Our Mission
T3SH-City addresses the next generation of smart cities, embracing the challenge of creating communities that are simultaneously intelligent, safe, transparent, sustainable, and healthy. The project’s differentiating focus lies in its holistic and integrated approach, which is not limited to exclusively urban issues but extends to the peri-urban (urban-rural) context. The goal is to develop truly interconnected and resilient sub-ecosystems, promoting efficient management of urban and rural resources, infrastructure, and services. Our approach transcends traditional smart city models, which focus on data collection and analysis for pattern detection. Instead, we propose a self-aware model where urban and rural systems interact, recommend, learn, and evolve based on citizens’ needs and behaviors. This approach will enable improved resource efficiency, reduced ecological footprint, enhanced mobility, and enhanced safety and social inclusion. The coexistence of urban and rural areas requires technological solutions adaptable to low-density territories, ensuring universal accessibility, efficient mobility, and intelligent and inclusive infrastructure. The project focuses on the creation of autonomous and decentralized systems supported by technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, computer vision, and edge computing, allowing for more efficient and secure management of different natural and/or artificial resources in urban and rural environments. Another critical aspect is intelligent intermunicipality, fostering active collaboration between territories with different geographical and cultural characteristics.
T3SH-City is a multidisciplinary project that integrates the main areas related to smart cities: Technology, Engineering, Architecture, Management, Economics, and Health and Well-being. However, it focuses on specific and particular problems of peri-urban regions. By uniting different disciplines and skills, the project reinforces collaboration between sectors, creating an integrated and efficient model for the “truly” smart cities of the future, with a direct impact on urban management and the harmonious coexistence between urban and rural spaces. In this sense, and in the context of the interior region of Cova da Beira and the adjacent mountains, where the main promoter of the project is located, the following key areas were identified: Health and Wellbeing; Sustainability, Environment and Transportation; Water Resources Competence. These areas are interconnected and form the basis for the development of integrated and multidisciplinary sub-ecosystems that link the physical world to the digital world.
The Health and Wellbeing area focuses on technological solutions that monitor and improve the quality of life of citizens, as well as on intelligent solutions that recommend healthy habits and lifestyles that take advantage of the unique endogenous resources in the region. Sustainability, Environment and Transportation deal with accessibility and ecological sustainability, aiming to develop solutions to: monitor water supply and sanitation circuits and reuse of wastewater, air quality and noise; and manage, sustainably, transport and mobility infrastructures in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. The Water Resources Competence area deals with the efficient and sustainable management of water resources, applying innovative technologies and participatory methodologies for monitoring and valuing water. At the heart of this approach are communication and cloud computing technologies, Artificial Intelligence and Security, which connect all areas, creating truly smart and resilient cities.
In addition to research and development tasks, the project includes a real-world pilot lasting 8 months. The pilot will be conducted in the municipalities of Fundão, Covilhã, and Belmonte, which have already expressed interest in participating in the project through letters of comfort (attached to the application). This pilot allows testing and validating solutions in real-world scenarios. The objective is to ensure the effectiveness, adaptability, and scalability of developed technologies and systems, adjusting them to the specific needs of local communities. This project aims to boost territorial innovation by developing and implementing solutions that, when applied in real-world contexts, will generate market value and improve the quality of life in the Central region of the country. Through the implementation of smart and sustainable technologies, the aim is to promote economic development, territorial cohesion, and the resilience of local communities.
