The Smart City Project Case from Bulgaria - Smart Burgas

This article concerns the smart city platform of the city of Burgas and represents a good practice for creating smart cities. The case of Burgas, the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, is based on more than 8 years of history, when it was the beginning of the adoption and development of this concept in the seaside city. The information about this case is taken from an article.

Introduction

Many smart city projects have been implemented most of which concerns the integrated smart systems for managing urban aspects such as mobility (bicycle, pedestrian, traffic control, parking control, public transport), waste management (separate collection and recycling), environmental monitoring (air pollution, water level) and the risks of adverse events, video-monitoring in urban areas, public sites and transport sites, in favor of improving the quality of life of citizens and their active involvement in planning for the future of the city. 

​Based on what has already been completed, the challenge now is the city to upgrade individual systems and strive to multiply their benefits by integrating data into a common, intelligent urban platform, in which and through which city data can be shared, analysed and visualised.

The Platfrom Smart Burgas

Smart Burgas collects data from the various smart devices and systems operating in the urban environment. It is an integrated monitoring platform which helps the city by contributing to transparency, facilitates control, has a positive impact on the organisation of services and significantly improves the quality of life of the citizens. With the help of the innovative urban platform residents and guests of the city can now easily observe what is happening around them.

The Project - All the Data in One Place

The city of Burgas already operates a large number of sensors and smart devices communicating within a well-developed infrastructure. Gaining experience in using existing systems and realising the need to increase the city's efforts to spend more intelligently on city resources by using high-tech systems and innovative practices, the city management did the next step – integration of different urban systems into a single urban platform, through which experts and citizens can share and use integrated city data.

The Content of the Platform

The city platform allows users to watch real-time video streaming from city video recording cameras. The dashboard synthesises data on road conditions, city traffic, streets being repaired, parking spaces, sports spots, beach weather, air pollution and water levels. One can get informed about how and where one can dispose of municipal waste for recycling. Investors are offered information about the vacant terrains in the industrial zones, as well as statistics about the companies operating in Burgas with location and number of employees.

​In the platform one can find information about Burgas mobile device applications and the city cultural and historical landmarks. In the surveys and polls module residents can give their heavy assessment for urban planning and development.

Users

The platform offers a powerful tool supporting the implementation of smart city development. It provides new opportunities for collecting, processing and analysing data on various aspects of urban development. Data can be used, depending on access levels, by:

• Management of Burgas Municipality by receiving summarised data for more efficient and informed decision-making;
• Experts of Burgas Municipality, by using internal administrative application for data entry, monitoring and analysis;
• Citizens and city guests who by accessing the public application will be informed about different aspects of city life in real time.

Benefits

For residents and guests of Burgas

• Real-time signalling in the surveys and polls module;
• Participation in decision making;
• Review of traffic and parking situation;
• Support for clean mobility;
• Navigation and routes provisioning;
• Smart public space;
• Public data access.

For the municipal administration

• Online real-time city management information;
• Data visualisation;
• Interaction between systems;
• Application of smart scenarios;
• Ability to make quick decisions;
• Planning and development support;
• Statistics and reports.

For experts and service providers

• On-line map monitoring;
• Maintenance and service planning;
• Technology and Services Review;
• One-stop control;
• System alerts and alarms;
• Immediate reactions to situations;
• Feedback from residents.

Funding

The Smart Burgas project is funded and developed by the Municipality of Burgas. ​

Regulatory Framework

The Smart Burgas project is implemented in compliance with the requirements of the following normative acts and strategic documents:

• EGovernment Act;
• Ordinance on general requirements for information systems, registers and electronic administrative services;
• Ordinance on the minimum requirements for network and information security;
• EGovernment Development Strategy for the Republic of Bulgaria 2014 - 2020;
• Roadmap for implementation of eGovernment Development Strategy in the Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2016 - 2020
• Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)
• Spatial Data Access Act.

As in all similar cases, the platform is open for day-to-day suggestions on improvement of its functioning - here


Author
@KISMC