The Ecological Component of the Smart City Concept and Its Integration into the Model System of the Volgograd Region

The growth of scientific and technological progress has led to the emergence of a new era in the development of urban systems, aimed at improving the livelihoods of the urban population itself and the formation of sustainable development of the subject. The Smart City concept and sustainable development of cities are closely interrelated. However, a restrictive aspect for the effective implementation of the project in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation is the underestimation of the environmental component and insufficient allocation of funds to finance the digital environmental safety unit. “Digital inequality” is observed on the territory of the designated subjects of the Russian Federation, including the territory of the Volgograd region. The Volgograd Region has a regional Smart City project, and a passport has been developed for the introduction of digital technologies into the urban environment. Currently, there are noticeable results in such areas as housing and communal services, urban transport, and social development. The authors conducted research aimed at the design of an integration model for the implementation of environmental indicators in the Smart City digital system and identified obstacles to the effective implementation of environmental parameters. Authors’ contribution. A.A. Matveeva – developing a model for optimizing the Smart City concept in terms of its environmental component, defined methodological recommendations for the functioning of the Smart City concept in relation to environmental parameters using the example of the Volgograd region, and performed general scientific editing of the text of the article, generalization of research results, and formulation of conclusions; E.A. Zaliznyak – conducted detailed research on the assessment of smart city indexes and passports of the subjects of the Russian Federation Smart City, including the territory of Southern Russia, writing the text of the article and formatting it according to the requirements of the journal.