Mediterranean Cities and Island Communities

In the present Internet of Things (IoT) era, smart city components (e.g. Smart buildings, Smart infrastructures, etc.) are increasingly embracing cutting edge technologies to support complex scenarios that include decision-making, prediction and intelligent actuation. In this context, there is an increased need for information visualization, so as to propagate information to end users in a smart, sustainable, and resilient way. Currently, despite the growth of the IoT sector, many IoT operators only provide static visualizations. However, interactive data visualizations are required to achieve deeper and faster insights, beyond what is available in existing infrastructure, towards supporting decision-making by city authorities; while offering real time information to citizens. This paper builds on top of ongoing research work carried out at the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Laboratory of ICS-FORTH in the domain of visualizing and interacting with information in Ambient Intelligence environments, in order to propose the design of an interactive Smart City Visualization framework. In this context, advanced user interaction techniques can be employed, including gesture-based interaction with high resolution large screen displays in alternative contexts of use and immersive VR experiences. To this end, several gesture-based interaction techniques have been validated to propose a sufficiently rich set of gestures that are adaptable to user and context requirements and are ergonomic, intuitive, and easy to perform and remember, while remaining metaphorically appropriate for the addressed functionality. Additionally, Big Data visualization is accomplished by employing 3D solutions. The proposed design supports experiencing and interacting with information through VR technologies and large displays, offering improved data visualization capacity and enhanced data dimensionality, thus overcoming issues related to data complexity and heterogeneity.

The emergence of the cloud computing paradigm has found fertile ground in the smart cities discipline, especially with regards to its benefits both in terms of big data storage and analytic capabilities and in terms of smart city service provision. Over the past years we have noticed an abundance of publications on cloud computing; from government reports to corporate studies, all show the significant benefits of cloud computing and the opportunities presented by the migration of public/municipal services to the cloud. Despite the availability of information, the landscape with regard to cloud computing adoption is still quite blurry. This chapter aims to provide methodological guidance to public/city authorities on the use of and the actual steps towards taking up the cloud computing paradigm. More specifically, it offers a simple methodology in the form of a roadmap with the main roadblocks one can expect to encounter when migrating public services to the cloud, along with a set of recommendations that facilitate decision-making in various stages of this process. We also argue that cloud computing adoption should not be an isolated action of an organization (city authority/governmental agency), but part of a wider strategic model based on open innovation practices (the use of open source technologies for the cloud platform and applications, the use of open data, the adoption of user engagement methodologies etc.) as well as the use of innovative business models.

Strengthening capacity of urban systems and their constituents in order to effectively tackle contemporary challenges and risks in a rapidly evolving, complex and uncertain global environment; and produce value for local communities in a sustainable and inclusive way, brings to the forefront the concept of smart governance. Tracking paths to smart governance, being the focus of this work, implies the need to conceptualize smartness and governance; and shed light on key organizational attributes that can pave the way for the transition from government to smart governance. Having identified these attributes by literature review, the paper highlights institutional, organizational, societal etc. developments in a Greek city, Korydallos Municipality, in order barriers and gaps in its trajectory to smart governance to be illuminated, both before and during the economic recession and austerity stress, faced by the Greek economy. Experiences gained by this pilot example, representing a rather typical small and medium-sized city in the Mediterranean context, provide useful inferences and evidence-based results for similar cities that strive to ride the smart governance wave.

“Urban Walk—Architecture Talk” is a project based on an elective seminar under the same title organized at the Faculty of Architecture of Gdańsk University of Technology. It aims at getting familiar with the topic of multi-layer and multi-sensory reception of public space, mainly by recognizing the needs of its users. Additionally, it deals with the consequences of such perception and the use of space in order to build more complete architectural design and urban concepts. It also fosters the awareness of the need to design public and built space as an integral and continuous part of the urban environment, including special places of interest. It elaborates on public space and its transformation and revitalization along the course of both social participation as well as art action in such a space. The project was implemented within the “People’s Smart Sculpture” context, comprising a series of workshops, meetings, lectures, discussions and study visits, conducted by three partner institutions: Gdańsk City Gallery, Faculty of Architecture at Gdańsk University of Technology and Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering, DICEA, at Sapienza University of Rome. The main goal was to re(discover) and exchange experiences between two cities—Gdańsk and Rome—using city walking tours towards community-based city building in order to achieve it. The expertise gained and the exchange of best practice have served as a departing point for much complicated discussions about the transformations of the city’s public space with the active involvement of art and culture. The research period in both cities was concluded by events in public space, welcoming broad public participation. In Gdańsk, the final event was entitled “Crossing the bridges—Gdańsk Osiek”. The actions were directly linked with the international concept of the Jane’s Walk and were accompanied by various special events, like urban walk, art installations in public space, cultural picnic, workshops, concerts and more.

From the beginning of the 21st century, following major European and global initiatives such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity, the idea that Ecosystem services could be used as a decision support tool, gained considerable importance in several fields: from economy to public policy, from territorial planning to environmental assessment. This research is part of the methodological framework of an important strategic reference: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, an international project that defines ecosystem services and assesses the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. According to the MA, ecosystem services are grouped into four categories: supplying services, regulation services, cultural services, and support services. Starting from this, the present work contributes to build interpretative models for the evaluation of a relevant part of the fourth class of ecosystem services: the territorial touristic attractiveness. The InVEST model, an open source toolkit, has been applied to assess attractiveness of the Basilicata Region considering both natural and cultural heritage in order to highlight strengths and weaknesses of the investigated methodology.

