easy essay on smart city

Essay on Smart City

Students are often asked to write an essay on Smart City in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Smart City

What is a smart city.

A smart city uses technology to improve the quality of life for its citizens. It uses data from sensors and other sources to manage resources efficiently.

Features of a Smart City

Smart cities have features like smart grids for efficient energy use, intelligent traffic management systems, and digital libraries. They also use technology for waste management and water supply.

Benefits of a Smart City

Smart cities offer many benefits. They reduce waste, pollution, and energy consumption. They also improve the quality of life by making services more accessible and efficient.

Challenges of a Smart City

Despite the benefits, smart cities face challenges. These include high costs, privacy concerns, and the need for digital literacy among citizens.

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250 Words Essay on Smart City

Introduction.

Smart cities represent the future of urban living, leveraging digital technology and data-driven solutions to enhance the quality of life for residents. They aim to foster sustainable and efficient environments, addressing urbanization challenges with innovative solutions.

Essential Components of a Smart City

Smart cities are characterized by their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve public services. Key components include smart grids for efficient energy use, intelligent traffic management systems to reduce congestion, and digital platforms for real-time communication between the government and citizens.

The Role of IoT in Smart Cities

The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a pivotal role in the development of smart cities. IoT devices collect and analyze data, facilitating decision-making processes. For instance, smart sensors can monitor air quality, noise levels, and traffic patterns, providing valuable insights to city planners.

Benefits and Challenges

Smart cities promise numerous benefits, such as improved public services, reduced environmental impact, and economic growth. However, they also present challenges, including data privacy concerns, the digital divide, and the need for significant infrastructure investment.

In conclusion, smart cities represent an exciting convergence of technology and urban planning. While they offer significant benefits, it is crucial to address the accompanying challenges to ensure these cities are accessible, inclusive, and sustainable. As we move towards an increasingly urbanized future, the concept of smart cities will continue to evolve, shaping the way we live, work, and interact.

500 Words Essay on Smart City

Introduction to smart cities.

Smart cities, an innovative concept in urban planning, are rapidly reshaping the way we perceive urban living. Leveraging digital technologies and data analytics, these cities aim to enhance the quality of life, improve sustainability, and streamline urban services.

The Concept of a Smart City

A smart city is a framework, predominantly composed of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), to develop, deploy, and promote sustainable development practices to address growing urbanization challenges. A big part of this ICT framework is essentially an intelligent network of connected objects and machines transmitting data using wireless technology and the cloud. In a smart city, cloud-based IoT applications receive, analyze, and manage data in real time to help municipalities, enterprises, and citizens make better decisions enhancing urban services efficiency, reducing resource consumption and costs.

Key Components of a Smart City

Smart cities are built on a foundation of key components that work together to create a cohesive, efficient, and sustainable urban environment. These include:

1. Smart Energy: Smart grids, renewable energy resources, and advanced metering technologies ensure efficient use of energy. 2. Smart Infrastructure: This includes intelligent buildings and facilities that use ICT to enhance the reliability, performance, and interactivity of urban services. 3. Smart Mobility: Intelligent transportation systems, traffic management systems, and smart parking solutions reduce congestion and improve quality of life. 4. Smart Governance: E-governance and digital citizenship initiatives ensure transparency, citizen participation, and seamless access to public services.

Benefits of Smart Cities

Smart cities offer a plethora of benefits. They create a more efficient and cost-effective city management system, enhance the quality of life for citizens, and reduce environmental footprint. By using technology to streamline services, cities can save on resources, promote sustainable practices, and create a more interactive and responsive city administration. Furthermore, smart cities foster innovation and economic development, making cities more attractive to businesses and entrepreneurs.

Challenges and Future Prospects

Despite their potential, smart cities face significant challenges. These include data security and privacy concerns, the need for substantial investment, and the requirement for cross-sector collaboration. Moreover, the digital divide may exacerbate social inequalities if not properly addressed.

Looking forward, the concept of smart cities is poised to become even more relevant. As urban populations continue to grow, the need for more efficient, sustainable, and livable cities becomes paramount. With advancements in technology and increased emphasis on data-driven decision making, the future of smart cities is both promising and exciting.

Smart cities represent a bold vision for the future of urban living. By leveraging technology and data, they offer a powerful tool for addressing the challenges of urbanization and creating more sustainable, efficient, and livable cities. While there are significant challenges to overcome, the potential benefits make the pursuit of this vision an exciting prospect for the future.

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What is a 'smart city'? 

Shining a light on what it means for a city to be 'smart'. Image:  REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Gunes Basat

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Stay up to date:, cities and urbanization.

• Participants in a World Bank event share their thoughts on what makes a city 'smart'?
• Technology, innovation and connection were key words associated with smart cities.
• Panelists also offered their thoughts on what makes a smart city.

What is a smart city ? We’ve heard the term in contexts as diverse as urban planning and governance, transport, energy, the environment, health, and education. We’ve also noticed that the notion of smart cities relies on a range of technologies—including the internet of things (IoT), mobile solutions, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain. Because of this connection with technology, we’ve had concerns about how smart cities will address issues such as data privacy and social exclusion. We see a risk that urban areas with poor web connectivity could be left out of the smart-cities trend. We’d like to continue an open dialogue on this trend.

Have you read?

Being smart about smart cities: a governance roadmap for digital technologies, how blockchain can empower smart cities - and why interoperability will be crucial, our alliance is creating smart city governance.

