What’s happening in my country
On the country pages you will find useful information about what is happening in EU Member States concerning the planning and implementation of smart villages.
The information aims to orient people on policy planning, key contacts and resources on smart villages. However, it neither aims to be fully comprehensive, nor necessarily reflects the official government or European Commission position.
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Alberto Alfonso Pordomingo
(
01/05/2014
–
Ongoing
)
This solution takes advantage of ICT and the emotional connection that many people still feel with rural areas – even if they are not living there themselves. People are able to remotely adopt an olive tree and thus create a link with the rural area (maybe of their parents or grandparents), whilst contributing financially to the sustainable development/maintenance of the local rural community. The online platform www.adoptanolivetree.org takes advantage of modern ICT to enable an emotional and financial connection to be made between the rural area and these ‘adoptive parents’ wherever they may be located in the world. The solution also uses features including a QR Code on each olive tree, sensors in the olive grove and geolocation, a digital field notebook, the use of drones and mobiles for video calls and image capture from the olive grove and a new mobile phone app, so that adoptive parents can follow the evolution of their tree. The solution is developed by an innovative social entrepreneurship project that works from ICT to generate local employment for people excluded from the labour market and with intellectual disabilities, whilst promoting sustainable rural development. The money raised supports local work in the rural community to recover abandoned centennial olive grove and their biodiversity in a sustainable way, using the principles of land stewardship. The solution generates a triple positive balance, promoting economically, environmentally and socially sustainable rural development. Adoptive parents are able to live the experience of becoming a true hero of local rural change!
Type of resource : Smart Solution
This solution takes advantage of ICT and the emotional connection that many people still feel with rural areas – even if they are not living there themselves. People are able to remotely adopt an olive tree and thus create a link with the rural area (maybe of their parents or grandparents), whilst contributing financially to the sustainable development/maintenance of the local rural community. The online platform www.adoptanolivetree.org takes advantage of modern ICT to enable an emotional and financial connection to be made between the rural area and these ‘adoptive parents’ wherever they may be located in the world. The solution also uses features including a QR Code on each olive tree, sensors in the olive grove and geolocation, a digital field notebook, the use of drones and mobiles for video calls and image capture from the olive grove and a new mobile phone app, so that adoptive parents can follow the evolution of their tree. The solution is developed by an innovative social entrepreneurship project that works from ICT to generate local employment for people excluded from the labour market and with intellectual disabilities, whilst promoting sustainable rural development. The money raised supports local work in the rural community to recover abandoned centennial olive grove and their biodiversity in a sustainable way, using the principles of land stewardship. The solution generates a triple positive balance, promoting economically, environmentally and socially sustainable rural development. Adoptive parents are able to live the experience of becoming a true hero of local rural change!
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Joann Hosey
(
01/2019
–
Ongoing
)
Type of resource : Smart Solution
- Grow Remote connects remote workers, companies, and local communities so that people can choose to work where they want to live, and not vice versa.
- Grow Remote, through events and an ever increasing network of local ‘Chapters’, bypasses traditional methods for creating employment opportunities in rural areas by equipping community leaders with the necessary tools and resources required to build a remote working ecosystem and connection between remote jobs (at a national and international stage), remote workers and local communities at local level.
- This solution was developed by a group of community developers from across Ireland who were trying to understand the best way to bridge the gap between remote work and local impact in order to make rural communities more viable, sustainable and vibrant moving forward. It operates as a ‘Meitheal’ – the old way of working in rural Ireland where everyone in a local area chips in with part of the solution to help support the economic and social revolution of Irish villages and rural towns through remote working.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Antonio Vella
(
01/06/2016
–
31/03/2021
)
This solution involves physically and digitally adapting a rural village to make it more accessible and welcoming to an increased diversity of visitors, with particular reference to people with different types of physical disabilities (hard of hearing people, blind people, people with motor disabilities), in order to attract more tourists and develop a diversity and welcoming culture at local level. Physical infrastructure modifications can include:
Type of resource : Smart Solution
This solution involves physically and digitally adapting a rural village to make it more accessible and welcoming to an increased diversity of visitors, with particular reference to people with different types of physical disabilities (hard of hearing people, blind people, people with motor disabilities), in order to attract more tourists and develop a diversity and welcoming culture at local level. Physical infrastructure modifications can include:
- Removal of architectural barriers from the main streets of the village;
- Tactile pathways to give the possibility to blind people to move around the village and on outdoor trails autonomously.
- Installation of sensors and an ICT system based on radio-frequency identification and wi-fi hotposts to send touristic and other information to blind and hard of hearing people on their smartphones.
