The University of Valencia and the Modernization Service of the Provincial Council of Valencia have created the Chair of Intelligent and Sustainable Territories, a space dedicated to research and development of solutions for the promotion of sustainability and territorial intelligence. The chair was born with the direct objective of promoting digital transformation in the rural environment.
The expansion of new technologies and the concept of smartcities have gone beyond the scope of large cities. Increasingly, medium and small municipalities are looking for the implementation of innovative and sustainable solutions that improve the welfare of their inhabitants. In this sense, the University of Valencia (UV), through the Institute of Robotics and Information and Communication Technologies (IRTIC), located in the University of Valencia Science Park, and the Provincial Council of Valencia - entities that have been collaborating for years - have just strengthened their relationship with the creation of the new Chair of Intelligent and Sustainable Territories.
The objective is to address the contemporary challenges of cities and territories, promoting an integrated approach that combines technology, citizen participation and sustainable resource management.
Through this chair directed by Juan José Martínez Durá, professor of the Department of Computer Science at the UV and researcher responsible for the LISITT group (Integrated Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Traffic Information Technologies) in the IRTIC, the University of Valencia and the Provincial Council of Valencia seek to generate knowledge applicable to improving the quality of life of people in the territories they inhabit.
The Chair, which stands as a bridge between the academic world and public administrations, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and the implementation of effective policies, will carry out training, dissemination and technological consultancy activities in the field of intelligence and territorial sustainability.
It is worth mentioning the promotion of the Connecta-Valencia platform among the municipalities of the province, a service of the Provincial Council of Valencia that integrates data from sensors installed in the municipalities, incorporating meteorological information, mobility, air quality, parking or noise index, among other data; offering integrated information through dashboards, providing tools for data analysis and allowing the export of the information collected through an open data portal.
Among the goals of the new chair is also the identification of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators, to be applied within the territory of the province of Valencia, in order to assess progress towards the creation of sustainable cities and territories.