Village 4.0: Digitalization of village with smart internet of things technologies

In each country, rural areas cover the bulk of available land; however, they generally remain outside the mainstream of innovative development processes. Still, they have potential and are vital for implementing the highly valid concept of persistent and sustainable development. The idea of such growth can be implemented in many ways, and the smart development concept is one of these ways. The aim of this paper is to present the smart village concept as a means to achieve the sustainability and resilience of rural areas, relying on the analysis of basic theories of sustainable and persistent growth. The study examines and evaluates the state of the potential for the smart growth of rural areas in all regions of Poland, as well as presents the results of the empirical research on such potential in three regions of Eastern Poland. The smart growth potential of the regions in question was determined by means of 24 variables representing the following fields: management, life quality, economy, society, natural environment and mobility. It was concluded that the smart village concept can be useful in facilitating sustainable development of rural areas. Further research concerning the problem should in particular focus on strengthening the relations between rural communes with cities and towns in their close vicinity.

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The “Smart Village” as a Way to Achieve Sustainable Development in Rural Areas of Poland

Attention has shifted to the development of villages in Europe and other parts of the world with the goal of combating rural–urban migration, and moving toward self-sufficiency in rural areas. This situation has birthed the smart village idea. Smart village initiatives such as those of the European Union is motivating global efforts aimed at improving the live and livelihood of rural dwellers. These initiatives are focused on improving agricultural productivity, among other things, since most of the food we eat are grown in rural areas around the world. Nevertheless, a major challenge faced by proponents of the smart village concept is how to provide a framework for the development of the term, so that this development is tailored towards sustainability. The current work examines the level of progress of climate smart agriculture, and tries to borrow from its ideals, to develop a framework for smart village development. Given the advances in technology, agricultural development that encompasses reduction of farming losses, optimization of agricultural processes for increased yield, as well as prevention, monitoring, and early detection of plant and animal diseases, has now embraced varieties of smart sensor technologies. The implication is that the studies and results generated around the concept of climate smart agriculture can be adopted in planning of villages, and transforming them into smart villages. Hence, we argue that for effective development of the smart village framework, smart agricultural techniques must be prioritized, viz-a-viz other developmental practicalities.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/21/5977/pdf

Smart and Climate-Smart Agricultural Trends as Core Aspects of Smart Village Functions.

Highlighting the important role of rural development, this paper represents a review of rural policies. Data were generated, including a broad literature research and online survey on existing and future, post-2020 rural development policies. The survey was shared among project partners from six different EU Member States including eleven regions, all from the Alpine Space. The number of total policies covered in this review paper, together with policy projects, programs or actions, is 114. Based on these, key policy findings and future recommendations are provided, attributing to the future studies on this topic as well as for policymakers at the local, regional, national and EU levels.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1663/pdf

Smart Villages Policies: Past, Present and Future

Peripheral regions exist in most European countries, and in the countries of the European Union they have been supported for many years by the Community’s Cohesion Policy, which aims at reducing development disparities between the Member States and regions within individual countries. In Poland, five out of sixteen voivodeships in the country are considered to be peripheral regions. They are located on Poland’s eastern border, which is also the eastern border of the European Union. Support programmes for these regions have attained the status of separate operational programmes, focusing on generating convergence effects, which can be achieved by increasing the level of innovation and implementing intelligent ways of operating the economy. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the essence of peripherality and the innovative-development potential of peripheral regions in Poland, as well as the potential of smart rural development. The paper is based on an analysis of research results drawn from the literature on the subject, as well as from official information and statistics. Own research on the smart village concept in three regions of Eastern Poland was also used. This research showed a reduction in disproportions in the development of regions in Poland, and a link between the level of innovation and the economic growth of the regions, which occurred with a certain lag in relation to the transfer of innovation.

