A new Integrated Strategic Plan for the Metropolitan Area of Cluj

February 4, 2016 Sabina

The new integrated strategic plan for the Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area represents, firstly, a change of paradigm under the conceptual umbrella “Problems first!”. We do not start neither from foreign concepts and thinking patterns that are against local level thinking or the financing opportunities that can orient the vision of local politics towards the development of un-needed projects. On the contrary, we have pursued the development of a strategic plan that looks beyond the bureaucratic and technical substantiation of the use of grant funds, capable of attracting and creating opportunities for private investments, through an inclusive and perspective process.

We have approached these challenges with the aid of a dialogue-oriented methodology, already experimented in other European cities – the STATUS Project methodology. In this approach, the decision is shared between essential stakeholders, in a participative planning process. The local communities are, first of all, the protagonists of the planning process, co-designing the strategic plan along with the public institutions.
The development of the Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area strategy was based on three main principles:
1. At the base of an integrated strategy’s design we must have an open and inclusive planning process.
2. The participatory planning process must be oriented towards the identification of clear pathways of development (conceptual strategic axes) for the Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area.
3. It is necessary to prioritize a coherent, strategic and integrated set of representative projects, feasible in short-medium term, around which a structured action plan, with support and complementary projects, can be organized.
The new strategic plan for the Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area is not a set of documents and a list of projects, but a permanent process which launches a multi-actor metropolitan dialogue based on the creation of a Metropolitan Task Force for the area, open towards all interested parties and based in a Metropolitan Centre.
At the centre of the strategic plan lies the Governance Pact. It is based on a local collaboration between all important stakeholders supporting the transformation of Cluj-Napoca and the surrounding communes; it represents a transformation that must be balances and capable of defining a clear governance framework to facilitate the decision-making process between the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca – the promoter of development at metropolitan level – and the other 18 municipalities.

SUNSHINE – Final Event 2016

January 30, 2016April 15, 2016 Sabina

In closure of the project, the SUNSHINE FINAL EVENT Conference organized by URBASOFIA as lead Communication and Awareness partner of the project, aimed at delivering results of the 3-year innovative initiative, within a large international participation, as well as to promote and network with other EU Projects on Energy Efficiency.

The conference has been held on January 14 2015, in the Auditorium Biagi room of the Salaborsa of Bologna, Italy. The event was organized in partnership with the Bologna Urban Center.

The SUNSHINE end event has been organized as a two-fold experience. Firstly, we aimed at offering the citizens and all stakeholders interested in Energy Efficiency the opportunity to take part in the Demos and experience first-hand the solutions for Energy Maps, Building Energy Awareness and Remote Control of Public Lighting.

Second, the Final Conference Session has been the core part of talking SUNSHINE and has gathered the project partners as well as speakers, panellists and expert invitees from a wide array of institutions: representatives of fellow innovation projects, of the municipality, region and energy supply companies, pioneer companies, institutes and research groups in the area of energy efficiency, location, the IoT, Standards and EU Policies as well as Open Energy. The day-long meeting provided the opportunity to present project achievements and innovative tools developed in the 3 years of project activities. URBASOFIA presented the lessons learned from the SUNSHINE Piloting experiences in the 8 cities of the project.

The event has been an appropriate opportunity to set up the basis for new partnerships to continue the efforts of the SUNSHINE project in the upcoming programming period, but also a means to support and transfer knowledge and lessons learned to stakeholders confronted with similar challenges in the Energy area.

Renowned experts from the regulatory, research and business sectors coming from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom shared their expertise in the field of energy efficiency, Internet of Things, standards and EU policies, as well as open energy in a high level round table. The speakers invited to present in the three specialized sections (Energy efficiency, Location and Internet of Things in the EU: common grounds, challenges and opportunities, Standards and EU Policies, Open Energy) have been the following:

Aleksandra Arcipowska, Building Performance Institute Europe – Brussels, Belgium
Michele Sansoni, ARPAE Environment and Energy Agency – Bologna, Italy
Jean-Marie Bahu, European Institute for Energy Research – Karlsruhe, Germany
Muna Hamdi, iMFV – Intelligent Mobility: FutureVision – Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Daniele Miorandi, U-Hopper Trento, Italy
Massimo Fustini, Emilia-Romagna Region – Bologna, Italy
Joëlle Mastelic, European Network of Living Labs (HES-SO Valais-Wallis) – Sierre, Switzerland
Gašper Stegnar, Building and Civil Engineering Institute ZRMK – Ljubljana, Slovenia
Sara Picone, ASTER – Bologna, Italy

Their full profiles and presentations are available for downloading on the Conference webpage.

