Winners of the SPOTTED project’s first innovation competition chosen

The winners of the SPOTTED innovation competition have been chosen. The aim of the project is to find out how satellite data could be utilised in city planning, particularly in the management and planning of urban green spaces. The virtual innovation competition that ended in January sought innovative ways to make use of the EU’s open satellite data and the technology offered by FIWARE in managing urban green spaces. A total of eight competition entries were submitted by teams from around Europe, including Italy, Finland, Spain, Luxembourg and Slovenia.

At the beginning of February, the participating teams had an opportunity to present their proposals to the competition’s jury and representatives of the SPOTTED project’s pilot cities by giving three-minute pitches in an online event. The jury evaluated the competition entries’ based on e.g. their innovativeness and viability.

In general, the competitors had approached the themes of the project and competition from very different starting points, and the entries included solutions for example for monitoring green spaces, optimising park maintenance work and making use of citizen generated feedback. Technologies that particularly stood out in the competition entries included artificial intelligence, automated image recognition, and data analysis platforms.

Three winners awarded cash prizes

Three of the competition entries were awarded a cash prize. The jury ranked WEO’s solution as the best competition entry. The core of this solution is analysis based on open satellite data in relation to the quantity and condition of green spaces and parks. The solution facilitates data-based decision-making related to green spaces and adaptation to climate change.

The jury also awarded prizes to xD Twin, which proposed an idea related to making use of satellite images in monitoring and managing changes in areas under construction, and WiseTown, whose solution seeks to integrate feedback provided by city residents and crowdsourcing in relation to the maintenance of green spaces.

One of the competition’s judges, Innovation Agent Petteri Huuska from the ity of Helsinki’s Urban Environment Division, commented on the competition from the city of Helsinki’s point of view.

“The subject is very topical for us. From the city’s perspective, each of the winning competition entries offered new and interesting ideas, even though they are still at the idea level. Luckily, we’ll be able to continue discussing these and other prospects of satellite data in supporting other remote sensing methods when we hold a presentation and brainstorming session for the Urban Environment Division’s innovators towards the end of February. It would be great if we could link the city’s needs to these types of creative solutions,” says Huuska.Read more about the winners on the project site.