Dive Brief:
- All six jurisdictions in Southern Nevada — Boulder City, Clark County, Henderson City, Las Vegas, Mesquite City and North Las Vegas — adopted the "Southern Nevada Smart Community Vision," a unified vision to help guide the introduction of new technological solutions.
- Coordinated by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC), the vision has three main pillars: to improve the region’s quality of life, infrastructure and sustainability. RTC said the jurisdictions came together to adopt the vision to increase public sector efficiency, help economic growth and improve residents’ quality of life.
- “The [vision] helps provide a blueprint for continued coordination and cooperation among the RTC, the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), local entities, and other public-sector agencies like the Las Vegas Valley Water District as they work with various private-industry companies to leverage advanced technology to build a smarter and more connected Southern Nevada,” RTC said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
This regional partnership is part of a growing trend among cities as they look to cooperate and collaborate to get smarter. Similar work is underway in Arizona, where the Greater Phoenix Smart Region initiative is promising greater regional cooperation, workforce development and leading academic research among a slew of large cities in the state. And this collaboration comes on the heels of Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval declaring that the state is on the way to being a leader in smart city technology.
The collaboration is notable as it urges the six jurisdictions to form partnerships with the public and private sector, urging them to include the latter to "assess needs and opportunities for smart initiatives." And there is also a clear accountability model, including quarterly meetings and using data to share progress, while the call to form an Acceleration and Innovation Center could be an interesting testbed for research.
At Smart Cities Week in Washington, DC earlier this month, Don Jacobson, Business Partner for Innovation in Information Technologies at the City of Las Vegas, said the city benefits from having buildings and infrastructure that is all 50 years old at most, while the casinos have been considered "smart for 30 years" as they use technology everywhere. Las Vegas has led the way on many innovations, including autonomous shuttles, fiber and facial recognition technology. Sharing its best practices and experiences should be an immense benefit to its regional neighbors.
