Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In this way there is a differentiation between partners sharing long-term
objectives (to realize the infrastructures) as well as medium term objectives (to
implement strategies), and of short term such as small and medium enterprises.
The involvement of the public administration is fundamental, since it generates
a positive feedback in citizens and also creates a sense of trust towards the
initiative.
The first implementations can be dated back in 2009, when the public area
Utrechtsestraat, through a cooperation with local entrepreneurs and citizens
(Utrechtsestraat Business Association), has started to become a commercial street
with a strong connotation in sustainability (Klimaatstraat, Climate Street). In the
Climate street technologies, cooperative agreements and approaches are tested in
order to select the most successful to make the city's (shopping) streets more
sustainable on a large scale. The focus of sustainable solutions lies in three main
areas: entrepreneurs, the public space and the logistics. The first two issues con-
cerns the possibility to monitor the environment and use energy efficient solutions
for lighting and heating/cooling, while the last issue concerns the waste collection
using electric vehicles from a single provider, thus minimizing CO 2 emissions.
While in its Smart city strategy Amsterdam has aimed at a mix between Energy
upgrading of private and public buildings (to reduce emissions also of symbolic
structures as the museum of sciences Nemo) and the civic participation (as an
example the cited Utrechtsestraat), cities like Gent, in Belgium, and Monterrey, in
Mexico, have aimed at this latter issue to involve the citizens in the definition of
inclusive strategies to improve quality of life. These cities are quite different in
terms of dimensions and history but they are brought together by the continuous
exchange of opinions with the citizens on ICT to improve the quality of life. Based
on data collection carried out through ICT, Helsinki in Finland has improved the
management policies of urban mobility and congestion management, while the
Portuguese Paredes is going to install 100 million of sensors that will gather
information on public lighting, energy consumption and waste disposal. All these
data can dynamically influence the actions of the public administration about the
cited issues.
The use of the new technologies (Batty et al. 2012 ) has favoured a strong
improvement of the quality of life and urban mobility also in the major centre in
Sweden, Stockholm. The Swedish capital has set out a number of initiatives in
order to reach the ambitious goal to be an emission free city by 2050.
One of the strongest points in the strategy adopted by the city of Stockholm was
to point on a diversified mobility system (regional metro, ethanol fuelled tram and
buses), aiming at turning to zero the number of circulating private cars with an
excellent public transportation system.
In cooperation with IBM, a system to detect the vehicles entering the city has
been installed; the same system automatically charges the vehicles when they pass
the 18 control points during the rush hours of working days.
A study has registered that after three years, the urban traffic has been reduced
of 18 %, cutting down the polluting emissions of 12 %.
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