Smart Cities and Regional Development (SCRD) Open Access Publishing
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Smart Cities in comparison: An analysis of the best Smart Cities
Get PDFThis research paper aims to identify the best Smart City in the world, by investigating the rankings of Smart Cities, based on its main characteristics and implemented policies. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of what makes a city “Smart” and to highlight the successful strategies employed by the top-ranked Smart Cities. The research employs a qualitative analysis approach, utilizing thematic maps created with the QGIS software. This methodology allows for a detailed examination of various factors contributing to a Smart City’s status, including but not limited to, technological integration, sustainable practices, and citizen participation. The expected results of this study is to report and analyze the best smart cities, according to the Smart City rankings, and also to shed light on the key elements and policies that contribute to their success. These findings could serve as a benchmark for other cities striving to achieve ‘Smart’ status. Furthermore, the thematic maps will visually represent the distribution and implementation of Smart policies, providing a clear and comprehensive overview of the Smart landscape in the top-ranked cities. This research has the potential to contribute to the field of urban development and planning, particularly in the context of Smart Cities. It could guide policymakers and city planners in designing and implementing effective strategies to transform their cities into more sustainable, efficient, and livable spaces
Landscaping of a park in the area of the former Military Units in the Municipality of Alexandria
Get PDFThe general objective of the project is the functional conversion and reuse of an unused land in Alexandria\u27s urban area and its transformation into a recreational and leisure area for the population, in order to improve the living conditions of the citizens. The investment aims at transforming the unused land into an area friendly to the inhabitants, a recreation, sport and leisure area, rich in vegetation. The specific objectives of the project are represented by O.S.1 Reuse of the park space through the development of public green spaces (19,368.00 sqm of open space, 17,972 sqm of green space), equipping with specific equipment and commissioning and O.S.2 Improvement of the urban environment by reducing pollution. The objective was to achieve the horizontal principles through specific actions on sustainable development by creating public spaces, unitary, that meet the requirements of civilized citizens of the city, with unlimited access, a place for rest, contemplation, leisure and recreation; providing facilities by installing street cysts, fountains, equipment for playgrounds and sports, ecological public toilets, gazebo; positive impact on the environment by preventing noise and other pollution – by providing planted areas around the perimeter of the park to screen the space, with green spaces as one of the most important tools for improving air, water and soil quality and equal opportunities and non-discrimination by adapting the pedestrian space for the visually impaired by installing tactile and visual pathways; providing specific facilities for disabled access to public services by ensuring that no steps are provided along the park\u27s pedestrian routes. The positive effects expected through the realisation of the investment objective will be: sustainable urban development by exploiting the land and transforming it into a recreational and leisure area, improving the environment of the municipality by reducing noxious and noise pollution, reducing human heat islands, reducing exposure to UV radiation; increasing the standard of living and comfort of the residents
Teoria grafurilor în optimizarea rețelelor de infrastructură urbană într-un oraș inteligent
Get PDFCrearea unor orașe inteligente reprezintă un deziderat din ce în ce mai larg dezbătut în societatea în care trăim, întrucât, beneficiind de tehnologii avansate, aceste orașe contribuie la creșterea calității vieții locuitorilor. În acest context, teoria grafurilor se dovedește a fi o unealtă deosebit de importantă în procesele de optimizare a rețelelor de infrastructură urbană. Obiectivul principal al cercetării este identificarea principalelor concepte din teoria grafurilor care pot fi aplicate în crearea de orașe inteligente cu scopul optimizării rețelelor de infrastructură urbană. Plecând de la acest obiectiv, cercetarea se va axa pe definirea principalelor concepte din teoria grafurilor precum: algoritmul lui Kruskal de determinare a unui arbore parțial de cost minim și algoritmul lui Dijkstra ce stabilește drumul de cost minim de la un nod de start la oricare altul dintr-un graf. Ulterior, articolul va cuprinde exemple prin care cu ajutorul teoriei grafurilor putem modela rețeaua de infrastructură urbană. Algoritmul lui Dijkstra are aplicabilitate în identificarea celor mai eficiente rute de transport și reducerea congestiei și a timpului de călătorie, precum și la optimizarea rețelei de conducte și a distribuției a apei. Pe de altă parte, algoritmul lui Kruskal vizează optimizarea unor arii ale orașului inteligent precum: gestionarea eficientă a resurselor, planificarea spațiilor verzi și conectivitatea durabilă. Așadar, în cadrul acestui articol vom explora potențialul pe care teoria grafurilor îl poate avea în optimizarea infrastructurii urbane a unui oraș inteligent și în creșterea eficienței și a sustenabilității acestui tip de oraș, întrucât alegerea optimă a conexiunilor și rețelelor poate contribui la crearea unui mediu urban care să răspundă nevoilor locuitorilor într-un mod durabil și eficent