At the World Bank’s Global Smart City Partnership Program, we held a Virtual Knowledge Exchange Program on Smart Cities for Sustainable Development , jointly organized with the World Bank’s Open Learning Campus , to discuss the trend. At the event, we polled more than 260 participants from around the world to find out what they thought a smart city would be, what makes a urban area and its citizens smart, and what they wanted to see in their own smart city. As the word cloud shows, “technology,” “innovation,” and “connection” were the first words that came to participants’ minds when they thought of smart cities. “Citizen participation” and “data” make a community and its citizens smart , according to most of the participants. Around half chose “sustainability” as a priority in their vision for a smart city, and a quarter voted for “resilience.” We asked our panelists similar questions; here are five takeaways.

The Data for the City of Tomorrow report highlighted that in 2023, around 56% of the world is urbanized. Almost 65% of people use the internet. Soon, 75% of the world’s jobs will require digital skills.

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for Urban Transformation is at the forefront of advancing public-private collaboration in cities. It enables more resilient and future-ready communities and local economies through green initiatives and the ethical use of data.

Learn more about our impact:

• Net Zero Carbon Cities: Through this initiative, we are sharing more than 200 leading practices to promote sustainability and reducing emissions in urban settings and empower cities to take bold action towards achieving carbon neutrality .
• G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance: We are dedicated to establishing norms and policy standards for the safe and ethical use of data in smart cities , leading smart city governance initiatives in more than 36 cities around the world.
• Empowering Brazilian SMEs with IoT adoption : We are removing barriers to IoT adoption for small and medium-sized enterprises in Brazil – with participating companies seeing a 192% return on investment.
• IoT security: Our Council on the Connected World established IoT security requirements for consumer-facing devices . It engages over 100 organizations to safeguard consumers against cyber threats.
• Healthy Cities and Communities: Through partnerships in Jersey City and Austin, USA, as well as Mumbai, India, this initiative focuses on enhancing citizens' lives by promoting better nutritional choices, physical activity, and sanitation practices.

Want to know more about our centre’s impact or get involved? Contact us .

Michael Donaldson, Chief Technology Officer of the City of Barcelona , said that he has seen a shift in the understanding of smart cities from associations with data and technology to a layered definition embracing “citizen intelligence” and “humanizing technology.” Barcelona’s digital participatory platform enables citizens to help direct city management by suggesting ideas. “Citizens have a lot of experience about the city, and we need to gather this intelligence in order to make better decisions,” he said.

Alice Charles, Head of Cities and Real Estate at the World Economic Forum , noted the changing role of the private sector in smart cities from “selling widgets and gadgets to the cities” to “promoting an outcome-driven model.” Companies are focusing on technologies that help urban leaders achieve their goals. This model requires stronger partnerships among cities, the private sector, civil society, and academia. Examples include the Smart Cities Challenge by Infrastructure Canada; City Possible , by Mastercard; and the Helsinki Energy Challenge.

Martin Weiss, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh , sees an opportunity in the wake of COVID-19 to find out what alternative smart worlds would look like. Digital technology has stood out, as it facilitates remote work, private and public online service delivery, and contactless interactions. He said, “We will focus on different questions than before, like how we make access to high-speed services less dependent on heavy infrastructure investments.”

Pedro Vidal, Intelligent Transport Systems Coordinator at the Chilean Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications , said that the pandemic hit mobility and public transportation services hard. “We have made alliances with universities to understand behavioral trends and are convinced that there are some changes in mobility preferences,” he said. “We created lanes for bicycles and developed measures for using public spaces in a safe way. We have seen an increase in the use of public transport. This can be transformed into a big opportunity to have a more sustainable city.”

Rudi Borrmann, Deputy Director at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Local , emphasized the importance of openness and transparency in gathering and using data for public services, especially during the pandemic. He said that the first step toward creating a smart city is for local governments to improve the way they coordinate and communicate transparently with stakeholders. “Openness needs to be at the center of creating trust in bringing solutions to the citizens by using technology,” Borrmann says. OGP recently started the Open Response Recovery Campaign , in which the partnership developed a series of recommendations on how to better use open government as a way to strengthen trust during the pandemic.

All told, it looks as though a smart city is one that uses technology to efficiently engage citizens and meet their needs. In the post-pandemic era, we must prioritize measures to address inequality and digital divides, which leave many of the poor, and poor cities, behind. Data privacy and transparency must be protected. Cities become smarter when citizens and communities use technology to coproduce an environment where their digital rights are protected and their cities are made more sustainable.

Watch the recording of the full discussion here .

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A frequently referenced forerunner of the smart city is this proposal by the British architectural collective, Archigram, for a “Plug-In City,” which supplanted fixed buildings with a moveable network of spaces and interchangeable “programs” for urban inhabitations. 

February 11, 2014

Print this essay, latest from the magazine, latest journal issue, volume 41 issue 4.

Multiple information and digital cities emerged throughout the dot-com era. This example of the Cité Multimédia in Montreal documents the enfolding of imaginings of urban space with the capacities of computational rendering, which further inform actual development schemes. 

The diagrammatic quality of informational cities designs can be found in newer proposals for smart cities, including this sensor world by Libelium , an “internet of things provider” based in Spain. In this proposal, numerous urban services and operations, from lighting to shopping, become augmented and newly articulated through wireless sensor networks. 

The technology that is promoted as reconfiguring urban landscapes is computational sensors, relatively miniature devices connected to computational infrastructures of multiple different scales and generating an expanded array of command-and-control programs for making urban space more efficient. 

