17 goals for a better world – no. 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Our series of articles entitled “Sustainable Tuesday(s)”, will take a look over 17 weeks at the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN to make the world a better place.

This time, we will explore in more detail goal no. 11: Sustainable cities and communities, which is to:
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Use public transport, bike or walk instead of driving!

BME’s leadership wants to promote sustainable and safe modes of transport by all means possible, be it for commuting to work or travelling to conferences. There are open and sheltered storage facilities for 655 bicycles in 23 sites on the campus of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Information on their location is available on Google maps. 

One of the key objectives of the BME for Sustainability programme is to promote green transport modes, in particular cycling. This has led to a number of effective, interesting and spectacular actions in recent years. As an impressive tool for information and awareness-raising, the BME Bike & Breakfast event, launched in the spring of 2023, was held on 14 May 2024 for the second time by the BME Committee on Sustainability. The idea for the initiative came from one of the Transport Group's leaders, and it was organised with the support of the Pro Progressio Foundation and the BME School Union. At both events, the organisers welcomed university citizens, who prefer cycling to work, with food and drinks. In connection with the event, emergency tool kits were made available in 2023 in 4 places on campus (at the gates of the CH and Q buildings, and at the barrier gates in Stoczek József Street and Bertalan Lajos Street on the middle campus.

Also to promote cycling, in May 2023 a month-long kilometre logging competition was launched, where cyclists had to record their journeys from home to work and back on a simple online platform. The competition was open to both individuals and teams. In total, during the cycling kilometre logging campaign participants cycled nearly 15,0000 km on their way to and from the university.

At Budapest University of Technology and Economics, sustainability plays a particularly important role in the field of transport, which is clearly reflected in the subjects taught. The most important subjects: Intelligent Transport Systems, where multimodal transport options and advanced route planning methods are taught, integrating active and sustainable transport modes; Smart City, where smart transport solutions are presented, taking into account technological, urban development and sustainability aspects; Environmental Impacts of Transport, which specifically addresses options for analysing, mitigating and regulating the environmental impacts of transport, integrating sustainable transport modes; and Transport Technology, where technological, organisational and design features are presented with a special focus on sustainable options.

Sustainable transport is also addressed in a number of EU projects. The MoveCit project was designed to promote the use of sustainable modes of transport by those commuting to work through the development of workplace mobility plans, which can reduce CO2 emissions and negative environmental impacts. The MaaS4EU project has developed a multimodal and comprehensive mobility concept that facilitates the efficient interconnection of existing transport options, the planning of personalised journeys and the use of demand-driven transport capacities, which in the long term can lead to a reduction in car use and car ownership. Within the RegiaMobil project an evaluation methodology for smart transport solutions is being developed, which covers advanced technological solutions, the willingness of transport operators to cooperate, as well as the administrative and legal background. Analysing these and identifying the shortcomings will help ensure that sustainable transport improvements can be made.

TwinEU will create the basis for a digital twin of the entire European electricity system. 75 partners, 15 countries, 3 years and 50 cents less than 20 million euros of EU funding; that's how much effort is put into creating a digital twin of the European electricity system under the TwinEU project. The Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) plays a key role in the consortium: in addition to the demos produced with the participation of Hungary, we are also responsible for coordinating the communication. Not many larger ventures have been launched under the EU's innovation framework HorizonEurope than the TwinEU project. As the aim of that is to elaborate the concept for a digital version of the European electricity system. The digital twins will make the entire European electricity system more transparent, manageable and predictable, making energy markets more efficient, which is essential to meet the EU's 2050 climate neutrality targets. The Department of Electric Power Engineering of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (VIK) of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) is a major player in the project consortium. This is clearly showed by the fact that this Department receives €777,500 of the nearly €20 million EU funding, which is the 4th largest amount among all consortium partners.

The Faculty of Civil Engineering's research supports the creation of safe cities and affordable housing through economical structural, building design and building energetics solutions. They help reduce the economic and health impacts of natural disasters by developing models and decision-support tools, in cooperation with the national disaster management authorities. Methods are being developed to estimate the risk of earthquakes, the vulnerability of urban buildings to heat waves, and the probability of flooding and flash floods in urban areas. Research that analyses the impact of air pollution on historic materials contributes to the protection of cultural heritage. The faculty uses and develops laser scanning, satellite and drone techniques to monitor urban traffic and map changes in the urban environment. The development of self-driving vehicles is supported by 3D city models and the GNSS technology that enables precise positioning. In addition, the international master's programme DigiTwin4CIUE, which provides a toolkit for the development of smart cities, that is the digital twins for complex urban infrastructures, was launched in autumn 2023 with the participation of the Faculty of Civil Engineering. The second DigiTwin conference was held at BME in April 2024. 

At BME’s Faculty of Natural Sciences, in cooperation with Robert Bosch Kft., students are investigating the electrical compatibility of electric bicycles and their immunity to radio frequency interference fields, in the framework of jointly supervised theses.

In addition to the above, 61 publications, 208 student projects and 83 subjects delivered at the university’s faculties are related to the subject of sustainable cities and communities.

E-KD, KK (BME Committee on Sustainability)