Prospering, serving, greening cross-border urban areas

Gyula is a border town of nearly 28000 inhabitants and a district centre of 42000 people. A significant part of our management tasks is carried out by the Gyula Microregion Association. We provide smart city services, but the local governments do not have their own digital, data-driven task management. The development of Gyula is helped by the discovery of thermal water and its strong position in tourism, which helped it through the industrial and economic downturn following the regime change. Located on the Romanian border, Gyula is traditionally a peripheral area. There is a high level of commuting and daily work in Romania. The cross-border mobility development is hampered by unfavourable transport conditions, sparse road border crossings and limited rail transport opportunities. In terms of environmental conditions, the district is classified as climate-sensitive, with a particularly high number of heatwave days, and climate models predict that average temperatures will continue to rise. There is a high risk of flooding mainly due to the riverside location. Another challenge is the migration of skilled professionals, young people and the lack of labour in the agricultural sector. The main objectives of our Sustainable Functional Urban Area Strategy are: reducing emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change at the district level, improving transport systems, developing a pedestrian and cycling guidance system, improving data management, increasing the efficiency of urban management, improving the distribution of tasks within the association of the micro-region, and launching network improvements through regional cooperation. Our partners are civil and economic organisations of the city region, higher education institution and digital development company. We are happy to join other cities in testing good practices and sharing our own development experiences.
Contacts: Andrea Timár email: timara@gyula.hu Vilja Vaszócsik email:vilja.vaszocsik@itihungary.hu