What is digital maturity and why is it so important for metropolitan development?
In the context of urban and metropolitan development, assessing digital maturity is a key step in advancing strategic planning and supporting the twin green and digital transitions.
In the MICAD project digital maturity plays a central role as it enables metropolitan areas to understand their current level of preparedness for digital transformation and facilitates benchmarking progress across different municipalities. This process lays the foundations for inclusive digital development, allowing metropolitan actors to identify governance, infrastructure and capacity gaps that hinder inclusive transitions. By analysing these gaps, metropolitan authorities can redefine processes, set clearer objectives, and better align their digital transformation strategies with broader climate, resilience, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The assessment of digital maturity is not only about technological innovations. It is also about governance and the capacity of institutions to engage citizens in co-creating digital services that improve effectiveness and public outcomes and ensure citizens remain at the centre of urban innovation.
Addressing digital maturity must therefore be at the heart of both green and digital transitions in metropolitan areas through an integrated approach. It can enhance operational efficiency, strengthen foresight in strategic planning, and enable more inclusive digital governance across metropolitan areas.
On Monday 29th of October UTA – Urban Technology Alliance, one of the partners of the MICAD project, held a UTA Café Webinar entitled “What is digital maturity and how can it help urban development?”. UTA is a global network of cities, industry and academia teaming up to organise city scale pilots to validate technical, economic, and social angles of innovative solutions for smarter cities. UTA provides city scale testbeds and a matchmaking platform with a global perspective on urban challenges and solutions.
The webinar gathered representatives from cities, industry and academia, and featured a presentation by Christian Maitre and Alexandre Fraignac (founder and co-founder of Caspera-Lab. Caspera-Lab is a global advisory firm of senior telecom and smart cities experts that helps clients start their digital and sustainable transformation journeys. They presented a methodological approach for assessing and understanding digital maturity in urban areas.
This was followed by Sonia Sotero Muñiz from the Innovation Area at Santander City Council in Spain, who showcased practical examples of digital transition in action. Santander, a leading smart city involved in numerous European and Asian innovation projects, serves as an urban laboratory and a benchmark in creating smart city roadmaps.If you would like to find out more about digital maturity, why it is important, and how to create an efficient digital maturity model for cities, from framework to action, you can watch the full webinar recording on YouTube.
Be part of a transformative movement towards inclusive climate and digital solutions. Together, we can shape sustainable metropolitan futures.
