CITY OF PORTALEGRE INSTALS CONTROL AND MONITORING SYSTEM OF MUNICIPAL WASTE AND WASTE BINS SENSORING

AUTHORS: Teresa Narciso - Nelson Arguelles - João Cardoso - Gaspar Garção

Portalegre is a medium sized city, with nearly 15.000 inhabitans (the county has around 25.000 inhabitants), located in the Alto Alentejo region, with significant architectonic and natural resources. This regions has strong ties to nature, being in the middle of the Serra de S. Mamede Natural Park, composed of an area of 31.750 hectares.

Portalegre has a very aged population, strugling with depopulation issues. The main challenge of the city, in terms of adopting and incorporing ICT innovative methods, has to do with the difficulty of attracting investments in this area, namely in terms of infrastructure expansion, such as optical fiber networks.

Like other towns in the interior of Portugal, our quality of life potential is very high, but the economic context is very challenging, being essential to continue to invest in the implementation of differentiating projects, which may be able to attract more visitors.

In the context of DigiPlace, Portalegre has, as its main focus, to continue to invest in the prioritization and effective use of LORA WAN technology, placing it in the “service” of economic development and urban sustainability and quality of life.

In the area of urban sustainability, various projects have been developed, in partnership with cities in the spanish Extremadura and Alto Alentejo counties, strenghtening the partnership network and fostering exchange of experiences and good practices.

In this context, namely in terms of the transboundary RED URBANSOL project, a LORA network was instaled in all of Portalegre’s Historic Center, and also a control and monitoring system of municipal waste and waste bins sensoring, monitored through an online platform, equipped with a set of tools that support the management process.

The implementation of this project allowed the optimization of the wast collecting circuit, promoting the profitability of means, human and physical, and therefore reduction in terms of costs and also the minimisation of polluting gas emissions.

The data collection and management platform is composed of a graphic interface, with easy-to-use features and tools.

The highlighted project focuses on one of the main problems of modern societies: comprehensive and optimal waste management, as well as awareness-raising of the population, in terms of the absloute need for the reduction of waste.

This project is integrated in the Action Plan for Intelligent and Sustainable Interurban Development (PADISI), of Portalegre’s City Hall, which essentially aims for the reduction of CO2 in the iberian tranboundary space, promoting environmental sustainability and, therefore, the standard of living of all the target population.

The grave environmental problems related with air quality degradation, the melting of the polar ice-caps, the reduction of the ozone layer and global warming, due to, essentially, the exponential increase of atmospheric pollution in all the world, have no boundaries, being a worldwide scale phenomenon.

This investiment was co-financed by the Interreg Espanha-Portugal 2014-2020 Program, in the scope of RED URBANSOL, which promotes the implementation of a series of Action Plans for Intelligent and Sustainable Interurban Development (PADISI), with the goal of improving, in the iberian transboundary space, efficiency in the use of resources and services, through projects which promote greenhouse gas reductions and foster energy and environmental sustainability.

This project has eighteen partners: Agencia Extremeña de la Energía (AGENEX) – Project Lider, Plasencia City Hall, Cáceres City Hall, Don Benito City Hall, Mérida City Hall, Badajoz City Hall, Villa Nueva de la Serena City Hall, Badajoz Provincial Council, Cáceres Provincial Council, Rana Consultores, Portalegre City Hall, Ovar City Hall, Vagos City Hall, Fundão City Hall, AREANATEJO, Batalha City Hall, Alto Alentejo Intermunicipal Comunity (CIMAA), Central Alentejo Intermunicipal Comunity.

More information about RED URBANSOL can be accessed in the website of the project:

http://www.redurbansol.com/noticias/?lang=pt