Ljubjana “The Dragon City”
Ljubljana is the capital city of Slovenia, this beautiful city is located in between the Alps and the Karst. Ljubljana is an important cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative centre in Slovenia.
In the course of history the city has been hit with several earthquakes, leading to the city being rebuilt several times. Ljubljana’s key landmark is the Ljubljana Castle, the castle is also depicted on the city’s coat of arms along with a dragon. Ljubljana’s main square is Preseren Square. This is where the Fransciscan Church of the Annunciation with its magnificent red walls is located. Ljubljana is a green city and has many parks, the Tivoli City Park being the largest. The Ljubljana Botanical Garden is the oldest cultural, scientific, and educational organization in the country. Ljubljana is extremely active in the cultural sector. The city organizes 10 000 cultural events each year, ranging from special exposition, operas en plays.
Economy
Ljubljana has a thriving pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and food processing industry. Being the capital of Slovenia the city attracts many tourists each year, which also contributes to the local economy.
Future Goals and Interests
Since the creation of “Ljubljana 2025 vision” in 2007 the city has made many efforts to reach these goals. Their hard work has paid off, as the city received the European green Capital name in 2016. This is the highest recognition in the field of sustainable development a city can get. Ljubljana has taken some steps in order to become more user friendly.
The city has developed several apps for visitors and habitants to use. The Tap Water Ljubljana app was created to help find the different water fountains in the city. Ljubljana by wheelchair is an app that was specially created for people with reduced mobility. This app aims to make the city more accessible for wheelchair users. Ljubljana has improved the mobility in the city by introducing BicikeLJ, Kavalir, and Avant2Go.
BicikeLJ is a self-service bicycle rental that has been around since 2011. The Kavalir, literally “gentle helpers”, are small electric vehicles in the centre of Ljubljana. These vehicles are mostly meant for visitors, senior citizens and people with reduced mobility. They are also completely free of charge. Avant2Go is an electric car sharing system. Ljubljana is a pioneer in terms of electronic paper technology. The city wants to get rid of as much paper services as possible. They already replaced paper bus schedules with e-signs. These signs will later also replace paper billboards. These digital billboards will make it easier for the municipality to put up the latest news. These e-signs run on sustainable sources and don’t cause light pollution.
In addition to these initiatives Ljubjana maintains the portal URBinfo, which is a portal that integrates most of the spatial information, most important being the conditions for urban planning of areas/individual plots. And also the Citizens Initiatives Tool, a digital tool for citizens’ engagement and stakeholders’ involvement, with an efficient back-office system that combines submitted initiatives by phone, in person, by e-mail, via web and mobile applications and social networks, and effective management within the city administration and public companies and institutions. An average of around 3500 initiatives per 100,000 inhabitants each year are processed through this system (from 20-25 total daily). From the implementation of the tool in 2008, 36207 initiatives were received and managed through this tool. All the initiatives are published online, alongside with the answer and solution from the City of Ljubljana.