Employing AI in Regional Development: The Need for a Strategic Approach
Get PDFNavigating the age of AI is challenging not only because of its novelty, but also because of its rapid progress and unpredictable impact. AI is substantially influencing the labor market, industrial services, agricultural processes, value chains and also the organization of workplaces. Thus, a better understanding of the potential of AI and its pitfalls becomes crucial when developing national strategies. The main focus of this article is to investigate if AI is fit for an overall balanced regional development. The process of setting up a policy framework for AI technologies is very complex and it is useful to learn from the experiences and achievements of other regions or countries that have successfully implemented or adopted AI in regional development. Therefore, to draw some lessons for Romania in designing the national AI strategy and related policies, we needed to explore the landscape of AI policymaking at the international level. In Romania, AI was born and advanced mainly in academia and the private sector, through research and innovative programs. The bottom-up approach in mainstreaming AI together with its cross-sectorial impacts raise important challenges for our policymakers because, as through the national strategy and related policies, they need to find a proper equilibrium, by creating environments that enable AI development and growth, while, simultaneously mitigating the risks posed by AI. In addition, equal distribution of the benefits of AI represents a key social concern. By analyzing the current and future opportunities and trends of AI in regional development and discussing the challenges and risks associated, along with exploring some examples and case studies from different regions or sectors that have successfully implemented or adopted AI, we consider that this article will be helpful for decision making and governance processes at different levels, to enable even faster scale development of AI for regional development. The conclusion section briefly presents some recommendations and suggestions for Romania to improve its AI readiness and capacity for regional development and provides some suggestions for future research or action on AI in regional development
The world’s first “Smart Nation” vision: the case of Singapore
Get PDF“Smartization” is the policy that Singapore as a city-state with a small geographical territory, limited natural resources, increasing urban density and aging population but determined to become an exceptional city-state has adopted to overcome various national challenges, improve the quality, efficiency and performance of urban services, sustainable development and overall improvement of citizens’ lives. In this regard, the Smart Nation initiative, which has been undertaken in late 2014 is considered a turning point that aims to make Singapore the first smart nation or the first smart country (mega-smart city) in the world. This paper is dedicated to the study of Singapore’s digitization process, especially the initiative of Smart Nation, which is an upgraded version of the smart city. In the framework of this article, the factors of Singapore’s transition to the digitization process, especially the Smart Nation initiative, are discussed, the plans and programs related to this process and the country’s achievements in this direction are explained. Meanwhile, along with all the achievements, the challenges, limitations and problems of the initiative of forming the Smart Nation have been pointed out
Collective housing for seniors in Romania, in a paradigm ofactive and healthy ageing in community – from smartadaptation to architectural and design innovation
Get PDFCurrently, the existing collective residential fund in Romania is neither adapted nor refreshed in order to meet the needs of seniors, nor to the challenges of an ageing society. The current research aims to investigate, in the key of 2023, the ways in which architectural design in the residential sector responds to the challenges of the current Romanian society, aiming two objectives: identifying ways of adaptation and accessorization for existing apartment-type dwellings in multi-storey residential buildings in Romania and scoring innovative design solutions for new collective housing, so as to support an active and healthy ageing in community. The research is based on concepts such as ageing in place, ageing in community, age-friendly architecture, universal design, sustainable communities. The study involves the narrative review methodology. Using the