Analysis of the Implementation of Smart Cities Initiatives in Northeast Bulgaria’s Districts

2022 International Conference on Information Technologies (InfoTech-2022), Proceedings of the IEEE Conference, Rec # 55606 15-16 September 2022, Bulgaria Analysis of the Implementation of Smart Cities Initiatives in Northeast Bulgaria’s Districts Nikolay Tsonkov, Kamen Petrov Department of Regional Development, Faculty of Management and Administration University of National and World Economy, 19, December 8th str., 1700 Sofia, Bulgaria e-mail: n.tzonkov@unwe.bg, petrovkamen@abv.bg Abstract – Bulgarian municipalities’ smart development is the cornerstone for building regional innovative ecosystems. In this respect, the report presents the authors’ comparative analysis of the implementation of Smart City initiatives in Northeast Bulgaria’s Districts. The purpose of the research is to give an original approach to the evaluation of Smart cities’ building through ICT platforms incorporation. In the terms of a global digital economy and society need Bulgarian regions to improve WI-FI accessibility to meet Smart development challenges. For example, household access to the Internet in Northeast Bulgaria’s Districts has increased from 60% to over 80% for the period 2016 – to 2021. Currently, the Bulgarian state provides 348 electronic administrative services using the Unified Model for requesting, paying, and provision of electronic administrative services. Municipal administration provides 142 e-services. Last years the authors see an increase in Smart cities’ initiatives in major Northeast Bulgarian Districts. Keywords – E-government, E-services, municipalities, smart development, connectivity. I. INTRODUCTION The creation of appropriate conditions and an information environment is an important prerequisite for the long-term smart development of the Bulgarian regions. The key factor is the creation, introduction, and use of ICT. Modern ICT development predetermines smart city building. A smart city integrates modern information and communication technologies with urban systems’ management implementing intelligent solutions. IoT and wireless networks create conditions for intelligent data collection and management using Multi-Level Smart city architecture [1]. Smart city architecture’ building is due to smart city planning [2]. It is especially important for the researchers, working in computing-related disciplines to convert project works into quality publications and publish them in reputed journals [4]. In this sense, the choice of proper approaches and scientific methods and the way of constructing a publication content form the scientific value of work. In this respect, the research methodology includes an analysis of the development of e-services in the municipalities in the Northeast region in the context of a level of Smart city building. The analysis is performed based on criteria such as – the presence or absence of e-services; the possibility to order and pay for services electronically. The authors use analysis and synthesis, descriptive, statistical methods, and comparative analysis to evaluate the implementation of Smart City initiatives in major municipalities in Northeast Bulgaria’s Districts – Varna, 978-1-6654-6870-1/22/$31.00 2022 European Union Shumen, Targovishte, and Dobrich. The authors use good scientific practices in the research [3]. The authors compare the pointed cities by analysing statistical data on business and household access to the internet network, and e-services applications. II. SMART DEVELOPMENT THEORY FRAMEWORK Authors working in the field of ICT application outline the emergence and development of the concept of smart cities [5, 6]. The public authorities may use the smart city concept for the intelligent development of Bulgarian cities and local administrations in the direction of finding solutions to issues related to the violation of environmental components, urban growth, meeting energy needs, and reducing living and space. Authors such as Nam and Pardo look at the smart city in three main aspects: technology, population, and politics [7]. At the same time, Washburn focuses on the transformation of cities into intelligent systems with the help of intelligent computing technologies [8]. Another author, Caragliu focuses his research on smart cities in terms of increasing energy efficiency and achieving environmental sustainability in cities [9]. The concept of energy efficiency is related to rational urban systems management. In this respect, we must point out studies of different researchers in the field of smart city waste management systems using IoT technology [10]. IoT as a modern technology integrates different platforms in one system creating an elevated level of interconnectivity. The analysis of the technologies’ incorporation shows various applications of IoT. It improves processes in healthcare and mobility (classification of daily activities using smartphone sensor data) [11, 12]. A significant part of the smart cities’ development is cyber security, personal data protection, and information society formation. R. Romansky reviews the development of the contemporary information society based on the growing informatization of social processes and to systematize the main challenges for user’s privacy and personal data protection [13]. Batty identifies that a smart city combines information and communication technologies with traditional infrastructure integrated through new digital technologies [14]. We can also give an example, most of the adult population extensively uses the services of traditional municipal services, such as public transport, taxis, and government services. Therefore, solutions for a smart city simplify the process and improve the user experience, but do not require significant changes in the usual patterns