How smart is smart? Theoretical and empirical considerations on implementing smart city objectives – a case study of Dutch railway station areas (original) (raw)
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We analyze and compare eight city cases in three continents to find out differences and commonalities in smart city governance and public policies globally: Shanghai (China), Japan, Iskandar (Malaysia), New York (United States), and Amsterdam, Málaga, Santander, Tarragona (Europe). The work shows different ways to address the definition of smart, followed by the particular implementation of the smart concept in particular settings. It shows models, projects and the policy innovations set in place today on smart grounds, as a baseline of opportunities for sustainable growth and to unlock the potential of both Spanish and European firms and Spanish and European talent worldwide. We explore the following variables: 1) governance and public urban planning 2) management and organization 3) technology 4) policy context 5) people and communities 6) economy 7) built in infrastructure, 8) and natural environment. Keywords smart, cities, governance, innovation, China, Shanghai, Malaysia, Iskandar, Japan, United States, New York, Europe, EU, #EU, Amsterdam, Málaga, Santander, Tarragona, Spain
Smart City trends and ambitions
2017
Research into smart city projects and applications has been increasing in recent years (Meijer & Bolivar, 2015). The smart city concept is mostly considered from a technology-oriented perspective that stresses the usage of data technologies, big data and ICT to ‘smarten up’ cities. In contrast, attention to soft aspects of the smart city – i.e. smart governance, smart people and social learning – seems to be limited both in academia and in practice. Moreover, what seems to be largely missing in the literature is empirical insight into the extent to which different smart city aspects are factually known of and applied in different geographical contexts. The aim of this contribution is to make a contextual comparison of smart city applications based on a mainly quantitative empirical analysis. Therein, in particular emphasis will be put on the knowledge government practitioners in the Netherlands have of smart aspects and to what extent they are willing and able to implement smart asp...
This study represents two critical steps forward in the area of smart city research and practice. The first is in the form of the development of a comprehensive conceptualization of smart city as a resource for researchers and government practitioners ; the second is in the form of the creation of a bridge between smart cities research and practice expertise. City governments increasingly need innovative arrangements to solve a variety of technical, physical, and social problems. " Smart city " could be used to represent efforts that in many ways describe a vision of a city, but there is little clarity about this new concept. This paper proposes a comprehensive conceptualization of smart city, including its main components and several specific elements. Academic literature is used to create a robust framework, while a review of practical tools is used to identify specific elements or aspects not treated in the academic studies, but essential to create an integrative and comprehensive conceptualization of smart city. The paper also provides policy implications and suggests areas for future research in this topic.
The convergence of technology and the city is commonly referred to as the 'smart city'. It is seen as a possible remedy for the challenges that urbanisation creates in the age of global climate change, and as an enabler of a sustainable and liveable urban future. A review of the abundant but fragmented literature on smart city theories and practices, nevertheless, reveals that there is a limited effort to capture a comprehensive understanding on how the complex and multidimensional nature of the drivers of smart cities are linked to desired outcomes. The paper aims to develop a clearer understanding on this new city model by identifying and linking the key drivers to desired outcomes, and then intertwining them in a multidimensional framework. The methodological approach of this research includes a systematic review of the literature on smart cities, focusing on those aimed at conceptual development and provide empirical evidence base. The review identifies that the literature reveals three types of drivers of smart cities—community, technology, policy—which are linked to five desired out-comes—productivity, sustainability, accessibility, wellbeing, liveability, governance. These drivers and outcomes altogether assemble a smart city framework, where each of them represents a distinctive dimension of the smart cities notion. This paper helps in expanding our understanding beyond a monocentric technology focus of the current common smart city practice.
Smart City in Practice Extract
Smart Cities are being discussed all around the world. Information and communication technology is being implemented to contribute to solving current and future social challenges within cities. This book shows how a Smart City was actually developed over five years, as a Public-Private Partnership between Deutsche Telekom and the city of Friedrichshafen. The aim of the project was to enhance the quality of life of the citizens, to increase the locational advantages for businesses and to raise the level of interconnection in the urban society. The idea was put into practice over a five-year period and was accompanied by social-scientific research. The authors re veal the impact and purpose of the project, which provides a concrete contribution to the worldwide debate about Smart Cities. in Practice Smart City Converting Innovative Ideas into Reality 227 Taking chances-learning from experience 228 In a nutshell-summary 232 Finding balance-considering the local context and adapting to the world 233 Visions and individual projectsboth are needed 235 Innovations through PPPusing what is familiar and making changes possible 240 Focusing on concrete applications-necessary for fostering enthusiasm 242 In conclusion 244 Authors Glossary Literature Picture credits Acknowledgements Imprint Develop Enter Install Open Avoid crash Update 02 01 03 04 05 06 011 Enter Smart Cities 019 Global challengescities get smarter 021 Unclear concept-smart what? 025 Various fields of actiona cross-section of smart spheres 027 Practical approachesprojects and rankings 032 Spatial context-integration and new building 036 Participants-the state, cities, and businesses 039 A new start-Germany goes smart 041 Smart City in practice-T-City Friedrichshafen 069 Converting ideas into realitygrand visions and manageable work packages 070 The city of Friedrichshafena small city at Lake Constance 075 Deutsche Telekoma large global corporation 077 Broadband infrastructurelandlines and mobile communications 080 Public Private Partnershipthe basic rules of cooperation 084 Projects in practicesolutions for everyday life 096 Complexity-the limits of controllability 098 Idiosyncrasies-unique features of Friedrichshafen 103 Heterogeneity and dynamicschallenges for Deutsche Telekom 105 Public relationsdo good and talk about it 129 Everyday life-new possibilities and new limitations 131 Urban society-the interplay of urbanity and virtuality 133 Information and communication-what's new? 136 The Digital Dividegaps are opening up 144 Always on-global on location 154 Networking-the invisible city 156 T-City-what does it have in store for us? 158 Participationa difficult process 163 Advantages and usefulnessa matter of perspective 189 Avoiding crashdealing with concerns 190 Project partners-differing objectives and cultures 193 About trust in the system and concerns-are the technologies harmless? 