IBM follows its global Smarter Cities project with a new campaign partnering with the city of Portland. The aim of the campaign is to create a new analytics service to give the city government an opportunity to predict future internal and external dynamics of policies.

IBM chose Portland in 2009 to develop 25-year road map ‘The Portland plan’ with city leaders. One of the main points of the plan is the city’s commitment to a 40 percent decrease in carbon emissions by 2030, which necessitates less driving and more walking and biking, says Fast Company.

System Dynamics for Smarter Cities is aimed at helping city leaders figure out the long-term impact citywide policies will have on both citizens and city departments, according to IBM.

To launch the project, IBM arranged a series of workshops featuring economists, educators, police officers, city planners, business leaders, transportation experts, and other experts. As a result a comprehensive information store about the city was developed.

In the end, a computer model of Portland as an interconnected system was created. The tool gives city planners an interactive visual model to navigate and tests how changes will affect different city systems.

IBM states that the Portland city leaders have recently used the model to identify how its plans to reduce carbon emissions 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 was connected to a reduction of obesity levels in the region, and plan accordingly to better leverage this connection.

During the Smarter Cities campaign, IBM invested $50 million in grants to 100 worldwide cities to foster citizen engagement, services and efficiency through technology.

The technology giant is totally involved in optimization of the living in the cities worldwide. In July IBM granted 11 international organizations with $1 million to support innovative projects in areas such as healthcare, energy and food safety.