Dubrovnik, HR

Dubrovnik is a Croatian city located on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia and has a population of approximately 42,000 inhabitants. As a protected site and popular tourist destination, the city of Dubrovnik intends to develop a model for sustainable regeneration preserving the integrity of the historic centre while involving local small scale industry and businesses.

Dubrovnik is a champion city in Croatia regarding the implementation of new technologies and innovations addressing current urban challenges such as pollution, energy consumption or traffic problems. The City of Dubrovnik in cooperation with its development agency DURA, has successfully implemented numerous projects in sustainable transport, energy efficiency and renewable energy generation over the past several years. Furthermore, the municipality is closely connected with academic partners such as specialised Faculties and Institutes, thus enabling the development and implementation of strategies and action plans to promote the sustainable development of the city.

Among these action plans, the SEAP (Sustainable Energy Action Plan), has allowed the city plan the implementation of important projects within the city territory such as the installation of a new solar lighting system- a 100% ecological answer- as well as the development of heat pumps using sea water. Additionally, the municipality is working on refreshing and cooling technologies using solar energy and is offering a financial contribution for the installation of solar collector systems in households. In the future, the city also intends to co-finance the implementation of energy efficiency solutions in residential buildings.

Nonetheless, since the city suffers from traffic congestion and noise pollution, mainly caused by tourism, the City has published a specific action plan for sustainable urban mobility (SUMP), defining the problems to be addressed and outlining possible solutions, in order to keep the city’s urban area functional. Furthermore, the municipality will introduce electric buses in the public transport system and 40 electric car sharing stations will be installed to tackle the challenges related to sustainable mobility.

On its way to becoming even better and successful in implementing innovative and smart solutions, the City of Dubrovnik will use the experiences of the EU-GUGLE and SINFONIA pilot cities to further improve its traffic management system.