smartcities.education

SmartCities.education

PublisherFriedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die FreiheitWestern Balkans Bulevar kneza Aleksandra Karađorđevića 13/A8 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia

smartcities.educationwestbalkan.fnst.org /FNFWesternBalkans /fnfwestbalkan

Authors Aleksandar Mastilović Kosta Andrić Kristina Nikolić Nasiha Pozder Snežana Tadić Vojislav Milijić

Editorial Charles du VinageToni Richard Crisolli Jelena Bubanja Ivan Despotović

Production Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die FreiheitWestern Balkans

Print http://www.stamparija.co/

Designde:work.rs

Photos Toni Richard Crisolli Strawberry energy LLC

Contact Phone / Fax: +381(0) 11 30 66 824 E-Mail: toni.crisolli@fnst.orghttp://www.westbalkan.fnst.org

This publication is free.Commercial use and resale is prohibited.

Date November, 2016.

Impressum

CONTENTS

1. Smart City as a part of smart world 6

2. Growing ideas for growing communities 10

3. Smart Entrepreneurs; Why IT entrepreneurs and startups should care about smart cities? 14

4. Smarten up our cities 18

5. Can we really make cities in Western Balkans smart by using sustainable sources of energy? 22

6. City logistics as function of Smart Citie 26

7. Glossary 30

SmartCities.education

Smart Cities – Responsive Cities

This publication presented to the distinguished reader compiles experience in one of the most promising working fields of Friedrich Naumann Foundation Western Balkans. And who but the Liberals are best suited to deal with the topic “Smart Cities/Responsive Cities”? With their bottom-up approach ad-dressing the lowest possible level of decision making FNF managed to involve our partners: local politicians, urban planners, universities and schools, start-up enterprises in this exciting project. Furthermore this project has the potential to bring local politics and civil society closer together, because each performer needs a political framework to thrive. Coming from a federally managed country it was fascinating to see how many civil society actors in the Western Balkans were able to find their niches for realizing their business ideas despite highly centralist/bureaucratic structures in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. Western Balkan states often feel neglected by EU countries. Stagna-tion in its transition democracies leads to brain drain and hopelessness. But it is encouraging to see how many opinion leaders have not abandoned hope, or return to their home countries with a fresh vision of change. Change needs freedom. With their idea of freedom they become the driving force for future cities. Smart cities function through the will and participation of actively connected citizens. Responsive cities demand a certain degree of decentralization and self-governance. With regard to the present situation in most cities and communities it seems like a vision in a remote fu-ture. But we now have a chance to lay the cornerstones for change such as the projects presented in this publication.

Charles du VinageHead of Project, FNF Western Balkans

Smart Cities and climate change

The changes at the global level causing multiple adjustments in almost all systems. Climate change, accompanied by negative effects in the form of extreme weather and pollution significant-ly endanger the lives of people, especially in cities, which are generators of residents gathering in all countries. While cities are facing with these and similar challenges, intensive development of technology gave a powerful tool in hand to citizens for changing their environment and the opportu-nity to be directly involved in the daily life of the city. Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s (FNF) Smart Cities project aims to through networking and exchange of ideas, and with the help of technology development improve the functioning of cities and the quality of life in them. Through working with partners on developing a modern urban policies, it was noticed that the key of development is in cooperation between startups and politics, which resulted start of Responsive Cities project. This project involved entrepreneurs and experts, who want with their innovative ideas and solutions to make cities more efficient, closer to its citizens and place that dramatically improves the quality of life. Involvement of citizens by itself was the base for the project Connected citizens, which drives attention on mobility and active participation of all people. Our vision is that through these three project cities become more efficient and ready to respond to modern citizen’s needs and make life more convenient. All three projects were funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and represent a foundation for the development of urban communities in the region. Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is German non-profit political organization founded in 1958. The Foundation is working primarily in the field of development policies and monitors the transformation of society towards democracy, establishing the rule of law and market economy. Working methodology of FNF’s are seminars, workshops and conferences and foundation of all projects as a fundamental value, is freedom.

Toni Richard CrisolliIvan DespotovićJelena Bubanja

6

From my personal point of view as an engineer, it is a great honor to participate in a new revolution in the ICT industry, developing and implementing the new concept of communication and services called Internet of Things.

Smart City as apart of smart world

7

Aleksandar Mastilovic was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1983. He received his B.Sc. in 2009 and M.Sc. degree in 2016 from Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Sarajevo, with specialization in Telecommunications. From 2009 to 2014, he was working as a teaching and research as-sistant at the University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, in the Department of Telecommunications.

His research interest is focused on Computer Net-works Design, Routing and Switching and Commu-nications Security including Applied Mathematics methods and algorithms in Cryptography.

Currently, Aleksandar is employed at the University in Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences. He received Maria Curie Fellowship from EU for Ph.D. studies and is working on the FP7 ADVANTAGE ITN Project in Working Package 1 team for Smart Home design. Pri-mary research topic is Architecture Design for 5G Cellular System, with focus on optimizing uplink Communications and Power Control in Small Cells and Random Access Control.He got an award grant from IEEE Communi-cations Society for 1st Summer School for 30 best Ph.D. students worldwide in 2015.Aleksandar is active IEEE volunteer with a val-uable international experience. He has worked as a Chair of Young Professional Affinity Group Bosnia and Herzegovina and as a Secretary of IEEE Communications Society Bosnia and Her-zegovina in the period 2012-2016.

