We explore Seattle’s journey to becoming a data-driven city and how it plans to continue to develop its smart city strengths
Seattle – known as the “Emerald City” – is the largest city in the state of Washington. Located in the Pacific Northwest region of the US, Seattle is one of the nation’s most geographically isolated large cities. It is a young city (founded in the 19th century) which evolved into a modern hub of commerce, high-tech, science and transportation with global enterprises such as Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Weyerhaeuser having a role in the city’s transformation. The Port of Seattle is the busiest container port in the Pacific Northwest, the fourth largest in North America and a major trade gateway with Asia.
In 2017, the City of Seattle released a Strategic IT agenda with a technology vision and guidelines for smart city investments. The 2020 Smart City Index from the Institute for Management Development ranked Seattle 37th out of 109 cities. In this ranking, Seattle citizens gave their city high marks in citizen engagement, employment opportunities, lifelong learning, green spaces, cultural activities and recycling services. Like other cities around the world, Seattle faces post-pandemic challenges. To galvanise recovery efforts, city leaders developed a Seattle Rescue Plan – with proposed relief funding of $128m for business grants, cash payments to families in need and an estimated $50m for homeless measures and affordable housing.
Among the highlights in this report:
- How the city seeks to improve digital equity especially for low-income and other vulnerable residents who are at least five times more likely to suffer from inadequate internet access.
- How the city is building its resilience by exploring grid modernisation technologies, including microgrids, distributed energy resources and demand response.
- The role of green spaces in helping the city meet its goals for carbon footprint reduction, tree canopy and urban forest expansion
Find out more about Seattle’s smart city strategy in this 20-page report.