The Smart City concept is focused on smart and sustainable solutions for the purpose of improving economic conditions and the quality of life of its inhabitants. A smart city should provide an urban environment that provides residents with a high quality of life and at the same time generates economic growth. Today, smart cities are not only a global trend, but becoming a necessity. The future of cities lies in merging new technologies with existing infrastructure to address tangible, pressing issues such as environmental sustainability and economic progress. Successful smart cities are the foundation for a strong, flexible, digital infrastructure that integrates new technology into the existing structure.
Cities strive for the smart city concept in order to improve the quality and standard of life of citizens, further develop and increase the availability of digital infrastructure. Also, in order to improve economic development with the application of a sustainable way of using natural resources and new technologies in response to climate change.
What is a smart city?
Nowadays, one of the main goals of cities is to become independent and self-sustainable. In an effort to achieve this goal, the concept of smart cities was developed. The term smart city is usually described in the literature as the ability of a city to respond to the needs of its citizens in the most efficient and sustainable way possible, with the help of smart solutions, green technology and digital infrastructure.
According to the European Commission, a smart city is a place where traditional networks and services are replaced by new, more efficient models for the benefit of its residents and further sustainable development of the economy.
Some of the key features that grace smart cities include: environmental initiatives; technology-based infrastructure; efficient and functional public transport; self-reliant and progressive city plans; and improving the quality of life of citizens. Today, sustainability is becoming a strategic planning imperative. Integrated, transparent and inclusive management of public resources becomes a necessary and key element.
Many of our cities are increasingly thinking about different smart solutions. By implementing them, everyday life would be improved and the overall quality of life of citizens would be improved, and sustainable development would be enabled in line with today’s challenges.
Smart cities in Croatia
Out of 128 Croatian cities, more than 40 of them are developing the smart city concept and applying smart solutions that enable a better quality of life in the city.
Only some of them are Čakovec as the first city in Croatia to introduce smart lighting. It’s Pula, back in 2008. introduced e-administration in its operations, while the City of Zagreb carried out energy renovation of public buildings and several projects related to sustainable transport.
The city of Rijeka is 2020. won the award for the best Smart city in Croatia. There, innovative and extremely effective technological solutions were introduced in the surveillance systems of behavior in traffic and on public areas, without additional encroachment on citizens’ privacy.
Zaprešić can boast as a city that has a number of smart city components, such as energy renovation of public buildings, wireless internet, smart benches, a charging station for electric cars, a system for monitoring air quality in schools, timers on traffic lights, and the like.
The city of Krk is known as a “smart island” and a “smart city”. A digital city platform is currently being developed there for the purpose of more efficient city management, providing a proactive approach to the needs of citizens and transforming the way public services are provided through their digitization.
Smart city concept can be focused on efficient, smart and transparent city administration, digital infrastructure, smart energy and infrastructure management, communal services, sustainable urban mobility, economy or other relevant area.
Smart cities are a global trend
Smart cities are a global trend , and today’s extremely fast development of technology enables smart solutions for cities to be implemented almost instantly. Given the tendency of the population to increase in cities, various problems arise, such as increased traffic congestion and inevitable environmental pollution. In order to reduce the mentioned problems to a minimum or to solve them completely, more and more cities are turning to the possibilities of development with technological and digital solutions. With the quality integration of IT and communication technologies and sustainable solutions, these cities become smart cities, and the quality of life in them increases.
You can find out more about the topic itself on the 26th. January 2023 at the Designing A Green Future conference. Participation is free! You can get a ticket through Entrio.