Aleksandar is the author of 8 papers on IEEE conferences and workshops.

Aleksandar Mastilovic

8

Within the Internet of Things family, we of-ten use some strange new words, such as In-ternet of Things, Big Data, Smart City, Smart Grid, always “smart something”, but it is very common that people around us don’t under-stand what we are talking about. Nowadays, it is very popular to use buzzwords in everyday conversation, especially among the ICT people. Sometimes, it is a strategy in order to create a smarter look in the community and impress others. How to export this terminology out of the ICT community, i.e. how to get the technol-ogy closer and make it more understandable to non-engineering persons, and how to mobilize others to accept and support all the benefits of using technology in everyday activities, those are problems that need to be solved. One of the most popular terms which we have talked about during the last couple of years was the Smart City.

Being a member of a few R&D project teams on smart technologies I found out that the biggest challenge in the field of smart technologies are not technical issues, but how to get this idea and vision closer and make it more under-standable to non-technical people. I could hear a lot of skeptic people criticizing technologies and massive presence of electronic devices or gadgets around us. Technology is not life-es-sential, but it is a life-improvement point for

sure. It is thus crucial to gather support from the community for moving the research results into practical implementation and for making them a part of the everyday life. To reach the target, we have to explain all these terms and to explain all the benefits and risks.To understand the term Smart City, one of the accepted definitions which we could find is: “A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and commu-nication technology (ICT) solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets – the city’s assets include, but [are] not limited to, local departments information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services”.

Why are we motivated by the Smart City? The goal of building a smart city is to improve Quality-of-Life by using technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet the resi-dents’ needs. ICT allows city officials to interact directly with the community and with the city infrastructure, and to monitor what is happen-ing in the city, how the city is evolving and how to enable better quality of life. Through the use of sensors integrated with real-time monitoring systems, data are collected from citizens and objects – and then processed and analyzed.

9

The information and knowledge gathered are keys to tackling inefficiency.

There is no doubt that Smart City could bring us outstanding improvements in terms of our everyday life, but there is a “dark side” of the story as well. The customers should take care of several issues which could negatively influ-ence their Quality of Life:

Security & Privacy: storing/losing/selling cus-tomer IoT data

Budget Overruns: licenses, M2M sensors com-munication data plan, integration “Spaghetti” effect

Lack of Innovation: how to avoid losing one’s job because of the introduction of the automat-ed production; ethical aspects of technology

Political Issues: regulation, laws, control and management of the (collected) data (e.g. pri-vacy issues)

After being involved in different projects and getting in touch with some leading research-ers in this field, I could conclude that Smart City concept was definitely not an impossible dream. There are several cities in the world with already implemented various aspects of smart city services. The best examples are:

Amsterdam (Netherlands) - street lighting can be adjusted so as to improve security and save energy;

San Jose (USA) aims to improve the quality of life through real-time data tracking of air quali-ty, traffic flow and more;

Chattanooga (USA) – a smart grid avoided 58 million minutes of customer interruption;

Pisa (Italy) - an intelligent guidance system allows the drivers to find a free parking space and to pay for it by using their smart phone;

Santander (Spain) - waste is collected only when garbage bins reach their full capacity;

Sussex (UK) - a device worn around the neck lets the family and caregivers keep track of the people with dementia;

Dubrovnik (Croatia) aims to improve the Quali-ty of Life through real-time data tracking of air quality and temperature, parking service and street lighting.

I have no doubt that Smart City is an opportuni-ty to harvest more benefits, which are not only technical. As I could see it, each and every day we are improving and getting closer to the fi-nal goal. In general, Internet of Things concept, which Smart City is part of, creates a positive environment for using creativity and ideas of new applications. This is a generator of a lot of start-up ideas, which do not require huge amounts of money. Through my daily work I see more and more enthusiastic and moti-vated researchers and willingness to invest into developing smart solutions. This ensures changes for the developing countries, to have become part of this revolution and employed a lot of educated people to work in local com-munities. There is a lot of research, investment and development that has to be done, but we are not too late. This is the perfect time to be a part of Smart World.

FNF workshop in Belgrade:“Exchanging smart ideas – supportingsmart businesses”, Belgrade,Serbia, 05 – 06 December 2015

Open DIY technologies are allowing local entrepreneursto increase efficiency and output in many fields.Hands-on workshop at the CityOS Conference 2016,Dubrovnik, Croatia, February 2016

PHOTO - page 8

PHOTO - page 9

10

Smart cities are becoming a necessity in today’s society. The need for more efficient bureaucracy, management and communication in cities could be met by implementing innovative solutions.

Growing ideas for growing communities

11

Kosta devoted his career to managing projects and organizations whose common features are innovation and powerful impact on the community. ICT Hub, center for tech entrepre-neurship, supports technology-based startups to develop their product transition into the fi-nancing stage and enter the market.

His expertise extends to connecting private, civil and public sectors. He has created and implemented variety of such programs. During the establishment of the Belgrade Youth Office numerous new services were launched and at-tention drawn to various issues related to the situation of young people. Kosta also worked as a consultant for international organizations engaged in volunteering and corporate social responsibility.

He gained his first experience in the Nether-lands, and after that, continued training in the United States. He has been a scholar of vari-ous organizations and funds.

Kosta Andrić

Managing Partner, ICT Hub

12

Serbia is rich with innovative people who are eager to help their community through their projects. This has already been a global trend. New York is working on building the world’s fastest and largest municipal Wi-Fi network. For the time being, Wi-Fi hotspots are placed, instead of old payphones. The Government of India is undertaking a „Smart City Mission“ pro-gram in order to develop 100 such places all over the country.