As part of the imagining and promoting of smart cities, numerous schematic designs have emerged that capture an apparently symbiotic fusing of technology and nature. This special focus on “Tomorrow’s Cities,” gathered together by the BBC , envisions “farmscrapers” and efficient infrastructures combining into a bucolic scene with delivery drones and sensor networks. 

The Connected Urban Development (CUD) initiative, formed through a partnership between Cisco and the Clinton Initiative, with MIT and the Connected Sustainable Cities project (CSC) joining the project as it progressed, is a clear example of smart cities developing into sustainable city initiatives, where sustainability–typically in the form of efficiency–becomes a guiding logic for reworking any number of urban services and operations.[vc_video title="#" link="http://vimeo.com/6145800"]

The perceived importance of reworking smart cities as sustainable cities is frequently narrated through the increasing numbers of people now living in cities, which have become dominant sites of resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This particular CUD video provides example scenarios for how smart city initiatives will realize more optimal urban functioning. Efficiency emerges here within a (gendered) logic of gamification, behavioral responsiveness and optimization. 

As discussed in the “ Programming Environments ” article, the scenarios developed by William Mitchell and Federico Casalegno as part of their Connected Sustainable Cities visioning document illustrate in graphic-novel style the ways in which everyday actions such as commuting, cooking and heating one’s home may be synchronized through ubiquitous computing to enable more efficient use of resources. 

Beyond the use of resources, smart cities might also provide new ways of understanding relationality. Here, an eco-love contest becomes the site where an increasingly competitive approach to environmental monitoring is meant to ensure optimal mating opportunities. 

Urban sensor landscapes are presented in this scenario as not just enabling more efficient transit options, but also as facilitating political participation here through making air pollution data more apparent. However, the steps from data to action remain an elusive proposition, and the more contested and conflicted practices of citizenship that might actually contribute to political change are absent in these data-to-action scenarios. 

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cholars and practitioners of urban planning need to rethink the field’s futures at this important historical juncture: some might call it a moment of truth when there is little left to hide. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many cracks, contradictions, and inequalities that have always existed but are now more visible. This also includes the global vaccine apartheid that is ongoing as I write these words. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

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Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

• Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
• Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
• They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining.
• I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.
• They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

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Explainer: What Is a Smart City?

A smart city is a concept that sees the adoption of data-sharing smart technologies including the Internet of Things (IOT) and information communication technologies (ICTs) to improve energy efficiency, minimise greenhouse gas emissions, and improve quality of life of a city’s citizens. 

When we talk about smart cities, we may think of concepts like self-driving electric cars, renewable energy, or images of automated technology from films such as The Minority Report and Blade Runner . Yet, smart cities are already among us. So what is a smart city? It is in fact not about being futuristic, but something much more fundamental – information and efficiency. 

Smart City Definition

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) jointly made a definition of smart sustainable cities. They defined a smart sustainable city is an “innovative city that uses information communication technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, the efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects.”

We are all familiar with the term information technology (IT), which refers to the use of technological infrastructures for storing, retrieving, and sending information. But most are less so of the term ICTs, which is more than just the collection and transmission of information, but also includes the sharing of information between stakeholders through communication with the help of technology.

In other words, a smart city ultimately aims to create a place in which the information is near perfect. Perfect information, which is often seen as a non-realistic theory in economics, is believed to greatly improve the quality of life. For example, if all consumers and producers know every information about the market, including the price, the quality, and the carbon footprint of every single product, consumers can better decide what they should buy, and producers must compete on price or quality, which will overall lead to better products in the market.

You might also like: Top 7 Smart Cities in the World

Smart City and The Environment

Smart city concepts have been increasingly adopted as a way for cities and urban environments to reduce their carbon footprint, energy consumption, and pollution. So for a city to be more environmentally-friendly, we must, first, collect data about the environment. For example, having sensors measuring air quality around a city can provide information that we need to identify the causes and consequences of air pollution. Then, the next step is to analyse the data in order to come up with practical solutions and evaluate the action plans. 

In the past, evaluating the effects of a solution can be costly and time-consuming. If the result is not satisfactory, you will need to modify the solution and go through the same process until it can meet the requirements. However, with the emergence of big data, things become much simpler since evaluation can be made through simulation, which can greatly reduce the use of resources and time. For instance, relying on geographic data can be far more straightforward to decide the most suitable and efficient renewable energy for a city and to find the best spot to run it.

Data associated with the environment is not limited to objects, but also applies to humans. City planning can be much more efficient if data on civic behaviours is retrieved and examined. For instance, transportation companies can modify their schedules, such as routes and the number of shifts based on the needs of citizens. Having such data, we can efficiently allocate resources and prevent significant amounts of waste. It is estimated that each person will generate 10-15% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 30-130 fewer kilograms of solid waste per year, and consume 25-80 litres less water per day by optimising the use of energy, and tracking the carbon footprint of electricity, water, and waste.

Smart City Privacy Issues

Ultimately, how smart should a city be? This is the question that we must answer eventually.  In the West, where societies are more capitalist and individualistic in nature, the free access and sharing of confidential information related to the privacy of individuals and corporations are in many ways in contradiction to the concept of ICTs that is intrinsic to a smart city. 

While most people would unlikely object to deploying sensors to detect and measure air quality, it is another story if it infringes our privacy. Is every citizen and company obliged to be a part of a smart city? Or is it voluntary? What kind of information will go public and what will be kept confidentially? To this day, none of these questions have been addressed adequately despite more places to implement smart cities initiatives around the world. 

