The Municipality of Catania, one of Italy’s largest metropolitan areas, is leveraging advanced technology to modernise its urban services. With over a million residents, Catania balances the preservation of its historic architecture with the need to enhance service efficiency and quality of life.
Utilising Hanwha Vision’s sophisticated camera systems and Park Smart software, Catania is on its way to achieving its smart city ambitions, particularly through innovative urban monitoring and intelligent parking solutions. Recognising the benefits that smart city technologies can offer, Catania’s leadership adopted these innovations to improve data-driven decision-making.
The collaboration with Hanwha Vision brings advanced video analytics to the city’s core, allowing for real-time digital services such as parking availability. This initiative represents a pivotal step in Catania’s long-term smart city strategy, providing immediate value to both administrators and citizens by improving urban management and providing a scalable foundation for future expansion.
Integrating Hanwha Vision A-Series cameras with the Park Smart system creates an AI-powered parking monitoring network. This setup not only facilitates real-time monitoring of street parking but also aids in managing urban regulations effectively.
As a result, traffic congestion has been reduced, enhancing road safety and improving the overall experience for Catania’s residents. The cameras have been strategically installed at high-demand locations, blending seamlessly with the city’s Baroque heritage due to their discreet design, approved by the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage.
The edge AI cameras enhance time-to-insight by performing analytics directly within the devices, eliminating the need for costly servers. They track various parking parameters like occupancy and availability, transmitting this information to a central dashboard which integrates with mobile apps and vehicle displays. This enables residents to quickly find available parking while providing city administrators with crucial data for informed urban planning and mobility policy refinement.
Going beyond parking, the AI-powered video analytics are poised to enhance public safety by identifying dangers like unsafe driving behaviour and unauthorised vehicle usage. The success of the historic city centre project has prepared the ground for expanding this smart city approach, with plans for incorporating traffic flow analysis, extreme weather monitoring, and other safety initiatives.
Catania’s smart city development is built on Hanwha Vision’s open platform, ensuring the system’s adaptability and scalability. The infrastructure supports the addition of more devices and the extension of coverage without major overhauls.
A spokesperson from the Municipality of Catania remarked, “This is a true smart city infrastructure in which we can provide significant services to our citizens, starting with intelligent parking and extending to broader urban monitoring and governance capabilities. Hanwha Vision’s solution gives us a secure, reliable, AI-powered video solution that transforms how we manage the city in real time.”