of behaviour, they happen as popular as basic municipal services. Here we can emphasize that the research needs to have the appropriate methodological framework for collecting and evaluating data on the effect of e-government and the development of the Internet space. It is important to create conditions that allow people to benefit from online services and information. In the direction of the adequacy of the telecommunication infrastructure, ability of the human resources to use the information technologies, and availability of online services. It is also possible to analyse how effective the state institutions are in the involvement of the society in the process of policy formation at the national, regional, and local levels. In this direction, it is important to note and evaluate the level of increasing access to electronic services and the Internet throughout Eastern Bulgaria in the period 20162021. 30,0 25,0 20,0 15,0 10,0 III. ANALYSIS OF THE E-SERVICES OF THE MUNICIPALITIES IN THE NORTHEAST PLANNING REGION State Agency for Electronic Government has developed and implemented a model for requesting, paying, and provision of electronic administrative services. Currently, 348 electronic administrative services are provided through the Unified Model for requesting, paying, and provision of electronic administrative services, of which 142 are provided by municipal administration [15]. The services provided by municipal administrations are available through the Unified Portal for Access to Electronic Administrative Services in the section "Centralized application". The provided administrative services online by municipalities are regulated in Ordinance on the registers of the information objects and the electronic services [16]. The analysis of the electronic services provided by the municipalities in the region under consideration shows that we could outline several types of e-services. One is offered by the single portal for requesting and providing e-services to the central administration and the external territorial bodies. Other e-services are provided by the municipalities in the region. Here we can make distinctions according to the way they are provided. In one case they are provided as the applicant is identified by an electronic signature. Other e-services are provided freely. The municipalities are characterized by well-developed interfaces and portals. In practice, the activity of using smart solutions by citizens also depends on the management of city (urban systems) administration, whose role may range from prohibitive regulation to official maintenance and performance management. First, for the municipalities, it is necessary to set priority directions for development and to set a goal level of use of solutions. In this direction, an important condition is to reveal the potential of smart digital technologies. This can be done through a multifaceted analysis of the impact of various decisions on the city's economy, the speed of transport communications, and the health of citizens. In Bulgaria, people using the Internet for e-services has changed in recent years. There was a peak in services in 2012, then declining and rising again in recent years (Fig. 1). At the same time, there is a certain lag in the use of the Internet in The North-Eastern region, which is noted in the Integrated Territorial Strategy for the Development of the North-Eastern Region. We found that there is a division between urban and rural areas. Household access in cities is much larger than in rural areas, especially in peripheral areas. 5,0 0,0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Fig. 1. Persons using the Internet to interact with public institutions in the last twelve months in Bulgaria. Looking at household access to the Internet, we can conclude that the level is relatively high. From fig. 2 there is an increase from 2016 to 2021 from 60% to over 80%. In other words, it can be said that the technical provision in the Northeast region creates the necessary conditions for the formation of a digital economy and the introduction of egovernment in municipalities. 90,0 80,0 70,0 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Fig. 2. Household internet access in the Northeast region. According to the National Statistical Institute, the number of people using the Internet is gradually increasing in the region. In the period from 2016 to 2021, they increased from 60% to about 80%. Of course, this does not mean that people constantly interact and use e-services from the municipalities (Fig. 3). 80,0 70,0 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Fig. 3. People who use the Internet regularly (every day or at least once a week) in the Northeast region. 111 The intelligent development of the municipalities in the region under consideration covers various areas such as digital economy, smart education, and healthcare, egovernment and services, e-commerce, and others. As we can see from fig. 4 people who use the resources of the digital economy are few. In 2021, they increase to almost 40%. Therefore, the digital culture of the people living in this part of Bulgaria is still low. 12 10 8 6 4 2 50 0 2014 40 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 30 Fig. 6. Dynamics of e-services in Shumen municipality. 20 An important characteristic of the settlements around the town of Shumen is that they also show growth rates of the provided electronic services. There is a lag mainly in rural areas, where the quality of the Internet is lower than in the regional centre of Shumen. Within the Northeast region of Bulgaria, the best internet coverage and the provision of electronic services is in the city of Varna. It is important to note that Varna is the city where the population has been growing over the last 10 years and it is emerging as the largest district and the largest city in the Northeast region. Varna has an environment for providing electronic administrative services. For example, the water supply and sewerage sector allow complete digitalization. Compared to other major urban centres a wider range of administrative services (including electronic services) are offered. The analyses show that for the period 2014 - 2020 the electronic services in Varna have doubled (Fig. 7). 