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This article discusses issues related to the use of new technologies in local communication on the example of selected Polish cities. It will discuss the tools used by local authorities in the process of local communication with residents and entrepreneurs, aimed at increasing their participation in the local decision-making process. The study will focus on tools for empowering residents and increasing civic participation in cities. Based on an analysis of documents, interviews with representatives of city authorities (officials, councilors) and residents, using the IDI method, an attempt will be made to analyze the effectiveness of particular tools used by officials. On this basis, the authors formulate conclusions and recommendations for the future on the selection of the most effective tools used in local communication with residents. The aim of this paper is not only to diagnose the current use of the smart city concept in Poland, but also to create a forecast of its use in the coming years.

There is an ongoing discussion on tools that can lead to sustainable tourism, as well as attempts to implement them. In the selection of tools, the attitudes of residents – local stakeholders and their degree of acceptance of such tools should be analysed and taken into account. Some cause conflicts, and hence, the purpose of this study is the comparative analysis of three cities (Prague, Krakow and Braga).

Analysis of the basic types of conflicts was conducted using the division proposed by Moore. The research was conducted among residents – experts representing the tourism sector. Based on the literature review, three hypotheses were formulated. Statistical tests were used to analyse the results.

The results showed a strong impact of the conflict of information and the interests of those dependent on the degree of development of the city’s tourist function. It was established that in the process of achieving sustainable tourism, to minimize conflicts, the following are necessary: paying attention to communication and the involvement of local communities, creating attractions that benefit both residents and visitors, measuring and monitoring tourist traffic, supporting initiatives for new tourist offers and initiating discussions on development problems, and setting common goals for all residents.

The research was conducted during the pandemic and is based on the opinions of experts indicated by the city authorities. While the attitudes of the inhabitants towards the development of tourism were recognized in earlier studies, the awareness of tourists and their readiness to accept limitations related to respecting the needs of the inhabitants were not examined. This aspect may be an interesting direction for further research. A limitation of this research is the small scope of the study, caused both by the restrictions in force during the research period (related to the COVID-19 pandemic) and also by the inability to conduct in-depth interviews with experts. It should also be noted that among the experts participating in the research were tourist entrepreneurs directly interested in rebuilding tourism after the pandemic. Due to this, their opinions may have been biased, but there is no way to prove or disprove this. However, the answers gathered were considered collectively; therefore, the opinions obtained were considered to be objective. Attempts to balance tourism so far have focused mainly on limiting the access of tourists to attractions and tourist areas and introducing (or increasing) admission fees. It is still too early to assess the effectiveness of such tools, hence the lack of scientific analyses of implemented tourism policies.

The role and tasks of institutions managing tourism in cities will probably also change, in particular, so-called destination management organizations. The current declarations indicate the need to respect inhabitants and take measures to limit conflicts arising in the context of the development of the tourist function. However, there is no empirical evidence of the positive results achieved.

The results will allow the implementation of tourism balancing tools that are accepted by the local community.

The selection of the historical cities and the posing of a research problem based on the same tool allowed for comparative inference. The results can help shape tourism management in cities and the choice of tools for their sustainable development.

关于实现可持续旅游的工具以及运用这些工具的尝试始终是学界热议的话题。 在选择工具时, 应当分析和考虑居民和当地利益相关者的态度以及他们对工具的接受程度, 因为有些会引起冲突。基于此, 本文的目的是对三个城市（布拉格、克拉科夫、布拉加）的居民-当地利益相关者冲突进行比较分析。

本文采用摩尔提出的划分方法对冲突的基本类型进行了分析。 该研究是在居民——代表旅游部门的专家中进行的。文章基于文献综述提出了三个假设, 并 使用统计测试来分析结果。

结果表明, 信息冲突和利益冲突的强烈影响取决于城市旅游功能的发展程度。在实现可持续旅游的过程中, 为了尽量减少冲突, 有必要采取以下措施：注重当地社区的参与和沟通, 创造有利于居民和游客双方的景点, 测量和监测旅游流量, 支持旅游产品创新并发起针对发展问题的讨论, 同时为所有居民设定共同目标。

本文选择历史名城作为案例地, 加之基于同一工具提出的研究问题, 使得本研究具备用于比较推断的条件。 研究结果有助于塑造城市的旅游管理以及引导可持续发展工具的选择。

Hay un debate en curso sobre las herramientas que pueden conducir al turismo sostenible, así como los intentos de implementarlas. En la selección de herramientas, se deben analizar y tener en cuenta las actitudes de los residentes – agentes interesados locales y su grado de aceptación de dichas herramientas. Algunas provocan conflictos, de ahí que el objetivo de este artículo sea el análisis comparativo de tres ciudades (Praga, Cracovia, Braga).

