For years, the Austrian capital is considered one of the best places to live in the world. What more do you need?

"The protection of our resources and the strengthening of our economy as a basis for social justice, those are the city’s major challenges of the 21^st century" - believes the mayor of Vienna, Dr. Michael Häupl. Therefore, on March 2011 he announced the initiative Smart City Wien or "Vienna - Smart City". In 2014 the long-term framework strategy Smart City Wien for the development of the city by 2050 was adopted. There are three areas of action: resources - quality of life - innovation. A key objective for 2050 is to achieve "the best quality of life for all residents of Vienna, while reducing resource consumption. This will be achieved through innovation in all spheres. "The strategy covers everything - from infrastructure, energy and mobility to the smallest aspects of urban development. It unites all fields of knowledge and the efforts of all participants.

Dr. Pamela Mühlmann is an expert in the TINA Vienna agency - part of Vienna Holding /a structure that unites the municipal businesses/. We met her in order to tell us more about the Smart City Wien strategy and the work being done on it.

- Ms. Mühlmann, what is the role of your agency in the "Vienna Smart City" initiative?

- TINA Vienna is a private company; it is not part of the municipal administration of Vienna. But we carry out ancillary activities and support the implementation of the project for a smart city. Our company consists of two divisions – the Smart City agency /for smart solutions/ and the energy centre /for energy efficiency/. There are a total of 17 employees. One of our tasks is to help implement the Smart City Wien strategy, which provides the framework for the realization of all other projects of the municipality for the smart city. We started this strategy in 2011, on the basis of already running projects in the city. In 2014 the Vienna City Council approved it and agreed on it. It was supported by the Mayor Dr. Michael Häupl and Vice-Mayor Ms. Maria Vassilakou.

Some of the objectives of the strategy are set in other programs of the municipality, such as the one for the development of transport. During the implementation of the Smart City Wien, however, new forms of cooperation are being developed between different participants of the projects; for example, among those in the transport, in the landscaping etc. As the municipal director of urban planning says“ the good thing is that it is not a brand new strategy, it is enshrined in existing development strategies: mobility, energy, the layout of open spaces ... “As for all these tasks in Vienna, nowadays, there are none to make enactments without intelligent solutions-which is our company’s work.

The projects are of different sizes - from very large to very small. But perhaps the most familiar urban development intelligent decision is Aspern Vienna.

- Perhaps you are talking about the town of Aspern Vienna? Tell us more about it.

- It's like a city within a city, a brand new neighbourhood that will create living space for 20,000 people with jobs for them. At present somewhere between 6 and 8 000 people live there. It was built on an empty space where there used to be an airport. It was funded by both the municipality and the construction companies. It is being implemented in phases. One of the smart solutions is that we try, after each completed phase, to draw conclusions and learn something that we could be applied to the next one. I'll give you an example of such transfer of ideas. We have interviewed the residents who have already moved there, asking them what they would like to be done, what they like, what they lack. The results of the interviews are being applied in the next phase.

The new neighbourhood offers various forms of housing, private, rented, subsidized. We want as many different people as possible to live there. My personal opinion is that they must be from different age groups. But because the housing in Vienna is very expensive, and in Aspern the prices are lower, the main interest comes from young people.

- Does modern neighbourhood mean advanced technologies in it too?

- Regarding the technological solutions in Vienna Aspern there are various novelties: sensors, monitoring of any data, such as the weather. The heating of the buildings is different –in some it’s from renewable sources, in others - from solar facilities...  Some produce their energy entirely by themselves. Most buildings there are of 4 to 6-floors. Interestingly, now in Aspern the tallest wooden building is being built. This will be an experiment that will show whether the tree is suitable for such construction. The building will be administrative.

Smart decisions also mean advanced planning. When the project started, we firstly built the metro towards there, and then we began the construction of the town. Aspern Vienna should be finalized by 2030.

The Smart City Wien strategy is oriented towards technology. But the most important in it is the human, the Viennese, and the quality of his life. So our goal is to engage the people in intelligent solutions. This means, on the one hand to use their ideas in planning, and on the other, to enable them to use the new technologies that are also deployed thanks to them.

- What is being done for the old Vienna?

