Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
in more recent times. Moreover, due to the particular historical context of the
Italian country the Efficient cities study is tailored on smart indicators that in other
countries may just be inapplicable, such as the attention to the building historical
heritage and its management.
1.3
The Key Features of the Smart City: Smart Governance,
Smart Mobility and Smart Energy
1.3.1
From Traditional Governance to Smart Governance of Cities
The last years have seen an increasing complexity of the political and adminis-
trative situation of countries with a consequent reduction of the possibility to
implement adequate measures on the territories. The economic crisis signs with
absolute evidence the current times.
The communication between public administrations and citizens has dramati-
cally changed with the advent of new information technologies and the Internet.
The recent political elections at National level in Italy—with a success of the
Movimento 5 Stelle of Beppe Grillo irradiating its principles from the Internet—
have shown the enormous communication potential of the network. In the same
way, the Pirates party in Germany describes itself as part of an international
movement supporting the ''digital revolution'' as a means of increasing trans-
parency and participation in politics.
The possibility to spread in a wide space and in real time every possible form of
expression that can be digitalized has created innovative processes also in the
National Public Administrations, centered on efficiency, effectiveness, and trans-
parency and allows saving money in the Res Pubblica administration. At national
level, in Italy, the public administration is composed of different subjects of dif-
ferent sizes and needs (mainly Regions and municipalities). All these subjects, but
in particular the municipalities, have some common features such as the need to
design and implement optimization processes for their resources, including the
information technology infrastructures, so as to attain strong improvements of the
quality of the services offered to citizens without increasing the level of current
expenses.
In the aim of attaining a full development of the digital revolution, not only the
organizational aspects of the public administration must be considered, but also it
is necessary to implement a motivational and educational path for those who work
inside public administrations.
Italy is certainly below the average level of literacy rate in English and in
Information Technology in public administrations; this is caused by the lack of
motivation by public employees, hardly appraised by merit and suffering from the
lack of infrastructures.
Although it is now mandatory, the Italian municipalities (Riva Sanseverino
2013
) still do not even try to apply for European financing calls, due to the above-
mentioned reasons. Another relevant aspect in a smart governance system is the