El análisis de los tipos básicos de conflictos se realizó utilizando la división propuesta por Moore. La investigación se llevó a cabo entre residentes, expertos que representan el sector turístico. A partir de la revisión de la literatura se formularon tres hipótesis. Se utilizaron pruebas estadísticas para analizar los resultados.

Los resultados mostraron un fuerte impacto del conflicto de información y los intereses de quienes dependen del grado de desarrollo de la función turística de la ciudad. Se estableció que en el proceso de lograr un turismo sostenible, para minimizar los conflictos es necesario: prestar atención a la comunicación y a la implicación de las comunidades locales, crear atractivos que beneficien tanto a los residentes como a los visitantes, medir y monitorear el tráfico turístico, apoyar iniciativas de nuevas ofertas turísticas e iniciar debates sobre los problemas de desarrollo, y establecer objetivos comunes para todos los residentes.

La selección de las ciudades históricas y el planteamiento de un problema de investigación basado en la misma herramienta permitieron realizar una inferencia comparativa. Los resultados pueden ayudar a configurar la gestión del turismo en las ciudades y la elección de herramientas para su desarrollo sostenible.

This chapter describes the present state and the trends in the Polish information and communications technology (ICT) sector, which today is considered to be one of the most progressively developing part of the national economy. Special attention is given to economic background, ICT employment and governmental policy. Some forecasts for future development were also proposed.

The purpose of this chapter is to present the background, dynamics and future trends in the Polish ICT sector.

The statistical data (Statistics Poland, Eurostat), market reports and scientific articles were analysed. Microsoft Excel and QGIS software was used to analyse the data and visualise the results.

Polish ICT market has stable fundaments, good infrastructure, qualified workers and a good location. Despite the developed infrastructure, e-commerce and e-administration usage is relatively low compared to the average level of EU27. The Polish ICT market specialises in software implementation, IT outsourcing and computer game development. The Polish ICT market development is associated with cloud computing, outsourcing, e-commerce, cybersecurity, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and Industry 4.0. Poland is also in the top 10 countries for IT outsourcing worldwide, with the leading ICT centers in Warsaw, Cracow and Wrocław.

The growth of the ICT sector was (is) supported also by central programmes and government strategies: Operational Programme Digital Poland, Digital Competence Development Program and Cybersecurity Strategy. In the last 2 years, the development of ICT was also boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Market reports and forecasts show that the sector's future development will be related to artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0 and data analytics and financed by private business and central government contracts. The increase in remote work will also be significant.

In the context of debates on the role of social partners in shaping anti-crisis policies, the article explores the developments of social dialogue in Poland following the outbreak of the pandemic. The central research question is whether the crisis has helped to revitalise social dialogue or has it further revealed its weaknesses that were apparent before it.

The paper is based on the combination of literature review and the analysis of primary data derived from 22 expert interviews with the representatives of trade unions, employers and ministries collected in 2020–2021 in four essential industries (education, health care, social care and logistics).

The analysis suggests that the pandemic led to reinforcement of “illusory corporatism” in Poland, deepened mistrust among social partners and triggered a shift to informal channels of influencing policymaking. The weakness of the social partners and the strong position of the right-wing populist government meant that fears of recession and a health crisis were insufficient to develop “crisis” corporatism. While business interests were represented better than labour in policymaking, limited labour-friendly outcomes have been achieved as a result of workers’ mobilisation and unilateral decisions of the government rather than tripartite social dialogue.

Based on original empirical research, the article contributes to the discussion on the impact of the crisis on social dialogue under patchwork capitalism. It points to the role of strong governments and informality in circumventing tripartite structures and the importance of essential workers’ mobilisation in response to the lack of social dialogue.

The cities are distinctly engine of economic growth, which depends upon speed at which innovations are brought out and trigger entrepreneurship. Smart city initiatives are one of the opportunities to unleash innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries like India. Entrepreneurial ecosystem research in smart cities is still in its nascent phase. Therefore, the study aims to bring out elements for a start-up ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship in smart cities.

