Vol. 2 No. 2 (2025)

Volume 2, Issue 2 of the SCRD-OAP Preprints gathers interdisciplinary work that treats “smart cities” as a long-term development project where technology must be matched by robust institutions, sound financing, and social trust. A central cluster focuses on urban mobility and infrastructure transformation, ranging from an applied vision for reimagining Bucharest’s Central Station through public–private partnership and air-rights development, to systems-level discussions of AI-IoT integration for smart mobility, and practical computer-vision monitoring aimed at improving safety in public transport environments. A second line of inquiry addresses governance capacity: studies examine how transparency, auditing, and accountable local self-government shape smart-city outcomes, and how citizens evaluate e-governance service effectiveness, including under crisis conditions such as the COVID-19 period. The issue also expands beyond the city core to regional and societal effects, considering geopolitical and social drivers of digital economic policy, tourists’ perceptions of environmental sustainability in a coastal urban setting (Durrës), and the human-capital dimension – how AI may reshape labor markets and inequality over the next decade, alongside reflections on the purposes of education in a digital era. Taken together, the preprints argue for a pragmatic synthesis: innovation is valuable, but durable progress depends on planning, public accountability, and competencies that allow technology to serve genuine urban and regional needs.

Published: 2025-12-15

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