Already in its sixth year, the Smart Prague Index publication has charted the development of Smart City indicators, which evaluate how Prague succeeded in being a smart, sustainable and resilient city in 2022. The Smart Prague Index 2022 yearbook evaluates the development of the Czech metropolis in six areas: mobility of the future, waste-free city, smart buildings and energy, attractive tourism, people and urban environment, and data area. Thanks to illustrative graphics, readers can easily follow developments in individual areas and get a quick picture of the development of the Smart City concept in Prague over the past six years.
"When implementing innovative solutions in the capital, it is absolutely essential for us to be able to make decisions based on verified data and not on impressions, feelings, insignificant episodes or even unverified rumours. I am therefore glad that in order to monitor smart city projects and fulfil the Smart Prague strategy, we have a methodology available that allows us to monitor the development of individual projects and priority areas every year," adds Daniel Mazur, the Prague City Councillor for IT, Smart City, Science, Research and Innovation.
The biggest highlights of 2022: sustainable mobility and energy
Within the monitored priority areas, in 2022 Prague made the most progress in the sphere of sustainable mobility. The number of users of the PID Lítačka mobile application reached over one million regular users in 2022, and the number of searches for connections via the application increased by two-thirds to more than 53 million searched public transport trips in Prague and the Central Bohemian Region. Interest in low-emission vehicles also significantly increased year-on-year, of which 9,496 were registered in the capital city in 2022 – a 53% increase. In addition, the number of public charging points (fast charging and slow charging stations) in the Czech capital increased by 15% year-on-year.
As for the area of smart buildings and energy, compared to last year's mapping, the number of installed smart lamps has increased more than seventeen times (7,254 lamps), which can communicate remotely with the dispatch centre and reduce their intensity during the night. Some of the smart lamps can also, for example, change the intensity of the lighting depending on the movement of pedestrians. These smart lamps were installed and are in charge of the Prague municipal company Technology of the Capital City of Prague (THMP).
"Other successful projects where we have seen a significant shift in 2022 include smart waste collection, where we have managed to significantly increase the number of sensors and chips in waste bins and thus significantly improve waste management in Prague. A number of foreign cities, such as Barcelona in Spain, have shown interest in our system and experience with its operation," Petr Suška, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of OICT and Director of the Smart Prague and Innovation Department, lists another monitored area - a waste-free city.
Smart city: what are we actually talking about?
The term Smart City focuses not only on modern and innovative technologies as such, but above all on their introduction into the urban ecosystem in an effort to improve the quality of life of the residents, i.e. the end users of these innovative solutions. In the Smart Prague 2030 concept, Prague set out to be not only a smart, but also a sustainable and resilient city. All this with the aim of providing not only all Prague residents with the greatest possible quality of life.
"One of the components of building a smart city is the implementation of so-called smart elements in public space. These components then help people within the urban environment to higher safety, comfort, information or new data, which are subsequently the basis for further development and efficient management of the city," adds Petr Suška.
About the Smart Prague Index yearbook
The Smart Prague Index is based on a precise methodology that measures specific indicators of individual innovation projects in the Czech capital. It was tailored for Prague based on the Cities in Motion (CIMI) index developed by Ernest & Young. CIMI evaluates cities according to mutual comparison in up to hundreds of indicators aggregated in several sub-thematic areas.
The current Smart Prague Index yearbook can be read and downloaded on the Smart Prague website.
