Peacocke

We’re using new initiatives in Peacocke to achieve a place where innovation thrives for the wellbeing of people and challenging the status quo is the norm. These initiatives are based on the Code for Smart Communities which was developed by the Smart Cities Council.

Council is a world leader in the digital twin space. We’ve created an accurate digital replication of Hamilton city. A 3D view of Peacocke was created to be used as a tool for fast understanding of infrastructure, zoning and environmental issues in Peacocke. It can tell the Peacocke development story easily and convey information to the community, developers, industry and environmental groups in a quick and efficient way.

The new technology we are using in Peacocke allows us to better plan for walking, cycling and driving pathways across the city. The information collected through pathway counters allows us to make decisions backed by real data, analyse how changes impact usage, monitor patterns in foot traffic in front of businesses and more. The technology will help to reduce travel times, congestion and improve responsiveness to faults or incidents in the road network.

Council was internationally recognised for our Transport Data Analytics Platform (TDAP) which won the ‘Outstanding Smart City Project’ award in the 2022 IDC Smart City Asia/Pacific Awards. This technology is being used in Peacocke to monitor the transport network and identify incidents in real time.

The pekapeka-tou-roa (long-tailed bat) is taonga (treasure) in our city and we need to protect them. Our bats are concentrated in Peacocke where they roam deep, dense gully systems. One smart way we’re looking after bats in Peacocke is by monitoring the population with acoustic or radio tracking to understand where they fly and find food. More than 24,000 bat passes (a bat echo call) were recorded in a year.

Our work with predator protected artificial bat-boxes has shown they are successfully being used for roosting. Using this artificial roost option while our restoration planting matures allows time for roost features to develop naturally for bats to use. As part of this work, our consultants have developed research papers on bat-box survey methods and we’re looking into further opportunities to improve the design of our boxes and the predator protection.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) was used when designing the Peacocke Strategic Wastewater project to help collect, integrate and maintain information that is normally hard to discover. BIM uses various tools and technologies to generate a digital representation of what will become physical.

Hamilton has been ranked by Smart Cities Council as 21st in the top 50 cities worldwide regarding smart initiatives. Peacocke has played a role as a testing ground for technologies to be used in our newest suburb as well as the wider Hamilton.