Working at the ICT Hub, a center for technologi-cal entrepreneurship, a place where ideas meet, I have heard of so many different projects, from the ones that dealt with lesser issues such as how many emoticons we sent in our messages, to those life-changing ones such as medicine home delivery for the disabled and old. Some of them are still in progress, while some others encountered insoluble problems. However, the one thing these innovations have in common is that they are trying to improve the everyday life. That’s what smart cities are all about - finding ways to help the community function, grow and learn by using ICT. Entrepreneurs in Serbia are trying to keep up with the trend.

A perfect example of the smart city concept was introduced to people in Serbia some time ago through the EkoBus system. It utilizes pub-lic transportation vehicles to monitor environ-mental parameters and to provide to the user

info on the location of the buses. People can request information about the arrival of the next bus via SMS or USSD and get feedback via SMS. Environmental parameters are used for further study.

As it is explained, it works like this: sensor nodes make measurements and periodically send the re-sults to the server application for further analysis and database storage. Web and Android applica-tions collect information from the nodes and per-form their visualization (location of the vehicles and atmospheric measurements). The system has been developed in collaboration with Ericsson and deployed in the cities of Belgrade and Pančevo.

Another great example of a smart city idea is the „Strawberry Smart Bench”, that has been for the first time installed in front of the Science and Technology Park “Belgrade”. It is a park bench which collects solar energy that one can use to charge their mobile phone battery, free of charge. The Strawberry energy company was founded by Miloš Milisavljević, a creator of the Strawberry Tree. This product collects solar energy and enables one to charge portable devices. The company is trying to expand globally. They partnered up with companies from the USA, Russia, South Africa and the EU. This is a great way to accustom peo-ple to using clean, green technologies.

13

Smart City concept is not just a way to improve life in local communities. It actually has got its own market, since there would only be more and more cities in the world with their growing demands. According to Pike Research, smart cities technology market is expected to top $20 billion in annual value by 2020. Navigant Research says that global smart city technol-ogy revenue will grow to $27.5 billion in 2023.What characterizes a smart city is the specif-ic kind of cooperation between public stake-holders and startups. It is absolutely important to maintain the connection between them. ICT Hub could serve as a communication plat-form between citizens, startups and city rep-resentatives. People who run the city must ex-plore and monitor people’s needs at all times.

FNF workshop at ICT Hub Belgrade:Challenge the issue – Smart CitiesBelgrade”, 22 – 23 August 2016

PHOTO - page 12

Smart urban furniture by Stawberry Energy (picture credit: Strawberry Energy)

PHOTO - page 13

14

The purpose and driving force of almost every entrepreneur is to make/be a change, to do some-thing different that has a positive and long-lasting impact. When a group of enthusiastic people decide to set up an IT venture, they make a definitive deci-sion to start living and working under conditions of extreme uncertainty, in exchange for a dream – the black swan effect.

Smart EntrepreneursWhy IT entrepreneurs and startups should care about smart cities?

15

Kristina Nikolic is a researcher and practi-tioner in the field of smart cities and urban development. For the past six years, she has built experience and expertise as co-founder of Strawberry energy, a startup that develops smart technology to enhance public places by bringing IoT hubs to cities worldwide. From the beginning, Kristina was an essential member of the team that developed the Strawberry Tree and Strawberry Smart Bench products, first-of-their-kind urban smart devices powered com-pletely by solar energy.

Kristina’s drive is for turning creative tech ideas into business ventures, positioning herself at the intersection of art and technology, embrac-ing and combining the best of both worlds. Her major was in management in liberal arts and currently she is studying for her MA in Comput-ing in Social Science.

In the academic field, Kristina’s focus is on exploring new ways for urban technologies to change and transform our public places in the age of smart and sustainable cities. On the be-half of Strawberry energy, she was a participant at United Nations conference UN-Habitat III (housing and sustainable urban development) in Quito (Ecuador, 2016). Also she an author of several articles about urban tech solutions and in summer 2016 she was a lecturer at Lehigh University (Pennsylvania, USA).

Kristina Nikolić

16

It represents a collective commitment to achieving rapid and massive growth and the excitement of making an impact. In our case, we also aimed to provide worldwide added-val-ue and, most importantly, make a difference on a global scale. This inner impulse in all the en-trepreneurs is driven and determined by a con-stant struggle to find and develop innovative solutions to problems, to validate their innova-tion among their first customers and to do nu-merous fast tests, re-runs and improvements in an unending loop of learning and applying new things. In order to survive, entrepreneurs need to be iterative.

Witnessing the smart future As an entrepreneur in an industry of smart ur-ban technologies, I claim that innovation by the definition does not happen on an isolated island. I am absolutely aware that cities world-wide are facing challenges that require both smart and local solutions, but those need to be married with international knowledge and resources. Growth of urban population, inad-equate city infrastructure, unrealistic expecta-tions of citizens and increased levels of stress are just a few of the many drivers for imple-menting information communication tech-nologies (ICT) that will contribute to making smart and sustainable cities. Smart cities are all about people and enhancing the quality of lives in urban areas and I believe that it is up to us to make new approaches and propose fresh answers to those rising challenges. Being both a citizen and an entrepreneur in the digital age means being a maker and problem-solver in our communities.