Radical developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have severely affected various sectors, with culture and tourism being among the direct recipients of this technological revolution. Supported by ICT, the efficient and innovative management of cultural resources as well as their interlinkages with the tourist sector—the culture/tourism complex—are nowadays perceived as a vital policy choice in pursuing sustainable local development; and lie at the heart of strategic cultural tourism planning and decision-making processes in numerous communities around the globe. Along these lines, the focus of the present paper is on the development and implementation of a participatory spatial planning framework, aiming at supporting policy making with regard to resilient cultural tourism development of a particular, lagging behind, culturally-wealthy rural community of Crete (former Province of Kissamos). Based on this framework, strategic guidelines that are grounded on the sustainable and culturally-resilient exploitation of these resources, are set; and are framed by the general policy agenda at the EU and the Greek state level as well as the policy directions set up by the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization (RIS3) at the regional level (Region of Crete).

This work focuses on enhancing consumer engagement in demand response mechanisms through the employment of gamification techniques. Demand response mechanisms are employed by electricity suppliers, other market parties, and transmission and distribution system operators as options for market optimisation, balancing supply and demand, and ensuring system security. Gamification is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, and the use of game principles in the design of certain systems to enhance engagement with these systems and make the interaction more motivating. The development of flexibility mechanisms at the demand-side is considered a key aspect for an effective energy transition, which requires the active participation and empowerment of consumers in the energy system. However, a significant barrier to realise the full flexibility potential is insufficient consumer engagement and awareness regarding energy usage. Serious games, and gamification, can effectively empower consumers by enhancement of engagement and stimulation of collaboration between them. The goal is to enable a playful interaction between technology, such as smart metering systems, energy management systems and smart appliances, and consumers that will result in higher engagement in demand response. An overview of demand response is provided, and the linkage is made between retail markets, markets at the wholesale level and ancillary services. The role of gamification techniques is discussed based on literature review, focusing on strategies to increase consumer engagement in demand response mechanisms. A user-centred, iterative design method is proposed for the development of a game-enhanced tool in which also collaboration between players can be stimulated, whereas the impact of applying the game-enhanced tool on consumer engagement can be empirically verified.

This work deals with public participation in developing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) in Greece, provided that SUMP development procedures require a high level of public engagement in several stages. Its importance lies on the fact that although the European Commission has provided specific guidelines, imposing a distinct framework for public engagement in developing a SUMP, Greek practices and maturity in participatory planning in general and sustainable mobility planning in particular are lagging behind the common know-how and practice of other European member states. The study attempts to establish an integrated methodology that combines classical and ICT-enabled tools and approaches in order a higher public engagement level to be achieved. This methodology is implemented and tested in a specific case study, the city of Rethymno—Crete, Greece. More specifically, the proposed methodology incorporates traditional techniques for gathering commuting data from citizens and visitors (i.e. questionnaires, mini surveys, workshops and public meetings) as well as innovative ones (i.e. map-based questionnaires, inclusive web-based participatory tools), used for data collection on public opinions for future planning purposes. Emphasis is placed on the development of a web-based crowdsourcing tool as a key for gathering ideas and views on sustainable urban mobility issues. Additionally, particular emphasis is placed upon exploring barriers to participation as well as ways to eliminate such barriers and support a more active engagement of citizens in sustainable mobility planning exercises in the Greek context.

Insular regions play an important role in Eastern Mediterranean, mostly attributed to their geographical, environmental, social and economic peculiarities. Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are such an example, being attractive tourism destinations with a varying permanent population both island- and season-specific. Such a seasonality of islands’ population, coupled with problems related to their geographical fragmentation, challenges local decision-making regarding, among others, health service provision. This chapter analyzes the spatial distribution of national aero-evacuation means, such as helicopters, in order to inform the debate about de-centralized services of emergency evacuations in island complexes of the Aegean Sea. After discussing potential use of Geographical Datasets for smart decision-making regarding emergency evacuation procedures, the focus of the paper is on a location-allocation model of helicopter bases in the islands of the Aegean Sea. The results of this work aim at shedding some light on the spatial optimization of the helicopter bases in the area; and discussing the trade-off conditions of emergency evacuation services in such a fragmented geographical space. Finally, after utilizing a number of large scale geographical simulations for allocating aero-evacuation bases, the usefulness of spatial analytics for taking more informed decisions is illustrated, especially in areas where dynamic seasonality of population throughout the year challenges health service provision.

Tourism stakeholders of both the demand and supply side have found themselves involved in a furious debate about the present and future shape of the new provocative and hybrid economic activity of the sharing economy, and its counterpart in the tourism sector, where sharing economy has managed to bypass the established distribution channels and disrupt the traditional structure of the tourism business. This work attempts to: elaborate on the types and presence of the sharing economy in the tourism accommodation sector, and the disruptive innovation nature of it; analyse developments with regards to the sharing economy framework in the Greek tourism industry; and elaborate on the potential impacts of shared economy in tourism, while also discussing potential future implications of this trends.