The paper concentrates on the possibilities of checking the extent to which cities meet the smart city concept. The presented concept concentrates on one of the main smart cities characteristic: smart environment. This paper is a result of joint work of specialist from two diff erent areas: management and environmental protection. The interdisciplinary character of the paper is characteristic for smart cities.
The smart city concept is becoming more and more popular as a direction for further development of cities in the European Union.
The main goal of the article is to determine the relationship between the concept of a smart city and the competitiveness of a modern city, understood as a standard of living of city’s inhabitants. The research method is a case study, based on a selected example of the city of Mannheim in Germany.
The author assumes that the results of the research, in addition to the contribution to the still developing knowledge on smart cities, will be able to fulfill the practical task – support the development and increase of competitiveness of contemporary Polish cities.
The objective of the study was to analyse the theoretical model of development, ‘smart slow city’, based on two concepts of development of modern cities, i.e. ‘smart city’ and ‘slow city’. Conclusions mainly rely on the performed reference literature studies, which allowed for a synthetic presentation of the characteristics of the two discussed models of development, which are the basis for characterizing the hybrid model of the ‘smart slow city’. The comparison of city development models was made on the basis of the following characteristics: the genesis of the city development idea, the rate of changes and the model of life related to it, key city development factors, the main objective of changes, key actors, activity areas, specialization, scale of urban centres, city image, level of development policy, significance of cooperation etc.
The smart city concept is constantly evolving. More and researchers in Poland and also in the whole world deal with this issue. In practice, it is noted that in cities around the world you can find more and more implemented projects referred as smart, in particular in Barcelona, Vienna and Copenhagen and others. According to the classical definition, smart city means introducing solutions based on the latest information technologies to urban spaces in order to improve the quality of life of city residents. Smart city is a city concept in which solutions can solve the most important problems related to the functioning of cities, such as improvements in public transport and goods in cities, counteracting climate change through the use of energy-saving solutions of city lighting, social inclusion (access city) and others. The concept of smart city is based on IT solutions that are constantly modernized and adapted to specific needs of individual cities. By using real-time access to information, they help make more efficient decisions for city users. However, recent approaches highlight the relationship between modern network technologies and the urban community. One can notice the focus of the researchers on the relational approach, which means combining the smart city concept with the participation of residents in the city management process, and in particular making choices and implementing smart projects. In this sense, the smart city idea defines the way of managing a city in which relations between the self-government, IT providers and science as well as the inhabitants of the city are particularly important. Responding to the needs of residents is particularly important as counteracting the tendency to focus smart products and services in richer places and create socalled an innovation hub with the simultaneous periphery of the remaining districts. Criticism of the smart city concept focuses on the problem of the social polarization of cities, in which the technological revolution contributes more to the increase of socio-economic disparities rather than their decreasing. The aim of the article is to answer the question whether the implementation of the smart city concept polarizes the urban community and does it allow the inclusive development of cities?
The social, economic and environmental zone is constantly changing in terms of factors aimed at improving the quality of life, economic and technological development of the city while at the same time rational use of resources of the natural environment. Change as a dynamic factor is an impulse for creating new behaviors of residents and interactions between them and public and private sector entities. The article attempts to systematize selected contemporary concepts shaping the city, emphasizing the coherence of their assumptions and the scope of the issues discussed. Looking for features that characterize the city, which balance the needs and expectations of its users.
Waste management is a challenging problem for most of the countries. The current waste segregation and the collection method are not efficient and cost-effective. In this paper, a prototype is presented for smart waste management. It is also capable of waste segregation at the ground level and providing real-time data to the administrator. Impact and cost analysis of the deployment of smartbin is also presented considering one ward of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. It is clear from that deployment of this smartbin will save about 40% of the current expenditure for that ward.
