Smart city idea and alleviation of the cities’ degradation

Every single generation tends to live in more and more hectic pace. This is why cities are also going through transformation processes more rapidly. There are many challenges ahead of the cities, not only due to the number, but also because of the pace of transformation processes, such as: high rate of emigration, loss of the competitiveness of cities, degradation of urban space and environment. Undoubtedly, without any integrated programs undertaken to alleviate symptoms of the degradation of cities, neither the improvement of inhabitants’ life quality nor the valuable urban space quality may be provided. There are numerous attempts to find the ‚remedy’ for contemporary cities. While being applied in a significant number of cities in Europe, the idea of smart city seems to be in the spotlight nowadays. This tendency brings up the question of what the term ‚smart city’ stands for. A ‚smart city’ would be compared to an intelligent city -the city which uses technological progress to serve its inhabitants. The most vital aspect of smart city is synergy of six basic factors adding up to the global image of a city: social, administrative and cultural conditioning; economy, living conditions, intelligent technologies and intelligent mobility. The combination of all mentioned above elements enables effective and continued growth of a particular city. Thanks to both intelligent governance of public space, infrastructure and transportation; and high awareness of the society the smart city idea ensures not only competitive but also sustainable growth of a city. The article poses a question of what means should be utilized to implement changes to effectively make a city smart. The article presents the analysis of three cities: Vienna, Zurich and Cracow.