Smart-Cities-Library-Header-1
You are here

Category: Smart Cities

Technology Is Not Enough to Create Connected and Sustainable Smart Cities

Screenshot-2017-12-12 Technology is not enough to create connected cities – here’s why

The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. This creates an unprecedented pressure on cities around the world to optimise the standard of living for citizens, organisations and institutions.

Cities such as Dubai, Singapore, Yinchuan and Copenhagen are experimenting with new technology and digital services to target specific problems that affect their citizens. Copenhagen, for example, has set the target of becoming the first carbon neutral capital by 2025. The city reduced CO2 emissions by 38% between 2005 and 2015.

As part of a wider research project, we conducted research with the team at Copenhagen Solutions Lab (CSL), Copenhagen’s innovative incubator for driving smart city initiatives.

Read More

Smart communities need smart governance – The Globe and Mail

Smart communities need smart governance – The Globe and Mail

The nascent plans for a smart neighbourhood on Toronto’s eastern waterfront may sound exciting from an urban-planning perspective, but the high-tech project poses fundamental governance problems that we need to solve now.

Smart cities are largely an invention of the private sector – an effort to create a market within government. They offer tech companies opportunities to generate profits by assuming functions traditionally carried out by the public sector and by selling cities technologies they may or may not need. The business opportunities are clear. The risks inherent to residents, less so….

Read More

Building Smart City Austin for Human Diversity and Social inclusion

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Austin’s CodeNEXT – Austin Startups

Urbanization is one of the most important global trends of the 21st century. It has the potential to contribute to the “re-design” of our world supporting the creation of sustainable, accessible, and inclusive cities for all. About 6.25 billion people, 15% of them with disabilities, are predicted to be living in urban centers by 2050.

We are at a historic moment in inclusive social and economic development, fueled by technological advances. The City of Austin, TX is searching for ways to create a vibrant, accessible, and disability inclusive culture that attracts jobs, fosters economic development, and is an attractive place for all people to live, work, and play.

Like many municipalities across the country, Austin discovered that it’s current land development codes and ordinances often get in the way of achieving these goals — hence the creation of CodeNEXT. Austin is banking on its new Land Development Codes, AKA “CodeNEXT” to help remove system barriers and other problems that have stalled Austin’s progress in becoming the most livable, accessible and inclusive city in the nation…..

Read More

Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible & Inclusive “Smart City” In the U.S.

Screenshot-2017-12-8 Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible Inclusive City In the U S

Austin is Fast Becoming The Most Livable, Accessible & Inclusive Smart City In the U.S.
Building cities and societies for human diversity and social inclusion is becoming a global mandate and Austin is about to do it all.

Austin Skyline and Lady Bird Lake from the Hyatt Panorama View

Date Feb. 8, 2017
Author: Darren Bates

AUSTIN, TX — We are at a historic moment in inclusive social and economic development, fueled by technological advances. Like so many municipalities across our nation, the City of Austin seeks to improve livability, workability, and sustainability.

However, Austin has work to do. For far too long Austin has failed to consider the unique ways physical and social barriers limit the participation of persons with disabilities and other historically underserved populations from accessing and enjoying city benefits, services, and products.

As well, the lack of participation of persons with disabilities, people of color and other equity groups in Austin’s urban affairs is one of the biggest challenges facing our central Texas city….

Read More

Google’s Sidewalk Labs Signs Deal For Smart City Makeover

Google’s Sidewalk Labs signs deal for ‘smart city’ makeover of Toronto’s waterfront

The partnership between a U.S. urban-innovation lab and a government agency could bring a bold experiment in city-building and high-tech to Toronto, Alex Bozikovic explains More below • An illustrated primer on how Sidewalk Toronto would work An artist’s illustration shows Sidewalk Labs’s Quayside redevelopment of the Toronto waterfront. ILLUSTRATIONS COURTESY OF sidewalk labs Published October 17, 2017Updated November 12, 2017 A unit of…

Read More

The UK must lead the way in #accessible #smart cities

The UK must lead the way in accessible smart cities, says CIBES Lift UK’s Gary Sullivan – Smart Cities World

Projections from the United Nations state that by 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. As our metropolises continue to become smarter through technical innovation, we must make sure that the UK becomes a leader in accessibility, and prioritise the installation of smart lifts.