Not so long ago, the phrase “smart city” was widely used in the context of tech giants (Sie-mens, IBM, Cisco, etc). With the rapid growth of the ICT sector and broadly available cheap-er technology solutions, things have gradual-ly started to change. In the coming days, we could feel a wave of new tech-savvy individu-als and organisations ready to tackle some of the most momentous issues. There are already a few players on the market who are becom-ing more relevant each day. Entrepreneurs are pushing forward and disrupting the smart cities industry with innovative solutions and services that are redesigning the experience of living in urban areas, while enhancing the wellbeing of citizens.

Enhancing the smartnessof public places My startup “Strawberry energy” is developing solar powered urban furniture for smart and sustainable cities. Our mission is to enhance people’s experience in public spaces and pro-vide them with energy and connectivity on the go. Strawberry energy’s smart street furniture brings the Internet of Things to outdoor public spaces that people visit daily, improving the en-vironment by making cities smarter and more convenient. We think about a city’s structure and facilities in terms of progressively reusing, remixing and adding value. Urban technologies have already allowed us to model our benches as not simply somewhereto sit and socialise, but also as a place with hyper-local informa-tion collected via environmental sensors, as a free and convenient battery charging point, and a place to catch free WiFi. And this is just the beginning. We see great opportunities ahead, as well as exciting plans to retrofit existing in-frastructure.

Smart inclusion and co-creationAt the same time, great opportunity lies in open-ing data sets from different city sectors and assets. Data on crime, traffic, health, etc, can be seen as resources and insights to inspire new business ideas and generate further eco-nomic growth. The trend for massive roll-out of connected objects and devices in urban en-vironments (e.g. sensors for parking spots, air quality sensors, weather monitor stations, etc) could easily lead to new ways of exploring and exploiting value-added solutions. Besides open and available data collected from multiple city departments, a huge benefit could be found in collaborative work with third parties on provid-ing those solutions. There are many initiatives and projects that arise from local events (hack-athons, public prizes, etc), where not only city officials but also subjects from the private sec-tor could view each and every little initiative as a pilot for a broader initiative, invest in some of the ideas and, upon validation, take the success-ful ideas to a broader market. Additionally, those events could be used for more inclusion of the citizens, to enable co-creation whereby people could explore new solutions by using them and voting to identify the most wanted and needed features of smart cities. All those insights, pro-viding better understanding of people and their needs, will be great resources for entrepreneurs.

17

Smart parenting upBut every change needs to be boosted by ad-equate leadership commitment to participate and support at every level. The economic cri-sis has forced a major downsize of public funding and additional financial support could be harder to come by. The investment need-ed to improve energy efficiency, generate low carbon energy, modernize city infrastructure and create high quality living environments is enormous. At the same time, roll-out of inno-vations for smart city performances requires new systems, devices and networks. Invest-ment is necessary, but the will and the money to support the developments might be lacking. One solution could be more mutual works and more of, and closer, public-private cooperation and partnership, as well as participation of the civic-minded individuals and organisations.

Final wordsI believe that we are at a very special moment in the history of global development. We are witnessing tremendous growth of population in our cities, at a time of rapid technological in-novation. Smart city technologies are playing a vital enabling role in modernising and trans-forming cities and their infrastructure.

These trends have focussed on making better decisions, resolving problems proactively and using and coordinating resources more effec-tively. But without smart people I cannot im-agine smart cities.

As an entrepreneur, I do not see a smart city as a technocratic utopia built by the chosen few. Instead, I see it as a field where everyday man can spark positive change in his own environ-ment, take the reins in his hand and be a true changemaker.

Smart city entrepreneurs are there to provide new advanced approaches and solutions for meeting the needs of people. I feel that in near future entrepreneurs will be active partners with cities and their citizens so as to bring about new ways of advancing a brighter, safer, more dynamic urban future for all. And, whenever we improve human experience in the cities, we are actually improving the cities themselves.

Start-ups from the Western Balkanstaking part in the „International Start-upDialogue – Innovation and Start-ups” and “8th Hamburg Climate Week”, Berlin and Hamburg, 27 - 30 September 2016

PHOTO

18

When asked what Smart City is and how important the concept is for the development of a city and for overall society, I always respond that it is the only possible form of a city in the 21st century, in a post-industrial society striving to heal. Therefore, Smart City is a functional city, a city optimized in every aspect, acceptable to each individual, to each and every resident, both male and female.

Smarten upour cities

19

Vice president of Naša Stranka – political party (ALDE member)

Member of Board for urbanism and allocation of building land at City of Sarajevo, Municipal-ity Novi Grad Sarajevo, and Cantonal Asembly of Sarajevo Canton.

Born on 12th of May, 1978.PhD in Technical sciences filed Architecture and Urbanism. Subfield: Sustainable urbanism. (2013.)

Graduated on Architectural Faculty, University of Sarajevo in 2003. Subfield: Urban planning

Employed on Architectural Faculty, University of Sarajevo since 2004, on Urban planning and urban design Department.

Chief Architect on Institute for Architecture, Urbanism and Spatial Planning Sarajevo – re-sponsible for bicycle net for City of Sarajevo, UNDP consultant for Recovery project – reha-bilitation of public facilities in Bosnia and Her-zegovina, Member of Sarajevo Green Design Festival since 2010 as Sub-coordinator and Coordinator of international workshops, con-sultant at Green Council.

Active on international projects, international co-operation and workshops, on international con-ferences all in field of urban and spatial planning, sustainable development and smart cities.

