Tag: Smolyan

Follower Cities Publish Report on Community Participation and Playground Results

The +CityxChange Follower Cities (FCs), Alba Iulia, Písek, Smolyan, Sestao, and Võru, recently published the Report on community participation and playground results, in collaboration with partners from Space Engagers, Colaborativa and Officinae Verdi.

One of the core objectives of the +CityxChange project is to activate local stakeholder knowledge and resources towards the creation of Distributed Positive Energy Blocks (DPEBs). In this report, the FCs outline how they have adapted and applied principles of CommunityxChange throughout the project, based on the experiences and lessons learned from Lighthouse Cities, Limerick and Trondheim, and their own background.

Key lessons and recommendations from the municipalities’ experiences in community participation and engagement initiatives are as follows:

  1. Informative sessions: Organizing informative sessions on various topics, such as community, city, sustainability measures, renewable energy, and localizing SDGs, is crucial for citizen education and awareness.
  2. Continuous communication & transparency: Maintaining open and continuous communication with citizens, along with transparency in decision-making processes, helps build credibility and trust. Sharing open data further enhances transparency and enables others to replicate successful initiatives.
  3. Face-to-face activities: Proactive engagement through face-to-face activities, narrative tours, and gamification demonstrates a genuine interest by the municipality in connecting with citizens and fostering meaningful interactions.
  4. Stakeholder diversity: Involving a diverse range of stakeholders, such as private companies, universities, residents, youth organisations and community groups, is essential for facilitating effective and sustainable change within the community.
  5. Feedback & improvement: Collecting feedback from citizens after each community collaboration and co-creation event is important to continuously improve the quality and impact of such activities.
  6. Centralizing open calendars: Consideration should be given to utilizing an online tool for sharing calendars, future community participation initiatives, and engagement plans. This can help streamline communication and ensure accessibility to information for all stakeholders.
  7. Local heritage & culture: Recognizing and valuing the cultural heritage and traditions of a community can foster a sense of pride and ownership among residents, making them more likely to support and actively participate in sustainability efforts. By integrating local heritage and culture, municipalities can leverage traditional knowledge, practices, and architectural styles that align with sustainable principles. This approach not only preserves the unique identity of the community but also showcases the compatibility between cultural heritage and climate action.

By implementing these lessons and recommendations, municipalities can enhance their community engagement strategies, foster citizen participation, and drive positive change within their communities.

Check out the full deliverable to learn about what each city has been doing in further detail and as always, pay a visit to our Knowledge Base for complete access to project results.

Children’s Designathon held in Smolyan

On the 25th of March, Sky Hub Smolyan welcomed 25 children to participate in the city’s first Designathon, part of the Global Children Design Marathon (Global Children Designathon). The event was organized by Community centre “Future now” in partnership with the Municipality of Smolyan as part of the initiative Next generation Smart Citizen.

Global Children Designathon is an annual event, which uses design and hands-on learning to encourage students from all over the world to think creatively about the issues related to the SDGs. The topic of this year events was Restoring Biodiversity, encompassing SDGs 4, 11, 13, 14 and 15.

The Designathon method is a unique and effective method for developing thinking and communication skills in children (aged 7-12), such as creative and critical thinking, technological literacy, empathy and cooperation. Children work in small teams to come up with creative solutions to real-world problems. During the design marathon, they brainstorm ideas and create prototypes using materials ranging from cardboard and glue to sensors and other electronic components. Children work with special construction kits and take on the role of real designers of the environment in solving the problems of the modern world. During the event, a thinking methodology that develops functional literacy is used.

8 teams participated in the Designathon Smolyan 2023. They had the opportunity to present their solutions and exchange ideas with teams from South Africa (via teleconference). The solutions created included a machine for underground watering, a forest reserve for European fallow deer, conservation nurseries for local rare species, and a conservation project for the bees’ population.

See the news post in Bulgarian on the Smolyan municipal website here

Smolyan’s successful bid for EUCF

The city of Smolyan is very happy to announce that in December 2022 it became one of the beneficiaries in the 4th call of the European City Facility (EUCF) grant.  

The main objective of the proposed project is to expand the concept of PEBs that have been developed during the implementation of the +CityxChange project, and to create a Positive Energy District (PED) encompassing the administrative centre of the city, the Cultural Complex and the surrounding residential area. The concept includes introducing EE measures and RES for self-consumption, as well as possible P2P trading in a large number of public and residential buildings within the city. It also includes a feasibility study for Smart Grid development and implementation, and the transition to Green City Mobility.