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/3/188/pdf

The Potential for Innovative and Smart Rural Development in the Peripheral Regions of Eastern Poland

The European Union is actively promoting the idea of “smart villages”. The increased uptake of new technology and in particular, the use of the internet, is seen as a vital part of strategies to combat rural decline. It is evident that those areas most poorly connected to the internet are those confronted by the greatest decline. The analysis in this paper is based on Poland, which at the time of EU accession had many deeply disadvantaged rural areas. Using fine-grained socio-economic data, an association can be found between weak internet access and rural decline in Poland. The preliminary conclusions about the utility of the smart village concept as a revitalisation tool for rural Poland point to theoretical and methodological dilemmas. Barriers to the concept’s implementation are also observed, although there is a chance they may be overcome with the continued spread of information and communication technologies in rural areas.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/5/151/pdf

Smart Villages: Where Can They Happen?

The paper aims to identify the significant heterogeneity of socio-economic rural development in Poland by identifying different types of rural areas and clarifying the existing diversity. This objective requires the following: (1) defining the rural development in Polish conditions, (2) abandoning the urban–rural continuum concept, and (3) conducting an analysis involving data aggregated from the local administrative units (2173 gminas/communes). The approach is exploratory and is limited to two questions elaborating the main problem related to the scale and character of rural variety: What socio-economic types of rural area are found in Poland? How are they distributed spatially? The statistical procedure is based on Diday’s dynamic clouds typological analysis. This yielded seven types of rural areas that exhaust their diversity. The main indicator of the character of the different types is related to the level of deagrarianisation of the local economy. The authors argue that the a priori urban–rural continuum model should be abandoned in favour of a more open approach. Typologies based on local administrative unit data, which avoid a priori assumptions concerning rurality, provide an excellent insight into the heterogeneity of rural areas.

The Socio-Economic Heterogeneity of Rural Areas: Towards a Rural Typology of Poland

This paper determines the extent to which rural areas in Poland have been beneficiaries of the EU’s Cohesion Policy (CP). The amount of funds allocated to rural areas at the local (gmina/commune) level as part of the total CP obtained by Poland from 2007 to 2018 was estimated. The spatial distribution of that allocation was then determined. Whether the level of absorption is linked to the separately computed rural development level in communes was examined. This then made it possible not just to determine the spatial pattern of the absorption of CP funds but also to identify the main social and economic correlates of their high levels of absorption. It was found that nearly 40% of CP funds for Poland were allocated to rural areas, inhabited by 40% of the country’s population. However, this seemingly balanced allocation was somewhat undermined by its spatial distribution: the highest absorption was reported in over a third of communes with a high level of development while it was also found in less than a fifth of communes with a low level of development. Communes with higher levels of absorption have a more favourable local budget situation and a high degree of deagrarianisation of their local economies. The absorption level is more highly correlated with the variables characterising the extent to which an agricultural area has turned into a multifunctional area than with a commune’s absorptive capacity.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/1/26/pdf

The Spatial Pattern of the Absorption of Cohesion Policy Funds in Polish Rural Areas

The project titled "Rural Development Monitoring" is a multiannual research endeavor, implemented within the European Fund for the Development of Polish Villages and the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development at the Polish Academy of Sciences. The aim of the project is constant observation of socio-economic changes taking place in rural areas in Poland. The first stage of the research identifies the spatial differentiation of economic and social phenomena in Poland as well as defines their structures and levels as of 2010. The socio-economic development here is understood as a certain shape of economic structures which allows generating satisfactory income and meeting rising community development needs at the very local level. Community participation, better access to education and public services or higher standards of living, etc. are of the same importance. Meeting both social and economic needs makes rural areas a good place of living. The level of meeting the needs can be identified with the certain level of reached development. The data set consists of over 120 thousand information obtained from state institutions, as well as from surveys conducted in 2173 municipal offices.

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Monitoring rozwoju obszarów wiejskich. Etap IV. Synteza

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Łukasz Komorowski

Papers

Smart Villages: Where Can They Happen?

The Socio-Economic Heterogeneity of Rural Areas: Towards a Rural Typology of Poland

The Spatial Pattern of the Absorption of Cohesion Policy Funds in Polish Rural Areas

Monitoring rozwoju obszarów wiejskich. Etap IV. Synteza

The smart village concept. Examples from Poland