The paper presents a concept of the vehicle/road infrastructure in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication for tagging and informing vehicles about the surrounded environment. A frame analysis and the influence of the data packet size on Ultra-wideband (UWB) were investigated. The authors have determined the distance that could be traveled by a vehicle at the given speed in relation to the amount of data that has to be transmitted during the ranging procedure. The authors propose a data frame format (using the IEEE 802.15.4a protocol) for coding/encoding the information about the road infrastructure efficiently during the positioning procedure. It affects to minimum the time that is required to exchange messages during the ranging and communication process. The whole system is an efficient and reliable element that enhances/extends the existing components of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), which will facilitate validation of the information obtained from devices such as lidar, radar or video. The impact of the transmitted payload to the distance traveled by car opens the door to future research on the possibility of implementing efficient vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for autonomous driving or and other smart city solutions.
The paper attempted to define the basis of city transformations that conform to the smart concept. The objective of the paper is to relate the concept of a smart city, which is quite frequently discussed in literature related to the subject, with functioning and development of the city’s economy, in a way that would allow monitoring economic processes taking place in the city, and also to find a response to the question as to the extent to which the smart city creates a new city economy. Does it expand the city economy by new elements, generate new economic mechanisms, allow the implementation of growth paths different than those to date? This objective is particularised by a description of selected issues of urban economics. With this in mind the paper discusses an approach to managing supply and demand on the basis of theoretical assumptions defined by Mudie and Cottam (1993) transposed on realities connected with provision of municipal public services in conditions of a smart city. Furthermore, sample solutions were presented related to the smart city, which reflect theoretical conclusions contained in the paper. The paper ends with a presentation of logics related to growing economy in a smart city. The economy of a smart city, ultimately an intelligent economy of the city, is created in a laminar way. Under the pressure of technological, social and political surroundings the city is permeated by social and culture intelligence, forming gradually a new economic quality. In the paper we emphasised that the concept of a smart city still remains a question of the future to a much bigger extent than one of the present time. A smart city slowly emerges from the combination of diverse megatrends and development trends characteristic for communities and economies of the second decade of the 21st century.
In a rapidly changing environment due to globalization, we are constantly looking for appropriate paths and strategies for cities and regions while taking into account the territorialisation of growth factors. As a result, we can observe an increase in development concepts that seek to define the conditions for urban resilience that could result in sustainable development despite an unstable environment. The author places his reflections in the context of Upper Silesia’s conurbation development challenges. He examines the current path of the region’s development and analyses the role that the application of “smart city” and “creative city” concepts could play in this process. Rather than comparing the efficacy of the two approaches, he suggests a reflection on the proportions of different bundles inside the development process. He also highlights the limits of a smart city approach and shows to what extent those limits can be exceeded through the application of a creative city strategy. Due to the economic and social diversity of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, there is a significant opportunity for the development of the creative economy that could determine the competitive advantage of this area in the coming decades.
The conservation of rainwater and augmentation of groundwater reserve is necessary to meet the increased water de-mands. Precipitation occurring in the smart cities need to be understood for a better water management action plan. There-fore, monotonic precipitation trend analysis was performed for eight smart cities drawn from six monsoon homogeneous regions across India. The precipitation data were investigated for trends using the modified Mann–Kendall (MMK) test and Sen’s slope estimator at annual, seasonal and monthly scales. The trend analysis was carried out over 118 years (from 1901 to 2018) at 95% significance level. The Dehradun city (Northern Himalayan region) showed a significant increasing annual precipitation trend (Z = +3.22). Indore and Bhopal cities from West Central region showed significant increasing annual trend (Z = +2.01) and non-significant decreasing annual trend respectively. Although, Vadodara and Jaipur are lying in the same Northwest region, the trends are opposite in nature. Jaipur city showed a significant increasing annual pre-monsoon trend (Z = +2.44). The winter rainfall in the city of Vadodara is showing a significant decreasing trend (Z = –2.16). The pre-monsoon rainfall in Bhubaneswar (Central Northeast region) and monsoon precipitation in Trivandrum (Peninsular region) are showing significant increasing (Z = +2.56) and decreasing (Z = –2.71) trends, respectively. A non-significant decreasing trend was seen in Guwahati city (Northeast region). The eight smart cities selected for investigation are not truly representing the entire country. However, the study is clearly pointing towards the regional disparity existing in the coun-try. These findings will be helpful for water managers and policymakers in these regions for better water management.