Smart City: People-Centric Urban Planning

Concept

When we talk about people-centric urban planning, we are referring to a process that puts people, or end-recipients, at the center of the process. People-centric urban planning develops prototypes and solutions by performing embedded qualitative and quantitative research on those same people and end-recipients.

Smart City Practice

When we adapt this model to Smart Cities, we are describing a process by which the broader community (including people with disabilities and other historically undeserved or marginalized communities) becomes the center of the Smart City transformation process. All of our planning tactics and smart city solutions are informed directly by the needs, desires, expectations, and habits of the community.

This process requires urban planners to be nimble and flexible enough to adapt and edit their solutions based on community feedback—integrating and engaging the community into every step of the process from pre-design research and dialogue, to getting feedback on design concepts and prototypes, to noticing how the community uses the final product and making changes accordingly. So how exactly can we begin to integrate this approach into our process? Read On…

 People-centric urban planning is mandatory for successful Smart City transformation because residents understand the strengths and weaknesses of their community and city better than anyone else.

A City isn’t smart if it doesn’t support the needs of all citizens.

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