On the road to liveable cities

By the end of November, the city of Trento, one of the Lighthouse Cities of the EU-funded project STARDUST, had its first Stakeholder Workshop at the Palazzo Thun. Main actors of the city in the field of Logistics discussed with other local key figures on the different scenarios they need to consider for developing the last-mile logistics and goods delivery in the city centre. The goal is to prolong the lives of electric vehicles and make mobility smarter for the citizens. This scheme is part of a bigger picture that STARDUST eyes on developing.

The overview on the past, present and possible future mobility and logistics activities of the city was presented by city representatives Alberto Salizzoni, Tiziano Bonella, Marco Cattani, and EURAC research. This was how living labs can positively affect the implementation of measures envisaged with regard to a sustainable development of mobility.

Many participants agreed that the status quo of delivery services is currently not sustainable. Therefore, the scenarios on a potential distributed or centralised last-mile logistics hub would be an attractive option for the city. Another important point brought up during the workshop was that the cost of the service to the end-user should not be increased.

"These workshops are the first step in creating living labs in different sectors related to the implementation activities of the STARDUST project in Trento," says Alyona Zubaryeva, project manager at EURAC. "Succeeding topics to be addressed include also building refurbishment, open data and city platforms, apart from the next steps to be taken for the last-mile logistics service creation."

As citizen engagement is one of the highlights in STARDUST, the co-creation approach of "living labs" is ideal for everyone to come together and push for innovation that citizens and local businesses find useful and beneficial. By gathering feedback from the locals, this workshop is just one of the many that STARDUST will carry out in order to tackle the urbanisation problem from a better angle.