The city of Osterholz-Scharmbeck has more than 30,000 inhabitants and is the county seat of the county of Osterholz. It is one of the smallest counties in Lower Saxony, and is located to the north of the German state of Bremen. The local environment and unspoiled landscapes provides a high potential for recreation and tourism, e.g.

Partners from the Smart Cities project met in Edinburgh on March 2nd and 3rd to review progress in developing customer contact centres in their municipalities, and to plan the production of a guide to customer contact centres for municipalities.

Work package 3 – Customer Services and Service Platform

(leaders City of Kristiansand and the City of Kortrijk).

Leiedal is a regional public body representing thirteen municipalities in the Kortrijk region. This region is situated in the south of Flanders, close to the French metropolitan region of Lille. The region has 296,447 inhabitants, 8,920 companies (mainly SMEs) and over 3,200 ha of business parks.

Norfolk County Council is the top tier local authority for the largely rural county of Norfolk in the East of England. The county has a population of more than 800,000 based in the three main urban centres of Norwich, Great Yarmouth, and Kings Lynn, with a spread of market towns, villages and very small communities which are a challenge to deliver services to.

The cities of Kristiansand and Lillesand are neighbouring municipalities in the south of Norway who are working together in the Smart Cities project. Kristiansand has 80,000 inhabitants, while Lillesand has 9,000. Both face the North Sea and support a mixture of electro-metallurgical processing, oil-related industries, and trade and tourism.

The city of Kortrijk has a population of 75,000, and is in the south of the Belgian province of West-Flanders on the Leie River. It is 25 kilometres north-east of the French city of Lille and 42 km southwest of Ghent. Kortrijk, Lille and the Belgian city of Tournai make up the transnational Eurodistrict of Rijsel-Kortrijk-Doornik, which has a population of approximately 1,900,000.

Karlstad is located near the Klara älv River on the northern shore of Lake Vänern, halfway between Stockholm and Oslo. Karlstad is one of 16 municipalities in the Värmland region, and is one of Sweden's 20 largest municipalities with 84,000 inhabitants. Karlstad has one of Sweden's most modern universities with 10,000 students.

The City of Edinburgh Council is responsible for providing services such as education, social services, housing and culture and leisure to the City of Edinburgh’s population of 470,000, which is spread over 264 square kilometres.

The city of Bremerhaven (population of 115,000) was founded in 1827, and is located on the east side of the Weser estuary, at the confluence of the Geest and the Weser. Bremerhaven and the city of Bremen (560,000 inhabitants) make up the Federal State of Bremen – one of Germany’s sixteen Federal States (Bundesland).