According to John Gage , computer scientist and former director of the Science Office for Sun Microsystems, Inc., in order to develop a city truly smart and truly free, it needs to be decentralised and replace existing applications with peer-to-peer applications, in which peers are equally privileged and have the access to the same information. Nevertheless, decentralisation is theoretically difficult as it involves national sovereignty. For instance, in recognising the potential threat of Bitcoin, a decentralised digital currency that competes with the US dollar, the United States government made the decision to tax it. The decentralisation of applications created for a smart city is very difficult because city planning is exactly the job of the government. We do not know what data will be revealed or concealed.

Despite the enormous environmental benefits that will be derived from the development of a smart city, questions regarding privacy must also be addressed. For a transparent country, free access to data can improve the quality of life, but for an authoritarian regime, a smart city can be used as a tool to manipulate information and control its citizens.

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​secure, sustainable smart cities and the iot.

Smart cities aren't just a concept or a dream of the future.

Many are already active and expanding rapidly thanks to the wildly innovative Internet of Things (IoT) solutions .

Municipal governments are leveraging cellular and Low Power Wide Area (LPWAN) wireless technologies to connect and improve infrastructure, efficiency, convenience, and quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

Let's dive in.

What is a smart city?

A big part of this ICT framework is an intelligent network of connected objects and machines (a digital city ) transmitting data using wireless technology and the cloud. 

Cloud-based IoT applications receive, analyze, and manage data in real-time to help municipalities, enterprises, and citizens make better decisions that improve quality of life.

Citizens engage with smart city ecosystems using smartphones, mobile devices, and  connected cars and homes. Pairing devices and data with a city's physical infrastructure and services can cut costs and improve sustainability. 

Communities can improve energy distribution , streamline trash collection , decrease traffic congestion, and improve air quality with help from the IoT.

Smart cities are examples of massive IoT use cases.

For instance, 

• Connected traffic lights receive data from sensors and cars, adjusting light cadence and timing to respond to real-time traffic and reducing road congestion. 
• Connected cars can communicate with parking meters and electric vehicle (EV)charging docks and direct drivers to the nearest available spot. 
• Smart garbage cans automatically send data to waste management companies and schedule pick-up as needed versus a pre-planned schedule. 
• Citizens' smartphones become their mobile driver's license and ID cards with digital credentials, which speeds up and simplifies access to city and local government services. 

These smart city technologies are optimizing infrastructure, mobility, public services, and utilities.

MORE :  How smart is your city? (January 2023) (Infographic)

Why do we need smart cities?

Urbanization is a non-ending phenomenon. 

Today, 54% of people worldwide live in cities, a proportion that's expected to reach 66% by 2050 . 

With population growth, urbanization will add another 2.5 billion people to cities over the next three decades.

Environmental, social, and economic sustainability is a must to keep pace with this rapid expansion taxing our cities' resources.

One hundred ninety-three countries agreed upon the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda in September 2015 at the United Nations.

But we all know how centralized decisions and actions can take time, and the clock is ticking.

The good news?

Citizens and local authorities are more agile in launching swift initiatives, and smart city technology is paramount to achieving these goals.

How is IoT technology making cities smarter and better?

Secure wireless connectivity and IoT technology are transforming traditional elements of city life - like streetlights - into next-generation intelligent lighting platforms with expanded capabilities. 

The scope includes integrating solar power and connecting to a cloud-based central control system with other ecosystem assets.

These solutions shine far beyond simple lighting needs. 

• High-power-embedded LEDs alert commuters about traffic issues, provide severe weather warnings, and provide a heads-up when fires arise. 
• Streetlights can also detect free parking spaces and E.V. charging docks and alert drivers where to find an open spot via a mobile app. Charging might even be possible from the lamppost itself in some locations! 

Exciting stuff!

But how does it all fit together?

What makes smart cities successful

In addition to people, dwellings, commerce, and traditional urban infrastructure, there are four essential elements necessary for thriving smart cities:

• Pervasive wireless connectivity
• Security you can trust in
• Flexible monetization schemes

Let's break it down.

What's the best wireless technology for smart cities?

The first building block of any smart city application is reliable, pervasive wireless connectivity. 

While there's no one-size-fits-all, evolving Low Power Wide Area Network ( LPWAN ) technologies are well suited to most smart city applications for their cost efficiency and ubiquity. 

These technologies include LTE Cat M, NB-IoT, LoRa, Bluetooth, and others that all contribute to the fabric of connected cities. 

The advent of 5G technology  is expected to be a watershed event that propels smart city technology into the mainstream and accelerates new deployments. 

But only with a few more elements…

Opening the data vault

Historically, governments, enterprises, and individuals have held their data close to their pockets, sharing as little as possible with others. 

Today, open data is redefining the digital city.

Privacy concerns and fear of security breaches have far outweighed the perceived value of sharing information (see  Portland and privacy ). 

However, a key enabler of sustainable smart cities is that all participants in the complex ecosystem  share information and combine it with contextual data analyzed in real time.

This is how informed decisions are made in real time. 

Multiple sectors must cooperate to achieve sustainable outcomes by analyzing real-time contextual information shared among sector-specific information and operational technology (O.T.) systems.

The conclusion?

Data management (and access to this information) represents the backbone of the digital city.

Stay with us. Here is what we mean.

Examples of smart cities

New york city.

Below are helpful links to some of New York City's significant initiatives mentioned in the video above.

