The Role of Cartography in Making a “Smart City”: Case Study of Indjija

Abstract

The goal of “smart city” electronic services is to significantly improve urban life and development with regards to different aspects. The services, built upon various Information and Communication Technologies, are usually designed to provide some sort of information to the users, and often, the information have clear spatial dimension. To model, analyse and bring spatial information to the users, modern digital cartographic technologies are exploited. The paper presents the case study of city of Indjija, Serbia, where two EU funded projects, i-SCOPE and eEnviPer, have been implemented and aimed to establish different “smart city” services. eEnviPer is an e-Government service that supports entire “environmental permitting” process. One of the elements within the service is Geographic Information System of the Environment that enables visualisation of spatial information related to the environment as well as some analytical capabilities. The i-SCOPE service is designed to provide the information on solar potential assessment of the city roofs through an interactive 3D web map client. The technology is based on a 3D Urban Information Model. The expected effects of the services are multiple as so are the user groups. eEnviPer platform is expected to raise quality of environmental protection and to increase participation of citizens in decision making. i-SCOPE should influence the urban planning activities and increase renewable energy consumption.