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Smart Parking Meter deployment will be completed by this Spring, connected to a data platform
usable for vendor parking payment and wayfinding applications.
Building Management Systems: The City currently operates three building management systems
developed by industry leaders including; Siemens and Johnson Controls.
311/Citizen Reporting Applications: The city currently has two in-house developed applications
to manage citizen requests and storm related events. Our Norfolk Cares Center (311 Call Center)
can take calls, emails, and requests submitted through a smart phone app. This data is cataloged
and tracked through the life cycle of the request using a custom developed application. STORM
(System to Track Organize and Map) is a custom in-house application that is also available to
residents as a mobile browser-based application. This application is used to report weather
related issues, for example; flooded streets, downed trees, blocked roads, and downed power
lines to name a few.
The City also works closely with regional partners and stakeholders on collecting and maintaining
import transportation related data and geographic information systems (GIS) data. The City is
currently working with ODU, HRPDC, HRSD, and other local governments on a grant proposal to
develop a regional GIS that can serve as central repository for accessing, downloading, viewing,
and analyzing geospatial related data. The local Code for America brigade also has developed
applications with the City, and an HRT bus/light rail finding application. This application gives
real-time information about HRT routes and schedules based on the user’s location information
from their smartphone.
Local and remote storage and processing facilities: To store vast amounts of data being collected
in the proposed activities instead of building in-house data centers, we propose to leverage data-
storage facilities at ODU for the dynamic data-driven processing and, eventually, remote web
storage, such as Amazon S3. Specifically, ODU has a 6-node cluster that runs Big Data processing
software including Hadoop and distributed file storage format HDF5. Specifically, each node has
two Intel Xeon E5-2670v2 processors (20 cores each @2.5GHz), 128GB of main memory, and
three 440GB SSD disks. The nodes are interconnected with Infiniband QDR HBA.
Data management software: To support data analytics and management, iRODS, which is an
open-source data management software governed by the iRODS concorsium, maybe employed.
Its services run on a variety platforms and have a high degree of scalability and availability.
High-performance network facilities: ODU is a partner in the Mid-Atlantic Research
Infrastructure Alliance (MARIA) which increases campus connections to the Internet2 Network to
100 gigabits per second (100G). This network infrastructure may greatly facilitate processing of
the collected data since MARIA connects many Virginia university campuses and feeds into a
broader interconnection network “Southern Crossroads” (SoX) a non-profit founded by Georgia
Tech and partners and is recognized as one the highest-bandwidth Internet gateways in the
South.
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Through Norfolk’s big data platform, each stakeholder has the opportunity to use their preferred
analytics tools, through open standard access methods, to glean insights from the data and
suggest further operational improvements. Trusted information infuses processes bring people,
process and information to bear on further insights and continuous improvement to autonomy.
10 Standards and Architectures
The City of Norfolk has been engaged in the deployment of ITS/ATMS infrastructure on a
consistent basis with using Federal funding for over a decade, whereby requiring compliance
with financial, environmental, and procurement guidelines. The City has been, and continues to
be, intricately involved in all regional ITS planning and architecture development with local
agencies and VDOT, including participation and leadership roles with the Hampton Roads
Transportation Operations subcommittee of the HRTPO. The City has an existing fiber optic
connection to the VDOT, and plans to integrate with a private bridge-tunnel facility in the near
future, to enable further regional collaboration.
Our project teammate Kimley-Horn with whom we have a long-standing relationship, brings
expertise in software development, system design, and integration support. Kimley-Horn is
developing a research roadmap on behalf of AASHTO and NCHRP related to planning and
implementing Automated and Connected Vehicle technologies (NCHRP 20-24), which will be an
integral part of Smart-Cities initiatives. Kimley-Horn’s experience includes developing Concepts
of Operations (Eastern Idaho Rural IntelliDrive) and Guidebooks (TMC Connected Vehicles for the
UVA Pooled Fund Study) for these upcoming technologies, developing software interfaces
(Dynamic Ridesharing product development support for Axiom xCell in San Diego), software
integration with Siemens and multi-vendor signal controller environment, as well as working
with the USDOT connected-vehicles safety pilot where Kimley-Horn’s KITS software monitors
signals in Ann Arbor that broadcast SPaT data to connected vehicles. Kimley-Horn is particularly
beneficial to Norfolk for the Smart-Cities program by being able to meld both hardware and
software design and implementation, coupled with technical operational and maintenance
support.
