use of electric vehicles by purchasing them whenever possible for our own fleets and providing we provide charging stations in our public buildings.

We are evaluating the following technologies:

• Incident detection and notification systems to analyze information from intersection cameras and vehicles to detect traffic problems, alert drivers and suggest alternative routes.
   
• Making parking more efficient through instrumentation and mobile apps.
   
• Collaborating with Waze to reduce traveler trip time to provide real- time route planning and plot multi-modal routes for travelers and send traffic alerts via smartphone.
   
• Development of ridesharing apps to optimally pair passengers and drivers, Doral neighborhood-specific parking and traffic maps, apps that publish wait times for parking lots.
   
• An electric car-sharing program with surrounding municipalities to relieve traffic congestion, reduce noise, air pollution, and provide people with more flexible transit options. Implementing an intelligent system that provides connectivity between the in-car system, registration and rental kiosks, charging stations and a central management system.

Solar Trees

Florida Power & Light is planting large devices across Florida that look like trees and harness the power of the sun to create electricity.

The utility has begun installing these 24-foot-tall, solar-powered “trees” to bring attention to the use of solar energy.

FPL’s pilot program, called SolarNow, kicked off two years ago, allowing customers across the state to opt into a $9 extra charge on their monthly bill to fund public solar-power generation.

The presence of the solar trees gives the public a chance to learn more about the technology, said FPL spokeswoman Alys Daly. “The great thing about these solar trees is that we’re locating them in communities where people have an opportunity to see and learn about solar,” Daly said. “Many people haven’t experienced solar because it’s out of sight on a rooftop somewhere, but you can’t miss [the trees].”

Vehicle Fleet Communication

Supported by a sophisticated GPS software, this user-friendly fleet tracking solution provides near real-time view on all of your fleet activities. The online interface allows our dispatchers to see the exact location of our officers within coverage at any time and operate more efficiently, sending the closest officer to any dispatched call or to assist an officer in need.

The software will also improve the safety of our drivers and vehicles by alerting to undesirable conduct on the road. Curbing adverse driving behavior will help avoid accidents, vehicle damage, fuel waste, and unnecessary expenses recent purchased. It will also quickly identify and locate any mechanical issues to save on vehicle inspection time and costs. With sensor-to-machine communication, the devices in our vehicles will gather and interpret data, informing of necessary actions to take.

The city of Doral Police Department strives to provide a sense of reassurance through police visibility patrols which is linked to greater police engagement which our residents and consequently provides an impact on crime and fear of crime. Police visibility is seen as a means of facilitating engagement and intervention which, when combined, would be expected to enhance quality of life, reduce fear of crime, fear of intimidation and reduce the incidence of crime.

Public Safety Body Cameras

Doral Police Department implemented the use body-worn cameras (BWC) for greater accountability, enhanced public trust, and a safer community. The use of BWC is seen as the future of modern policing because it creates a real-time, permanent record of all encounters and interactions between police officers and members of the public. In addition, numerous studies conducted have shown that the use of BWC results in a reduction of false complaints, and lawsuits against police departments.

The BWC system is designed to record both audio and video. This allows for an additional form of documentation for arrests, and critical incidents. The audio and video recordings also enhance this agency’s ability to review probable cause for arrest, member and civilian interaction, evidence for investigative and prosecutorial purposes, and to provide additional information for member evaluation and training. They also serve to ensure the accuracy of member reports and testimony in court. The BWC system may also be useful in documenting crime and accident scenes and other events that include the confiscation and documentation of contraband or evidence.

Security Cameras

Security cameras are well suited for city surveillance applications, such as monitoring public squares, parking lots and other open areas.