Focus group discussion has been applied to gain a variety of insights and opinion from selected participants with diverse expertise.

The study proposes a framework for developing a start-up ecosystem in smart city. The findings suggest the technology infrastructure along with the elements of start-up framework as knowledge hub, public policy, entrepreneurship and city economy.

The study does not show the impact of smart city strategies over an extended period.

A robust entrepreneurial framework usually impact on utilization of technologies for economic activities and regional development. The innovators, policymakers, city administrators, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and various stakeholders in society will get benefit from the outcomes of this study.

The evolution of smart cities is a social initiative with various stakeholders –such as governments, residents, businesses and entrepreneurs. The creation of start-up ecosystem in smart cities requires several levels of interventions such as new programs and institutional reforms.

The research explores pillars and constituents that describe a start-up ecosystem in smart cities and nurtures a collaborative culture of innovations and entrepreneurship.

With rapid urbanization, cities are facing various ecological and environmental problems. Living in harmony with nature is more important than ever. This paper aims to evaluate the ecosystem and ecological features of Azheke village, a key component of the Hani Rice Terraces World Cultural Heritage in China. The focus is on exploring effective ways to improve the relationship between humans and the natural environment through urban design in order to create a livable and sustainable city that can promote the development of sustainable smart urban ecology design.

This study conducted a systematic literature review to answer the following research questions: (1) How does Azheke design achieve harmony between humans and nature? (2) What are the effective approaches to improve the relationship between humans and nature within urban ecosystems? (3) How can urban design learn and integrate from Azheke’s ecological features to improve the relationship between humans and nature?

Azheke sustains long-term human-nature harmony through traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and efficient natural resource use. By incorporating biophilic design and nature-based solutions from Azheke, along with biodiversity-friendly urban planning, we can boost urban ecosystem health and create unique Azheke-inspired urban designs.

This research primarily focuses on the human-nature relationship, exploring design strategies based on biodiversity without delving into the interactions between other components of urban ecosystems, such as social-cultural and economic components.

This paper provides a new perspective and strategies for developing sustainable and smart urban ecology design. These findings can provide theoretical references for urban planners, designers and decision-makers.

Modern human society has continuous advancements that have a negative impact on the quality of the air. Daily transportation, industrial and residential operations churn up dangerous contaminants in our surroundings. Addressing air pollution issues is critical for human health and ecosystems, particularly in developing countries such as Egypt. Excessive levels of pollutants have been linked to a variety of circulatory, respiratory and nervous illnesses. To this end, the purpose of this research paper is to forecast air pollution concentrations in Egypt based on time series analysis.

Deep learning models are leveraged to analyze air quality time series in the 6th of October City, Egypt. In this regard, convolutional neural network (CNN), long short-term memory network and multilayer perceptron neural network models are used to forecast the overall concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and particulate matter 10 µm in diameter (PM₁₀). The models are trained and validated by using monthly data available from the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency between December 2014 and July 2020. The performance measures such as determination coefficient, root mean square error and mean absolute error are used to evaluate the outcomes of models.

The CNN model exhibits the best performance in terms of forecasting pollutant concentrations 3, 6, 9 and 12 months ahead. Finally, using data from December 2014 to July 2021, the CNN model is used to anticipate the pollutant concentrations 12 months ahead. In July 2022, the overall concentrations of SO₂ and PM₁₀ are expected to reach 10 and 127 µg/m³, respectively. The developed model could aid decision-makers, practitioners and local authorities in planning and implementing various interventions to mitigate their negative influences on the population and environment.

This research introduces the development of an efficient time-series model that can project the future concentrations of particulate and gaseous air pollutants in Egypt. This research study offers the first time application of deep learning models to forecast the air quality in Egypt. This research study examines the performance of machine learning approaches and deep learning techniques to forecast sulfur dioxide and particular matter concentrations using standard performance metrics.

This study aims to propose resident-based brand equity models on green, creative and smart development themes through a multi-sample telephone survey on Hong Kong residents (n = 751).

This research adopted a quantitative approach with a round of questionnaire-based survey carried out anonymously on adult citizens who have stayed in Hong Kong for more than one year. Telephone survey was performed by a professional survey research centre with trained interviewers between May and July 2022.

