Smart cities in a multipolar world: infrastructure, services, sustainable transport
Driving discussion at this ASL session on smart cities was the recognition that, in the midst of the polycentric globalization process unfolding, cities are becoming hubs of increasingly smarter networks capable of galvanizing and generating new momentum for innovation and growth. Any satellite photo will suffice to reveal a web of interconnected urban expanses, serving as crossroads and convergence points for tangible and intangible infrastructure.
Moving people: how to improve competitiveness, efficiency, and quality
The roundtable participants began their examination of the mobility issues affecting Italy today with the observation that, last year alone, Italian households spent on average more than 35 billion euro on getting from one place to another. Also in 2009, the cost of congestion in metropolitan areas was around 9 billion euro. Just in Rome, for example, fuel consumption totaled between 12-15 million euro in the same year – to which must be added the costs generated by rising pollution in cities and areas beyond city limits, as well as by road traffic accidents.
Public investment to reinforce the real economy
In the history of any country, there are phases where it is necessary to build and phases where wealth produced needs to be distributed. Italy, hit by the international crisis, finds itself in the former condition and aims to bolster its economy by building new infrastructure and, in the process, create jobs and facilitate the movement of people and goods.