Most people, a total of 29%, have the concept of Smart City combined with modern technology, ten percent less with city quality of life and energy savings. This was the result of a recent consumer survey conducted by Ipson for E.ON. "Most often Smart City is known by people from Prague, college students and people aged between 25 and 34 years. However, the entire 50% of respondents do not connect the Smart City concept to any particular city in the Czech Republic. In Prague, 25 percent of people recalled and 5 percent in Brno, " explains the results of the investigation by Vladimír Vácha, spokesman for E.ON.
Reasonable deployment of technologies
The Smart City concept, which was adopted by a number of Czech cities, however, according to experts, should not only be about the implementation of modern technologies. Their meaningful use is important. "The intention is to create efficiently functioning cities, creating better conditions for the inhabitants' lives, for visitors or for the development of business. Smart cities are not millions of sensors but effective use of what has already been created and intelligent evolutionary deployment of technologies, " says Czech Smart City Cluster.
Creating a smart city has a number of dimensions, not just about saving energy, but above all about improving quality of life, increasing security and overall satisfaction of the population. "The Smart City concept is fundamentally conceived as an intersection of three basic pillars - energy, transport and information technology. But we must not forget the human factor and the fact that the city is made up of people and technologies must serve the inhabitants of the towns, " says Miroslav Šafařík (Porsenna, ops).
In the plan of implementation itself, cities are focusing, for example, on the installation of energy efficient outdoor lighting, on the streets and parks there are solar benches, on the roads there are sensors that help drivers drive through the city to the green. Sensors and boards are also popular for informing drivers about free parking spaces. But these are only the most visible features of smart cities. "From our point of view, it is advisable to start the Smart City concept on our own property. An example of this is the Internet application for monitoring and controlling energy and water consumption, " adds Miroslav Šafařík.
People spot light and smart parking
Only a tenth of people, according to the above-mentioned survey, believe that their municipality or city has taken the necessary steps to become Smart Cities. Most respondents, a total of 40%, have spotted energy-saving lighting in their city, 14% of the population noticed smart parking, 10% know about ecological buses and 9% of people are aware of solar benches. According to 50% of respondents, municipalities are trying to protect the environment.
Public energy saving lighting was installed, for example, in Tábor or in the village of Hlohovec, where E.ON Energie helped with the realization. "CNG filling stations are also becoming more frequent in Czech cities, they have been put into operation, for example, in Písek and Třebíč. The interior energy saving lighting was realized in cooperation with the Volimes and the Oslavany. We already work with Sand on the Smart Parking project. An important milestone of the Smart City concept is the opening of Smart City Polygon in Plzeň, " says Lukáš Svoboda (E.ON).
City, university, business
Although many cities in the Czech Republic have adopted the Smart City concept for their own, most of them are still in the beginning. At present, there is no Smart City in the Czech Republic in a comprehensive concept, but clever technologies and solutions penetrate into individual areas such as mobility, housing or governance. "For example, Litoměřice is very successful in the field of energy efficiency. We believe that the Smart City concept is also suitable for smaller cities and is also being implemented at regional level, with the example of Smart Region Southern Bohemia, " adds Lukáš Svoboda.
Projects aiming at creating a smart city are always complex, many fields and areas are intertwined, while they are long-term . "Therefore, political support and consensus across the political spectrum is necessary. We all recommend building these concepts in a triumvirate city - university - strategic commercial partners, while relying on independent expert authorities, " concludes Jiří Stich.
Source: tz, edited editorially