Sofia already has its first Wine Map – a guide to places in the city where you can taste quality Bulgarian wine. The map was created at the initiative of Sofia Municipality in partnership with the Bulgarian Association of Wine Professionals (BAWP) and includes information about 40 wine shops, bars, and restaurants, their location, as well as brief descriptions of local varieties, vineyards, regions, cellars, opportunities for wine tours in the city and a calendar of events in Sofia related to Bulgarian wine. The map is now available on the sofia.bg website and can be viewed and downloaded from the following page.
Sofia Municipality is designing two more tourist products. The map “Discover the Birds of Sofia” and the map “Street Arts in Sofia” are to be presented.
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The online voting under Sofia Municipality’s “Sofia Votes for GREEN” is underway. A total of 37 projects proposed by citizens in areas such as designing new parks, tree planting, sustainable waste management, recycling, landscaping of bus stops, recreation areas, and more are participating in the competition. Citizens can support only one project and vote only once. The most voted project/ projects will be included in the Investment Programme of Sofia Municipality for 2022 and receive implementation support.
The initiative takes place for a second consecutive year. It aims to encourage direct citizen participation and the participation of non-governmental and professional organizations in proposing projects for the city. The budget for 2022 is BGN 1 million for the implementation of one or more projects that have received the most votes. If an idea with a budget of BGN 1 million wins the first place, it will be the only one that will receive implementation, whereas if the sum of the budgets of the first 3 most voted projects is up to the total amount for financing, all three will be implemented. Learn more about the projects and the voting in the following video. Have your day for the proposed projects on the website of “Sofia chooses GREEN” by March 14.
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The Faculty Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation at the University of Twente, the Netherlands and the GATE Institute at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski ”, the only institute of its kind in the field of big data for the Balkans and Eastern Europe, have signed a memorandum of cooperation. The organizations will collaborate in the field of research and development of methods for the development and evaluation of digital twins. In the field of education, they will organize joint educational programs, workshops, trainings, seminars, and expert exchanges on joint projects.
The GATE project – “Big Data for a Smart Society” launched in 2019 as a joint initiative of Sofia University, which is the project coordinator, and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and Chalmers Industrial Technology, Sweden. Since then, the Institute has been constantly expanding its activities and partnerships, including through initiatives with Sofia Municipality. Among them is the Memorandum of Cooperation in building new models of interaction between academia and the city administration, and partnering in the implementation of City Digital Twin – a large interdisciplinary pilot project by GATE, which aims to develop a digital twin platform of the real urban environment in Sofia. Through 3D simulation of the city in a demo version, it will design and test urban solutions from the entire life cycle of the city. Find detailed information about the activities and achievements of the GATE Institute here.
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The construction of 3 km. from the 3rd metro line from Hadji Dimitar district to Levski district is starting in March. The new extension will be financed with municipal funds approved by the Sofia Municipal Council. The entire third line is 21 km long, and 12 of them were completed in 2020-2021. Two extensions through the Poduyane and Slatina areas with a total length of 9 km. are still to be complete. The construction activities are expected to be finished in 2025 – 2026. A total of 6 stations are planned along the routes, with buffer parking lots for two of them.