If fully realized, the project is expected to achieve a CO2 emission reduction of 35499.36 t CO2eq/year, total energy savings of 83.260 GWh/y and energy production from RES of 22.2 GWh/y. In addition, the project will improve the urban environment and revitalize the area and will strengthen the relationship between local communities, businesses and institutions.

Flashback to see CxC progress from the city of Smolyan

Firstly, at the beginning of June, members of the +CxC team held their 3rd self-facilitated Climate Fresk in the co-creation space Sky Hub Smolyan with the participation of ninth-graders from PGI “Karl Marx”. The primary mission of the initiative was to familiarize children and adults with the causes of climate change. The understandable language in which the cause-and-effect relationships were described in the workshop kept students’ interest and made it easier for them to learn the connection between human activities and climate change. Students learned new concepts, discussed measures to combat climate change and gave their suggestions on which of them should be implemented in their city to make it more sustainable.

Secondly, over the two day course, 6-7 June, an energy efficiency expert from the Municipality of Smolyan held open lessons for ninth graders in the “Ivan Vazov” high school, Smolyan. The class focused on the tools provided by the Horizon Energy Box, a set of different modules were used to demonstrate different types of RES and how to use them together. The initiative aimed to gain interests in young people about using green energy through practical experiments that showed how different RES like solar panels, fuel cells, salt-water cells, etc., work. During the lessons, students learned the principles behind the demonstrated RES and had chances to perform experiments in a controlled environment.

Thirdly, from 20-26 June, Smolyan city organized a campaign to improve garbage collection. The survey was conducted through an online tool provided by Space Engagers, partners in the +CxC project, that enables the city and residents to experiment and work together to improve the urban space. As a result, citizens can express their opinion on where additional containers for household waste and containers for separate collection need to be placed. The municipality also received feedback where other containers such as park bins, public composters and construction waste receptacles are most needed. 65 responses were received and the survey showed increasing of interests in improving the waste management, the use of public compost bins, collecting plastic bottles and recycling bins. Some suggestions included: promotions of civic control, placement of waste receptacles based on the number of residents in the area, video surveillance on critical regions, fines for violators, information campaign about disposing electrical and electronic equipment and construction waste, introducing a collecting specific time.

Fourthly, The +CxC team from the Municipality of Smolyan facilitated the 4th Climate Fresk workshop, this time together with the youth organization “Young Innovators for Youth Development” YIYD. The event aimed to introduce wide audiences to climate change’s causes and consequences, and discussed possible solutions and the role each of us plays in preserving the environment. The participants showed great initiatives in giving specific measures and solutions implemented in the city by partnership between local government, civil society and business. Some ideas included adapting the urban environment for bicycle transportation, using electric scooters, replacing heating appliances, using rainwater, reforesting and cleaning green spaces, etc.

Fifthly, Smolyan city was facing many challenges in setting the Bold City Vision 2050. One of which was development a sustainable city environment. So that, on 13 and 20 July, the municipality asked children aged 6-12 – who joined the initiative “Summer Vacation in the Museum” by the Regional historical museum “Stoyo Shishkov” – to imagine how their city will be in the future. By using LEGO sets, the children played with building future Smolyan as their thoughts. They had options to work in a team or independently and created everything which they thought necessary, such as buildings, vehicles, equipment, robots, etc. After making mock-ups, each participant explained what they had created and where they placed it in the future city model.

LatelyOn 23 and 28 of June and 21 of July, experts from the +CxC team of the municipality organized demonstrations of the kit aimed at children aged 7-12 as part of Summer Programs organized by the Regional Library “Nikolay Vranchev” and the Regional History Museum “Stoyo Shishko. The Municipality acquired Horizon Energy Box to acknowledge students and the Next Generation Smart Citizen about RES. The Renewable Energy Box provided demonstration of how fuel cell technology interacting with renewable energy sources and creating an entirely sustainable power grid. There was a range of fuel cells to compare: PEM hydrogen fuel cell, the salt water fuel cell and a direct ethanol fuel cell. The box gave experiments and demonstrations about energy principles and had plenty of space for creativity. 

There are a lot of learning and interactive activities currently happening in Smoyan. You can take a look at  ОБЩИНА СМОЛЯН :: ПРОЕКТИ :: CITYXCHANGE (smolyan.bg) for original news available in Bulgarian.

