Smart Dublin

 


Smart Dublin: Engineering wellbeing into a city of the future

By Dr Torill Bigg, Former Chief Engineer at Tunley Environmental and Founder of BiggSolutions

Smart cities are often described in terms of data, devices, and digital dashboards - but to me, as a biochemist and chartered chemical engineer, a truly Smart city behaves more like a living organism. Its systems must work in harmony to sustain health, energy, and wellbeing - not just of the infrastructure, but of the people who live within it.

Having spent three decades in the water and environmental sectors, I’ve learned that the best engineering isn’t just technical, it’s human. Whether designing resilient water systems, improving environmental protection, or mentoring colleagues, I’ve always believed that technology should enable thriving communities, not just efficient operations. Dublin, in many ways, captures that philosophy perfectly.

A City with a Beating Heart

Dublin has embraced the smart city ethos not as a gimmick, but as a means of caring for its citizens. The Smart Dublin initiative, launched in 2016, brings together Dublin’s four local authorities with academia and industry to solve real urban challenges. Its projects range from climate resilience to mobility, energy management, and public health, all using data and innovation as tools for wellbeing.

I find that approach resonates deeply with my scientific roots. In biochemistry, feedback loops maintain balance: too much of one thing, too little of another and the system suffers. The same is true for cities. Dublin’s use of data analytics and sensor networks acts as a kind of urban homeostasis, adjusting systems in real time to maintain equilibrium between energy use, air quality, and health outcomes.

For instance, Dublin’s Smart Docklands testbed , a partnership with Trinity College Dublin, allows new technologies to be trialled in a living urban laboratory. This includes energy-efficient lighting, smart waste management, and air quality monitoring. Such systems are the city’s ‘nervous system’, constantly sending signals and responding to needs.

Smart Cities and Mental Health

As a Mental Health First Aider, I’m particularly encouraged by how Dublin is exploring digital health not just for physical wellbeing but for mental resilience too. Cities can be stressful, fast-paced environments. Yet technology, used wisely, can make urban life more humane.

Take Dublin’s use of open data for community wellbeing. The Smart Dublin team supports research into how built environments, from green spaces to lighting levels, affect mood and mental health. Projects such as “Dublin Dashboard” give citizens real-time access to environmental and social data. This transparency empowers people to make informed decisions from choosing less polluted walking routes, tracking noise levels, to finding nearby green areas for decompression. And I do love the use of nature to improve mental well-being; I have been walking every day now for six months in aid of charities researching cure for pancreatic cancer, diabetes and to support nature. I’ll take this opportunity to thank those that have sponsored me.

In my work with organisations on sustainability, I often remind people that the health of a system is holistic. We cannot separate air quality from anxiety, water purity from community trust, or energy security from social stability. Dublin’s integrated data approach makes that connection explicit: smart infrastructure serving human wellbeing, not the other way around.

Learning from Biochemistry: The City as a Living System

When I train, mentor or consult as a chemical engineer, I use my broader education and experience too, borrowing analogies from biology, physics and business. A well-designed process plant functions like metabolism: intake, transformation, and output, all under feedback control. A smart city, such as Dublin, can be thought of in the same way.

Sensors are the sensory organs. Data centres are the brain. Renewable energy systems are the mitochondria, the powerhouses converting raw materials into usable energy. Wastewater and air treatment facilities are the liver and lungs, purifying and protecting. People - we are the cells.

If we take this analogy further, we can see how neglect in one area quickly cascades into others. A stressed or unhealthy population strains the system just as an imbalance in a metabolic pathway leads to disease. Dublin’s initiatives in health technology reflect this understanding. The city collaborates with healthcare startups and research centres on projects ranging from remote patient monitoring to AI-driven diabetes management tools. It’s not just Dublin either. Today diabetes clinics remotely follow patients’ glucose levels measured by wearable devices and monitored on smart phones.

As someone fascinated by the discovery of insulin, I find this particularly meaningful. The story of Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and the too-overlooked contribution of Dr. Dorothy Hodgkin (who later solved insulin’s structure using X-ray crystallography), reminds us that science is both collaborative and compassionate. Dublin’s health tech ecosystem embodies that same spirit; scientists, engineers, and clinicians working together to manage chronic diseases through smart systems and real-time data.

Energy, Water, and Environmental Intelligence

Sustainability is the backbone of any smart city. I remain committed to sustainability and Dublin’s energy-saving technologies and smart grid projects exemplify how data-driven management reduces waste and emissions. Anyone seeking to increase revenue and increase sustainability in a thriving commercial setting will do well to focus on waste reduction, reducing waste materials, reducing waste energy. Smart meters, district heating networks, and digital twins of infrastructure allow the city to test scenarios and optimise resources before making real-world changes. As a qualified lean practitioner, I have long appreciated the benefits of digital twins and waste reduction both in physical materials and in processes.

From my 30 years in the water industry, and as a Londoner who remembers the building of the Thames barrier, I cannot fail to be impressed by Dublin’s water and flood resilience projects. Through Smart Dublin’s ‘Flood Management Challenge’, sensors and predictive models help anticipate heavy rainfall impacts, improving response times and reducing risk. This engineering as it should be; in empathy for the community, ensuring that technology protects the most vulnerable.

At Tunley Environmental, I built a team to evaluate carbon impacts and sustainability strategies for organisations. What Dublin demonstrates on a city-wide scale is what every company can emulate: use data as a mirror, not a mask. Measure, understand, and improve transparently.

Women, Science, and the Future of Smart Cities

As we look ahead, I believe it’s vital to highlight the role of women in shaping scientific and urban futures. Figures like Rosalind Franklin, Dorothy Hodgkin, and Ada Lovelace remind us that innovation thrives on inclusion. Dublin’s smart city ecosystem actively supports diversity through university programmes and startups that champion women in STEM.

Just as the discovery of insulin was a triumph of collaboration, the evolution of smart cities depends on drawing from all perspectives technical, social, and emotional. The next breakthroughs will likely come from those who bridge disciplines: scientists who think like engineers, engineers who understand psychology, and civil leaders who recognise that the smartest cities are those that care.

Conclusion: Smart, Sustainable, and Sentient

Dublin offers a glimpse of what a truly smart city can be -  not just connected, but compassionate. Its blend of digital innovation and human-centred design mirrors what I’ve tried to champion throughout my career: a systems approach where technology serves people and the planet alike.

As engineers, scientists, and citizens, our task is to make sure our cities don’t just grow, they evolve. Like living organisms, they must learn, adapt, and care for their own health. Because when cities thrive holistically, physically, mentally, and environmentally then so do we all.

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