Read More

Columbus pivots smart city funding toward prenatal care

Columbus-Ohio-getty

After winning $40 million from the Transportation Department’s Smart City Challenge grant last year, Columbus, Ohio, has received approval to divert funds away from bus safety sensors, parking and street lights, and into medical transportation for pregnant mothers.

Read More

Why Sharing Cities make sense for a prosperous and sustainable future

Darren_Sharp_nd Family Portrait

The sharing economy is an exciting new story for a new economy. It’s an idea that’s going mainstream and is often talked about in terms of matching needs with haves and connecting supply and demand at the peer to peer level.

You might have first-hand experience of how the sharing economy provides opportunities to better utlise your idle assets whether a spare bedroom, that car sitting in your driveway, or even the driveway itself. There’s also a raft of new service exchanges that enable people to share skills and errand marketplaces that provide task-based opportunities for people to supplement their income.

Read More

Urban Disruption, Sidewalk Labs and Social Inclusion in the Public Realm of Future SmartCities

accessible 3-d rendering

OP-ED in Reply To: “Reimagining cities from the internet up” by Daniel L. Doctoroff Dear Daniel L. Doctoroff, Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! I applaud and appreciate your efforts and the efforts of your team at Sidewalk Labs for demonstrating the importance of listening, learning, and putting all people first. Like yourself, I understand the urban public realm and am eager to see…

Read More

Smart cities: Facts to consider

Smart cities: Facts to consider

It is very important for planners to understand the capacity of any city to hold the population, suitability for urban activities, geographical location, proximity to different hazards, present vulnerability and future risks to develop smart cities

Read More

Smart city Case Study: Dallas Innovation Alliance

31003368 – dallas, texas cityscape at the night time

The Dallas Innovation Alliance (DIA) continues to work to turn Dallas into a smart city through the use of IoT technologies. The entity is currently testing several uses cases to implement different technologies to make Dallas a smarter and safer city. DIA is a public-private partnership dedicated to the design and execution of a smart cities plan for the City of Dallas.

Read More

Adding Accessibility and Inclusion into Austin’s Smart Cities Strategic Roadmap

austin-smart-city

Like many other fast-growing urban centers, my hometown of Austin, TX has reached a historic tipping point triggered by Austin’s rapid urbanization. Austin City Leadership recognizes it must engage in vastly new approaches to adjust and calibrate to social and economic challenges amplified by the lightning speed of technical and industrial advances. To address these challenges, Austin is taking a big leap into the Smart City pond.

Read More

Moscow Is On Its Way To Becoming A Smart City by Embracing Citizen Engagement

Moscow Urban Ceter

Citizen Engagement

Central to transforming Moscow into a smart city are its citizen engagement platforms. The Moscow online portal features three key services that residents can use to engage and communicate with their government.

The first is Our City, an online complaints system that’s accessible either through the web or the mobile app. Citizens can send complaints if they notice anything awry in their community. For instance, if garbage collectors have been amiss picking up trash regularly, citizens can report the issue using the portal. The concerned citizen will then get a reply within seven days. If the issue is readily actionable, the system will also inform the sender with the resolution. The system has over a million users and has solved nearly two million complaints….

Read More

People-Centered Urban Design Focus-Smart City Week 2017 Bangladesh

xConcept-Note-Flyer-16.11.17.png.pagespeed.ic.xQtK2jl-F-

Dhaka, 13 November 2017- To build the home-grown vision of people-centric smart cities for all with a theme of ‘Smart City Smart People’ – a ‘Smart City Week 2017′, from 29 november to 05 December has been organized by UNDP Bangladesh, Access to Information (a2i) Programme at the Prime Minister’s Office and urban sector stakeholders. The week will be inaugurated through a three day (29-05 Dec) ‘Smart City Innovation Hub’ at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre.

Having focus on building people-centered cities by not only investing in technology and infrastructures alone but also engaging smart people who care, respect and pay values to the society – the Smart City Week will be a part of ‘Smart City Campaign’. Apart from the three-day “Smart City Innovation Hub” and a range of events like hackathon, roundtable discussion, photo exhibition, kite festival, citizen’s forum, “City Day”, children’s art competition and many more are put under the week’s slogan ‘co-creating cities’….

