government but to Catalonia’s government bodies. This In 2020, eleven main air control stations were in service within configuration of police forces has created extreme tensions the Barcelona Air Quality Surveillance and Control Network. between legitimacy and loyalty. The lack of centralization of The network’s activities are administratively attached to the orders and transparency of information led to a violent situation Catalan government’s Ministry of Territory and Sustainability. during the city’s independence referendum on October 1, The network offers essential news reports and information on 2017. During this exceptional event, many people grasped the measures adopted by the city, and it is designed to help residents fragility of institutions and, in particular, the tension between to understand the impact of air pollution on their health. the national and regional powers within the Spanish state. The probability of corruption or issues related to transparency, 1.5 Medical services accountability, and police activities is high. It represents a critical matter to consider within the safety-related aspects of The My Health platform is a personal digital space for citizens in smart city programs (video surveillance, behavioral monitoring, Catalonia to access and interact with Catalonia’s health system facial recognition, and judicial monitoring). (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2020). This platform aims to facilitate citizens’ interaction with the health community by allowing 1.4 Air pollution them to request econsultations and giving them access to their current medication plans as well as to other information related In Barcelona, the Air Quality Improvement Plan (PMQAB) to their health. In Catalonia, CatSalut is the principal actor in the has been created to set out present and future measures to health system. Its objective is to provide “quality health care that tackle air pollution in Barcelona. The plan focuses on six main responds to the needs of the population through new models topics: mobility, energy, port and airport, urban services, and of care and the organization of care services in the territory communication and transparency (Ajuntament Barcelona, 2020). that facilitate the community approach, integration and care continuum” (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2020). The PMQAB plan is linked to other initiatives—for example, the Energy Self-Sufficiency Plan—because all activities in the Barcelona has fifty-eight hospitals; twelve are public and forty- city have an impact on COemissions (Ajuntament Barcelona,2 six are private. Of its private hospitals, twenty-four are part of 2020). In ensuring the efficiency of the PMQAB, the Network the national healthcare system’s Public Use Hospitals Network. for Monitoring and Forecasting Air Pollution, managed by the Barcelona has innovated in setting up an active policy of public- Public Health Agency and Catalonia’s government, is a critical public and public-private partnerships in the health sector. In tool that identifies potential issues (for example, emission of 2020, there were sixteen hospitals managed by twelve consortia greenhouse gases, pollution levels endangering the health shared between the Generalitat and local city councils. As a of populations, and concentration of air pollution in zones or result, Catalonia was among the top four European countries in districts) or scope for improvement. terms of the number of companies in the healthcare sector per inhabitant (https://www.biocat.cat/en/press-releases/catalonia- In May 2006, Catalonia’s government declared that forty among-top-four-countries-europe-number-pharma-biotech- municipalities in the conurbation of Barcelona would become and-medtech-companies). an atmospheric environment protection area. Sixteen of these municipalities were then declared special protection areas for Some of the health-related smart city solutions and projects that the pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO). In July 2007, the regional2 are being deployed in Barcelona include (Mark Asquith, 2019): government approved the Air Quality Action Plan 2007-2010, • Medvisit, a Barcelona startup that provides a mobile service which set forth seventy-three antipollution measures. Then, in that allows patients to remotely consult a doctor at any time July 2012, the Government declared all areas contained the of day, 365 days a year; pollutants NO and PM10.2 • Top Doctors, a company headquartered in Barcelona that provides an online medical platform that helps to connect Following these decisions, the Barcelona municipality created patients with the best doctors and medical centers in the a website on air pollution; the site covers not only Barcelona EU, the US, and Latin America. The company’s network but a further thirty-nine municipalities surrounding it. Barcelona comprises more than sixty thousands of the world’s top metropolitan area accounts for only 2.3 percent of Catalonia’s physicians, and more than a million people use the platform total surface area, but its population totals 4.3 million every month; inhabitants—that is, 60 percent of the population of Catalonia. • From the public sector perspective, a dedicated website 89 Quélin and Smadja | HEC PARIS | SMART CITIES | The sustainable program of six leading cities | 2021