Urban Talk: Smart Territories

An in-person Green Urban meeting dedicated to smart territories was held in Astana. During the meeting, participants discussed the role of a “smart” urban environment, resident safety, and solutions already being implemented by integrators, along with their impact. In a lively discussion format, committee members and invited guests shared their views on pressing and widely discussed urban topics.

Special attention was given to the regulation of new modes of transport that are becoming increasingly popular among the population — bicycles, electric scooters, and others.

In her remarks, moderator Yulia Konstantinovna Yakupbayeva highlighted the problems facing cities’ transport infrastructure: regular traffic jams, overcrowded public transport, a shortage of parking spaces, elevated air pollution and smog, public transport and pedestrian spaces that fail to meet international standards for inclusive environments, and outdated park and pedestrian infrastructure.

Vitaliy Pustovoytenko, IT architect at the Astana Center for Sustainable Development, also spoke, addressing the issue of walkable access to city services for residents — including access to medical care, public transport, and matters of urban safety.

Other speakers echoed these themes — Dmitry Panchenko, Commercial Director of TargetAI, and Anna Nosova, Director of the design and consulting agency Prostor.

Meeting participants discussed a wide range of pressing questions:

• Why don’t cities have a Transport Accessibility Strategy?
• Why are bus stops turning into “transport hubs,” with some stops in the capital serving up to 20 routes?
• Why is a good developer not a guarantee of quality of life?
• How is pedestrian safety connected to the way our roads are designed?

The result of this lively discussion was a set of proposals that will be submitted to the Akim of Astana.

We see strong interest in the development of urban infrastructure and the improvement of quality of life, both among city residents and the professional community. We invite everyone to join Green Urban — a community of people who care and who are changing the face of our cities!

To join the community, follow the link: https://greenurban.kz/page31901667.html