• The New York City Department of Transportation's Midtown in Motion  is a congestion management system that has improved travel times on Midtown's avenues by 10%.
• The NYCx Challenges initiative from the NYC Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer invites entrepreneurs, technologists, and tech professionals to participate in open competitions and propose bold ideas that solve real urban needs such as pollution, income inequality, and transport (site closed).
• LinkNYC provides free super-fast free Wi-Fi , phone calls, device charging, and a tablet to access city services, maps, and directions. It's a unique communications network replacing payphones across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. 
• Cyber NYC is the city's strategic investment to dominate cybersecurity . It aims to grow New York City's  cybersecurity workforce , help companies  drive innovation  and build networks and community spaces . 
• MyNYCHA mobile app and web portal allow public housing residents to manage services online. It addresses over 300 public developments across New York City. Launched in 2015, MyNYCHA is a free service that puts the repair process in residents' hands. Residents can submit, schedule, and manage work tickets online. They can also subscribe to alerts for outages in their developments, view inspection appointments, and pay their rent.
• Biking in New York City : read the J uly 2019 plan for cycling in the city.
• Automated water meters in NYC: Automated Meter Reading systems consist of small devices connected to individual water meters. They send daily readings to a computerized billing system.
• The  My DEP Account  lets New Yorkers track consumption from home. The system eliminates the need for a water meter reader to visit the premises. It allows the Department of Environmental Protection to monitor citywide consumption more closely and manage the city's water supply system more effectively.
• New York's data report - Open Data for All - provides free public data published by various local agencies. This tool opens data for people to make a difference in their communities—including educators, students, artists, builders, small business owners, advocates, reporters, and community board members. It also means open data for the 300,000 workers who make New York City safer, cleaner, and more equitable.
• More on the New York City Internet of Things strategy and IoT progress report (December 20 2021.)

Amsterdam Smart City

Amsterdam is a shining example of a well-connected smart city reaping the rewards of opening the data vault. The Smart City initiative began in 2009 and included over 170 projects.

It also shares traffic and transportation data with interested parties, such as developers, who then create mapping apps connected to the city's transport systems. 

Now, navigating the city is a snap for all. 

There's more.

The city built autonomous delivery boats called ' roboats ' to keep things moving in a timely fashion. 

It also supported a floating village of houses, solving the city's overcrowding problem with a sustainable, energy-efficient alternative. Power is generated within communities, and homes receive water straight from the river and filter it within their tanks. 

None of this is possible without shared data.

City data is available online for all.

• Lessons from Amsterdam's Smart City initiative from the MIT Sloan Management Review

Here is another example.

Antwerp and the city of things

Antwerp is a partner in the E.U.'s CITADEL project. It explores the role of technology in a collaborative government.

The city is also about to create Europe's largest smart zone.

Copenhagen Smart City

Copenhagen is known as one of the smartest cities in the world and mobilizes expertise worldwide.

The city is leveraging open data to collaborate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an innovative intelligent bike system . 

Embedded with sensors that provide real-time information to riders and administrators, data is shared to monitor and manage air quality and traffic congestion.

• Technologies to create data-driven solutions that suit Copenhagen and its citizens
• Singapore has been ranked the world's smartest city. What does a smart city look like on the streets and in the homes of Singapore?
• In India, Bhopal is ranked #1 in the new ranking released by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (Times of India, February 7 2021.)
• Dholera smart city : One of the first smart cities in India

While data sharing is essential, opening the vault also expands the cyber-attack surface area. 

So, how do we keep data private from the masses while sharing it among stakeholders?

Can smart cities be secured and trusted?

In digital cities, connected cameras, intelligent road systems, and public safety monitoring systems can provide an added layer of protection and emergency support to aid citizens when needed. 

• But what about protecting smart cities themselves from vulnerabilities? 
• How can we defend against hacking, cyber-attacks, and data theft? 
• In cities where multiple participants share information, how do we trust that participants are who they say they are? 
• And how do we know the data they report is true and accurate? 

The answers lie in physical data vaults, strong authentication, and I.D. management solutions.

Smart cities can only work if we can trust them. 

Four core security objectives for smart city solutions

All ecosystem partners - governments, enterprises, software providers, device manufacturers, energy providers, and network service providers - must do their part and integrate solutions that abide by four core security objectives:  

• Availability: Without actionable, real-time, and reliable data access, the smart city can't thrive. How information is collected, distilled, and shared is critical, and security solutions must avoid adverse effects on availability.
• Integrity: Smart cities depend on reliable and accurate data. Measures must be taken to ensure that data is accurate and free from manipulation.
• Confidentiality: Some of the collected, stored, and analyzed data will include sensitive details about consumers. Steps must be taken to prevent unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information.
• Accountability: Users of a system must be responsible for their actions. Their interactions with sensitive systems should be logged and associated with a specific user. These logs should be difficult to forge and have reliable integrity protection.

Strong authentication and I.D. management solutions must be integrated into the ecosystem to ensure data is shared only with authorized parties to achieve these core security objectives.

The solutions also protect backend systems from intrusion and hacking. 

Thankfully, legislation is being introduced to address threats and potential market failure due to growing digital security concerns.

Like the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act in the U.S. , signed on December 4 2020, or the U.K. IoT security law (not passed yet in June 2021), legislation will help establish minimum security requirements for connected devices.

Show me the Money: how do we monetize smart cities?

Data is the new oil in the age of IoT and smart cities. 

For smart cities to thrive, we must establish sustainable commerce models that facilitate the success of all ecosystem players.