Nasiha Pozder

20

How to achieve the maximum, how to secure a hindrance-free functioning and strike a balance between economy and ecology, between needs and pleasure, this is the question that we have been trying to answer through interdisciplinary teams of researchers, experts in various areas gathered around the common idea, the idea to establish the Smart City model.

In the context of the social and political reality that we currently work in, a Smart City would need to entail better, more efficient exploita-tion of the available resources by revising traf-fic communications and spatial relationships between the zones created within our cities, including those zones that we commonly call “Brownfield zones”, which are, to put it in the simplest way, abandoned zones of former in-dustrial complexes, military barracks or the like, through application of the principles of integral planning. While discussing Smart City, we have to include the other issues as well, such as energy efficiency, contemporary mate-rials and innovative solutions in civil construc-tion, but also technological innovations that reduce pollution, traffic jams and inefficiency of cities generally.

Today, if you have a city that is obviously not functional, i.e. a city where you live in a high-rise building from the late ‘90s of the 20th century, with no adequate thermal insulation, given the

aspect of both its efficiency and ecological jus-tification, with PVC windows that lock you into a super-sealed micro-climate of your home, through which you observe a concrete jungle where cars have swallowed up pedestrians, it is easy to infer that things need to be changed, fixed. Further on, in your - the least smart - flat, whose overhead costs amount to more than the resources you actually spend, because the system is set up in such a way that you pay a lump-sum for them, you cannot influence on any money saving. And, if you very often trav-el to work by your own car, apart from wast-ing your precious time in traffic jams or while looking for a parking place, you also lose mon-ey, pollute environment and harm your mental health. You don’t even think of using public transportation, because it is not reliable, it is not synchronised if you need to switch, or the like. And finally, at work, an average employee works in a micro-environment similar to his or her living environment, so unhealthy and inef-ficient. You would like to spend your weekend in a park, maybe ... but there is no park, or the air is so polluted that you decide to stay within your own micro-environment.

I see a solution by changing the way of thinking and changing the approach we take in planning as well as in construction, but in particular I see it in the way we use to manage our cities.

21

Most commonly, Brownfield zones are the ones with an enormous potential. Those areas are equipped with infrastructure. Truth be told, they need to be cleansed and the problem of their pollution needs to be solved, mostly due to their previous industrial purpose. But given the fact that due to the growth of a city and to residential areas coming closer to each other such zones became inappropriate for their original purpose, they should be transformed into zones accept-able to residential areas - therefore, zones of so-cial infrastructure or business activities. Chang-ing the traffic system, by technological innovation of the public transportation and introducing of bicycle traffic, is something that also improves the model of spatial organisation and the image of the city generally, in all its aspects. By using thermal insulation materials made of industrial hemp or, for instance, sheep wool, that we other-wise usually burn or dig, thus creating new envi-ronmental pollution, and by changing the heating system and suing renewable sources of energy, we would improve the economic image of soci-ety, economic and social status of society. From the environmental aspect, the advantage that we might enjoy is immeasurable. Last but not least - as it ensues from the principle of integral plan-ning - citizens are to be included into the process of planning and decision-making. That is an im-perative while establishing Smart City, the one I have mentioned at the beginning.

With no intention to write a scientific paper and underline hypothesis, my intention is to point out at the significance of understanding Smart City, by using very simple parallels, as a city where cit-izens work, produce - and live for that matter - in the full meaning of the word, as a city that rec-onciles with nature and is optimised in its func-tioning, the city in which its citizens take part in its functioning, equipping and creating, while per-ceiving it as their own property.

FNF workshop:“Smart Local Initiatives for Smarter Cities”, Jahorina, BiH, 04 – 06 Mart 2016

PHOTO - page 21

Ceco Gaković, CityOS and Dr. Nasiha Pozder, Urban Planer and Vice President of Naša Stranka

PHOTO - page 20

22

Nowadays everybody seems to know about bio-mass and ways to use it. Biomass is considered as biodegradable residues of plants, animals and com-munal waste. It is also considered as beneficial in reducing climate change and GHG emissions.

Can we really make citiesin Western Balkans smart by using sustainablesources of energy?

23

Vojislav Milijic founded his consulting compa-ny Foragrobio CC doo in 2012 providing con-sultancy in forestry, agriculture and biomass utilization to domestic and foreign investors, asset managers, financial institutions, renew-able energy project developers and interna-tional development organizations, covering all Western Balkan Countries. He is also one of the founders and the first President of Serbian National Biomass Association SERBIO, hold-ing a vice-president function and managing implementation of Horizon2020 BioRES pro-ject in Serbia.

Vojislav Milijic is also the managing partner in WRM Consult doo bringing his competences in forestry, wood industry, biomass utilization and project development and management. Biomass utilization (wood and agro), biomass based products (wood chips, pellets) along with organization of biomass supply chains are his major domains.

Vojislav MilijicCEO Foragrobio cc doo/Managing partner WRM Consult doo/President of Serbian Biomass Association SERBIO

24

Nevertheless, biomass is CO2 neutral only in case that balance between overall wood growth and bi-omass combustion is not disturbed. On the other hand, smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communica-tion technology (ICT) solutions in a secure fash-ion to manage a city’s assets. The goal of building a smart city is to improve quality of life by using technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents’ needs. Can biomass and smart city go hand in hand? What are the chal-lenges of using a biomass in energy production for the modern city? As mentioned it can be smart to use biomass, due to its renewable features, CO2 neutrality, possibil-ity to provide energy independence and in some cases its abundance. However, biomass is in most cases used for heat or electricity production close to the place where it is mobilized – mainly in rural areas close to forests or agricultural land. There is a number of efficiently organized bio-mass based DH systems in villages and smaller cities especially in Central Europe (Austria, Ger-many, etc…). Nowadays a concept of bioenergy village is integrating industrial production, elec-tricity generation and provision of heat energy to local population. However, there are big modern cities which rely on biomass to provide whole or part of their energy needs.

