City planning in the cloud

CloudCities from SmarterBetterCities is an intuitive 3D city service with features for community engagement, easy city data sharing and analytics. The family of cloud apps lets planners design, monitor and manage their city from their browser on a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer.

CloudCities’ content can be completely self-operated and published directly by the planning/development authorities or private contractors. Users can upload their planning content (geospatial and building information) and even link live sensor data from smart devices. A dashboard provides detailed information about space allocation, energy consumption and costs. Stakeholders can contribute feedback instantly, start discussions or suggest new proposals.

CloudCities has been available as a beta product since December 2014, and has generated more than 12,000 views and attracted more than 200 publishers.

SmarterBetterCities is an ETH spin-off based in Zurich and Redlands, California, next to Esri’s headquarters. It participates in the Esri Startup Program and develops its products on Esri’s ArcGIS technology. Over the last three years, it has received more than $2.25 million in seed funding and from commercial activities. Its customer base includes the State of Oregon, Harvard University, City of Zurich, AECOM, Sika and Foster+Partners.