Speaker Bio & Abstract

Marino Cavallo Head of Research & Innovation
City of Bologna
Italy

BiographyMarino Cavallo has a relevant experience in the economic sector and he developped many analysis and studies about the relations between social and economic issues (considering the role of ICT technology and New Media). He worked for over 20 years in Local and Territorial Authorities in Italy. In this period he achieved knowledge and experiences about public administration, innovation processes, projects to stimulate local and regional development. Moreover he started successful activities for the managing of European Projects and Programmes of interregional cooperation between the different countries of EU. Marino is Head of the Department Research, Innovation and Managment of EU Projects in the Metropolitan City of Bologna (Italy). During the last ten years he was Adjunct professor in the University of Bologna (IT) and University of Ferrara. He delivered courses in Business administration, Economy, Sociology, Communication methodologies. He wrote over ten books (several of these publication are translated in english or in other european languages) and many articles and papers in scientific reviews. Among the latest books there are: “Projecting and promoting e-services”, “Green marketing and industrial areas”, “Macro Benchmarking Study. Pracitces in promoting sustainability in the SMEs and existing Gaps”, “Beyond Communication Society”. Finally, he is journalist and had collaborations with newspaper and academic and professional reviews. He delivered courses and speechs in important European Universities: Sorbonne (France), Charles University (Czech Republic), Leipzig (German), Lund (Sweden), etc. AbstractThe aim of the presentation is to underline the relations between smart cities and sustainability. There are new kind of smart cities with innovatives and emerging models oriented to improve the quality of life and the environmental quality. In this perspective an important role can play the new concept of nature based solutions. It's not only a way to create greener cities but also an opportunity to develop new services, redesign common spaces, restore neglected areas of the city.

Nature based solutions is a conceptual frame to boost participation, involvment of the citizens, cooperation for new project and initiatives at urban and metropolitan level. New technology and ICT are foundamental tools to support this kind of processes, especially intelligent ICT, Open data and network of interconnected Data bases.

There is a new emerging concept of “digital energy” in the cities and in smart cities. This idea is based on the add value of networking, decision support systems, cooperative technology in order to achive a better governance of the metropolis of the future.

A part of the speech will be devoted to present the experience of the Bologna area and the role of nature based solutions project to promote social cohesion, new enterprises, civic engament.