The town wants to use technological progress to increase functionality, long-term sustainability and the standard of living of the inhabitants. It gradually transforms the existing public lighting network into a tool with advanced intelligent features that will enable effective management in several areas.
Thanks to modern technologies, the Brezno municipality will be able to monitor, for example, the state of parking, safety or air quality, or automatically regulate the intensity of lighting.
Brezno is turning into a smart city
In 2021, the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization approved Brezno's request for a non-refundable financial contribution of almost 950,000 euros for a project called Intelligent components of the administration of the town Brezno, which represents a significant step towards digitization and rationalization of public administration. The basis is the construction of the concept of the so-called smart city, i.e. an intelligent city that, with the help of modern technologies, can increase the quality and performance of city services, set more efficient use of resources, reduce the adverse effects of urbanization on the environment, but at the same time involve its residents more actively and effectively in the life of the city.
The goal of the project is the implementation of a data platform based on the Internet of Things (IoT), i.e. the wireless connection of devices and their mutual interaction, which offers a sustainable IoT architecture for smart self-government solutions and is characterized by a high degree of compatibility. In the first stage, the town hall will monitor, for example, parking, safety, air quality, provide information, coordinate SOS calls and effectively manage public lighting. "Such a solution will start the necessary digitization of town administration and provide the necessary and accurate data for planning the town's strategic and development policies for the future," said Mayor Tomáš Abel. The existing public lighting network will serve the Brezno municipality to make this intention true.
Town´s own data platform
The most important step in the implementation of the project is the modernization of the lighting infrastructure, which, in addition to indisputable direct economic savings, will also ensure the construction of a town data network. "The solution thanks to IoT components will turn the existing public lighting network into a tool with advanced intelligent features. This unique solution shows how easily it is possible to create the town's own data and electrical infrastructure through public lighting. Thanks to this, it can determine the current state and estimate future development based on the measured data in real time," explains the head of the Project Department, Milada Šimkovičová, whose team prepared the successful grant application. All collected data will be processed and analyzed in the Central City IoT platform, digitized and placed on a geographic map and published on the Town Data Portal.
The successful supplier already started this month with the restoration of public lighting switchboards, the replacement of 510 energy-saving LED lamps and the modernization of the current ones. "The main benefit of the project will be the fact that the entire public lighting network will be permanently under voltage, which will reduce the costs of installing other solutions such as a camera system, 5G detectors, environmental sensors, etc. by at least 10 to 30 percent, since they will no longer need an alternative power supply source or batteries," adds Šimkovičová.
Online pollution monitoring will be added
Within the so-called smart solutions will soon begin in Brezno with the implementation of measures aimed at online monitoring of environmental pollution, especially air quality and noise, the aim of which is to protect and improve public health. For this purpose, Brezno received resources from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism in the amount of almost 150 thousand euros. They will gradually install 560 sensors on the territory of the town, which, due to their dense coverage, will generate an extremely accurate map of the state of measurable indicators.
"Since air pollution in the town and its surroundings represents a significant threat to human health and the quality of life of its inhabitants, the data obtained in this way will enable the objective and detailed processing of a list of risk locations, will inform about the relative state of the air within the cadastre, and can be used to predict deterioration of the environment, will make it possible to more precisely define the transport plan within the town or to generate warnings in the event of a sudden deterioration of the situation," concluded the mayor.
(eš)