For a program of this kind, it will be important to document lessons learned. Under a recent
effort assisting the City of Norfolk with migrating from their serial communications network to an
advanced Ethernet platform, Kimley-Horn developed a testbed in the City’s TOC network room,
prepared a test plan, secured network hardware from multiple vendors, and implemented the
test strategy and compiled a full document of the procedures, outcomes, and recommendations
for subsequent deployments. The lessons learned from this testbed, and the first pilot field
deployment were documented and used for conversions of subsequent field communication
channels to Ethernet.
11 Measurable Goals
When we think about Norfolk’s primary vision and goals, they are predominately for long-term
success. In the complex world of urban activity and transportation it is very difficult to isolate
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multimodal performance metrics from which one can glean success or failure over that time
frame. The important concept of a “controlled experiment” is almost unachievable. Defaulting to
“easy-to-collect” metrics that are not comprehensive, can’t discern multivariable contributions,
and only measure short-term changes, to force the issue, can actually have damaging effects.
But, one of the great gains in this new data paradigm is a comprehensive data picture that has
not previously existed, therefore addressing some of those issues. Our approach is going to be
thoughtful, use proper experimental design techniques, and importantly, promote learning.
One of the goals of the Transportation Data System is to archive a robust recurring knowledge
state in the Archived Intelligence database. The design of its structure, most importantly to serve
the needs of analytics based on empirical data, will equally well serve the needs of the most
robust performance monitoring system ever devised. However, we can even do one better – we
can create intelligent self-monitoring tools within the analyzers, which can report on activities
that would have some expectation of a possible impact, and in some cases have automated
retrieval and storage of pertinent data sets following the actions.
Metrics will include: Travel Time and Reliability (all user populations), Network density,
Effectiveness of information – evaluating choices, Transit ridership and service metrics, Route
diversion frequency and utility, User satisfaction (app will facilitate surveys), Business/
development trends, cost-effectiveness, and crashes. With respect to crash data, it is
noteworthy that our proposed systems will begin to greatly elevate data in support of safety
analysis – a new paradigm of crash history assessment will be possible.
An important point project-wise is that comparable “before” data will be collected in the 2
nd
and
3
rd
years of the project so that demonstration data (and beyond) will be meaningful.
12 Capacity for Implementation
Norfolk has been in the forefront of technology implementation and is recognized as one of the
national leaders in the field of resilience. Situated in the heart of the defense corridor, Norfolk
has been partnering with key defense contractors and other technology leaders to transform the
city into a smart city, serving its large diverse population and improving the quality of life for
vulnerable residents. Norfolk has a long record of successfully implementing a variety of projects
similar in scale, scope and complexity to those proposed in this application. Illustratively, in the
past three years alone, Public Works has managed $267 million in infrastructure projects,
including construction of the flagship Slover Library that was recognized as one of the most
technologically advanced libraries in the U.S. Similarly, in the past two years alone, the City’s IT
department developed and launched in-house more than 10 software application, regularly
supports and operates over 100 of them and scaled up its city-wide network, all in partnership
and coordination with local private and non-profit partners and stakeholders. The release and
implementation of our holistic Resilience Strategy, hire of Chief Resilience Officer and Chief
Marketing Officer and institutionalization of a Resilience Office that serves as a connector and
aligner of efforts and opportunities within the City, and between the City departments and
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external partners, demonstrates Norfolk’s overall capacity and executive commitment to take on
the proposed project.
Importantly, the City’s internal capacity to embark on projects of this magnitude, complexity and
level of innovation is significantly enhanced by proven partnerships with an array of cross-
disciplinary, public, private and non-profit stakeholders which will work with the City to
implement the proposed projects and provide necessary redundancy to mitigate potential risks
(See Section 7 Partners). Furthermore, the partnerships for this proposal will build on and will
leverage a regional public-private coalition established around the HUD’s National Disaster
Resilience Competition application development and Norfolk’s concurrent Resilience Strategy
development process. Both efforts brought together nearly 100 multiple state and federal
agencies (including the Navy and Commonwealth’s agencies), local governments, institutions of
higher education, regional planning organizations, community groups and private sector
partners to develop and now implement innovative resilience projects at the local level.