10 0 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Fig. 4. Persons who have purchased goods and services online for personal use in the last 12 months in the Northeast region. Based on this, we could conclude that the local population does not use e-services traditionally. Another question is to what extent e-services are provided by municipalities. The comparative analysis shows that in the last few years there has been a significant increase in the provision of eservices. We can find this in the municipality of Dobrich, which is the regional centre. For the period 2015 – 2020, there is a significant increase in e-services in the municipality (Fig. 5). In this regard, we can emphasize that based on the information provided by the municipal information portal of Dobrich, the municipality is associated with a single model for ordering, paying, and provision of electronic administrative services with developed and published 68 electronic forms for electronic administrative services. 12 10 8 6 12 4 10 2 8 0 2014 6 4 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Fig. 7. E-services in Varna for the period 2014-2020. 2 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 2020 Fig. 5. E-services dynamics in Dobrich municipality. The other regional town (Shumen) in this region is also characterized by a sharp increase in electronic services. For the period 2014 - 2021, they increase from 4 to over 10 points according to the Institute for Economic Policy. This is evident from fig. 6. The last regional centre is Targovishte. There is an increase in e-services, but less than in other major regional cities in the region. For the period 2014 – 2020, we observe an increase from 2 to 9 (Fig. 8). The slower pace of development of Internet access in Bulgaria gives the advantage of realized qualitatively and it is currently available in Bulgaria with almost 100% broadband. Thus, Bulgarian consumers receive services with quality over the EU average, as in most of the countries in the EU, the share of these high-speed connections is smaller or similar speeds are not available. 112 services. On the other hand, to attract a population, a better digital environment and services need to be created based on ICT platform development. In the pandemic, many workers moved to smaller settlements to live and work. In this context, the digitalization of the municipalities must continue, which will allow accessibility and connectivity in the evaluated districts. 10 8 6 4 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT The paper is financed by the UNWE. The report presents the results from the realization of the university scientific project NI 4/2021. 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 2020 Fig. 8. Change of e-services in Targovishte (2014-2020). Institute for economic policy. The provision of internet and electronic services in Bulgaria is relatively good in most urban areas. The more remote and sparsely populated places in the mentioned municipalities are characterized by some difficulties in their communication both socially and economically which isolated them from the social and cultural life in the country. In this direction, the state’s authorities must establish terms for incorporating the ICT into people’s life and implementing Smart city initiatives. This corresponds to the continuing process of providing access to online services for people living in poverty-populated and remote areas aims to overcome these trends and stimulate social cohesion. IV. CONCLUSION The development of electronic services in the municipalities in the Northeast Bulgarian region has been developing in recent years. At the same time, the authors’ observations show that the implementation of Smart City initiatives is running slowly. This is a paradox because Bulgaria is a state which is characterized by an extremely elevated level of internet accessibility. The number of eservices is increasing as in the observed municipalities we register an average estimation of 10 scores. This fact corresponds with an elevated level of internet coverage (over 80%). On the other side, the authors observe low digital culture which reflects a small percentage of the population (30%) in the region interacting electronically with public authorities and using intelligent platforms. Based on the analysis the authors distinguish three groups of municipalities according to the population, in which we observe different levels of e-services provided in the region. The first group is the regional centers, which differ in the availability of resources, larger population, more e-services, and various e-platforms at the service of citizens. This city’s group incorporates ICT successfully. The second group of municipalities is smaller but provides a sufficient number of e-services. The third group is the smallest municipalities in the region, which do not have a large population and this circumstance does not stimulate the development of eservices. Referring to the e-services to the population in the municipalities, we can conclude that the services are increasing per capita. But this fact is due to the sharp decline in the population in most municipalities. Also, the content of services and information must be in line with the interests of the population in these areas and services promoting the use of the Internet. 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