Development of Rural Areas and Improving Their Resilience with Smart Solutions

Abstract

Rural development is increasingly demanding the use of advanced technologies as a growing number of new challenges must be solved. While the main tasks in cities are to develop the quality of life of a significant number of people and to solve increasingly complicated tasks, in rural areas – in many cases – aging, the migration of the youth and the more difficult access to services (and in many cases their higher costs) are the most important problems. Basic IT infrastructures are usually available in the most rural areas (e.g. broadband Internet access), and the cost of Internet-connected devices has fallen compared with decades ago, so in theory it is easy to access for everyone, but the existence of ‘hardware’ is sometimes accompanied by a lack of necessary ‘software’. I believe that one of the potential opportunities of rural areas can be the widespread use of smart solutions developed by densely populated areas but adaptable with inevitable modifications. In this study first I will examine the current situation of the ‘smart solutions’ in rural places and then I will discuss how such solutions can contribute to the development and resilience of rural areas.