With the industrial revolution, which began in 18th-century England and gradually spread throughout the world, completely changing the face of civilisation, the talk of technical development began to grow bolder [1]. Once considered unrealistic, air travel is now one of the most fundamental means of long-distance communication. Weighing several tens of tonnes a few decades ago, today’s computers cannot even remotely match the performance of a handy smartphone [2]. After the huge success of the industrial revolution witnessed by our near ancestors, a new era seems to be approaching from over the horizon of progress, which with its ‘revolutionary’ nature surpasses all previous human achievements – the era of mass digitalisation [3]. For those living in the 21st century, the world has witnessed the true flowering of the ‘digital revolution’. Activities, the performance of which used to be a tradition dating back several hundred years, have, as a result of the Internet, taken on a completely new form – one that has been adapted to the rapidly changing social, cultural and – above all – technological conditions.
The digital revolution began with the transition from mechanical technology to digital electronics in the late 1950s, although it did not become global until decades later [4]. The term became popular in the 1970s and is still used today. A key stage of the revolution was the invention of the internet, the development of computer hardware and mobile technology. Today, digitisation in its broadest sense encompasses automation, data processing and exchange, and its impact affects many areas of life.
The impact of the digital revolution on urban development is already evident in almost every area of the functioning of large conurbations. With the development of new technologies, cities have been given an unprecedented opportunity to use artificial intelligence in the effective management of individual local government departments and municipal services. Those implementing such technologies are called smart cities – they use data and IT techniques to improve the quality of life of their residents [5]. Through data collection and analysis systems, city authorities can better plan public transport, increase safety or reduce energy costs. Mobile technologies and smartphone applications also allow easier and more efficient use of public services such as transport, lighting or access to information about the environment. Integrated transport systems based on satellite data, mobile networks and other IT solutions, such as smart traffic lights or traffic guidance, make it easier and faster to move around the city, which undoubtedly benefits the quality of life of its inhabitants. Cooperation between municipalities and private sector business partners can lead to the development of new electromobility technologies, such as autonomous cars or drones delivering parcels and packages, which can make cities even more efficient and accelerate urbanisation [6].
Of course, the smart city concept is not limited to digitisation-related elements. So in which areas of city functioning can modern technology be used? Actually, in all areas. However, there are aspects that urban planners particularly hope will improve the current situation. These include
1. Traffic management in smart cities: what regulations and tools are needed to ensure smooth traffic flow in smart cities, such as automatic traffic lights, parking systems and public transport management? By working with the private sector, including providers of advanced navigation systems such as Google or Apple, cities may be able to adjust road priority and other administrative regulations accordingly so as to reduce the risk of traffic congestion and speed up travel from A to B. At the same time, thanks to locators placed in public transport vehicles, passengers will be able to keep an eye on possible traffic impediments, including, above all, transport delays, in real time via an app [7].
2. Cyber security in the smart city: what security measures must be in place to protect smart city systems from cyber attacks and other threats from online criminals?
3. Smart lighting regulation: what regulations should be in place to ensure that streets and roads are adequately lit while saving energy? This issue seems to be particularly relevant, especially bearing in mind the recent events related to the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Reducing the constant consumption of energy certainly contributes to increasing Poland’s electricity reserve and thus the country’s security and independence. In recent years, due to rising energy prices, many municipalities have decided to limit the lighting of certain streets due to lack of sufficient funds. New technologies will make it possible, through round-the-clock traffic density monitoring, to properly arrange the lighting algorithm for the most frequently used urban roads [8].
4. Data protection in the smart city: what regulations must be in place to protect residents’ privacy and ensure the security of data collected by smart city systems? In an era in which urban monitoring is covering ever larger areas, threats are emerging in relation to the infringement of the right to protect private information and the image of individuals. Thanks to the development of technologies related to the security and encryption of databases, the security of residents is increasing.
5. Waste regulation: what regulations and tools are needed to manage waste intelligently, such as smart containers, sorting and recycling systems? Waste management is one of the elementary areas of cities. According to the Waste Act of 14 December 2012, municipalities or their associations are obliged to carry out separate collection of household waste. The development of mathematical algorithms enabling the proper management of waste collection logistics will positively affect the quality of services provided by municipal companies or other entities acting on behalf of municipalities. In addition, waste recognition and automatic recycling systems will reduce the cost of waste selection by requiring less staff [9].
6. Water management regulations: what regulations and tools are needed to manage water resources in a smart way, such as water use monitoring systems and smart irrigation systems? These mechanisms can positively affect not only the management of urban water supplies, but also the ways in which parks and urban greenery are irrigated [10].
7. Energy regulation in the smart city: what regulations and tools are needed to manage energy in a smart way, such as smart grids, energy storage systems and smart building energy management systems? With rational energy management, carried out on the basis of an appropriate algorithm, we will be able to invest the energy saved in completely new investments [11].
