Cannes partners up with academia for the recovery of city centre

Together, city authorities and university professionals will envision an intelligent city of human scale

The Municipality of Cannes and Université Côte d’Azur (UCA) will conduct a study on urban mobility and the economic revitalization of the city centre. This became clear at this week’s meeting of the municipal council. The ultimate objective of the collaboration is to prepare the conditions for a human-oriented, intelligent city centre, suitable for the world of tomorrow.

Cannes bets on research for its economic revitalisation

As part of the project, the University and local authorities will study urban mobility and the development of shops in downtown Cannes. The focus will be on the central commercial axis of Rue d’Antibes.

In particular, the Smart City department of UCA - Mediterranean Institute for Risk, Environment and Sustainable Development (IMREDD) will explore how the city centre is shaped by mobility and urban development and how to improve the quality of services and well-being to achieve a “smart and friendly city”.

As part of the projects, partners will also:

• Identify, quantify and model the flows that cross in the city centre (pedestrians, automobiles, logistics) to create predictive models and simulate movements and behaviours;
• Establish a typology of the businesses present and their evolution over time;
• Understand, anticipate and facilitate the cohabitation of traders and other economic operators;
• Better understand the dynamics of commercial revitalization;
• Improve the appropriation of the city centre by the various operators via models of infrastructure or actions (pedestrianization, development, etc.)

The project is set to last at least 1.5 years and is in line with the electoral engagements taken by incumbent mayor David Lisnard, to support local trade, in particular during the critical period of the coronavirus pandemic.

He commented: "The fundamental challenge of this innovative study, carried out by the City of Cannes in partnership with UCA and IMREDD, is to put people back at the heart of the city centre and to give a future to local shops. Pedestrian, automobile and logistics flows must be facilitated and optimized to allow better ownership of these essential sectors of social cohesion and economic dynamism."