The software must be woven into the fabric of IoT solutions to benefit all ecosystem contributors; this includes OEMs, developers, integrators, governments, etc.

Each member's intellectual property needs to be valued and rewarded. 

Subscription software capabilities enable new business models that allow each contributor to extract value from their contribution to the ecosystem. 

Subscription-based models offer a way to monetize hardware and software to build smart infrastructures and spread out expenses, moving away from substantial one-time CAPEX spending. 

• For example, expensive medical equipment like MRI scanners can be sold on a cost-per-scan basis rather than as a one-time upfront expense for hospitals. This creates a win-win situation for hospitals and suppliers alike. 
• And one day soon, cities will offer affordable subscriptions to fleets of vehicles shared between owners who may choose from an array of custom options. This move could radically reduce traffic and optimize traffic patterns and ride-sharing.

As urban areas continue to expand and grow, smart city technology is developing, enhancing sustainability and better serving humanity. 

By leveraging pervasive connectivity, open data, end-to-end security, and software monetization solutions, we can align evolving smart city needs for a much-improved experience for all ecosystem partners.

More resources on smart cities

• Top 50 Smart City Governments in 2021 ( Eden Strategy Institute - March 31 2021)
• Top 10 smart cities in the world : London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  Forbes July 8 2020
• Top 10 smart cities in the United States : New York, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, San Diego, Miami, and Houston. IESE business school.  Cities in motion 2020 .
• The top 3 smart cities in Canada (Cities in motion - October 2020) are Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. 
• India's Smart Cities Mission : The Indian Government's program for smart city development
• Smart cities in India : India's smart cities challenge nominees
• Is Singapore the world's smartest city ? by Thales
• The European innovation partnership on smart cities and communities ( the European Commission )
• Six essential technologies make smart cities : smart energy, transportation, data, infrastructure, mobility, and devices. TechRepublic August 2016
• Impact of the Internet of things on smart cities  KPMG May 2019

Intelligent infrastructure pilot launched in Texas (March 11 2021)

• Seven ways cities are getting smarter  by Thales
• The pandemic accelerates the rise of digital cities (April 1 2021)
• Sidewalk Labs in Toronto : what's next? (May 2020)
• Smart ports : Examples around the world

What does "smart grid" mean?

IoT regulations (July 2021)

Now it's your turn

Indeed, we can't claim to list all the critical concepts and issues related to smart cities and the IoT and those that will emerge in the years to come. 

Can you fill in some of the gaps?

If you've something to say on smart cities, share best practices, have a question to ask, or have found this article useful, please leave a comment in the box below.

We'd also welcome suggestions on improving it or proposals for future papers.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Contact a local representative for more information on building trusted, smart city solutions.  

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Smart Cities

Smart cities promise that with increasing connectedness, city services and quality of life can be improved.

Anthropology, Sociology, Engineering, Social Studies, Civics

Microgrid Gas Meter

Smart meters, like this smart natural gas meter, wirelessly send power usage rates to help cut down wasted energy use.

Photograph by Gado Reportage

Since humans began living in cities more than 6,000 years ago, they’ve had to address the same problems: sanitation, crime, congestion, tax collection, maintenance of public facilities, and emergency services. In addition, important technological innovations require infrastructure : the electric grid; telephone and cell-phone networks; internet (including fiber optic and cable networks); hot and cold running water; water and waste treatment; garbage and recycling removal; public parks and recreation facilities; rail, light rail, and automotive streets, roads, thoroughfares, and rights-of-way. Today, cities are getting “smarter” to provide for improved delivery and quality of services through continuous monitoring of residents and infrastructure , and relatively instantaneous communication of suboptimal performance. To a large extent, this requires heavy reliance on automation, connectivity to the internet, and what is referred to as the “ Internet of Things (IoT).” ( Internet of Things refers to connecting devices to the internet that can be control led or can be used to send control information). A smart city , then, is a city in which a suite of sensors (typically hundreds or thousands) is deployed to collect electronic data from and about people and infrastructure so as to improve efficiency and quality of life. Residents and city workers, in turn, may be provided with apps that allow them to access city services, receive and issue reports of outages, accidents, and crimes, pay taxes, fees, and the like. In the smart city , energy efficiency and sustainability are emphasized. Smart Transportation A variety of “smart transportation” systems can be implemented in a smart city . For example, smart cities may implement a smart traffic flow management system, which can combine a central control system with controls for traffic lights and sensors for detecting delays or the amount of traffic at particular intersections. The control system can adjust the timing of the lights based on the amount of traffic and how well that traffic is flowing. Some systems can adjust timing, for example, for buses or emergency vehicles as well. Further, some systems may monitor conditions (or receive reports of conditions) on main highways and major roads and adjust timing on major roads and alternate routes to compensate. Smart toll roads may also be provisioned. For example, sensors may be instal led that detect when a car passes a toll plaza and deduct the toll from a user account. In addition, a variable toll may be assessed based on traffic conditions. For example, express toll lanes may be implemented that monitor traffic and charge a greater amount based on the amount of usage of the lane. In addition, cities, or parts of cities, may be provided with a smart parking-meter network. Parking meters may, for example, be equipped with sensors or other monitors that communicate with a central server and a user app to advise when a parking spot is available and guide a driver to it. Such meters may be able to automatically charge a parker for using the spot and advise the user and, potentially, law enforcement when the meter time has expired. A more complicated new technology being proposed for smart cities is autonomous (driverless) vehicles. In addition to user-owned and operated vehicles, use of electric, autonomous vehicles in a ride-share system has been proposed. Such autonomous vehicles could communicate with one another to execute maneuvers (such as lane changes, etc.) more rapidly and in a smaller space. In particular, vehicles could be “platooned,” i.e., driven much closer together in coordination than is possible (or desirable) with human drivers. In proposals in which the vehicles are electric vehicles, wireless charging stations could be provided on roadways. When a vehicle stops at a stoplight, for example, it could pick up a bit of a charge. Smart Energy The goal of any electric grid is to provide enough power when needed (with efficiency) and minimize downtime and damage when faults occur. One method for dealing with this is through the use of smart meters, which are digital. Electric meters can be used to replace the old, mechanical meters that require personnel to “read” the meter once a month. They can provide more timely monitoring of a particular customer’s usage and communicate wirelessly, so that no one needs to enter a backyard. Smart meters may also allow the utility to identify a source of a power outage more rapidly. In addition, control of the house’s electricity can be handled easily from a centralized location, without requiring a utility crew to go out to turn it on or off. Smart meters can also allow for differential rate provisioning. That is, a consumer can be charged more for higher usage during peak hours (and because the user has more timely access to his or her electric use, may be able to adjust that use accordingly). In addition, some utilities have proposed the use of microgrids. These are groups of interconnected loads and sources that typically connect to the wider grid but can also be disconnected to operate autonomously as an “island.” Such microgrids can function as backups if there is a failure in the larger grid, but also can operate more efficiently. Even such mundane features of urban life as streetlights may come to be networked as part of the smart city. Some cities, for example, are replacing old streetlights with those using more efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. These new streetlights can also support cameras and other sensors for monitoring crowds or high-traffic areas. Sensors can even be installed to monitor pollutants.

