engleski

Smart cities: the analysis of ICT use in improving the quality of urban living

Due to a sloppy implementation of the development strategy Croatia is constantly falling behind the developed Western countries regarding the technology development. Namely, the IT experts sorted out the problems and proposed the first e-strategy but the majority of the proposed objectives have not been achieved yet due to a profound economic crisis and numerous other social and political factors. Although the digital economy features seven times larger growth rate than the traditional economy, its full potential has remained unused thanks to unevenly structured European political framework. Generally, European countries are still lagging behind other developed countries when the related and reliable networks are implied that in turn support economies and consequently our business and private lives. In the year of 2010, EU commenced a strategy based on which high rates of employment and productivity shall have been achieved by 2020. Five long-term objectives have been set accordingly concerning employment, innovations, education, social engagement and climate/energy. The member countries adopted their own national interests but all actions taken at the national levels have to support the strategy so that the set objectives are achieved. The objectives should lead to the development of new technologic, organizational and logistical solutions aimed at enhancing the quality of life and satisfaction of citizens. This paper analyses the use of the advanced ICT for the purpose of enhancing the quality of life and satisfaction of citizens. The basic idea of the whole strategy was to improve the quality of life in all of the cities (big and small) with minimal environmental costs, using ICT as a stronghold to all of the changes. The target group of the research comprises the citizens who are the users of e-business services and the ICT solutions of public companies controlled by their respective cities in the Republic of Croatia. The results of the research relate to an online research based on 20 closed type questions by means of which it is to be found out to which extent the citizens are familiar with the smart cities concept and whether the level of quality of life and satisfaction is higher when the citizens of smart cities are implied.

ICT ; E-business ; satisfaction ; quality ; smart cities ; smart solutions

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