Smart Cities Connect Human Behavior, Large Amounts of Data, and Technology

The Lider conference ‘Smart Cities’ continued with a lecture by Ivica Perica from Deloitte, who spoke about the trends in the development of smart cities in front of a fully packed Vatroslav Lisinski hall.

Today, the Internet is most commonly accessed via smartphones; by the end of 2016, 80 out of the 100 most successful companies in the world will have solutions that involve artificial intelligence and cognitive segments, which means that soon technology will make decisions on our behalf. Gigabit internet will become essential (the demand for it is increasing due to the large number of connected computers). All these are trends that smart cities will have to implement in their infrastructure.

– A smart city is one that invests in traditional infrastructure, disruptive technologies, and human resources, but without human resources and social capital, they have no potential. In a smart city, it is important to connect human behavior, large amounts of data, and the technology we use – stated Perica at the Smart Cities conference, adding that we should not reinvent the wheel, but rather use solutions that are already available on the market.

– The issue of smart cities is a question of the competitiveness of cities in the market – warned Damir Jurčić, Deputy Director of the Agency for Investments and Competitiveness.

The concept of smart works has characteristics of high social benefit but also financial unsustainability; a relatively long period is needed to achieve the necessary revenues, and the reduced payment capacity of cities means that such projects should be co-financed, Jurčić believes. He also emphasized that Eurostat recommends reducing project risks through clear goal definitions, how pension equity funds can assist in planning long-term financing sources, and optimizing project risk allocation to make them acceptable for commercial financing.

Krunoslav Ris, co-founder and director of Betaware, presented the CityHub system, intended for cities and other local government units to improve and automate the resolution of municipal issues in collaboration with citizens. Municipal enforcement, city news, and city guides are the main features of this application, which can be used by citizens of Vinkovci, Našice, Beli Manastir, Sisak, Ludbreg, Osijek, Pécs… Citizens in areas where the application is already available can download it completely free of charge.