Filenews 19 June 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The transformation of Pafos into a "smart city" is taking shape. A tender was launched for the supply, installation, operation and maintenance of an integrated smart management system for services and resources, with an expense of tens of millions of euros. The whole effort becomes pioneering since as a connecting link has been adopted the utilization of available information and communication technologies, what is expressed as an infrastructure "smart city", in order to improve the quality, performance and interactivity of urban services and at the same time to reduce the cost and consumption of resources.
A key milestone in the ongoing effort of the last three years is considered to be the creation by the Municipality of Pafos of its own private and autonomous network LoRaWAN, through which all the device-sensors of the digital and smart city projects will communicate with each other, giving in real time valuable and direct information to the citizen, which will facilitate his everyday life and upgrade his quality of life.
The project, the first of its kind in the whole of Cyprus, was implemented by a contractor company which has already informed the Municipality of Pafos about its completion and its readiness for its immediate operation, thus taking another big step towards the realization of the goal of transforming Paphos into a Smart City.
Speaking about the project, the Mayor of Pafos, Phaedon Phaedonos, noted that with the operation of the system, the Municipality and the city are at the beginning of a long march, on the route of which the big winner will be the citizen.
The citizen is now forced to turn to dozens of services in order to be served or find the information he needs," he said. " With the installation of the LoRaWAN system and the operation of the smart city projects, citizens will receive in real time a lot of useful information, such as about the available parking spaces at the point they want to go, the consumption of water in their home, the temperature and humidity in the atmosphere, the amount of carbon dioxide and pollutants in the air, even for when the bin of their apartment building was filled, as part of smart waste management."
Through LoRaWAN, the mayor of Paphos added, they will be able to emit a signal beyond the 50,000 sensor devices that have been installed throughout the city, of which 3,200 have been placed in the parking lots, 27,000 will be connected to the smart water meters, 150 will send measurements for the environment and the atmosphere, while another significant number will serve other projects of the smart city. The construction of a smart city contributes to the achievement of a total improvement in the quality of life and the effectiveness of services and the coverage of the needs of the citizens, while it upgrades the level of their contacts with the local government, they stress in the Municipality of Pafos.
The course of full preparation in which the strategic goal of the Municipality of Pafos to transform the city into a "smart city" is now entering, no longer concerns only European programs. The Municipality has also initiated a close cooperation with Higher Academic Institutions in Cyprus and abroad to ensure the necessary scientific support.
In this context, several meetings have already taken place with the participation of a group of five professors of the Private University IDC Herzliya of Israel headed by the President of the Foundation, Uriel Reichman and the competent team of officials and experts of the Municipality of Pafos headed by the Mayor Phaedon Phaedonos. The meeting was also attended by Professor Vassilis Maglaris of the National Technical University of Athens and George Ellinas, a professor at the University of Cyprus, who participates in the Municipality's team.
The rapid transition of Pafos to its new digital tomorrow, one of the final steps when on May 26th, the contract was signed for the major project of supply, installation, operation and maintenance of an integrated system of smart water resources management and water metering. The value of the project contract is more than €11 million and the duration of implementation is 36 months. This is the largest smart city project so far in the whole of Cyprus. The new system will effectively contribute to reducing loss, improving quality and providing equal water availability. It will include, among others, the implementation of a system for the prevention and detection of leakages, the installation of 27,000 smart water meters of high accuracy and automatic metering reading, the implementation of a system for monitoring, controlling and fully automating the water supply network and the implementation of an automatic chlorination system.
The Municipality of Pafos faces serious challenges in terms of real-time monitoring and management of its water resources, including the quantity and quality of water. The main objective of the project, which is included in the axis of "green development", is to promote the sustainable management of water resources through the long-term protection of available resources and the environment. Optimal leak management and active control will drastically reduce water losses. In addition, the improvement of the quality of the water provided to citizens is of major importance, since it is inextricably linked to their health.
Paphos in smart destinations
Active and significant promotion in the course of the city of Pafos in the field of "smart destinations", has also the Company of Tourism Development and Promotion of the Region of Pafos, which has been selected in a group of 50 destinations of the European Union for participation in a specific pilot project on tourism, which began this month. Destinations through this project have the opportunity to embark on a personalized journey to improve the way tourism data is used and also become part of a community of practical European destinations for smart tourism.
'Smart Tourism Destinations' is an initiative of the European Commission to support EU cities in facilitating access to tourism and hospitality products and services through technological innovation. The selected EU cities through this process will learn how to implement innovative digital solutions to make tourism sustainable and accessible, making full use of their cultural heritage and creativity to improve the tourism experience.
In particular, the pilot project will focus on how EU cities can adopt data-driven approaches to become or improve as smart tourist destinations involving a large number of stakeholders, including policy makers, the private sector, professional and academic researchers.
The first acquaintance of the 50 European destinations took place online, while the project officially started in early June.