Privacy Concerns With the proliferation of sensors and data monitoring over many aspects of people’s lives, smart cities have raised concerns over privacy and data security. In this regard, the highest security possible should be expected, though it should be noted that anything connected to the internet is susceptible to being hacked.

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The “Smart City” Concept Essay

Recommendations.

Could computing was a trend of the decade in the 2000s. The development of the technologies facilitating data transmission over the internet has brought an enormous set of opportunities to be used for the variety of purposes. One of the opportunities is the accumulation of the upcoming data, processing, and transformation into a readable and useful form, using the appropriate software. It is the basis for the projects of a “smart city” like the one that has been successfully launched in Dubuque.

Cloud computing, in this case, is the backbone for as data collection from the variety of the numerous wireless sensors as well as its analysis and effective provision to the end users. Such end users are the Dubuque authorities that receive valuable data as the decision makers and the responsible citizens of the city as the evaluators of the impact the project has on their life in the “smart city.”

The importance of the cloud, in this case, is tremendous due to the need to accumulate and process quite versatile data. Another substantial reason to use cloud computing to support Dubuque’s authorities in this endeavor is the requirement to provide meaningful information to the end users that are distributed throughout the city. The efficient data delivery can be achieved using the variety of the contemporary tools such as mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Windows, for example, or personal web pages that can be accessed from any place in and outside the city. Such simplicity, flexibility, and efficiency of the data accumulation, processing, and provision can be provided by cloud-oriented instruments only.

Finally, the use of the cloud became the only cost-efficient solution these days. The development of the complex proprietary software that would provide the same functionality could be rather costly for the cities like Dubuque. The cloud is the only reasonable choice in this case.

A “smarter city” is the city that tends to balance energy and resources used for its maintenance with sustainable, environment-friendly practices. Additionally, it is the city where people are aware of the benefits provided by the sustainable approach. Resources and energy consumption are top priorities of both the authorities and the citizens of a “smarter city.” More to say, it is not the response to some burning issue or a disastrous problem. It is the conscious choice of the part of the local residents to pursue sustainability through the practices proposed by the authorities. Dubuque is a “smarter city” because it grows and develops in a non-traditional way. It is considered as one of the most progressive sustainable communities in the USA for a reason.

Dubuque is the place where residents can receive what they actually need but not what the city can offer to them. If a citizen of Dubuque wants to pay less money for the electricity consumption or water use, it is necessary to install the required wireless sensors where it is needed and start to generate information. Further analysis of the data provides meaningful information that can be used in the process of decision-making.

Thus, for example, if a house has water leakages, it cannot be determined easily, and the problem remains. In the case of a “smarter” approach, the problem can be solved within a rather short time because the house owner receives measurable and simple to understand data regarding the scale of the issue. The most important issue, in this case, is the determination of the source of the problem. “Smarter cities” are energy- and resources-efficient. Moreover, they are citizen-friendly. Considering these peculiarities, such cities as Dubuque are attractive cities to live in, and it is one of the advantages the concept of a “smarter city” brings to the cities that are eager to embrace it as the core concept of the city functioning.

The major “smarter city” projects in Dubuque are as follows: “smarter water, smarter electric, smarter gas,” and “smarter travel.” Within the “smarter water” project, the citizens of Dubuque received the opportunity to control the process of water consumption in their households. The impact of the program was the statistical data regarding the leakages and water loss in an average household. It appeared a household could lose be up to four gallons per hour in leakages.

The project has provided the data regarding the reduction of water consumption up to 6.6% in the pilot households. Additionally, the data demonstrated the trend of the increased leak detection. It showed the eightfold increase. Such an increase of awareness and consciousness regarding water leaks and consumption respectively should bring nothing but positive results in the future. The less water is used, the lesser efforts must be applied to recycle it for further reuse, so such approach affects other energy consumption areas as well.

