Special section - On the way to a smart future: concepts and developments
Abstract: This paper aims at expanding the scope of the dominantly pragmatic, local scale-oriented smart village scholarship towards a perspective that recognizes that smart village development is a multiscalar political process. To show the necessity of this move, the shaping of smart village policies and practices in Hungary is examined through a qualitative lens. As the authors argue, path-dependent structural obstacles and interscalar relations undermine the prospects of smart village building in the sense of bottom-up integrated rural development, and there is a risk of a bias towards technological innovation. This exploratory article, using Hungary as a case study, argues that smart village scholarship should draw on the results of critical smart city scholarship to acquire in-depth understanding of current debates regarding potential smart village developments.
Keywords: smart village, smart rural development, rural development, digitalisation, Hungary, multiscalar perspective
Abstract: The smart city concept is a comprehensive approach to the functioning of the urban region. It concerns various areas of life such as culture, infrastructure, environment, energy, and social services. Public perceptions of the smart city concept are not commonly addressed. The aim of this paper is to examine perceptions of the smart city concept among inhabitants, doing so through a case study focusing on the city of ®ilina in Slovakia. The methodology that the researchers applied includes primary research and surveys as well as secondary research. Based on the analysis of the environment and the results of the survey, opportunities for the development of a ‘Smart City ®ilina’ concept are identified. There is a growing interest in green solutions among the inhabitants of ®ilina. A significant number of respondents indicated their support for intelligent waste collection and renewable energy sources. And they were also supportive of green roofs. The update of the strategy must consider a number of steps in waste management, from collection to transport, with a view to the overall recovery of the waste generated. As part of the smart city concept and projects, the public administration and the municipality must communicate effectively with the public. This will require specific approaches and tactical decisions for optimal success.
Keywords: Smart City concept, case study, perception, inhabitants, public administration, communication
Abstract: In the post-industrial age, the transformation of urban networks and urban regions was fundamentally influenced by the rapid spread of infocommunication technologies (ICT) and the Internet. People share information in their daily lives with the help of various ICT devices and ultimately generate georeferenced data that could obtain important information about people’s use of space, spatial movement and social connections. The main aim of the study is to explore the urban geographical and spatial impacts of ICT and social media networks in Hungarian cities. We focus on drawing territorial and settlement hierarchical patterns and clusters based on the mobile communication and online social network relationship data of Hungarian cities. The paper highlights the relationship between the intensity of mobile communication and the density and expansion of intercity social relations and the settlements’ level of economic development, respectively. The methodology is based on mobile phone call detail record (CDR) analysis and intercity network analysis of social media activities. Our findings suggest that different communication networks follow divergent spatial patterns in Hungary. The traditional East-West dichotomy of the Hungarian spatial divide is still reflected in mobile communication, but intercity clusters based on social media activities are usually aligned to the borders of administrative structures. In several cases, we were able to identify strong intercity links between settlements with a similar level of economic development of the mesolevel spatial structure that traverses over different counties and regional borders. Results on social and demographic issues suggest that ‘generation Z’ could play a key role in dampening the social and economic tensions created by the digital divide in the long run. Using a multidimensional explanatory model, we could demonstrate the growing interconnectedness between digital networks and economic development.
Keywords: ICT, mobile communication, cell data, ‘Apple index’, social media, intercity networks
Abstract: This paper analyses the acceptance of a smartphone navigation app in a hospital among its patients/visitors. We tested the effects of socio-demographic factors (gender, age, and education) on technology acceptance and on perceived difficulties with wayfinding in the hospital complex. The empirical research is based on a survey among 928 patients/visitors of the Vítkovice Hospital in Ostrava, Czechia. We found that the acceptance of smart navigation increases with the level of education and decreases with age. No significant gender differences were observed.
Keywords: technology acceptance, hospital, gender, age, education, smartphone navigation
Other studies
Abstract: By regionalizing precipitation in 113 synoptic stations in Iran, the characteristics of precipitations and the occurrence of droughts in each region were investigated over a period of 30 years, 1988-2017. Elevation, latitude and distance from moisture source have caused strong East-West and South-North gradients of precipitation across the territory of Iran so that the average annual precipitation increases from 55 mm in the eastern and central regions to 1,730 mm in the south-west coast of the Caspian Sea. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified six precipitation regions in Iran, including the arid, semi-arid, moderate, semi-humid, humid, and high humid regions. An investigation of the standardized precipitation index (SPI) showed that the trend in about 19 per cent of stations was significantly decreasing. It was non-significantly decreasing in 65 per cent, significantly increasing in less than 1 per cent, and non-significantly increasing in 15 per cent of the stations. While the occurrence of drought has increased in most parts of Iran, it has decreased in some stations only in the northern strip of the country. The line slope in more than 84 per cent of the stations represent negative values in SPI, which confirms an increase in the occurrence of droughts in Iran.
Keywords: hierarchical cluster analysis, anomaly of precipitation, drought trend, Iran
Abstract: The fracture deformations often result in linear morphological elements (lineaments, valleys) on the surface. In many cases, the direction of the lineaments and valleys can be well followed by the strike of the geological structural elements. Therefore, conclusions can be drawn from these directions for regional tectonic processes. Our work aimed to analyse the relationship between the valley and lineament network and the structural elements in the south-eastern part of Bükk Region. We prepared the theoretical drainage network map and lineament map of the area. The direction of the linear elements was examined separately on the eastern part of South-Eastern Bükk that is built up mainly by Mesozoic limestone and the eastern side of Bükkalja area covered by Neogene and Quaternary sediments. Structural geological surveys were also performed on seven sites to measure the strike of joint sets. These results were compared with the valleys’ direction in the 2 km wide area of the measurement sites. Based on our results, it can be stated that the development of the drainage network was influenced by the geological elements; however, there are local differences in the characteristics of the South-Eastern Bükk and Bükkalja. Our study confirmed that the study of linear morphological elements has great importance in the exploration of geological structural elements.
Keywords: drainage, lineament, directional analysis, structurally controlled streams, tectonic preformation, morphotectonics, Bükk Mountains, Bükkalja
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