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Where to find an inspiration for our community ?

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Where to find an inspiration for our community ?

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It seems that the Romanian city of Alba Iulia has got not only a historical importance at national level, but also it can inspire other towns to become smart. How? Let's have a look!

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Alba Iulia Smart City powered by Orange Romania

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12.    Disaster risk and resilience

Romania is a country with high seismic potential and most earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 7 on the Richter scale occur in the seismic area of ​​Vrancea, our county. This type of earthquake is very dangerous when the magnitude is large, because the way the seismic waves propagate can cause major effects over a very large area. In the past, the devastating effects were felt most strongly in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Considering this situation,  an ideal community or society adapted to our Vrancea county needs to find better solutions for preventing and reducing loss of human lives, costs, and socioeconomic impacts of future disasters in case of big earthquakes.

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Our country is among the last in the European Union in terms of selective waste collection and recycling. Romania's selective waste collection is far below the European average and is currently one of the last countries without a waste collection and recycling system. In Romania, selective collection has become mandatory since July 2019 for plastic/metal, paper/cardboard, glass, waste. To this end, the waste collection companies and municipalities are obliged to equip the waste collection points with the 4 containers for selective collection. However, this is not enough.

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Knowing that thirty percent (30%)  of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, an ideal city is the one where public and private buildings are green. This kind of green buildings require less maintenance and have cheaper water and electric bills. To do that local people and most of all public institutions should have:
• Smart heating and cooling systems using new technologies
• Natural building materials: Romanian traditional houses were build from natural materials and the houses are “breathing”
• Enhanced ventilation and insulation; wool is a natural material very good for insulation.
• Solar panels: schools, hospitals, town hall, blocks of flats can have solar panels on top of the building and save money
• Green roofs: local people living in a block of flats can enjoy free time on the green roof where they can plant flowers or aromatic herbs. It is a way to involve citizens in making their green roof more beautiful and local authorities can organize competitions within the neighborhoods.
Green buildings allows to save energy and  money by being water efficient in the same time.

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             Public Transportation (George Urdă, student in 12th grade) 

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             Public Transportation (George Urdă, student in 12th grade) 

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In an ideal village, all the buses are green and that means they are fuel cell buses.

What is a fuel cell bus?

A fuel cell bus is a bus that uses a hydrogen fuel cell as its power source for electrically driven wheels.

And they look like (see the picture above)

Another aspect which should be improved in an ideal world is the booking system because accessibility for ever one is very important. In my opinion, people should be able to book in advance their place in a public bus or minibus and pay in cash or by card, even using their smartphones. It doesn’t have at time moment for most of the travel companies, but it happens in the ideal world.

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                          Public Transportation George Urdă, student in 12th grade 

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                          Public Transportation George Urdă, student in 12th grade 

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In present , our town as many other towns and even cities of Romania, it's obviously outdated by the current situation from many points of view but I decided to talk about the public transportation that has not been exactly greened or updated for the present traffic and the current needs of the people who lives in.

There are many private transport companies that connect Focsani (the largest and most important town) with the villages of Vrancea county. But the number of buses and minibuses is very reduced, sometimes the students fail to get to the school in the morning, while other transportation vehicles urgently need to be improved for security and comfort reasons.

The number of buses should be doubled for every route so that students and travellers can arrive safely at destination.

Some of the buses are really old, they must be changed not reconditioned, have too much fuel consumption and pollute the environment. As other motor vehicles, all local buses and minibuses used for public transportation within Vrancea county or travelling to neighbouring counties are responsible for a high level of carbon monoxide pollution. As the town’s population grows, there are more traffic jams and overcrowded public transportation. Especially in the morning due to a large number of pupils coming to Focsani to study and workers. The situation gets worst in the afternoon at about 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. In an ideal world, public authorities should rethink the situation of public transportation and invest more money: smart traffic signals and control sensors which help monitor traffic patterns, optimize traffic flow, and relieve congestion during peak travel times.

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If we imagine Focsani as an ideal world, it will definitively have more walking areas, at least situated at the outskirts of the town where inhabitants can practice sports, jogging, ride a bike and relax. At the moment there aren’t any bike lanes in our town and it’s a bit dangerous to ride a bike. Something that is missing in Focsani is the initiative among other things. Local people here don't seem to realize the times we live in and they just don't want to adjust their lives to the situations. Here we always have terrible traffic like in the photo.
That could be changed if people would use a more friendly infrastructure. Here we can talk about bikes, public transportation and even walking. This wouldn't just be good for nature and the planet but even for our health.

