Smart Region Villach

Climate and environment protection, energy efficiency, resource management, sustainable enconomy are current topics, we have to deal with. Many strategy papers and funding programs of the european union, of Austria and Carinthia (like EU 20-20-20, energy masterplan of carinthia) show the topicality as well as goals and solution approaches. Thereby many topics matter: renewable energy, energy efficiency, mobility, recycling, ecological food, regional products and services, etc.

The city of Villch is already on the way to become a "Smart City" and has developed a proper strategy in the last years. Some projects are implemented successfully. The city and its 19 surrounding communities cooperate for 15 years and start with this project the creation of a smart region to solve the challenges of a sustainable development of the whole region. The project is a cooperation between "Stadt-Umland-Regionalkooperation Villach" and "Ressourcen Management Agentur GmbH" and is part of the LEADER-program, thus funded by the european union, the austrian government and the federal government of Carinthia.

Goals of the project are the development of a strategy for the region, consisting of a roadmap and a masterplan, thus goals for the region are determined. Thereby the main topis are environment, energy and resources.

The following activities are implemented:

The Collection of principals to show the initial situation and the potentials of the region in the area environment, energy and resources:

• enquiry and summary of existing information like best practice examples, dates, potentials and existing strategies (energy, population, mobility, ...).
• the development of a rough energy balance model of the region based on existing dates and informations as well as the calculation of scenarios based on the energy blance model.

Energy goals and roadmap:

• In a stakeholders process relevant players of the regional communities are developing common, long-ranging goals for the smart region Villach and planing the steps to reach these goals (roadmap).

Concept of implementation:

• In a stakeholders process relevant players of the regional communities are developing an action plan for the project region.