Curbs are one of the most important, yet undervalued asset in the urban public realm. As cities confront new patterns of activity, new demands on the public right of way, and fiscal and environmental challenges, curbs are a critical platform for driving change. The second of two Technology + Innovation Center webinars highlighting awards from the 2022 Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program, this webinar looks at how cities are deploying a variety of approaches to developing curb data platforms. Questions to be answered include: What are the short- and long-term goals of curb coding efforts? What data do cities plan to collect? How will it be used, what value is created, and how will it be managed? What core technologies and data standards are available and what must be developed? How will cities incentivize various stakeholders to participate? Who does what? How are cities enlisting vendors and other partners to design, deploy and operate these solutions?

This session focuses on current and future funding opportunities from the U.S. DOE, aimed at helping cities update their building codes.

Participants will hear from Austin city leaders about how these solutions are helping model smoke clouds from building and wildfires, and optimize workflows and layouts inside a new emergency operations center, and how the city structures its partnership with university-based researchers.

City governments face a growing array of threats from cyberattacks targeting city-owned and operated information systems. But even more worrisome, as cities shift to cloud-based IT solutions for everyday tools and integrate “smart” capabilities into IIJA-funded infrastructure systems, software supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. Critical information systems used by cities often depend on integrations with third-party components and services whose risks are poorly understood.