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Paris’s support for people walking and cycling-a model for our ideal community

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Paris’s support for people walking and cycling-a model for our ideal community

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Mayor Hidalgo of Paris will ban most vehicle through-traffic crossing the city centre in 2022 to cut pollution and noise, and create space for walking and cycling. The zone’s residents, people with disabilities, public transport vehicles and those used for deliveries or services will still be allowed access, but the ban will eliminate 55% of total traffic – more than 100,000 cars – passing through the zone on average per day. Paris is also reclaiming 50% of on street parking for walking and cycling, and designing a 650km cycle network out to the city periphery. The city has already barred heavily polluting diesel cars from within the beltway, pedestrianised the Seine quayside, restricted car access on many major streets and expanded sidewalks in areas previously reserved for cars.

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A MODERN WALK AND BIKE-FRIENDLY INFRASTRUCTURE 

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A MODERN WALK AND BIKE-FRIENDLY INFRASTRUCTURE 

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by student Daniela-Geanina Spinu
Walking and cycling are the cleanest ways to get around a city or a town, and both can have enormous benefits for health, greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, road safety and equity. Cities as diverse as Bogota, Copenhagen, Montreal and Barcelona are leading the way in encouraging walking and cycling.

To make walking and cycling attractive options every single town or city of OUR IDEAL VILLAGE must focus on safety, convenience, culture and comfort for people on bike and foot. This is relatively straightforward in engineering terms, but can be politically challenging due to opposition from groups that expect to be negatively impacted.

Here is the walking and cycling infrastructure that cities need; the policies, programmes and public messaging that encourage people to use them; and lessons from leading cities on how to make it work for everyone.

Public authorities must secure a mandate to roll out walking and cycling – and act quickly to reap the rewards within a single political term.

So, the municipality of the IDEAL VILLAGE  must poll the public because local people’s opinion is important. We think that the local authorities of the ideal city or town should consider polling the public on whether investment in walking and cycling infrastructure; this democratic approach would be good for the city, particularly if active travel investment wasn’t part of the city administration’s election manifesto.

Local administration must face opposition. Giving up road space in favour of walking and cycling usually attracts some opposition from car and taxi drivers, businesses concerned about loss of trade and delivery vehicles. Opposition typically comes from a vocal minority. Cities can raise the profile of the supportive majority, including through a positive poll, to help win the local argument.

Move quickly. Support for walking and cycling infrastructure usually increases further once it is built and people are using it. It can also garner support for the next city election campaign.

In purpose to build a network but begin with a smaller pilot if necessary. A permanent, comprehensive network is vital in order for residents to treat walking and cycling as transportation. Nevertheless, ‘tactical urbanism’ or ‘pop-up’ urbanism approaches (that make temporary and low-cost changes) provide a cheap way to pilot innovative ideas, refine them and implement them more widely. The three-month Connect the Crescent project in New Orleans is a good example of this kind of pop-up approach applied to walking and cycling.

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SHARED MOBILITY AS A WAY OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 

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SHARED MOBILITY AS A WAY OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 

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Shared mobility solutions allow us to pay as we ride instead of investing in individual means of transportation. Instead of owning a car or several cars, a bike, an electric scooter, citizens can share them because they realise it’s a sustainable, equitable, and cost-effective means of transportation. If we reduce the number of cars on the road, especially in Focsani, time spent in traffic, and the costs of getting around, we have more time and money for participating in our communities and surroundings in new ways.

The Ideal Community or Global Village needs to design shared mobility both for urban areas (cities and towns) but also for remote areas. For example in the villages situated in Vrancea mountains people could share cars or bikes, even electric scooters, especially for elderly people who have their children away or need to ride for several kilometers to buy food, medicine, see a doctor. Basic medical services are often insufficient in the countryside, including dental treatment. But elderly people have difficulty getting to towns, either because of their age and reduced mobility, or lack of money. Most people living in remote areas of Vrancea county earn their living from cultivating land or raising animals.

So in an ideal world shared mobility is one of the sustainable solutions to create a better life if the shared mobility is accessible for everyone  and affordable: not too expensive for students, single parents, old people, people with disabilities or low incomes.

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Accessible public resources (Frățilă Marco)            

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Accessible public resources (Frățilă Marco)            

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One of the most important resources in our times is the internet.
What do you do when you arrive in a new city and know nothing about it?
From my point of view, the internet is very important in our lives and for the visitors. I thought of a solution to make it easier for everyone.
When you arrive in a new location, the phone or digital device you have will receive a notification that if you access it, you will see a map of the city, with shopping malls, health centres and downstairs the password to the city's free wi-fi.
A must in cities are digital billboards that help visitors identify themselves and their location and see where they need to go.