Smolyan Joins ‘Partnership for Adaptation to Climate Change’

Smolyan is about to sign the contract for project “Partnership for Adaptation to Climate Change” which has been approved by the Environment Protection and Climate Change Programme of the EEA Financial Mechanism. In this project Smolyan has formed a partnership with 3 other Bulgarian municipalities – Asenovgrad, Svilengrad and Krushari, the Pleiades Bulgaria Ltd – a company working as a strategic engineering consultant in various areas where energy efficiency occupies a leading place in the activities and a partner from the donor state – NTNU, the University for Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, with the Faculty for Architecture and Design. 

The project addresses the requirement for continuous training, improvement and increase of the capacity of the local authorities to develop and implement plans and programs for adaptation to climate change and to introduce specific measures, leading to direct reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as a direct link to EU targets for Climate Neutral Europe and for climate-adapted cities and communities. Sustainable municipal energy planning and management is undoubtedly the most adequate approach that local authorities can take in order to make optimal use of available resources, attract private funding and avoid common mistakes, thus supporting the effective implementation of European policies and engaging local communities in active energy and climate action. The project will provide for the full understanding of the functions and roles of municipalities in relation to energy: the municipality as an energy consumer, as a producer and supplier of energy, as a regulator and investor in the local energy sector, as a motivator. 

Smolyan is the lead partner and has included two demonstration buildings (preselected in Demonstration Areas of the +CityxChange project) for installing additional renewable energy units for production of electricity, located on the roof of the building of the city Sports Hall and combined installation for production of electricity and heat from renewable energy unit (PVt), on the roof of the building of the city Swimming Pool. The produced energy will be used at the place of production (for own needs), which will reduce the energy consumption of the specific building, thus increasing its energy independence. Alongside these installations, a pilot intelligent energy-monitoring system will be introduced. The Smart Center for intelligent energy monitoring and management will combine individual management modules in a complex Web-based environment. 

For the city of Smolyan this project provides for progressing towards its aim to achieve innovation at the building level, leading to the energy transformation with the innovative Positive Energy Districts concept. The knowledge and skills needed for planning and design, implementation and monitoring, as well as the replication and integration of positive energy regions are increasing and the local authorities play a key role in this process. The partnership with NTNU, with its exceptional knowledge and contribution to the initiative and the concept of creating Positive Energy Areas in Europe, will help for spreading the knowledge and good practice among the Bulgarian partners in this project, to get acquainted with the concept of PED and what is needed to achieve this goal. 

The project also brings together two Bulgarian Municipalities that are follower cities in two different Horizon 2020, SCC projects – Smolyan in the +CityxChange project and Asenovgrad in the SmartEnCity project. Smolyan has also become a member of the city-based network established under SmartEnCity project (smartencitynetwork.eu) which comprises of more than 60 cities all around Europe which are conscious about their sustainability and work together towards carbon neutrality in the long run. 

+CityxChange Newsletter – April 2021

+CityxChange‘s sixth newsletter has been distributed in April 2021. Please, feel welcome to read the newsletter online here and distribute it to your network. This month’s newsletter contains the most important news and updates of the last four months from our project, focusing on how +CityxChange is entering its project implementation phase. A series of online events have been happening in our Lighthouse and Follower Cities, pushing in this way, for more co-creative solutions with their citizens. 

Further, we want to invite you to subscribe to the newsletters to not miss any project updates. 

+CityxChange Newsletter – December 2020

+CityxChange‘s fifth newsletter has been distributed in December 2020. Please, feel welcome to read the newsletter online here and distribute it to your network. This month’s newsletter contains the most important news and updates of the last three months from our project, focusing on how +CityxChange has adopted to a new digital format of events and interactions among project partners.   

Further, we want to invite you to subscribe to the newsletters to not miss any project updates. 

+CityxChange Second Consortium Meeting, 23-25 October 2019, Limerick

From the 23rd-25th of October, 2019, 70 representatives of the project partners, and additional local stakeholders of +CityxChange project were gathered in Limerick, as part of our second consortium meeting. Taking advantage of this face-to-face interaction, we dived into key challenges that had arise during the first year of the project implementation and and developed joint outcomes which help us to move from the development phase to the deployment phase for the second year of +CityxChange.  In total, we organised 8 in-depth workshops, each with a moderator, a problem owner, a clearly defined problem statement and an intended outcome. 