- Lodging space created or adapted for visitors with physical disabilities and their families.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Robert Hall
(
07/2015
–
08/2018
)
This small-scale biogas digester can be built and implemented by any rural community. It mainly consists of a chamber, which is specifically designed to enable it to contain compressed air and which can be fed (through ‘feeding’ pipes) with food and garden waste and water to instigate a natural process of biodigestion generating biogas (which is collected through an ‘outpipe’ with gas cap). The micro-biodigester has a simple design that can be made locally out of easy-to-make concrete, using concrete moulds. It has no moving parts, making it is relatively unlikely to have technical problems. The digester can run at variable flows and temperatures. The micro biodigester can be integrated into a full closed-loop system for the sustainable management of waste at a very localised level. The solution is not only able to enhance hygienic disposal of organic waste products with limited local odour, but it also generates valuable products in terms of fuel and fertiliser (which is also collected through a ‘run-off’ pipe).
Type of resource : Smart Solution
This small-scale biogas digester can be built and implemented by any rural community. It mainly consists of a chamber, which is specifically designed to enable it to contain compressed air and which can be fed (through ‘feeding’ pipes) with food and garden waste and water to instigate a natural process of biodigestion generating biogas (which is collected through an ‘outpipe’ with gas cap). The micro-biodigester has a simple design that can be made locally out of easy-to-make concrete, using concrete moulds. It has no moving parts, making it is relatively unlikely to have technical problems. The digester can run at variable flows and temperatures. The micro biodigester can be integrated into a full closed-loop system for the sustainable management of waste at a very localised level. The solution is not only able to enhance hygienic disposal of organic waste products with limited local odour, but it also generates valuable products in terms of fuel and fertiliser (which is also collected through a ‘run-off’ pipe).
Type of resource : Smart Solution
The roadmap for developing the availability of modern broadband infrastructure in the country, as well as the adoption of high and ultra-high-speed broadband services by citizens and businesses. The plan includes a set of interventions at legislative and regulatory level, as well as practical support actions for the development of modern broadband infrastructures.
Language : English
Type of resource : Report, Website
Géza Gelencsér
This solution is an extension of aquaponics to include insect breeding and renewable energy. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system. In this ‘AquaGeoComponics’ solution, catfish, vegetables and compost are produced in a pilot 150m2, two-storey building (like a greenhouse). Insects are bred on food waste and used for feeding the fish. Fish and insect breeding needs heating in winter, which is provided by renewable energy (solar panels supplying heat pumps). The project will be operated as a community enterprise by a public benefit association, using the profit for local development. It will employ one local person. Based on latest market trends, the price of the insect products is intensively growing, and therefore, the horticultural element might be excluded. This would result in a simpler system, which, besides producing feed for the fish, produces insect products for sale, instead of vegetables.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
This solution is an extension of aquaponics to include insect breeding and renewable energy. Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system. In this ‘AquaGeoComponics’ solution, catfish, vegetables and compost are produced in a pilot 150m2, two-storey building (like a greenhouse). Insects are bred on food waste and used for feeding the fish. Fish and insect breeding needs heating in winter, which is provided by renewable energy (solar panels supplying heat pumps). The project will be operated as a community enterprise by a public benefit association, using the profit for local development. It will employ one local person. Based on latest market trends, the price of the insect products is intensively growing, and therefore, the horticultural element might be excluded. This would result in a simpler system, which, besides producing feed for the fish, produces insect products for sale, instead of vegetables.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Miia Tiilikainen
(
08/2018
–
06/2020
)
After the closure of the village school in 2014, ‘home-schooling’ was organised by some parents, until a digital remote education pilot project ‘brought the school back’ to Eskola in 2018. A group of 14 children (aged 6 to 12) took part in the experiment. While a teacher and a teacher’s assistant were educating the kids locally, remote cooperation with a town school in Lapinjärvi – 500 km away from Eskola – allowed to take some specialist courses online together with the partner school, using digital technologies (Google jamboard and tablets). The initiative created the possibility for children in the small rural village of Eskola (Finland) to continue education in the village even after the formal closure of the local village school.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
After the closure of the village school in 2014, ‘home-schooling’ was organised by some parents, until a digital remote education pilot project ‘brought the school back’ to Eskola in 2018. A group of 14 children (aged 6 to 12) took part in the experiment. While a teacher and a teacher’s assistant were educating the kids locally, remote cooperation with a town school in Lapinjärvi – 500 km away from Eskola – allowed to take some specialist courses online together with the partner school, using digital technologies (Google jamboard and tablets). The initiative created the possibility for children in the small rural village of Eskola (Finland) to continue education in the village even after the formal closure of the local village school.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Mirka Huhtanen
(
06/02/2016
–
28/01/2019
)
The installation of a comprehensive fibre-optic network in a village by engaging local residents in the creation of a local cooperative and applying for funding (for example from LEADER) to pay for the public works required to dig and lay fibre-optic cables. Cooperation and planning with local landowners is essential (for example, to plan around farming schedules) and planned network maps should be checked by external experts. Construction can be undertaken by local volunteers or outsourced to an external company (where funding allows).
