Prague is among the world's metropolises that are introducing technological innovations to build smart cities, or Smart cities. The University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings of CTU also contributes to the development of smart technologies in the Czech Republic. It helps individual city districts develop proposals for technological and organizational innovations for home care for the elderly, or collaborates on Smart City projects in the field of energy.
The Smart City phenomenon undoubtedly affects the development of cities. The goal of this concept is the integrated use of current advanced technologies, which should bring greater comfort and safety to residents and create a better living environment in cities. CTU UCEEB cooperates on the concept of smart cities both with city districts and with the City Hall of the Capital City of Prague. At the level of city districts, the Center creates and develops projects for Prague 2, Prague 3 and Prague 7. It helps the Prague Municipality to develop Smart Prague projects in the field of energy and building quality.
As the first, already in 2015, the Czech Technical University UCEEB developed a project for Prague 3, where the expert team focused not only on technological innovations, but also on organizational changes in managing the development of the city district. For Prague 3, the Center created an overview of the criteria, which were supported by a questionnaire survey by a team of sociologists. Topics addressed included, for example, parking, energy consumption of buildings or green roofs. The representatives could choose from the proposed solution variants the most suitable ones for the implementation of their own projects.
The developed Smart City concept for Prague 3 last year won in the Smart Cities for the Future national competition in the Smart City Model category and, in addition, served as an inspiration for the creation of other specialized concepts for the city districts of Prague 2 and Prague 7.
Currently, CTU UCEEB cooperates with Prague 2 on Smart City projects in the area of energy management implementation. Innovative technologies and energy savings were a priority for this part of the city. The Center's experts first carried out a mapping of the Prague 2 district in order to gain an overview of the energy sources of buildings in the given location and to identify interesting objects on which the Smart City concept could be implemented. This gave rise to a project called "Intelligent Office of the Municipal District", which is now in the preparation phase.
In the Smart City concept of the Prague 7 district and the Czech Technical University UCEEB, together with IPR Prague, developed a proposal for a technological and organizational solution for home care for the elderly. Experts have proposed an ICT platform, an "e-marketplace" where social service providers can share information.
For each of the listed projects, the Center evaluated the local potential for the introduction of the Smart City concept and offered a professional solution to the assigned priorities for individual parts of Prague.
