Mitigation of risks mentioned above and solution of associated problems were one of the topics discussed during numerous contacts between Czech municipalities and Turkish partners in 2021. From Czech side, the project of sustainable district in the city of Zidlochovice was introduced by its mayor, Mr. Jan Vitula, as a way how to solve these problems. Mr. Vitula stressed that the aim of this project is to live as close to nature as possible without any disturbing influence of technology, incorporate comments of sociologists and make sure that district becomes idyllic home for those caring about their surroundings.

Green roofs establishment as one of the ways to fight the increasing temperatures in cities was the topic for discussion between Mersin and South Moravian Region representatives in early November this year. This continued later on in Brno, second biggest Czech city, when the group of Turkish mayors visited the South Moravian Innovation Center and listened to presentations of Moram CZ about the role smart flowers may play in a quest for a better air in our cities. The role of flowers and healthiness of green areas was further stressed by World From Space, company offering effective monitoring solutions of green areas based on data from satellites.

Certainly, not only smart flowers make the city better place for living. Culture is important as well, as KOGAA architecture studio argued during our November’s meeting via its unique mobile public space product called “Air Square”. Air Square offers a help to those trying to fight with overheating, offering shading to otherwise overexposed green-less spaces.

To effectively manage transport and offer tailored-made solutions, one needs extensive data collection and analysis. Waiting at traffic lights for no good reason for ages may make some of us very angry and newly constructed wide road does not help to decrease our frustration. Data From Sky is one of the companies offering solutions to these problems. To manage municipal properties including waste management and public lightening, one can search the assistance from T-Mapy or providers of specific solutions like HESTEGO concentrating on smart rubbish bins and DATmoLUX offering smart lightening solutions to our cities.

Other areas of discussions including disaster risk reduction and fleet management solutions, are field of expertise of GINA Software. The solutions of this companies are inherent part of many rescue teams worldwide including number of UN agencies. Energy topics could not have been omitted, and data analytics and solutions by Mycroft mind gained its attention as well. Since financing is always crucial for the infrastructure development of the cities, services of Aspiro, the most successful foreign consultancy company when it comes to EBRD financing in Turkey were also discussed. Aspiro has a diverse range of professional advisory services, including large-scale infrastructure project preparation and management, financial and operational improvements, and institutional capacity building to tackle infrastructure challenges. All of these discussions were facilitated by kind assistance of Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce which is ready to further increase its presence in Turkey via its contacts in Commerce & Industry Chambers from Mersin, Adana or Kocaeli.

Czech municipalities & companies are very much grateful for all the discussions and contacts and are ready to further cooperate with not only particular cities, but also with Turkish Union of Municipalities (TBB) which played indispensable role in all our activities. We also do hope, that promised Smart City Summit & Expo will take place during the first half of 2022 in Ankara and Czech Republic will have a chance to be present with its national stand in the form of “City for the Future Concept” as already discussed with organizers from TBB. Czech Embassy in Ankara is here to assist and facilitate all necessary contacts (commerce_ankara@mzv.cz).

Source: Akıllı şehirler ve Çekya-Türkiye iş birliği - Dünya Gazetesi (dunya.com)

 

 

Pavel Danek,

Head of Commercial Section