First on the list is Denmark’s capital Copenhagen with population of over 2 million in its metropoli-tan area. Copenhagen is recognized as one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world as a result of its commitment to high environmen-tal standards, Copenhagen has been praised for its green economy, ranked as the top environmen-tally friendly city for several times by Global Green Economy Index. Energy for Copenhagen is pro-duced from coal, natural gas, wind and biomass (straw and pellets). One of the largest biomass power plants in the world is Avedøre (owned by DONG Energy) which is as of 2015, being convert-ed from coal to wood pellets. It will burn 1.2 mil-lion tonnes of wood pellets per year, reducing CO2 emissions with about a million tonnes. Currentlythe plant is using straw as well, which is deliveredby Danish farmers, while wood pellet on the oth-er hand is mostly shipped from America or Baltic countries. Second on the list is Vienna, Austrian capital with over 2 million inhabitants, a city which has several times in last few years been pro-claimed as the Best City to live in worldwide. In Vienna, there is also one of the Europe’s largest wood biomass power plants which provides heat for 12,000 and electricity for 48,000 households.

The 52 million EUR investment aimed for a reduc-tion in CO2 emissions, an increase in renewable energy and a rethinking of the city’s technological approach. The plant is located on a site (Simmer-ing), where already two fossil fuel fired power plants have been in operation. Thus, parts of the existing infrastructure could be used, e.g. the heat delivery system for district heating, the connec-tion to the power grid and the feed water prepa-ration system. The pre-treatment of biomass (i.e. chipping) takes place at a nearby Danube port. Apart from round timber also waste wood frac-tions like bark, wood wool and garden waste are fed to the boiler at an annual consumption rate of almost 200.000 t/a, equivalent to 520.000 MWh. The federal Austrian forest holding and some private forest enterprises deliver the wood bio-mass. The fuel comes from within a distance of 100 km, but – contrary to the original intention – it is almost completely delivered by truck. Third on the list is Stockholm, capital of Sweden with pop-ulation above 2 million in the metropolitan area. Stockholm is one of the cleanest capitals in the world. The city was granted the 2010 European Green Capital Award by the EU Commission, af-ter evaluation on: climate change, local transport, public green areas, air quality, noise, waste, water consumption, waste water treatment, sustainable utilisation of land, biodiversity and environmental management. City plans to cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 25% per capita in ten years; and it decided towards being fossil fuel free by 2050. Fortum Värme, jointly owned by Fortum and the City of Stockholm, inaugurated its new, bio-mass-fired combined heat and power plant (CHP) in Värtan, Stockholm. When the plant starts com-mercial production in the autumn, it will use for-est residues and wood waste to produce district heat for nearly 200,000 households. The value of the investment project launched in 2013 is about EUR 500 million. The new power plant will reduce emissions in the Stockholm area by 126,000 tonnes per year. Daily consumption of wood chips will be approximately 12,000 cubic meters.

Examples above show it is very feasible to fuel a big city with biomass energy. However, there are challenges, especially in terms of supply and logis-tics. When it comes to logistics, some biomass logistic centres which will facilitate supply need to be established in the outskirts of the big city. Those centres need to organize processing, stor-ing and delivery to the plants. Second challenge is supply – the quantities needed. Examples above show that for a city of 2 million in order to partially switch to energy from biomass it would take 0.5-1mil-

25

lon tons of biomass (wood chips, pellets or straw). Also, this biomass needs to be procured from a surrounding area in order to reduce transport costs. Alternatively, denser biomass based fuels such as pellet can be shipped, even from overseas, but huge amounts of subsidies are required for that, and in case of shipping biomass, energy independence benefits would be lost.

So is it realistic to consider a possibility to use bio-mass in energy production for large Western Bal-kans cities such as Belgrade, Zagreb or Sarajevo, with population coming close to or exceeding half or one million people?

First challenge is the investment point of view – are those investments profitable, when the level of feed in tariffs in WB countries is 50-70% lower than in Western European countries. Second question is heat delivery – in order to be profitable electrici-ty production needs to be combined with heat de-livery if possible all year, so beside delivery of heat, hot water needs to be delivered to residents or heat needs to be delivered to industrial users. Finally, is it possible to organize such a supply chain in order to deliver 0.5-1million tons of biomass to big cities in Western Balkans. If we ask state forest manage-ment companies, we will get an instant no reply. But if we take a deeper look at forest management plans, we might see that in some regions, harvest-ing is actually lower than planned. Also, in most

of Western Balkans countries dominant biomass products are fire wood, which is used inefficiently and wood pellet, which is exported in most cases, while fossils are imported.