principles of user-centered design, changes brought about by ageing are discussed in an interdisciplinary approach, specific geriatric pathology (medical doctor) and implicitly synthesized the needs of the elderly, the ways of architectural adaptation of the apartments needed by seniors (architect) and their accessorization with gerontotechnology (architect, psychologist, biologist, medical doctor) are presented in order to become a safe and engaging environment. Using research by design method, innovative assistive living facilities projects for seniors are presented, carried out with the 5th year students from IMUAU (2020 and 2022) and visions of contemporary architecture as a support for intergenerational sustainable communities in degree projects (2023).The adaptation of apartments for seniors involves interventions in: access, floors, doors, windows, lighting, spatial configuration, furniture, landmarks, decorations, color palette, visual stimulation, smart technologies. Five levels of intervention were identified: 1. labelling, signage, painting, planting; 2. assistive technologies for activities of daily living; 3. interior-exterior changes for doors, windows, floors; 4. building, accessorization, accessibility; 5. spatial layout and structure. The costs of these interventions differ and increase from point 1 to point 5. Compared to adaptations, the ab initio design of seniors’ dwellings practiced in students’ projects offers increased comfort. The disadvantage is the need to change residence around the age of 60. Degree projects (2023) demonstrate sustainable strategic thinking at the community level, with an emphasis on architecture as a support for intergenerational relations. The research results reveal the importance of interdisciplinary teamwork and the need for a paradigm shift in the design discipline of higher architecture education. Seniors’ housing adaptation, including accessorizing with gerontotechnology, must be supervised by the architect so the results to be optimal, both in terms of comfort and aesthetics. The need for education for active and healthy ageing of the Romanian society is highlighted.The work proves the importance of residential architecture but also of the public spaces in supporting ageing in community, optimizing opportunities for autonomy, participation and security. This research was funded through the Active and Assisted Living Programme, Project AAL-CP-2020-7-108-SI4SI-1, co-funded by the European Commission and the Romanian National IRD Funding Authority – UEFISCDI
Topic: Automatic Permit Generation as an Attribute of Real-Time Data Management and Decision-Making.
Get PDFIn the era of digitalization, automatic decision-making by powerful systems has become a crucial aspect of modern management. Through the application of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), complex administrative processes can be streamlined and automated, enhancing efficiency and accuracy in decision-making. This paper addresses the importance of automatic permission generation and decision-making based on data stored in databases. One of the key applications of this system is the real-time monitoring of dates and locations, which is used to make critical administrative decisions in institutions such as universities, schools, and workplaces.The application presented in this study utilizes classes such as uuid, smtplib, MIMEText, MIMEMultipart, and Flask to create an integrated system that monitors and manages data. By using this application, advanced monitoring of locations and dates is achieved, contributing to improved transparency and decision-making in various contexts, including the case study of UMSH.This study also analyzes the impact of these automated processes in improving efficiency and preparing for future challenges in administrative management
Could Not Be The “Collective Intelligence” Of A SMART CITY Directly-Sensed To The Today-Dramatically Post-Kantian “ETERNAL PEACE”?
Get PDFThe rhetoric inquiry from the title of this co-authored study is bordering four constructs-nuclei regarding which the co-authors are trying to model an ideal and, respectively, a (hypothetical-)real causal network [so, the next stage from a semantic network]. These modeling approaches are related to the dual cases of the * technological advance (contemporary, mostly, an exponential e-advance) / and respectively of the ** worldwide ‘subtle’ statistical www-images/popular culture self-interrogations/mass-media records. But the study does not firmly follow this deterministic quasi-statistically based trend (that would be suited for a ‘brighter-and-smarter’ nexus as SIPRI), i.e., caused mainly by the ‘absence’ of data related to the populations of Smart Cities comparatively to the actual worldwide Metropolis [suffocated by pollution, traffic, needed larger-and-diversified (e-)work basins, (e-)health need and its current troubles/assurances, e-dreams/e-leisure, etc.]. For example, is New York a smart city? If partially YES, then ‘Are the members of a respective Smart-Segment in the Metropolis interested in an “Eternal Peace” on our Entire Planet? – or are they fuzzy-neutral within the existent ‘locally assured’ peaceful stance?