13 Leverage Opportunities
While other cities benefit from the head start in the field of autonomous vehicles, electric
vehicles, shared economy services or vehicles to vehicles/vehicles to infrastructure technology,
Norfolk has already made significant investments in designing coastal community of the future -
a city that can survive and thrive in an environment of rising sea level and uses the opportunity
to address environmental changes as a catalyst for diversifying the city’s economic base and
connecting individuals through new networks. Because cities are systems of systems, continually
interacting, influencing and impacting one another, policies and actions designed to influence
one system impact, for better or worse, others. Our approach to resilience-building embraces
this interaction recognizing that investments in any system creates opportunity for returns in
improvements in multiple systems. To address our vulnerabilities and challenges in ways that
make the city and broader region truly smart, resilient city, the work proposed in this application
will simultaneously strengthen our physical, social and economic resilience while benefiting from
the existing partner networks and current and committed investments in building the coastal
community of the future.
For instance, in partnership with the Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Port of Virginia, The
Rockefeller Foundation, White House-sponsored Intergovernmental Pilot Project led by Old
Dominion University, local community organizations and planning district commissions, Norfolk
is launching a series of holistic studies and projects to redesign land use by watershed to more
innovatively use green, blue and grey infrastructure to manage recurrent flooding and sea level
rise to ensure that the city’s and region’s residents and key economic assets that rely on
unimpeded access and reliable transportation networks can continue to thrive on the coast.
Similarly, Norfolk has been heavily investing in live-work-play-stay placemaking, “attract and
retain” projects and app tools as part of its strategy to design the economically, socially and
physically more connected coastal community of the future that can adapt to and take
advantage of changing conditions. These investments encourage people and businesses to move
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“beyond traffic” by living closer to where they work instead of putting pressure on the City’s
limited resources to invest in costly transportation infrastructure not always suitable for coastal
communities facing changing conditions associated with flooding and sea level rise. Current
overhaul of zoning code, investments in light rail and its future extension through flood-free
areas, new bike lines, bike share program, complete street policy, investments in shared work
spaces, extension of fiber network, innovation centers, and access to early stage capital for
entrepreneurs to incubate new ideas are just a few examples of these efforts that will be
leveraged for the proposed project.
Illustratively, the proposed project will benefit from the recently awarded $120 million National
Disaster Resilience Competition grant to accelerate Norfolk’s effort to design the coastal
community of the future. Norfolk in partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia and a
consortium of private, public and non-profit partners, including Old Dominion University, will use
$5M of these funds to establish a Resilience Lab/Accelerator to serve as a connector between
“smart city” problems, solutions, and market for the region’s resilience challenges – with
transportation-related challenges being a major area of focus. Norfolk will also leverage
connectivity-enhancing investments including, over $7M in federal funds to study corridors for
the Naval Base LRT extension, $175M for the Intermodal Connector project, up to $750K to
construct a bicycle loop, up to $500K to improve pedestrian crossings, over $3 million to extend
broadband/fire optic, and over $55M in wealth of research in Intelligent Transportation Systems
(ITSs), connected vehicles, big data, multi-modal transportation operations and planning,
unmanned aerial vehicles, and other related areas to improve the safety and mobility of
transportation systems provided by the partnering universities – Old Dominion’s Transportation
Research Institute and Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute.
14 Conclusion
Norfolk would be an excellent choice for the “Beyond Traffic: The Smart City Challenge” grant.
It is critical that the funding serve to advance the state of research, testing and practice in key
technology areas such as automated and connected vehicles, and sensing. We would provide all
of the resources necessary with our team, and we have ideal, challenging test bed opportunities.
Norfolk has challenges both long and short term that it intends to address with the funding. The
outstanding low-cost approaches and tools that it would develop for meaningful short-term
impact would be designed for easy transferability to other cities.
“Addressing climate change” takes on greater meaning in Norfolk, a city threatened by sea-level
rise, a member of 100 Resilient Cities, and home to a nationally critical military presence. The
benefits to be realized here are larger in magnitude and scope.
Norfolk is extremely committed to developing coastal resiliency strategies, which must involve
transportation. It is not a choice, we must adapt. Our resolve will not be swayed.
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