Bologna Smart City: towards a new Civic Network

A smart city plans consistently the integration of the different identity characteristics of its territory to produce innovation. Bologna has chosen to join this transformation process while remaining true to its civic tradition, through an alliance between research community and University, businesses and government to develop useful solutions to address urban and social issues, putting technology at the service of citizens.

 

On July 30, 2012 the City of Bologna, the University of Bologna and Aster signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the planning platform “Bologna Smart City”. The intent was to rethink the city in order to enhance the knowledge and the technological innovation, through the extensive use of ICT, and to facilitate the turning on a green economy and a green lifestyle of its inhabitants. Focusing on research, Bologna has chosen to invest in energy, services and digital, and to enhance the environmental and cultural heritage. Bologna believes that a priority objective should be the enhancement of the whole Regione Emilia-Romagna and that this can be realized starting from the city.

In the first phase of his work, “Bologna Smart City” platform identified seven key areas:

1) Cultural Heritage (enhancement and requalification of the historic city and its cultural heritage, arcades and tourism)
2) Hyperbole 2020 Cloud & Crowd (redesign of the Civic Network Hyperbole, based on cloud technology and integrated digital identity)
3) Smart networks (Smart Grids, Ultra Wide Band Fiber to the Home (FFTH) and Smart Lightning)
4) Sustainable mobility (development of a network of smart electric mobility)
5) Safe and sustainable districts (restructuring public and private assets energy to be efficient and produce energy, monitoring the safety of buildings, waste management, social housing, home automation, co-working, services and new environments for knowledge workers and researchers)
6) Health and Welfare (e-care, e-health, process optimization and business intelligence)
7) Education and technical education (development of projects in education, promotion of a new technical and scientific knowledge).

Institutions and businesses interested to build a partnership on precise actions were invited to participate, showing their interest filling out an online form.

The Metropolitan Strategic Plan is the place of public discussion and debate to pinpoint the objectives and the visions, which are the results of joint proposals aimed at national and European calls. Officially launched in October 2011, the Plan is the result of a voluntary and collegial process, more public and private, aimed at sharing and building a vision for the future of this area.
In the document problems and priorities are expressed, interests and needs are compared and they find mediation, identifying objectives and necessary strategies. The document defines the projects and it gives an account of the resources used.

On citizen participation, there is an interesting project, Iperbole 2020. The Iperbole Civic Network, Iperbole users community and the portal of the Municipality was set up in January 1995 as a «telematic bridge» between the virtual community and the real city in order to build a «digital information society at local level». It is an operating project employing Internet to open a public doorway to the connectivity and to state a leading role for local Public Administration in the creation of the information and knowledge society. The service is characterized by two main features: Iperbole users and the site/portal of the Municipality. The Municipality offers all residents access to the Internet, the use of electronic mail and several specific services for subscribers; the management of the service envisages, beside all updated information sections, several services. During these years of activities there have been promoted projects and services with the purpose to improve social cohesion, local development and equal opportunity to ICT and – at the same time – a concrete and innovative model for a rich in resources and integrated portal for all the territory.

The projects

SMART MOBILITY

Bologna was awarded by the European Commission under the CIVITAS Awards 2013 for the initiatives put in place to promote the use of bicycles and sustainable mobility. The project "Back in the Centre" intends to address some issues related to the problems of accessibility and livability in the city center with new rules and interventions focused on public space that put the pedestrian at the center and allow him to return "again in the center". In early 2012, institutions, associations and citizens confronted on the proposals contained in the Plan. The call remained open for three months by collecting a total of 30 project ideas. There were different phases: a table of consultation with trade associations, trade unions, banking foundations, environmental groups, universities; four days of listening territorial in each of four "quadrants" of the center; an online comparison on a dedicated blog and collection of the needs and opinions of the citizens through a questionnaire.

SMART ENVIRONMENT

The Action Plan for Sustainable Energy is the instrument by which the City of Bologna, in collaboration with others in the public and private city, intends to reduce CO₂ emissions by 20% by 2020, as required by Covenant of Mayors promoted by the European Commission, which Bologna joined in 2008. This Plan describes the territorial context, it makes a detailed list of CO₂ emissions by sector, presents the activities already developed and in progress and outlines the objectives, the lines action and interventions that will be realized in the coming years. To implement these actions is required public-private partnership, with a role of the Municipality of stimulus, information and linking of different subjects.
With an investment of about 25 millions over the next three years, the Municipality and Enel Sole, proceed to upgrading the energy efficiency and the integrated management of street lighting and traffic lights. The agreement with Enel Sole allows the municipal administration to use the available resources to get the best possible result.

SMART ECONOMY

SO-UP is a co-working project born with the intention of establishing management practices close to that of a cooperative. In particular, it seeks to focus on the community rather than profit, focusing on the aspect of social process and informal collaboration, to give low-cost services and high technology to support the process of start-up.

SMART PEOPLE

The “BazzAPP” initiative aims to create new forms of relationship between the citizen, the city and its public and private infrastructure, through a system based on two elements:
• the BazzAPP, mobile app temporary representing the missed opportunities that companies, organizations and associations make available to users;
• BazaaR, a platform that deals with the BazzAPP transmission to the users at the right time and place.
“Im-possible living” is a project dedicated to the management of the assets of the abandoned buildings in the area. Through participatory processes, which can involve the citizens, and through a website, they want to allow:
• to visualize buildings mapped on the territory of Bologna;
• to report other buildings; to map the needs of the city;
• to propose ideas, sign up and detailing your user profile

SMART GOVERNANCE

The city administration proposes an agenda to define objectives and lines of action in the digital field. The aim is to increase the rate of innovation and sustainability of the urban system of Bologna.
A first roadmap of Bologna’s Digital Agenda was presented in Bologna on November 21, 2011 within the event Digital Agenda Going Local promoted by Regione Emilia-Romagna. On October 29, 2012 the City of Bologna has decided to adopt this strategy, it was proposed and funded a contract worth 100,000 euros especially dedicated to the creation and development of the objectives and the actions proposed in the Digital Agenda.