Santander is the capital city of the Cantabria region on Spain’s north coast. With just about 176,000 citizens it is recognized as a role model for Smart Cities in Spain for implementing state-of-the-art technology to improve their urban services. The City of Santander is member of RECI (Red Espanola de Ciudades Inteligentes), the Spanish Network of Smart Cities. The network stimulates innovative projects to improve the management and quality of life in the modern city for citizens, retailers and visitors. 

Since 2013 the City of Santander has implemented a parking guidance solution based on Nedap wireless in-ground parking sensors Sensit into their Smart City platform. This innovative project was executed by Everis Smart Services. Everis Group is part of the NTT DATA Corporation, a global IT services company that offers business solutions, strategy, development and maintenance of technological applications.

The Smartzone parking guidance solution contributes to reduce the stressful search for available parking spaces and optimises the use of the existing parking capacity. Less detours and optimised navigation also reduce pollution and contribute to a sustainable and cleaner city environment.

The municipality of Santander has always been recognised for its progressive attitude to adapt new innovative solutions and is a role model for Smart Cities. The mayor of Santander, who is also the president of RECI, D. Inigo de la Sema Hernaiz, is focused on these solutions and is proud that his city is recognised as the benchmark for Smart Cities in Spain and beyond.

The parking guidance solution is a perfect example of introducing new solutions in the RECI platform and allow Smart Cities in all parts of the world to share these positive experiences.

“The City of Santander has deployed this Smart City Parking solution since 2013 and meets all our expectations. Nedap’s parking sensors has proven that the investments pay back and give citizens value for money in terms of better services and a sustainable environment for living. It makes our city more attractive for visitors and increases the retailers businesses. Our consistent support on intelligent solutions has given the City of Santander a leading and role model position in Europe, which we can highly recommend to Smart Cities in other parts of the world,” says Iñigo de la Serna, mayor of Santander.