Thus, this study aggregates a content and form of a MEMORANDUM – addressed to ‘whom it may concern’ – wordwide universities and research entities, engaged in ‘to change’ the current ‘war-peace-war’ stance…
Into this cognitive and praxis-actional context, the co-authored study is bordering [beyond the respective four-entitled constructs-nuclei] by an elicited triad of a set of constructs-tensions [in the Prologue: 6 + 12; in the (Central) Nucleus Part: 19; in the Ephilogue: 8]. These emerged constructs-tensions would pave (if these would be taken up by societal projects) the still possible evolutions from the contemporary Knowledge Society towards a Consciousness Society [the ‘Consciousness Society’ last evoked construct was firstly e-initiated by the Academician Mihai Dragãnescu / approx. 2005]. Now, this triad of a set of 18 + 19 + 8 constructs-tensions stands mainly as a subtle societal radiant-inquiry in front of the contemporary {e-education, e-governance/e-administration, e-liberties, e-prosecution…}, and it is just tending to propose harmonic steps-by-steps to change/revise/evolve the current wordwide ‘war-peace-war’ stance; the Smart Cities’s roles are essential to resonate, or not, to each of these 45 constructs-tensions. Our ‘Individual and Collective Intelligence’ will pave the course of these constructs-tensions within the flow of the respective ‘subtle societal radiant-inquiry’.
E.g. (an element of this subtle societal radiant-inquiry) “Where are the HUMANS?”
All these are representing and emulating an address to universities / research entities in approaching/initiating an “Interdisciplinary Center of PEACE ENTREPRENEURS - PROGRESS ENTREPRENEURS versus our (RE-)HUMANIZATION”
Rolul Machine Learning în Smart Cities
Get PDFThe objective of this study is to explore the role of Machine Learning (ML) in enhancing the functionality and sustainability of smart cities. Machine learning (ML) plays a crucial role in smart cities by enabling data-driven insights and automation that make urban management more efficient, sustainable, and responsive to residents\u27 needs. Prior work has established that ML algorithms can significantly improve urban planning, traffic management, environmental monitoring, and public safety. Prior work in this field which we consider relevant are Chaturvedi and Vries Chaturvedi & Vries (2021) who highlight the effectiveness of ML in urban land use planning, and Nosratabadi et al. Nosratabadi et al. (2020) who provide a comprehensive survey of ML models tailored for urban sustainability. Our approach synthesizes these findings to illustrate how ML can be used to address urban challenges through data analysis. The implications of integrating ML into smart city frameworks are profound. By utilizing real-time data from various sources, including IoT devices and social media, cities can enhance their responsiveness to dynamic urban conditions. Also, ML models can analyze environmental data to monitor air quality and urban greenness, contributing to public health and ecological sustainability. The value of ML in smart cities lies in its ability to transform vast datasets into insights, thus helping decidents to make informed decision-making and to efficiently allocate their resources. As cities continue to evolve, the adoption of advanced ML techniques will be crucial for developing resilient urban environments. This study underscores the necessity for ongoing research to use the potential of machine learning in shaping urban living, but with an important accent on its ethical applications
The Double-Edged Sword of AI in Cybersecurity: Boosting Security While Addressing Privacy Risks
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) drives an important evolution in cybersecurity, especially within threat detection, predictive analytics, and incident response. Simultaneously with this fast-changing development, privacy concerns are also brought up because such data-driven AI may adversely affect user privacy and raise ethical issues. This article describes about the double role of AI in cybersecurity: while reinforcing security, it also creates hazards when it comes to data privacy.
This paper reviews key AI methods, like machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning, for their effectiveness in enhancing cybersecurity. In that direction, the paper addresses challenges related to privacy issues linked to these AI-driven methods, related to the misuse of collected data, algorithmic biases, and the unintended exposure of sensitive information.
The themes identified in this article include AI methodologies for cybersecurity, balancing between security enhancements and privacy risks, adversarial AI, and regulatory responses. This comparative analysis underlines several strengths and limitations of current AI-driven security solutions and stresses the need for privacy-preserving AI techniques. The role played by the regulatory frameworks is also discussed in order to analyze how the legal guidelines may balance security and privacy.
The study results shows that, while AI significantly enhances cybersecurity, privacy is a very critical issue that needs to be addressed through regulatory compliance, transparency, and ethical AI development. The study recognizes limitations in the literature, particularly insufficient empirical evidence about real world efficiency in privacy-preserving AI techniques and a lack of attention toward cross-cultural regulatory impacts. It suggests that in the future, research efforts should be directed more towards robust privacy-preserving models, increased AI transparency, and a deeper consideration of the ethical frameworks with which to guide the responsible use of AI in cybersecurity