- One side of the smart solutions is the emergence of neighbourhoods into nothingness, and the other - the renovation of older buildings. Now we work on the European lighthouse project, which we associate with the renovation of the Simmering district /11^thdistrict area of Vienna/. For it we get about 7 million euros, returning from the European Union to Vienna. With this we will renovate two municipal buildings. This project is conducted in three European cities - Vienna, Munich and Lyon. For Vienna, the management is carried out by the Department 25 /for construction, including residential/. We are their partner. The overall project for the Simmering area, however, also includes mobility and education, and quality of life in it. It is called "Smart Together"- on the Internet under this name the citizens can give their ideas.

- What are your suggestions for energy efficiency?

- A very important issue for the municipality of Vienna is the central heating. Part of the energy for it comes from waste incineration installation in the city centre. But one problem usually does not have just one solution. There are always several ideas. One is the green energy; the second is saving energy and the third - its effectiveness. For example, a smart solution is educating the public on how to change their behaviour to save energy. The municipal administration of Vienna itself tries to be an example of this - in the use of energy for its buildings, in its cars, etc. For example, the Division 48, which is responsible for processing the waste, built the first green wall of their building, meaning they grassed their facade. Another solution for achieving energy efficiency is the cooperation with big companies, businesses in the city. Our task is to give them advice, consult them on how to choose sources and suppliers of energy, how to organize logistics in the city, how to transport their goods. It goes to the point when they even appreciate the way each of their employees can give their eco contribution. Currently, for example, our colleagues are in the Romanian city of Galati in order to offer advice and smart solutions on a new project in the field of mobility and parking management.

- What smart solutions do you apply to the mobility sphere?

- In Vienna great importance is paid to the public transport. On the one hand the lines of the metro and the tram keep on expanding; and on the other we are trying to make the citizens travel by them in order to reduce emissions. I am not sure if you know, but in Vienna the annual card for public transport costs € 361, that is, roughly one euro per day.

Along with the public transport, emphasis in Vienna has also been the light transport - cycling, walking. At first glance this does not seem as a smart solution – it has existed long time ago. But the new thing which the City of Vienna is trying to do is bind together different modes of transport. We have one company linked to the municipality, which plans each person’s route. For this purpose it has included in the program the roads for everyone - public transport, car, rental cars, taxis, walking and more. The user puts their desires and receives ideas, suggestions. For example, the one that takes his car in a certain direction can take others to travel with him, together. The aim is to meet the needs of the customer, to find the best decision for you, avoiding movement by car.

- There are incentives in here for this. For example, the website of our hotel says that there will be a 10% discount for the customers who choose to move around the city by bike.

- It's possible. You have to find a form that will interest people. What might be interesting for them? To save money, give them a reward and ... they are inspired. But in order to stimulate these decisions, there must be infrastructure for their implementation. For example, bicycle lanes should exist.

- Will today’s Viennese leave his/her car to get into the metro?

- Oh, there is a lot more to be done about this. The Viennese love driving cars. And there are not many of those who ride bicycles. But it is a fact that more and more young people give up their cars. There is an interesting benchmark in this regard - in 2015 for the first time more annual cards for public transport were bought than cars were registered. But in general people here enjoy all possibilities for movement. They have their own car; they also buy a metro card and use the bicycle.

- And what about the electric vehicles?

- There is a tendency to increase their number not only in Vienna but throughout Austria. Now the city administration discussed very actively the question of where to put more recharge stations. The municipality of Vienna and the organization of public transport launched a project for electric-taxies. And just when it got established it was realised that the charging stations are not enough and are not located in the best places. So now this matter is considered. But we must say that our city is not hilly, and this fact makes it very conducive to walking or cycling.

The material is written with the support of Eurocomm - PR Wien.

Photos: "Diplomatic spectrum" and www.wien.info

First row: The Mayor of Vienna Dr. Michael Häupl and Vice-Mayor Mrs. Maria Vassilakou launch the initiative Smart City Wien, Vienna town Aspern, Aspern Boulevard, The green facade of Section 48 of the City of Vienna

Second row: Footage of the "Smart City", The team of "Diplomatic spectrum" magazine in the headquarters of the TINA Vienna agency with Dr. Pamela Mühlmann and Karin Krisper from Eurocomm - PR Wien.