IBM Smarter Cities Challenge ApplicationMasterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
City of Dubuque, Iowa Application
DATE: January 13, 2011
Dubuque
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am recommending the submittal of the City of Dubuque application to participate in the
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge.
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Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Cori Burbach, Sustainability Coordinator
Michael C. Van Milligen
City Manager's Office
City Hall
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001 -4864
(563) 589 -4110 phone
(563) 589 -4149 fax
(563) 690 -6678 TDD
ctyrngr @cityofdubuque.org
January 6, 2011
Re: IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
City of Dubuque, Iowa Application
To Whom It May Concern:
I am pleased to submit the attached City of Dubuque, Iowa application to participate in
the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge. Please feel free to contact me or Sustainable
Community Coordinator Cori Burbach with any questions regarding this application:
Mike Van Milligen or Cori Burbach
City Managers Office
50 W 13 St
Dubuque IA 52001
Ph: 563 - 589 -4110
Email: ctymgr(c7cityofdubuque.orq or cburbach(7a cityofdubuque.orq
Thank you for your consideration of this application.
Sincerely,
Michael Van Milligen
City Manager
THE CITY OF
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City of Dubuque, Iowa
Application to the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
Statement of Problem & Opportunity. In September 2009, the City of Dubuque and IBM Watson
Research Center launched a partnership to establish Dubuque as one of the first "smarter" sustainable
cities in the United States. Smarter Sustainable Dubuque (SSD) is a unique public /private partnership
created between the City, IBM, and local utility providers and community organizations to achieve the
Sustainable Dubuque vision.
In 2006, Mayor Roy Buol and the City Council appointed a citizen task force to define a sustainability
vision for Dubuque. That vision is that, "Dubuque is a viable, livable and equitable community. We
embrace economic prosperity, environmental integrity, and social /cultural vibrancy to create a sustainable
legacy for generations to come." The community has set aggressive targets in areas of energy use,
resource management, reasonable mobility, green buildings, community design, and other areas in order
to achieve a more self - reliant, energy- efficient and sustainable community.
SSD will establish Dubuque, with a population of 60,000 as a replicable, international model of
sustainability for communities of 200,000 and under, where over 40% of the U.S. populations resides. As
more and more communities establish sustainability and climate change goals, they are quickly realizing
that accurate and timely data is often not available for residents, businesses, or governments to set
meaningful targets and move towards them. Numerous hurdles including a lack of smart meters that can
measure energy use in real -time, inability to meaningfully analyze energy use patterns across "silos," and
a historical difficulty sharing information across sectors and organizations make becoming a more energy -
efficient community difficult.
SSD will provide Dubuque residents the information and tools they need to make smarter choices about
resource consumption. The initiative will do so by collecting data about how Dubuque residents use
energy in the silos of water, electricity, natural gas, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and analyze their
impact on the health of the community. The model will integrate community engagement and education,
more energy- efficient ways of operating municipal services and buildings, decreased carbon emissions,
new job creation, increased financial savings, and a higher quality of life for the entire community. It will
implement an innovative Smarter City intelligent solution for automated data collection using sophisticated
analytical and decision support tools that will advise policy design, implementation, and measurement;
aggressive public education, outreach and implementation of specific water, energy and transportation
projects; to improve regional mobility; create living wage jobs; reduce VMT and energy consumption; and
continue to build the metropolitan Dubuque region as a vibrant, livable community providing prosperity
and a high quality of life for all its residents.
A focused effort to measure municipal and citizen consumption habits across energy silos (electric, gas,
water and VMT) is necessary in order to create integrated technology tools that, when combined with a
comprehensive program of community engagement, will dramatically change energy consumption
patterns and create powerful momentum toward greater economic and environmental sustainability
across the country. Incorporating as many silos of energy utilization as possible into the model will give
citizens the maximum opportunity to discover long term savings through resource utilization changes.
Efforts successfully underway to date include the Smarter Water and Smarter Electricity pilots. Soon, the
Smarter Mobility pilot will start.
Natural gas is a critical component of Dubuque's energy utilization, particularly as the community's
primary source of energy for heat during winter months. Real -time data about how residents use natural
gas is needed to compliment the Smarter Electricity pilot and provide a complete profile of how homes
are heated and cooled year- round. Black Hills Energy will install 250 natural gas AMI units (Advanced
Metering Infrastructure) for pilot participants in Dubuque and provide individual gas usage and related
data to the City and IBM for research purposes.
IBM Research is already engaged with the City of Dubuque in measuring, analyzing and estimating
demand patterns for water and electricity consumption. By adding natural gas consumption to the
integrated sustainable system delivered to residents of Dubuque through the IBM cloud, this will be the
first such integrated sustainability management enablement for citizens and city management as well as
utilities. This will also allow very interesting cross - domain analysis of how consumption of different
resources occurs and is correlated and what insights it can provide about demand. This cross - domain
analysis could lead to additional insights when correlated against weather patterns which impact the use
of heating and cooling systems as well as transportation.
Dubuque is well positioned to utilize the resources offered in the Smarter Cities Challenge. The
Mayor and City Council established support of SSD as a Top Priority in their annual goal setting process;
it is listed alongside several other sustainability priorities.