The conference was an excellent occasion for joint capitalization of European initiatives targeting the availability of building-related data, and highlighting the increasing interest and number of initiatives at European level involving institutions, local authorities and the business sector. Citizens and stakeholders interested in energy efficiency also had the opportunity to take part in the SUNSHINE live demos and experienced first-hand the solutions available for energy maps, building energy awareness and remote control of public lighting.

In closure, a panel discussion has been conducted with the speakers and invited experts on topics concerning the trends, barriers and projections of Energy Efficiency, ICT, Open Standards and Open Energy. The discussion has been very interesting and engaging, and the overall feedback has been excellent.

I-LOCATE, Rijeka Conference and next Review Meeting in Luxembourg

January 27, 2016January 27, 2016 Sabina

The I-Locate Project, “Indoor/outdoor location and asset management through open geodata” http://www.i-locate.eu/, is now passing through the second year of activity. URBASOFIA as full partner is following each steps for the final and successful conclusion of all the tasks and work we are involved.

Since September 2015 Urbasofia is pursuing its main task in the “Pilot Phase” of this project, which will identify the economic and technical impacts of the pilots during the operational phase, for this purpose the Urbasofia team has carried out the necessary tools in order to extract the first survey for the so-called ”Mid-term pilots evaluation, assessment an recommendation for improvements” which will describe the project evaluation during the first 6 months of operations.

Currently, the project is performing with good results in almost every 14 pilot sites, placed in 8 countries along EU.

During 2015 I-Locate has gained even much international attention and curiosity:

participating with an important workshop on “Hybrid (indoor and outdoor) location based services and mapping” held at the Geospatial World Forum / INSPIRE in Lisbon on Thursday, 28 May 2015,
appearing in the official Blog of OGC (http://www.opengeospatial.org/blog/2263),
realising the JOSM plugin for IndoorGML (along with the the I-Locate consortium)

Sustaining the overall process, the meeting agenda has been as follows:

Annual I-Locate Meeting in Rijeka, Croatia, during the 4^th and 5^th of November 2015

Review Meeting in Luxembourg, for the 3^rd and 4^th of February 2016, hold at the Technoport SA

CENTRIC WORKSHOP in Bucharest

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 Sabina

On October 16^th 2015, at the INCD URBAN-INCERC premises, the Workshop “Education and training plan of the centre of excellence in territorial management and cadastre – CENTRIC took place, an event organized by URBAN-INCERC, together with the National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration (CENTRIC project coordinator) and SC URBASOFIA S.R.L. (subcontractor of URBAN-INCERC).

The event had a significant representation from both the public and the private sectors:

Universities and research centres: the Faculty of Geodesy (Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest), Centre for Integrated Analysis and Territorial Management – Faculty of Geography (University of Bucharest), Centre of Excellence in Urban Planning (University of Architecture and Urbanism “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest), INCD Delta Dunarii – Tulcea
Central Public Institutions: National Centre for Mapping, ANCSI – National Contact Point Horizon 2020 (Ministry of Education and Scientific Research)
Private companies: Integraph Romania, ESRI Romania, TeamNet, GEA Strategy & Consulting
Professional Associations: Surveyors Union of Romania

The meeting was a good opportunity to present the CENTRIC project to key actors working in the field of cadastre and territorial management and to lay the foundations for cooperation with these actors to define an educational and training plan for the future centre. In this regard, the participants declared their readiness to participate in future meetings more focused on issues related to education and training, and to provide the necessary information regarding their educational offer, consistent with the needs identified for the future centre.

Press release: http://www.incd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Comunicat%20post-eveniment.pdf

SUNSHINE Technical meeting in Zagreb, Croatia

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 Sabina

On 3-5 March 2015, the SUNSHINE Project consortium met at HEP ESCO’s headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia, to assess the state of the art of the project and to visit the implementation sites for the Building Energy Awareness and the Remote control of public lighting scenarios. The meeting represented an opportunity for the partners to get up-to-date with the proceedings of the project, especially in what concerns the starting of the pilot phase in the 8 SUNSHINE cities across Europe.
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SUNSHINE Technical Meeting Athens

September 3, 2015October 13, 2015 Sabina

Last week’s fourth technical meeting of the SUNSHINE consortium has been successfully held in Athens, Greece, between 6-7 October 2015. For us all it was an opportunity to align agendas and plan out the very final stages of the project, which will end in January 2016. We have quite a lot of interactive demos, trainings, conferences and events planned out, so make sure you keep in touch to find out when the three smart solutions of SUNSHINE will be presented in your city! For more information, visit http://www.sunshineproject.eu