What can we do to make it work – first of all, DH systems in most of WB countries rely on coal, nat-ural gas or heavy oil. Also those systems especial-ly in case of coal and heavy oil are old and need not only maintenance but procurement of new boilers as well. Also, there are restrictions for emissions in place, and favourable credit lines for investment in new biomass boilers. Additionally, there are in-vestors interested for electricity production and public-private-partnership for heat supply to cities. Interest of industrial users for fuel switch to bio-mass is also present, even in case they are now using natural gas. When it comes to supply of bi-omass all Western Balkan countries can increase their efforts in order to enable the population to use firewood more efficiently and reduce wood pellet production for export by giving the priority of using biomass for local energy generation. In this way we would release significant quantities of biomass to be used for power generation in the country. Supplying a big city in this case is only a matter of efficient logistics organization.

Rainer Schellhaas, GIZ Component leader, Bi-omass Supply, Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Market in Serbia (DKTI)

PHOTO

26

The city is a place of the highest concentration of people and their economic and social activities, while logistics is crucial for its functioning. Delivery of goods is a prerequisite of urban living. Business activities that create wealth and development of the urban neighborhoods depend on the efficiency of the logistic systems.

City logisticsas function ofSmart Cities

27

Dr. Tadić is an Assistant Professor at the Fac-ulty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, Uni-versity of Belgrade and Vice president of the Group for the city logistics at Belgrade Cham-ber of Commerce.

Her field of academic expertise is intermodal transport, logistics centers and city logistics. Her research interests include innovative city logistics strategies and sustainable develop-ment, global freight transport and logistics, feasibility studies and business plans of the logistics centers, modelling and optimization of logistic chains, simulation and application of quantitative methods in logistics.

She is co-author of the monograph (Modelling of city logistics concepts), two books (City logistics and Logistics) and over 50 published scientific papers. In the past she has worked on over 30 studies and projects for the Europe-an Commission, the World Bank, local authori-ties and commercial organizations.

Snežana Tadić

28

Still, logistic activities are not welcome in the city. Circulation of goods has negative impact on the environment, safety of traffic and qual-ity of life. With the growth of population and economic development of urban areas, there amount also the problems of the logistic flow.The fact that around two thirds of the total flow of merchandise start or end up in the downtown zones of the cities emphasizes the importance and problems of the micro distri-bution flows, i.e. of the city logistics. Special contribution to city logistics was made by the new business trends based on a low level of stocks and precisely defined delivery deadlines (JIT, Just in Time; ECR, Efficient Consumer Response), the upward trend of e-trading and home deliveries (B2C, Business to Customer). New business strategies imply frequent deliv-eries of the small amounts of goods and tight-er deadlines, high reliability and security of the flow of goods. Besides, the demands regarding the commodity and transportation flow use to rise as the population grows.

Urbanization and economic advance of the city is the main driving force but at the same time also a „victim“ of the development of city logistics. Cities depend on the efficacy and ef-ficiency of their logistic systems, particularly of their road transportation. Their further devel-opment is in close correlation with the further

expansion of the logistic activities, primarily of transport. Therefore it is impossible to consid-erably reduce road cargo without an impact on the needs of the city and its citizens. On the other hand, as vehicle-kilometers rise, there amass also the negative consequences for the environment, while traffic jams in urban areas threaten to become even a bigger problem.In Europe, more than 60% of the population lives in the cities. They generate more than 85% of the GDP of the European Union. Re-search tells that urban areas initiate ca. 70% of energy consumption and generate ca. 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions. For the sole purpose of commuting within the cities, 32% of energy is spent. Those activities generate 40% of the total CO2 emissions produced via road traffick, as well as up to 70% of the other pol-lutants that result from transport. The research has confirmed that trucks took 6-18% share of all rides within the urban areas. Those vehicles share 20-30% of all vehicle-kilometers, spend 19% of all energy and participate by 21% in all carbon emissions and by 40% in all air contam-ination and noise emissions. Current state of affairs calls for more detailed analysis, urgent intervention and long-term solutions.

Taken that city logistics „encompasses all the strategies, technologies and all logistic solutions in support to all participants in, and

29

functions of the urban space, regardless of their number or size, area or boundaries, in accordance with their individual and common interests and goals“ (Zečević, et alt, 2004), it is consistent with the principles of sustainable development, while the development of smart cities is inconceivable without an adequate sys-tem of city logistics. The main goal is sustain-ability, i.e. efficacy and efficiency, acceptability, environmental protection and security. Howev-er, the city logistics system is quite complex. It is characterized by a number of participants, each of them with their own, different, usually conflicting goals and their complex interactiv-ity. Besides, city logistics system is a part of the more comprehensive system of the city, or of the region, so there is a complex interaction with the environement. The system depends on the special characteristics of the town, it influences other types of urban mobility and it is subject to policies at the higher tiers of gov-ernment (regional or national politics). Taken the complexity of the issue, a sustainable city logistics solutions require an integrative ap-proach in all the phases of planning, starting from the identification of a problem, defining solution alternatives and assessment of their impact, up to the implementation and exploita-tion. This way, a city logistics solution becomes generally acceptable. It influences not just the efficacy and efficiency of the socio-economic system of the city but the sustainability in the entire region.

Challenges and complexity of logistics in ur-ban areas led to defining, researching and ap-plication of various measures, initiatives and concepts for the solution of the issue of city logistics. Initiatives are different, depending on initiators, participants, goals, demands and opportunities to implement, but also on their impact on the sustainability of the urban neigh-borhoods. Local governments adopt and im-plement particular measures in order to force companies to make their activities sustainable. On the other hand, companies implement cer-tain measures in order to improve the efficien-cy of their business activities, thus contributing to better sustainablity of the city logistics, pri-marily in the field of the urban transportation of merchandise.