The study identifies the magnitude of these city brand equity attributes and reconfigured their composition under separate samples of Hong Kong residents. The results reveal the relatively stronger brand equity for developing Hong Kong as a smart city brand compared with green and creative branding.

The research findings might carry a major limitation of varied interpretations and stereotypes of each city theme (green, creative and smart) by local residents. To minimize the expected bias, two core questions were added to provide respondents with information on each theme before the main survey questions. The questions’ wording was also simplified to ensure the constraint and inconsistency of layman effect.

The common attributes across the themes, including distinctiveness, uniqueness, confidence, positive image, liveability, long-term residence, feature familiarity and top-of-mind, indicate the most prominent aspects of brand equity formation and enhancement. Since urban sustainability does not follow a single path of strategies and infrastructure development, city brand process should also follow a selective approach, which clearly identifies a multiplicity of local interests that could create the best outcomes and the strongest brand equity for the city.

The factor allocation and regression analysis elucidate different configurations of the determining factors with a three-factor model for green city brand equity and two-factor models for the other ones. The findings encore some previous studies supporting the differentiation between common attributes and distinctive attributes, and the overlapping approach to unleash the strongest integration of attributes of brand equity.

High-speed railway (HSR) substantially affects tourism development, but this impact remains somewhat controversial. This study aims to explore the HSR–tourism nexus from the perspective of Chinese local governance. In the context of promotion tournament model in China, this study attempts to explain such controversy by including local leaders.

Based on a data set from 25 cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta region during 2005–2019, this study uses a panel data regression model to examine local leaders’ moderating role in the HSR–tourism nexus.

The tenure of local leaders has a significant moderating role in the impact of HSR implementation on tourism development. Furthermore, a shorter leaders’ tenure strengthens the boost to tourism development from HSR service.

This paper enriches theoretical framework of leaders’ tournament theory. In addition, this study provides a new perspective to understand the HSR–tourism nexus better. This study identifies the moderating role of local leaders in the HSR–tourism nexus and expands the mechanism research of HSR–tourism nexus, which helps to explain the controversy of the HSR–tourism nexus.

高速铁路（HSR）对旅游业的发展有很大的影响, 但这种影响仍有一定的争议性。本研究从中国地方治理的角度探讨了高铁-旅游之间的关系。在中国晋升锦标赛模式的背景下, 本研究试图通过将地方领导纳入其中来解释这种争论。

基于2005-2019年中国长江三角地区25个城市的数据集, 我们利用面板数据回归模型来研究地方官员在高铁-旅游关系中的调节作用。

地方官员的任期在高铁开通对旅游业发展的影响中起着重要的调节作用。此外, 较短的官员任期会加强高铁连通对旅游业发展的促进作用。

本文丰富了官员锦标赛理论的理论框架。此外, 我们的研究为更好地理解高铁与旅游的关系提供了一个新的视角。我们确定了地方领导人在高铁-旅游关系中的调节作用, 拓展了高铁-旅游关系的机制研究, 有助于解释高铁-旅游关系的争论。

El tren de alta velocidad (TAV) afecta sustancialmente al desarrollo del turismo, pero este impacto sigue siendo algo controvertido. Este estudio explora el nexo entre el TAV y el turismo desde la perspectiva de la gobernanza local china. En el contexto del modelo de torneo de promoción en China, este estudio intenta explicar dicha controversia incluyendo a los líderes locales.

Basándonos en un conjunto de datos de 25 ciudades de la región china del delta del río Yangtze durante el periodo 2005-2019, utilizamos un modelo de regresión de datos de panel para examinar el papel moderador de los líderes locales en el nexo entre el TAV y el turismo.

El mandato de los líderes locales tiene un papel moderador significativo en el impacto de la implementación del TAV en el desarrollo del turismo. Además, un mandato más corto de los líderes refuerza el impulso al desarrollo turístico del servicio de TAV.

Este trabajo enriquece el marco teórico de la teoría del torneo de líderes. Además, nuestro estudio proporciona una nueva perspectiva para entender mejor el nexo entre el TAV y el turismo. Identificamos el papel moderador de los líderes locales en el nexo TAV-Turismo y ampliamos la investigación del mecanismo de dicho nexo, lo que ayuda a explicar la controversia del nexo.