8. Regulation of innovative smart city technologies: what regulations are needed to promote innovative smart city technologies and services such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data? In addition to the actual design, purchase and implementation of new instruments to improve the functioning of cities, promotional techniques are also important to make residents aware of the possibility of using these facilities. The smart city should be based on social dialogue and taking care of the line of contact between the municipal authorities and the rest of society, as only by properly instructing and getting the public interested in municipal services will it be possible to ensure that the instruments introduced are actually useful.
9. Regulations for access to public information in the smart city: what regulations need to be in place to ensure transparency in city operations and to enable citizens to access public information? This area is particularly relevant from the perspective of the increasing digitalisation and digitisation of public services. By facilitating the use of the Internet, residents will be able to have easier access to clearly stated public information even without leaving their homes, directly from the personal computers of those concerned.
10. Regulations for resident participation in the smart city: what regulations need to be in place to enable residents to actively participate in the decision-making process for smart city development and to ensure their participation in the city’s activities? In this respect, it is important to make the authorities aware that it is the inhabitants of the areas concerned who are most aware of their needs. A positive phenomenon, testifying to the development of civilisation in the discussed issue, is the increasing frequency of consultations (including voting) on the spending of funds from the ‘civic budget’. Pursuant to the provisions of the Act on Municipal Self-Government, in the cases provided for by the Act and in other matters important for the municipality, consultations may be held with the municipality’s residents on its territory. Furthermore, within the framework of the civic budget, the residents decide annually by direct vote on a part of the expenditure of the municipal budget. The above-mentioned Act stipulates that the tasks selected under the civic budget shall be included in the municipal budget resolution. The municipal council, in the course of work on the draft budget resolution, may not remove or substantially change the tasks selected as part of the civic budget. In municipalities that are cities with county rights, the establishment of a civic budget is obligatory, with the proviso that the amount of the civic budget is at least 0.5% of the municipality’s expenditure included in the last submitted budget execution report. Thus, the legislator blandly forces larger cities to implement ‘civic budget’ mechanisms, although according to the philosophy of the existence of self-governments – this type of initiative should be interesting from the perspective of all territorial units, including smaller municipalities.
The areas of functioning and development of the smart city presented in this text are only a sample of the opportunities offered to city authorities by new technologies. After all, with the rapid advances in technology, perhaps in a few years completely new, revolutionary solutions will emerge that will completely change the panoramas of Polish agglomerations as we know them. Huge opportunities lie in the ever more rapidly developing sector of artificial intelligence, although at the same time – and this is worth remembering – AI also entails certain risks, which leading activists in this segment from the Future of Life Institute warned about in a joint open letter some time ago. Signatories to the letter included Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Max Tegmark [12]. Despite this, it can certainly be acknowledged that the development of smart cities in a significant number of segments is virtually inevitable, and that the attractiveness of living in large agglomerations is likely to show a steady increase over the next several years.
REFERENCES:
[1] https://wielkahistoria.pl/rewolucja-przemyslowa-dlaczego-najwiekszy-przewrot-technologiczny-w-dziejach-rozpoczal-sie-w-anglii/
[2] https://www.benchmark.pl/aktualnosci/historia-rozwoju-komputerow-i-laptopow.html
[3]https://cyberpolicy.nask.pl/spoleczenstwo-informacyjne-w-czasach-cyfrowej-rewolucji-o-zjawisku-banki-informacyjnej-i-jego-nastepstwach/
[4]https://courses.minnalearn.com/pl/courses/digital-revolution/the-digital-revolution/what-is-the-digital-revolution/
[5]https://commission.europa.eu/eu-regional-and-urban-development/topics/cities-and-urban-development/city-initiatives/smart-cities_en
[6] https://menadzerfloty.pl/ochrona-srodowiska/jak-polskie-miasta-wspieraja-elektromobilnosc/
[7] https://www.phoenixcontact.com/pl-pl/galezie-przemyslu/aplikacje/inteligentne-zarzadzanie-ruchem
[8]https://www.transport-publiczny.pl/wiadomosci/do-miast-wkracza-nowoczesne-i-inteligentne-oswietlenie-52967.html
[9]https://www.poznan.pl/mim/bm/news/inicjatywy-radnych,c,13/system-inteligentnej-segregacji-odpadow,159548.html
[10] https://blog.ecol-unicon.com/sztuczna-inteligencja-sektorze-wodnym/
[11]https://www.cire.pl/artykuly/centrum-prasowe/114481-jak-sztuczna-inteligencja-moze-pomoc-sektorowi-energetycznemu
[12] https://spidersweb.pl/2023/03/elon-musk-future-of-life-institute-list-otwarty.html
SOURCES:
– legal acts:
- Act of 14 December 2012 on waste;
- Act of 8 March 1990 on municipal self-government
– other:
- M. Ryba, What is the smart city concept, and therefore why should we call it a smart city, Prace naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu; no. 467 year 2017; pp. 82-90;
- A. Korenik,, Smart Cities – Inteligentne miasta w Europie i Azji, Warsaw 2019.
