Wising up to smart cities

The ​​smart city concept has up to now been mainly the stuff of futurist speculation. However, cities are already turning into integrated and efficient organisms, with intelligent systems that serve not only their residents but that are also designed to tackle real problems and challenges resulting from modern urban development. What actually is a smart city? According to one definition, it’s a city that employs modern technology for the improvement of the lives of its residents and its infrastructure. Furthermore, it’s one that invests in its human and social capital and taps into the potential of the companies and institutions based in it and the creativity of its inhabitants. The smart city concept integrates many different aspects, the most important of which are: a clean environment, intelligent management, a constant improvement in its living conditions, intelligent construction and sustainable development of the urban economy and infrastructure.

How do metropolises change once this concept has been embraced? What are the benefits? Since this is quite an extensive topic, this is to be the first in a series of articles aimed at truly getting to the heart of how a smart city functions and show how much it impacts the lives of residents, institutions and the companies that live and operate in it.

Let’s co-create cities

One model example of the implementation of the smart city concept is Copenhagen. The Danish capital has been introducing a wide range of modern systems as part of its ‘Co-create Copenhagen’ initiative, involving a series of technological and environmental measures to be implemented by 2025. The project is aimed at encouraging all residents as well as institutions and companies operating in the city to co-create and take care of it. It’s based on three main pillars: a liveable city, a city with an edge, and a responsible city. According to these objectives, the city is to provide not only a high quality of life but should also be open to new systems and innovations as well as be a tolerant and friendly place for all its inhabitants. Despite being one of the greenest cities in the world today, Copenhagen wants to be even more environmentally friendly. It has set itself the objective of achieving climate neutrality in terms of carbon dioxide emissions by 2025 (which means that the city will not be sanctioning the introduction any new sources of CO2 emissions). London has not been lagging behind on this count, either: the city has introduced intelligent buses, trains and vehicle sharing systems as well as intelligent parking. It is also taking measures to ensure the air is cleaner. The city has also imposed hefty fees for driving private cars into the city centre (except for electric cars). Similar steps have taken by Milan, Stockholm and Berlin.

Urban laboratories

Polish cities have also been joining in on the act by introducing intelligent systems on an increasingly large scale, with each of them implementing its own strategy in this respect. Poznań has been focusing on entrepreneurship, mobility and the development of friendly residential estates as well as on community and social dialogue. “Poznań understands the smart city concept in terms of creating the conditions for sustainable economic development and a high quality of life. This requires engaging human capital, social capital and ICT infrastructure. With all of this, a smart city can become a well-functioning city of the future, built upon the independent, conscious and decisive actions of its citizens,” argues Michał Łakomski, Poznań’s smart city chief. In his opinion, the engagement of human and social capital is an inseparable feature of a smart city. That’s why the city is planning a number of programmes related to this. “We are developing, for example, the Start-up Poznań smart economy project. This includes co-working space in an office building on ul. Za Bramką and cooperation with start-ups. Strefa +Jeden has since become a workplace for more than 4,000 people, mainly working in the IT sector,” adds Michał Łakomski.

Wrocław also has ambitious goals. “We care very much about the sustainable development of the city and are making every effort to make it a friendly place to live, work and spend your free time in. Thus the main goal of our activities is to improve the quality of life of our residents. To be a smart city you also have to look for ways to manage the city more efficiently and economically. When coming up with ideas for interesting systems, we often employ modern technology as well as the knowledge and experience of our partners – companies, start-ups and universities,” explains Robert Bednarski, the director of the smart city and project management department of Wrocław city council. The city is currently focused on measures to improve mobility and public transport as well as environmental and innovative projects. “The systems that have been introduced include an intelligent transport system that gives priority to public transport, Vozilla electric car urban rental, a system of non-cash payments on public transport, as well as a parking management system for tourist buses that is still to be implemented. Residents can also use mobile apps – including the Mobilny Asystent for route calculation and payment for public transport as well as the Blisko application that reports breakdowns and weather conditions,” adds the director. Wrocław is also introducing the CityLab programme to test out innovative systems that might be of use for the development of the city and improving its quality of life. “The idea is to enable entrepreneurs, start-ups and universities to test these systems in the real world by setting up a city laboratory. In this way, our partners can increase their know-how through testing out their technology in real urban conditions,” insists Robert Bednarski.


“Łódź has been evolving into a smart city for several years now,” insists Robert Kolczyński , the director of project management for the city of Łódź

Warsaw lab

Warsaw is also preparing to set up a city technological laboratory. The Wawa Lab will enable start-ups that work with the city to create, test and develop their concepts, products and services. “With the support of the platform, companies can test their products out in the city itself. They can also use it for predicting potential risks connected with the product. These entrepreneurs will then be able to offer their ideas to representatives of the city council over a coffee. The capital will also give innovators access to the city’s digital platform. The opportunity to use Warsaw’s integrated data infrastructure, which includes a network of intelligent sensors, will greatly assist the introduction of such innovations,” claims Dominika Wiśniewska of the city of Warsaw’s marketing department. The work done through the Warsaw Lab is coordinated by the city’s digitisation department, which is responsible for all initiatives related to smart city development and that are in line with in the capital’s strategy for 2030. “We are introducing a number of systems that will bring us closer to fulfilling the smart city ideal. Many creative people with great potential are moving to Warsaw. With the help of digital technology, we can live better, do more and act faster,” adds Dominika Wiśniewska.

