How Bucharest is becoming a smart city
In 2021, the pandemic is a reality that we have learned to adapt to. In the wake of Covid-19, many city development plans have seen some setbacks, but at the same time, innovations that seemed a world away have become part of our daily lives much faster than we could have imagined.
A recent study, published by CityAge and ESI Thoughtlab, underlined the vital importance of new tech, data, cyber security and modernised partnerships as part of the post-pandemic society. The same study showed how Covid accelerated innovation in the public sector and investigated how cities are ranking in terms of progress and smart developments.
Bucharest was just ranked by ONU as an “evolutive city”, on the right path towards becoming a smart city, but with some other extra improvements needed. Over the past year, the Romanian capital has experienced a wave of accelerated digitalisation that has facilitated a smart governance of the city, with over 20 Smart City projects implemented in city halls.
In the first edition of the Smart City Index Report back in 2019, Bucharest had six major focus areas to tackle in order to become a smart city: mobile apps, modernisation of public transport, reinforcement of buildings, non-reimbursable funds, infrastructure projects, and healthcare.
Right away, the foundations for some of these began to be put into place, with the City Hall rolling out apps that allow citizens and visitors to pay for bus and metro fares online, navigate through the city’s transit system with ease, improve traffic conditions, find parking spots quickly, notify authorities about people in need of social assistance or promote tourist attractions. Through this process, the city has taken genuine strides in becoming smarter.
There are also key learnings in Bucharest’s development from these studies, on how the population has responded to these changes:
Citizens understand the importance of smart city projects for the future of cities
Operational continuity and agility are key
Covid has underlined the necessity of investing even more in modernising the basic infrastructure
Cities of the future have technology at its core, such AI and cloud services
It’s no small deed how the Romanian capital managed to keep up with the rhythm of other worldwide capitals in such a short period of time. And I look forward to seeing what this year will bring not only to Bucharest, but to cities all over Romania.