195 Mobile communications and WLAN-"They are bringing radiation directly into the home …" 197 Data protection-"Where did they get my address?" 202 Data security-"Oops! Your data could not be uploaded" 204 Attitudes towards information and communication technologytaking concerns seriously Appendix 053 Citizens become pioneers René Obermann 055 "Compact Innovation" in one of Germany's strongest economic regions Andreas Brand 058 Infrastructures get smart Franz-Reinhard Habbel 060 Information and communication technology and the accelerated pace of life
Current trends in Smart City initiatives: Some stylised facts
Cities, 2014
The concept of Smart City (SC) as a means to enhance the life quality of citizen has been gaining increasing importance in the agendas of policy makers. However, a shared definition of SC is not available and it is hard to identify common global trends. This paper provides with a comprehensive understanding of the notion of SC through the elaboration of a taxonomy of pertinent application domains, namely: natural resources and energy, transport and mobility, buildings, living, government, and economy and people. It also explores the diffusion of smart initiatives via an empirical study aimed at investigating the ratio of domains covered by a city's best practices to the total of potential domains of smart initiatives and at understanding the role that various economic, urban, demographic, and geographical variables might have in influencing the planning approach to create a smarter city. Results reveal that the evolution patterns of a SC highly depend on its local context factors. In particular, economic development and structural urban variables are likely to influence a city's digital path, the geographical location to affect the SC strategy, and density of population, with its associated congestion problems, might an important component to determine the routes for the SC implementation. This work provides policy makers and city managers with useful guidelines to define and drive their SC strategy and planning actions towards the most appropriate domains of implementation.
Smartness that matters: towards a comprehensive and human-centred characterisation of smart cities
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 2016
The term 'smart cities' is a widely used, but at the same time a highly fuzzy concept. The fuzziness hinders our understanding on the benefits of its adoption, and explains the existence of many relevant activities with fragmented or distorted views of what a truly smart city is. The aim of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive review of how smart cities are perceived in the literature and in the light of the findings propose a clearer definition. Overview of the key terms, concepts and definitions associated to smart cities, reported in this paper, demonstrates that the definitions found in the academic literature have limited scope, and are overly focused on strategic drivers and specific actions, instead of making explicitly the connection between the concept of smart cities and the creation of environments that promote happiness and wellbeing of their residents-which should be the main function of a city. Following the thorough review on the smart cities literature, the paper proposes a comprehensive, human-centred, and context-free definition for smart cities. This definition brings an endogenous view on smart cities in which the central element is the direct participation of local actors and stakeholders in the process of thinking, defining, planning, and executing social, technological and urban transformations in cities.
As the majority of world population will be living in cities by 2050, it became a necessity for societies to build cities that are capable of meeting the needs of current and future generations in a smart way. There have been initiatives toward smart/sustainable cities that had succeeded, and others had failed. Being sustainable and smart had been used in a quite confusing way. In this paper, we attempt to understand related concepts, such as smart, sustainable, sustainable development, and sustainability. Then, we analyse five examples of existing initiatives of smart/sustainable cities to understand the factors behind their success or failure, by applying SMART criteria as a managerial perspective on those initiatives. Finally, we conclude the paper with key implications and possibilities for future research.
To What Extent We Do Understand Smart Cities and Characteristics Influencing City Smartness
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM, 2021
Todays large cities are continually evolving human ecosystem, delivering many services to citizens. The dramatic urbanisation processes and increasing numbers of the population in cities put many strains on city infrastructure and services. XXI century urbanisation issues require robust strategies and innovative planning for their future. Easily cities are characterised as smart or intelligent without regard to clear criteria or specification for a city. There are different opinions regarding smart cities, arguing that it may bring positive social and economic change, developed governance and human capital. However, these aspects are heavily achievable without eliminating the present discrepancy in planning. The purpose of the article is to clarify and identify the characteristics of smartness based on current scholar research. The qualitative study overview on integrative literature review and seven Baltic region cities case study explores possible characteristics, and various city...
Smart City in Practice - Converting Innovative Ideas into Reality
2012
Smart Cities are being discussed all around the world. Information and communication technology is being implemented to contribute to solving current and future social challenges within cities. This book shows how a Smart City was actually developed over five years, as a Public-Private Partnership between Deutsche Telekom and the city of Friedrichshafen. The aim of the project was to enhance the quality of life of the citizens, to increase the locational advantages for businesses and to raise the level of interconnection in the urban society. The idea was put into practice over a five-year period and was accompanied by social-scientific research. The authors reveal the impact and purpose of the project, which provides a concrete contribution to the worldwide debate about Smart Cities.