Warsaw city council is also working on its policy for the digital transformation of the city. Its main goals will include: providing e-services, the open sharing of data, management based on data, and digital inclusiveness for residents. The project also envisages the inclusion of the city’s inhabitants as testers at an early stages of the programme and, finally, as the beneficiaries of the innovations. “We are working to make Warsaw ‘smarter’ all the time. That’s why we are introducing the concept of the city as an open platform that will integrate the capital’s digital layer, guaranteeing synergy between each individual system. Companies, start-ups and individual innovators will then be able to use ready-made systems made available by the city,” says Dominika Wiśniewska.

The capital city is also introducing an increasingly ambitious climate policy. It has set up a department to manage a PLN 300 mln anti-smog fund for improving the air quality and reducing emissions. It is also about to start working on a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 pct by 2030, thus helping the capital city to move closer to the levels set by the Paris Agreement, which is based on the principle of international cooperation to reduce CO2 emissions.

An agreement on this issue was signed in June by Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris. It obliges both cities to support each other in combating the effects of climate change and air pollution.

Dreams turning into reality

“Smart cities require joined-up thinking. This philosophy, which we have adopted, allows us to show that we are consistently improving the quality of life in Gdynia. A city has to recognise the needs of its inhabitants, choose the best systems and introduce them. We want Gdynia to be a city of happy people. Our emphasis Is also on building relationships between residents: neighbours, parents at school, social workers, administrators and so on,” explains Bartosz Bartoszewicz, Gdynia’s deputy mayor for the quality of life.

According to him, a smart city is made to measure according to the needs of those who live in it. But we won’t see the results of this approach right away, but over the long-term. “However, the most valuable capital we have are people with great ideas. I’m convinced that there are many pioneering innovators in Polish local authorities and that the smart city concept has stepped out of the realm of dreams into the real world,” believes Bartosz Bartoszewicz. Gdynia is currently introducing a raft of such initiatives, such as environmental measures, thanks to which the city can now count itself as among those with the best air in Poland. Furthermore, it has introduced Poland’s largest electronic document flow system – a digital office that processes the largest number of electronic forms. “Our citizens’ expectations are clear. They don’t want to waste time dealing with red tape and expect to be able to use digital tools instead. We are also preparing a portal that will provide them with access to all our services and allow them to manage their data at the same time,” adds the deputy mayor.

The evolution of ¸ódê

Łódź has been implementing smart systems for several years. The 2020 Integrated Development Strategy for Łódź was drawn up in 2012 at the request of mayor Hanna Zdanowska in an attempt to improve the quality of life of its citizens, create a sustainable transport chain across the Łódź conurbation as well as revitalise run down areas. The strategy also places emphasis on the development of new systems related to intelligent management, the local economy and the environment. “Łódź has been evolving into a smart city for several years now. Several schemes have been in place for some time to move it in this direction and also towards introducing ‘smart mobility’. With information and communication systems, the city will become a network of high-speed connections,” insists Robert Kolczyński, the director of project management for the city of Łódź. The pace of the introduction of such systems to the city is set to accelerate in the near future, in part because of the development of Nowe Centrum Łodzi (NCŁ – the New Centre of Łódź). Under this project the city plans to launch almost 25 services based on smart city systems, which are to be gradually expanded across the entire city. The investment costs for the project are estimated at app. PLN 40 mln

Bydgoszcz focusing on renewable energy

Bydgoszcz has been implementing its own ​​smart city programme in six areas: city management, living conditions, a safe environment, transport, the economy and human capital. The city is part of the EU’s My SmartLife scheme, which also involves other European cities. “The main objective of the project is the reduction of CO2 emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy sources. As a result of such measures, cities are becoming much more environmentally friendly,” points out Marta Stachowiak, a spokesperson for Bydgoszcz city council. The city’s renewable energy policy involves the construction of a demonstration centre at the Mechanical School Complex no. 2 using passive building systems. Designed and constructed in order to minimise energy usage, the centre employs a heat pump, photovoltaic panels and a wind turbine. Bydgoszcz is also participating in the CitiEnGov scheme designed to support public authorities in the development of energy policy. The goals of the project include setting up new energy management bodies for cities and the improvement of existing ones. The project should bear fruit in the development of tools for minimising the impact of climate change and the formulation of a concept for supporting energy efficiency and systems related to renewable energy sources. ν

In place of a definition

The smart city concept has been evolving, but in a rather hazy manner. Although much has been said on this subject, there’s still no universally accepted definition of what it is. So instead of looking for its precise meaning, it’s actually easier to talk about it in the context of the benefits that it generates. And there are many of these. Above all it leads to an increase in prosperity and an improvement in the quality of life, as well as savings due to more effective resource management and the greater attractiveness of the city in terms of business and tourism. The idea also helps to focus us more on the future and to strive towards more ambitious goals. But the main aim in developing a smart city is to create a single, efficient urban organism that is friendly to all its inhabitants, in which everyone can find the inspiration needed for their own self-development and embark on initiatives of their own.