The citizens of Dubuque are also committed to this project. 300 pilot homes were successfully recruited
for the Smarter Water pilot and 1,000 for the Smarter Electricity pilot; additionally, there is great interest in
rolling the integrated portal out to all 22,000 households in Dubuque. On an initial survey to pilot
participants, individuals cited their desire to improve the environment along with their desire to establish
Dubuque as a national sustainability leader as reasons for their participation. Dubuque is also committed
to helping IBM get the national and international recognition of partnering to create this integrated model.
Already our partnership in water and electricity has garnered attention with state and federal funding
agencies as well as within the private sector as shown in the most recent issue of Connected World
magazine and Fast Company's 10 Smartest Cities in the World announcements.
Dubuque is prepared to share the SSD model with other communities so that they may learn from our
experience and take similar steps to achieve sustainability goals. The City and its partners are prepared
to continue our participation in forums and meetings, present at conferences and document our story
through a variety of mediums in order to share the lessons we learn. In 2010, our partnership was
presented to many organizations beginning with a standing room only session for policy decision makers
at our Annual Growing Sustainable Communities conference and ending with national exposure on PBS's
Blue Print America with Miles O'Brien and PBS newshour.
IBM's support in the form of talent and technology will substantially enhance the city's capacity to
act on key issues. Dubuque is requesting the participation of three IBM Research personnel for nine
months in an effort to understand and analyze natural gas consumption in conjunction with water and
electricity consumption. These research personnel will extend the existing integrated sustainability
management system to cover the natural gas consumption and help analyze and understand demand
patterns. Dubuque is also requesting the use of IBM Research's In Market Experimentation environment
for six months for 250 consumers.
The support of IBM staff and technology will significantly enhance the community's ability to make great
strides in achieving their sustainability vision. Various government and non - profit organizations within the
community stand ready to assist energy consumers in changing their habits. However, the ability to view
real -time data and subsequent analysis including recommendations for more sustainable activity are
necessary to complete the community engagement and transformation process that has been
undertaken. Additionally, IBM's support and analysis are needed in order to address the institutional,
financial, and market barriers that hinder municipalities from planning for a more sustainable future and
changing the way they provide services to their residents.
The Smarter, Sustainable Dubuque project is creating innovative solutions to public problems
through the use of new technology and data sharing to create a replicable, international model.
This project is creating the first replicable national model of integrated sustainability management
empowering citizens, city management and utilities and enabling them to collaborate on a common
platform to manage and optimize resource consumption across various silos such as water, electricity,
VMT and natural gas. Already, findings from the water consumption study are impacting how other
communities plan and consider the use of technology for managing resources. One aspect of replicability
is the use of IBM Software Group products in the creation of the cloud delivered service. The solution
uses IBM data management, information integration and business analytics products such as DB2,
Infosphere Information Server Datastage, Cognos, ILOG, and SPSS.
The other aspect of replicability is that the services are delivered through the IBM Research Tabs cloud
which makes it very easy for this effort to be replicated to respond to the need of other cities.
Finally the information being generated by the projects are available to entities such as the Iowa Power
Fund, a program of the Iowa Office of Energy Independence that provides technical and financial support
to communities across the state interested in implementing energy efficiency and alternative energy
programs and projects, so that insights can be shared and acted upon by other communities across the
state, nation, and world.
This work has most recently led to Dubuque being selected as one of the ten smartest cities on the planet
by FastConnect and other national accolades. Below please find links to some of the most notable
exposure the community has experienced due to their research and partnership with IBM.
Fast Connect: The Ten Smartest Cities on the Planet
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Dubuque Named One of 22 Smarter Cities by National Resources Defense Council
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PBS News Hour Special: Former Factory Town in Iowa Eyes Green Future, Improves Livability
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The City and its public, private and non - profit partners are currently and will continue to match
IBM's investment with our own commitment of time and talent, including access to the city
agencies and personnel relevant to the project. Since the announcement of Dubuque's SSD initiative
in 2009, the City has established a core team with expertise in government operations, information
technology, and community engagement to implement the project. The following core team implements
the SSD project:
David Lyons, SSD Project Manager, City of Dubuque
Milind Naphade, Program Director, Services for a Smarter Planet, IBM Research
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager, City of Dubuque
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager, City of Dubuque
Chris Kohlman, Information Services Manager, City of Dubuque
Cori Burbach, Sustainability Coordinator, City of Dubuque
Randy Gehl, Public Information Officer, City of Dubuque
Eric Dregne, VP of Programs, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
Additionally, partners from Black Hills Energy (natural gas), Alliant Energy (electricity), City of Dubuque
Water Department (water), and East Central Intergovernmental Association (transportation) coordinate
efforts depending on the energy silo being implemented.
Finally, local officials have worked hard to establish the funding necessary to integrate all energy silos
into a comprehensive model that will allow us to analyze and act upon information across multiple
systems and to create a model that cities across the planet can learn from. Local tax dollars and utility
fees, grants from the Iowa Office of Energy Independence and Department of Natural Resources, and the
U.S. Departments of Transportation have helped to fund the water, electricity, and VMT silos.
Unfortunately, federal and state resources are directed to specific energy silos, and as a result gap
funding is needed. The support of IBM through the Smarter City Challenge will ensure that the natural
gas silo can be completed and, as a result, IBM and the City of Dubuque can make significant progress
integrating the silos into one Integrated Sustainability System.