Technology
Bendigo Launches Seven-Pillar Smart City Strategy for Regional Infrastructure
The City of Greater Bendigo's seven-pillar framework and coalition membership point to continued smart infrastructure work across water, heat mapping and emissions reduction.
How we reported this
The City of Greater Bendigo continues to advance its smart city work through the Smart City Bendigo Alliance and the seven-pillar Smarter Bendigo strategy that covers governance, connectivity, people, resources, financing, health and measurement.
Regional cities like Bendigo serve as proof-of-concept sites for smart city policy, with membership in the Global Smart City and Community Coalition providing a channel for sharing results on IoT coverage, water stations and heat-mapping tools already in place.
Existing Deployments Inform Next Priorities
The free open-source Bendigo Thinks Network, built with La Trobe University gateways at sites including Ulumbarra Theatre, already reaches more than 80 percent of the city and supports community data projects. The first smart water station in Victoria, installed with Coliban Water, uses LoRaWAN connectivity, online metering and solar lighting to track usage and park activity. RMIT's Shadeways platform applies satellite imagery to map heat and guide tree planting for pedestrian routes under the federal Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.
These projects align with the pillars of resources, connectivity and measurement, giving council staff concrete data on where additional sensors or tree coverage could deliver the next measurable gains in cooling and water efficiency.
Zero Emissions Roadmap Guides Longer-Term Work
The Greater Bendigo Zero Emissions Roadmap, completed in 2023/2024, supplies the emissions-reduction targets that sit alongside the Smarter Bendigo pillars. Council documents list the roadmap as the mechanism to coordinate future climate-mitigation efforts with existing IoT and water infrastructure.
Officials can now examine how the 2019 iTnews Benchmark Award-winning network and the Coliban Water station data streams feed into the measurement pillar to track progress against the roadmap. Residents and businesses interested in the next phase can review the city's published strategy summary and the coalition's regional case studies for details on how other cities have sequenced similar projects.