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A sustainable city or town should be designed to address social, environmental and economic impact through urban planning and city or town management.

All sustainable initiatives mean building eco-friendly alternatives into city or town infrastructure in order to have a more sustainable world for our nowadays society and future generations. Therefore it is very important that any urban area, even big villages make necessary changes to prevent and reduce air pollution and CO2(carbon monoxide) emissions, enhance air quality, and protect natural resources.

Finding ways to help the planet is essential to eco sustainability and our IDEAL VILLAGE is based on eco sustainability because the main idea is to reduce pollution and live in a healthy world. Thus, in the ideal village imagined by our team a city or town should value most the quality of its inhabitants’ lives and it should be opened for everyone, including people with disabilities, elderly people and families with very low incomes who cannot afford to pay the bills or don’t have enough financial resources for supporting the education of their children.

In this regard, the Ideal Virtual Village is constantly  improving the following areas:

1. public transportation

2. walk and bike-friendly infrastructure

3. active and intelligent buildings

4. elements of organic architecture: green buildings

5. car charging stations

6. solar farms or fields for using solar energy

7. accessible public resources

8. public green spaces

9. waste management

10. increased security

11. connectivity and high technology:

➢ inhabitants and tourists can have free internet access available through wifi hotspots in different parts of public areas such as town hall, hospitals, schools, Union Square, railway station or bus stops

➢ the citizens can use apps to see the traffic impact in local community, monitor the quality of the air in industrial zones.

12. Disaster risk and resilience

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This is the cleanest place near the city

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Realised by: Andrei Budei & Ionut Toderascu.
Nowadays, people do not pay much attention to the collection and disposal of waste, this is due to the irresponsibility of those responsible, they do not bother with this problem that leads to excessive pollution and beautiful landscapes destroyed by waste.
Currently, solid waste landfills in and around the city are contributing to high levels of air pollution, which has a negative effect on the health of thousands of people. Additionally, as city's population growth is increasing rapidly, the consumption of resources for material goods is skyrocketing. This creates an urgent need for us to rethink the way we dispose of waste in the city.
I think it would be good to be able to separate the waste, to put plastic, glass and the rest of the waste separately to reduce pollution, and the containers and trucks that transport the waste, to be equipped with sensors that detect full bins to be emptied.
In an ideal society, a good waste management in Focsani will help local communities by:
-saving energy
-reducing pollution and waste
-preserving natural resources
-offering a better quality of life to local people
-making cheaper products and cheaper packaging.
A cheap solution to educate people and make citizens more involved in selective waste collecting and recycling would be to produce a short and funny advertising explaining separate waste collection for free and permanent broadcast on radio and TV.

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Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on Earth. It can be captured and used in many ways, and as a source of renewable energy, it is an important part of our clean future.

A solar panel, converts the light energy from the sun's rays directly into electricity. An ideal village or town that would help protect resources, could have solar panels both outside the village (connected to the village's electricity networks) and on the roofs of houses, blocks, schools, hospitals, etc.

Solar panels are an option for those who want clean, economical energy with a sustainable structure. Focsani should use much more the solar energy in the future because summer is usually hot and energy is very expensive, situation that has a huge negative impact on local people.

The use of solar energy is a process in full development, solar panels becoming more and more efficient, easier to transport and install. They are basically used to supply electricity to common household items, but they have the ability to generate electricity for an entire house by placing them on the roofs of homes.
-Harabor Claudia-

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(Beliciu Robert)
In digital cities, connected cameras, intelligent road systems, and public safety monitoring systems can provide an added layer of protection and emergency support to aid citizens when needed.
In my ideal village, based on intelligent technology, security is increased and by that I mean that every store, market and every block of flats will have guards who will intervene in any situation. In addition, my ideal village will have surveillance cameras on each street, so that the most hidden corner can be monitored.
Local municipality of Focsani should use smart  devices for better traffic monitoring and local weather monitoring. Vrancea county is the most active seismic region in Romania, that's way an increased security system is extremely necessary in case of a strong earthquake

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Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership:
"SCHOOL FOR S.K.I.L.L.S. - SCHOOL alliance FOR Soft and Key Competences In Lifelong Learning of Schools“
2019-1- IT02 -KA229-062236_2
Virtual Mobility of Pupils
6th-13th of December 2021