Type of resource : Smart Solution
The installation of a comprehensive fibre-optic network in a village by engaging local residents in the creation of a local cooperative and applying for funding (for example from LEADER) to pay for the public works required to dig and lay fibre-optic cables. Cooperation and planning with local landowners is essential (for example, to plan around farming schedules) and planned network maps should be checked by external experts. Construction can be undertaken by local volunteers or outsourced to an external company (where funding allows).
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Liviano Mariella
(
07/2016
–
Ongoing
)
‘Transluoghi’ is a concept from Morigerati, a rural (mountain) municipality located in south-western Italy, which involves bringing together 15-20 local inhabitants with 35-45 ‘external’ participants for a 10-day creative residency. Together, they explore local needs and develop small joint projects to inspire and promote local rural development based on arts, culture, agriculture and tourism. External participants are mainly artists, creatives, researchers and architects. They are accompanied by around 20-25 members of a core organising team (staff+ tutors). Starting from the assessment of residents’ needs through the organisation of tours guided by the residents and design thinking laboratories, ‘Transluoghi’ engages participants in a series of cultural and artistic workshops to explore practical solutions to some of the most interesting challenges of the rural community and territory, such as raising village attractiveness, tackling depopulation, addressing lack of trust, promoting social cohesion, supporting local enterprises and creating a local brand identity and strategy. In its four editions so far, Transluoghi has produced some concrete effects in Morigerati and on its local business system, including the regeneration of public spaces with the installation of artworks co-produced by residents and participants, producing new equipment following the indications of business owners and reviving the local countryside festival. Film and documentaries produced in the framework of Transluoghi are used by public institutions and private actors as promotional materials for the village.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
‘Transluoghi’ is a concept from Morigerati, a rural (mountain) municipality located in south-western Italy, which involves bringing together 15-20 local inhabitants with 35-45 ‘external’ participants for a 10-day creative residency. Together, they explore local needs and develop small joint projects to inspire and promote local rural development based on arts, culture, agriculture and tourism. External participants are mainly artists, creatives, researchers and architects. They are accompanied by around 20-25 members of a core organising team (staff+ tutors). Starting from the assessment of residents’ needs through the organisation of tours guided by the residents and design thinking laboratories, ‘Transluoghi’ engages participants in a series of cultural and artistic workshops to explore practical solutions to some of the most interesting challenges of the rural community and territory, such as raising village attractiveness, tackling depopulation, addressing lack of trust, promoting social cohesion, supporting local enterprises and creating a local brand identity and strategy. In its four editions so far, Transluoghi has produced some concrete effects in Morigerati and on its local business system, including the regeneration of public spaces with the installation of artworks co-produced by residents and participants, producing new equipment following the indications of business owners and reviving the local countryside festival. Film and documentaries produced in the framework of Transluoghi are used by public institutions and private actors as promotional materials for the village.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
Dimitris Bogiatzis
(
29/10/2018
–
29/08/2020
)
The solution concerns the installation of modern telemetry equipment and equipment for measuring and remote control of the quantity and quality of water supplied and equipment for active leak detection. The system includes a Central Control Station, accessible to the competent employees of the Municipality and which collects and processes data from 51 Local Control Stations. The Local Stations with a combination of sensors and measuring devices continuously record and send to the Central Station the following data, by using appropriate telecommunication technologies (e.g. mobile):
Type of resource : Smart Solution
The solution concerns the installation of modern telemetry equipment and equipment for measuring and remote control of the quantity and quality of water supplied and equipment for active leak detection. The system includes a Central Control Station, accessible to the competent employees of the Municipality and which collects and processes data from 51 Local Control Stations. The Local Stations with a combination of sensors and measuring devices continuously record and send to the Central Station the following data, by using appropriate telecommunication technologies (e.g. mobile):
- Tank levels and supplies,
- Pressures and Pipeline Flows in pumping stations, network drilling,
- Quality characteristics of water in the supply tanks of the network,
- Electrical quantities of active elements (pumps),
- Operating modes of active components (ON-OFF, thermal failures, power outages, etc.) and
- Leak indications at specific points in the network.
Type of resource : Smart Solution
