Urenio Watch Watch: Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities

Selection of cities for the Intelligent Cities Challenge by the European Commission

The European Commission’ s Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) has announced the 90 EU cities that have been selected to participate in the 30 months program. ICC participating cities will receive high quality and tailored guidance and expert support, access to advisory and city peer networks (European and international), and capability building tools, to drive priority policy goals and the uptake of advanced technologies. Continue reading

New paper: COVID, CITIES and CLIMATE: Historical Precedents and Potential Transitions for the New Economy

According to the author, the 2020 collapse of the global economy due to Covid-19 pandemic has enabled us to think about long term trends and what the future could hold for our cities and regions, especially due to the climate agenda. Having as a starting point the current pandemic, this paper sets out the historical precedents for economic transitions after collapses that unleash new technologically based innovation waves.  These are shown to be associated with different energy and infrastructure priorities and their transport and resulting urban forms. Continue reading

New paper: The Use of IoT Technology in Smart Cities and Smart Villages: Similarities, Differences, and Future Prospects

Τhis research paper addresses and discusses different application areas of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in Smart Cities (SCs) and Smart Villages (SVs). Differences and similarities in both ecosystems are identified, while the authors illuminate the standardization efforts that can be applicable in both contexts.

To cover the complex sociopolitical, cultural, and economic dynamics of SCs and SVs, this research is based on the concept of digital innovation ecosystems, stressing that both contexts have their own structural socio-economic features as well as geographical distinctions. Continue reading

New Report: Overview of the use and impact of AI in public services in the EU

The present study is addressing the role of AI in the public sector and providing an  overview and analysis of the use and impact of AI in Public Services. The main goal of the authors is to gather information on EU Member States’ initiatives on the use of AI in public services and develop a methodology to identify risks, opportunities, drivers and barriers.

This report is published in the context of AI Watch, the European Commission knowledge service to monitor the development, uptake and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Europe, launched in December 2018. Continue reading

New paper: Understanding Civic Crowdfunding as a Mechanism for Leveraging Civic Engagement and Urban Innovation

This paper analyses the dynamics of government initiated civic crowdfunding platforms, with regards to participation inequalities and their defining dimensions. Such platforms are considered by the authors as governmental responses for bottom-up peer-to-peer support mechanisms related to urban innovation, which also allows top-down governance and governmental support systems for civic entrepreneurship. Continue reading

The role of smart cities in meeting objectives of the Green Deal INSPIRE Conference Webinar 04/06/2020 11:00 ‘“ 12:30 CEST

INSPIRE Conference 2020The workshop on ‘˜The role of smart cities in meeting objectives of the Green Deal’ will showcase smart city data services and digital twins of cities that also use INSPIRE data, in support of the environmental and climate objectives of the Green Deal. It will and bring together various stakeholders with the objective of discussing the governance model of urban data and the potential Artificial Intelligence has in this helping smart cities meeting the objectives of the Green Deal. Continue reading

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: New Metropolitan Perspectives

The 4th International Symposium “New Metropolitan Perspectives’ is taking place online from the 26th to the 28th of May, 2020. It is held in English with some sessions in Italian.

The symposium faces the challenge of local development’ s innovation dynamics and its complexity putting humankind at the centre of the scientific debate, towards reclaiming that “man is the measure of all things’.     Continue reading