Most commonly implemented initiatives in city logistics have been those regarding traffick regulation, namely limiting the access of cargo vehicles to the city. Main actors are local au-thorities, while the field of the implementation is transport activities. The main motivation is to have less vehicle-kilometers, i.e. to relax the traffick and improve the environmental condi-tions. Alas, the results of the implementation fail to meet the expectations, even from the standpoint of ecology. Besides, all those ini-tiatives use to deal with transportation which is a mere consequence. They do not address the core issue of the commodity flows. Usual-ly they have negative impact on logistical per-formance. On the other hand, succes depends mainly on the system of control and on the sanctions for disobediance, or on the incen-tives for abiding. It is a common wisdom that bans and coercion are no solutions. They just convey the problem to other locations, activi-ties or actors ...

Regulatory activities should be shaped so as to support common sense concepts aimed at improving the efficacy and efficiency of all logistic activities, thus at the sustainability of the entire urban system. To that end, various solutions are tested and sometimes success-fully implemented, that imply cooperation and consolidated deliveries via logistic centre, i.e. city terminal. Modern logistic centers are de-signed as „freight hotels“. Their visual appear-ance contributes considerably to the appeal of their urban zones. Such concepts cover all the logistic sub-systems. They include numerous varieties: underground transportation systems, cargo trams, shuttle trains, floating distribution centers, electric cars, cargo bikes ... Besides, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – is also tested for the purpose of home de-liveries. All these solutions converge into the principles of sustainable development. They facilitate the rise of the cities of future – the smart cities.

Dr. Snežana Tadić, University of Belgrade, Facul-ty of Transport and Traffic Engineering

PHOTO - page 28

30

Glossary

Biomass – in ecology, the amount of living matter in a given habitat, expressed either as the weight of organisms per unit area or as the volume of organisms per unit volume of hab-itat. In, Energy, the organic matter, especial-ly plant matter, that can be converted to fuel and is therefore regarded as a potential energy source.The total amount of living matter in a given area.

Biodiversity - a contraction of “biological diversity,” generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species, between species and between ecosystems.

“Brownfield zones” - abandoned zones of former industrial complexes, military bar-racks or the like, through application of the principles of integral planning.

CO2 - carbon dioxide, the most important of the naturally occurring greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (methane is the second-most important of these gases).

City logistics - encompasses all the strat-egies, technologies and all logistic solutions in support to all participants in, and functions of the urban space, regardless of their num-ber or size, area or boundaries, in accordance with their individual and common interests and goals (Zečević, et alt, 2004).

District heating (DH systems) - (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and com-mercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating.

Ecology - a branch of science that studies interrelationships between organisms and or-ganisms

Environmental managementsystem (EMS) - refers to the management of an organization’s environmental programs in a comprehensive, systematic, planned and documented manner. It includes the organiza-tional structure, planning and resources for de-veloping, implementing and maintaining policy for environmental protection.

Energy efficiency - a measure of how much energy is required to power a particular process. Energy efficiency can be increased through the application of new or improved technologies and their environment.

Fossil fuel - refer to hydrocarbon deposits, such as oil, coal, peat or natural gas, derived from organic matter in pre-historical times and used as fuel.

Global Green Economy Index - is an in-depth look at how 60 countries perform in the global green economy, as well as how ex-pert practitioners rank this performance.

GHG (greenhouse gas) – is a gas that ab-sorbs infrared radiation (IR).

Green technologies - technology whose use is intended to mitigate or reverse the ef-fects of human activity on the environment.

Information and communication technology (ICT) - refers to all the tech-nology used to handle telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building manage-ment systems, audiovisual processing and transmission systems, and network-based control and monitoring functions.

Integrated Business Planning - is a planning process that integrates across two or more functions in a business or government entity referred to as an enterprise to maximize financial value.

Pike Research - is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets.

Pollution - presence of gas, liquids, solids, heat, noise or radiation that impacts negatively on the health of humans, animals, plants and other parts of the biosphere.

Quality of Life (QOL) - is the general well-being of individuals and societies, out-lining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from physical health, family, education, em-ployment, wealth, religious beliefs, finance and the environment.

31

Smart City - a smart city is an urban devel-opment vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets – the city’s assets include, but [are] not limit-ed to, local departments information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hos-pitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and oth-er community services.

Stakeholders - a person with an interest or concern in something, especially a business.

Startup company (startup or start-up) - is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by develop-ing or offering an innovative product, process or service.

Sustainable development - develop-ment that meets the needs of the present with-out compromising the ability of future genera-tions to meet their own needs.

The green economy - is defined as an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrad-ing the environment.

The European Green Capital Award - is an award for a European city based on its environmental record. The award was launched on 22 May 2008 and the first award was given to Stockholm for the year 2010. The European Commission has long recognised the impor-tant role that local authorities play in improving the environment, and their high level of com-mitment to genuine progress. The European Green Capital Award has been conceived as an initiative to promote and reward these efforts.

The Internet of Things - stylised In-ternet of Things (IoT), is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as “connected devices” and “smart devices”), buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.

The spaghetti bowl effect - is a phenome-non of international economic policy that refers to the complication which arises from the appli-cation of domestic rules of origin in the signing free trade agreements across nations

The black swan effect - a black swan is an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and is extremely difficult to predict; Black swan events are typically random and are unexpected.

www.freiheit.org www.westbalkan.fnst.org

smartcities.education www.facebook.com/FNFWesternBalkans