Four sessions of 2 parallel workshops each were kicked-off, covering different topics such as: 

  1. Glossary / Pictionary workshop: The aim of this workshop was to develop a common understanding and definitions of central project terms, discussing contested definitions, aligning different usage of terms across project and laying foundation for citizen-friendly definitions and visual descriptions. 
  2. Monitoring and Evaluation workshop: The development of a standardised framework for the M&E, development of a data collation, management and analysis methodology, development of an interactive web based dashboard, and providing an early-warning scoring system were the main issues to work upon
  3. Privacy and Smart City Data Model Structure:  The challenges discussed in this workshop, were related to IT architecture and data, open data portals, APIs, data protection impact assessment, informed consent, the Data Management Plan, and open research data.
  4. Exploring and sharing ways towards citizen-led energy transitions (Storytelling Workshop): The workshop aimed at exploring ways of creating a better understanding of the experiences, challenges, failures and successes of similar projects in engaging citizens as well as fostering interactive and progressive exchanges between external participants and the +CityxChange team.
  5. Common Energy Market: During the workshop, the participants reviewed status and learning points from the first year, what to expect in year 2, and how to improve learning between Lighthouse and Follower Cities. In addition, important new knowledge was discussed of how to organize a local energy market so it stimulates the PEB process, principles for the flexibility markets and community grid, as well as replication and investment / financial models and joint funding opportunities.
  6. CommunityxChange: The workshop included, amongst others, an overview of learnings from the first year, how to transition from the development to the deployment phase, as well as first experiences with monitoring and evaluation, and opportunities for investment, scaling and replication.  
  7. City Modelling: Current modeling on building level is not sufficient, and needs to be able to easier and faster work on community/neighborhood level for better scale-up into a neighborhood. This is needed to be addressed to any community for its operational performance. 
  8. Transport / Mobility: The workshop worked on different approaches to transport and mobility in Europe, depending on size, geographies, etc. The project is trying to define the basic topics firsts and then have breakout discussions.

In addition to the parallel workshops, we held the 2nd General Assembly, and organised PEB Walks of the Limerick demo areas and demo sites. On the final day, we organised an excursion to the ESB Ardnacrusha Hydroelectric Power Station, as well as the Cliffs of Moher.

For more information on our workshops check our report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer-to-Peer Workshops

Exploring and sharing ways towards citizen-led energy transitions

During our second +CityxChange Consortium Meeting in Limerick, we organised a storytelling workshop with the objective to exchange knowledge and best practices internally and externally on how to involve citizens effectively. The workshop was facilitated by Limerick County and City Council and ISOCARP Institute and took place in the Fab Lab Limerick – a collaborative space to engage, produce, and co-create.

The workshop was attended by 31 project representatives, three international speakers (online) as well as local residents from the demonstration areas of Limerick. The workshop aimed at exploring ways of creating a better understanding of the experiences, challenges, failures and successes of similar projects in engaging citizens as well as fostering interactive and progressive exchanges between external participants and the +CityxChange team. As overarching problem statements, three key questions were formulated:

  1. What techniques/tools/approaches are effective to inform citizens about energy-related concepts, projects, and necessary technical/financial details?
  2. How can effective collaboration between a representative group of the society and projects/cities be achieved? Which methods work; which do not? How to reach out to those who are usually not involved?
  3. How do behavioural changes evolve? What does it take to reach a community-driven process in which citizens take the leading role and become proactive prosumers?

With this starting point, the first part of the workshop was dedicated to learning from other projects and individuals working on similar challenges. Muriël Pels, advisor for international cooperation and EU funding affairs (H2020) at Municipality Utrecht and project partner of +CityxChange’s sister project IRIS presented the approach, challenges and successes in generating support from the residents in IRIS’ demonstration area in Utrecht. Ariane Lelieveld, one of the initiators of Blijstroom in Rotterdam, presented the motivation, and ups and downs of the solely community-run project in Rotterdam. Lastly, John W. Lee, the community representative of Tallaght, a community outside of Dublin, shared his story how to collectively transform their community into a more sustainable and energy-neutral one.

Afterwards, the three external speakers discussed the three above-mentioned questions with smaller groups, accompanied by a collaborative brainstorming on best practices, learned lessons, and promising approaches. A compilation of the results and a detailed overview will be published on our project website soon. If you have questions or comments, please contact us.

Tartu and Trondheim to share experiences as two Lighthouse Cities

Representatives from the City of Tartu visited Trondheim from 4th to 5th September. The first day was sharing experiences of the cities, while the second day focused on the experiences as being European Lighthouse Cities, together with the +CityxChange coordinator at NTNU. This part shared experiences from the two Smart City EU projects SmartenCity, Tartu, and +CityxChange, Trondheim and NTNU. Approaches of both projects were discussed and linked to larger city challenges.

Also the SFI ZEN was present and presented their work with zero emission neighborhoods in Norway.
We look forward to keeping contact and to continue to share from our ongoing work for better sustainable cities.