Apart from being the capital of Bulgaria’s southern Black Sea Coast and a paradise for tens of thousands of Bulgarian and foreign tourists, apart from being one of the best Bulgarian cities to live (according to a national annual ranking), Burgas is about to establish itself as the most technological city in Bulgaria. Thanks to its innovative urban management systems, the port city has deservedly become part of the global family of the so-called smart cities.

The digital brain of the city - this is how the citizens of Burgas call one of their most useful benefits - the interactive platform smartburgas. It aims to facilitate access to any kind ofinformation related to urban environment. Thus, everyone in Burgas can check the air quality in real time with just one click or where to find a free parking space in the central part of the city. The entire information is collected in one place and is quick and easy to find. Moreover, it is available in Bulgarian, English and Russian.

It turns out that tourists, as well as permanent residents of the city are among the platform’sregular users. People can find any kind of information related to culture, recreation and entertainment. They can also check where there is an open pharmacy, how to rent a free warehouse space, etc. The smart city model is applied in a number of European cities. The intelligent platform used in Burgas is based on models developed in London, Lisbon and Milan.

The coastal city is now passing on its experience to cities like Izmir and Vienna. Moreover, Burgas is so far the only Bulgarian city with the so-called digital brain.

"Burgas adopted an approach to unite all existing intelligent systems that manage different parts of urban life in one platform such as the paid parking managing system, the air quality monitoring system, the public transport management system, the system for video surveillance and ensuring the security of citizens and transport communications, etc. "- says Engineer Daniela Aleksieva - Manager of the Municipal Company "Innovative Systems Burgas" LTD.

Residents of Burgas can share their vision and give recommendations in a special module for consultations and surveys. Thus, they can be actively involved in urban planning and development processes.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the partial lockdown made tens of thousands of Burgas citizens look for answers to their questions in smartburgas such as the numbers of important hotlines, where they can find disinfectants, etc.

The platform has already published a mathematical model of the morbidity rates in the city, including how many people are currently placedunder mandatory quarantine.

"We have launched two new modules during the pandemic- information and educational. The information modulis about the measures adopted against the coronavirus pandemic. The educational module helps parents and teachers during distance learning - Engineer Aleksieva went on to say.

Smartburgas has a mobile version. For now, it is available only for Android phones, but will soon be uploaded in an iPhone version, the Burgas municipality announced.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

Photos: burgas.bg, smartburgas.eu