Read More

URBAN-X | Top 10 key takeaways from Smart City World Congress in Barcelona #SCEW17

URBAN-X | Top 10 key takeaways from Smart City World Congress in Barcelona

e may have reached peak ‘smart city’. This trend depends on the continued densification of global urban areas and the exponential penetration of the internet into industries that were previously isolated from digitization. To see the peak in person, it’s best to get a glimpse at the Smart Cities World Congress in Barcelona; an event that brings together 17,000 people from around the world including 600 municipal leaders and over 500 international exhibitors.

At Urban-X, we see a new model for engineering the city as a service emerging; one in which top-down planning meets with bottoms-up participation and design that integrates people, businesses, buildings and other infrastructure. Open data and platforms that encourage creativity and economic vitality are a defining characteristic of the cities we want to live in.

The key to facing the climate crisis, security vulnerabilities and rapid urbanization is real citizen engagement and collaboration between the public and private sector. Startups have an important role to play, but the true economic potential of this space won’t be fully unlocked until we get good policy change and business model innovation from large companies.

Here are ten key takeaways from the Smart City World Congress in Barcelona that inform our path forward:

Read More

European Union: SMARTCities 2018

SMART Cities 2018 – LCR4.0

When: Thursday 1st February 2018 Where: Stamford Bridge, London  Across the UK we are seeing more and more examples of smart city transformation. Key ‘smart’ sectors utilised by such Cities include transport, energy, health care, water and waste. Against the current background of economic, social, security and technological changes caused by the globalization and the integration process, cities in the…

Read More

London wants to become the World’s smartest City – METACITIES

London wants to become the World’s smartest City – METACITIES

London’s ambitious Plan

The capital of Great Britain is the biggest city in Europe and with more than 200,000 people working in London’s technology sector the city has many resources they can use to make London more sustainable, effective and liveable. To meet current and future challenges the Smart London Plan was created. First published by the government on their official website in December 2013, it was updated in March 2016. Its intention is to show how the creative power of data and technology can be used to make the city of London function better and solve real-world problems. The idea behind the plan is to generate data that supports the city and its transport, social, economic and environmental systems. The Smart London Plan encourages Londoners to actively participate in shaping the cityscape of their capital and hence the future of London. Although the Smart London Plan focuses on London, the ideas presented in this plan can serve as inspiration for cities worldwide and help those cities become smarter as well.

Read More

Chicago implements CIVIQ smart city solution to boost citizen engagement

Chicago implements CIVIQ smart city solution to boost citizen engagement

Chicago is implementing CIVIQ Smartscapes’ smart city solution in a bid to boost the information available for citizens and raise the level of engagement between the city and its residents.

The project forms part of a wider AT&T Smart Cities spotlight city pilot and will see CIVIQ installing interactive devices in downtown Chicago along with ‘high-speed’ public Wi-Fi. The devices will also come equipped with applications such as wayfinding, interactive information about transportation services and safety alerts, while residents will be able to notify officials about issues around the city too.

“We are excited to take this technological leap and put Chicago at the forefront of smart cities throughout the country,” said Brenna Berman, chief information officer for the City of Chicago….

Read More

Why Citizen Engagement is heart of Barcelona’s Smart journey

Citizens are truly first: Why Citizen Engagement is heart of Barcelona’s Smart journey | SITEC

Barcelona is acclaimed as one of the leading Smart Cities in the world, with studies such as those by Juniper Research, as well as the Hong Kong government, corroborating this statement. However, it begs the question – how did Barcelona manage to do this, and can their methods be replicated in other cities or locales, such as Malaysia?

In pursuit of these answers, the SITEC Media team managed to catch Maria Sisternas, CEO of Mediaurban, a Barcelona-based content creation agency that specialises in urban and smart technology solutions to answer these questions.
According to Sisternas, Barcelona believes strongly in citizen engagement, as well as cooperation between the private and public sector — the city is investing a large amount of money towards finding out what their citizens think about their projects….

Read More