Electricity overconsumption is another problem of the majority of the cities in the USA. The project called “smarter electricity” is aimed at the electricity consumption reduction and the increase of cost effectiveness of the Dubuque households, participating in the project. Thus, one of the participants experienced up to 26% of electricity consumption reduction after one year of participating in the pilot project. It meant for this household not only the reduction of electricity consumption but also the cut of the relevant expenditures as well. Therefore, “smarter electricity” is the part of the larger plan of resources consumption reduction in Dubuque. All projects launched in the city at the moment are the parts of the larger project aimed at the improvement and optimization of the resources’ usage.

The next move of Dubuque’s authorities after the successful development and implementation of such projects as “smarter water” and “smarter electricity” is the effort to combine all available information into one set of data to determine the interconnections between the different silos of data. These interconnections can provide the researchers with information regarding the factors that influence the development of the city in the positive and negative ways.

Such a merge of data is necessary to see the bigger picture of the situation in Dubuque and the ways of its improvement. The goal is to create such an information system that would track the current situation, determine the present and upcoming issues, and propose effective steps aimed at its improvement. Currently, these standalone projects provide only the minimal effect as they are aimed at particular areas that can be improved. The analysis of big data will provide Dubuque’s officials with information regarding the areas where improvements are needed first.

Prioritization is another benefit of such a system, so it is important for Dubuque to prioritize steps of the city’s improvement. Joint silos of information will play the most important role in the process of prioritizing the next steps because such a form of data organization will facilitate the analysis of the most comprehensive and full sets of information regarding the costs, expenditures, and issues essential for each strategic area of the Dubuque city’s household. It should be noted that this move would not require additional resources or efforts as data from the currently running projects would be combined and used. It means that such a merger of the projects’ databases should not stop any of the currently running projects.

Dubuque is not the only city in the USA that practices the “smart city” concept. Portland, Oregon, is another American city that extensively uses the tools that information technologies can provide. Microsoft, Forio, and Portland administration managed to obtain information from the variety of government agencies regarding the state of things for the past ten years in more than seventy-five city areas.

The effort resulted in the system that could be used for the variety of purposes and access online. There are several similarities as well as differences in the approaches of the authorities in these two cities. The following similarities can be outlined. The first one is the use of information technologies to collect and process the data about the vital systems of the city. A computerized approach to the data analysis is the most efficient one as of today, so it is used extensively everywhere.

The second similarity is the extent, to which the systems in Portland as well as in Dubuque are used. In both cities, nearly every critical system is explored, evaluated, and controlled using the computerized methods. It helps to respond to the upcoming issues much quicker and thus, provide more efficient and timely solutions in each given situation.

However, there is a drastic difference between the two systems used in these cities. The difference is in the system itself. While Dubuque uses the cloud to read and process the data from the numerous wireless sensors throughout the city, Portland’s authorities decided to go far and ordered the development of the modelling system that could predict and model the events that did not even happen yet. In other words, the system used in Portland is far more advanced than Dubuque’s one in terms of the modeling capabilities, which makes it so advantageous for the city management. The disadvantage is the lack of access to the real-world and up-to-date information as it can be done in Dubuque.

The system in Dubuque is the great achievement of the local authorities. It is the giant step towards the creation of the cost-effective, sustainable, and the environment-friendly community. The use of the cloud technologies and wireless sensors provides numerous opportunities for the further development of the system in the future. Wireless sensors can be installed literally anywhere, so such “smarter” projects can be developed for any critical as well as a non-critical system of Dubuque.

The simplicity of the system’s use is another outstanding achievement of Dubuque’s authorities. It does not require to be technically educated or to have some excessive knowledge in networking technologies to become the participant of the “smarter” projects in the city. It is an excellent idea in terms of involving new participants and obtaining more comprehensive volumes of the data.

The first recommendation is to extend the network of the wireless sensors and include other critical systems to the process of data generation. It should provide Dubuque’s authorities with a better understanding of the current state of things in the city. The next step of the officials should be the effort to create the system that would provide midterm and long-term plans of Dubuque’s development.

The current system provides up to date information only, tracking the changes in consumption rates. It would be wise to develop the system similar to the Portland’s system. Then, the wireless sensor network with its capability of generating real-time data should be integrated into the new planning system. It would add value to the both systems, creating very powerful and useful tool for the control, planning, and decision-making processes.

Summing, the paper explored the project in Dubuque aimed at the development of a “smarter city.” The most important issues were evaluated to provide the in-depth analysis of the current steps of the “smarter” concepts’ implementation. Current projects in Dubuque are very promising, and they appear to be the significant contributors to the process of making the city’s community cost-effective, sustainable, and environment-friendly.

Additionally, the paper explored the experience of the Portland’s authorities in creating and maintaining planning system that is supposed to provide them with information, critical for the decision-making process. The system in Portland appeared to be different but worthy of attention. The appropriate comments were provided to reflect upon the system in Dubuque and its potential. Finally, the relevant and useful recommendations were presented to demonstrate how the system in Dubuque could be improved. The current system required further improvement and development; therefore, the recommendations could be used as the guide.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 14). The "Smart City" Concept. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/

"The "Smart City" Concept." IvyPanda , 14 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

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IvyPanda . 2024. "The "Smart City" Concept." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

1. IvyPanda . "The "Smart City" Concept." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

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IvyPanda . "The "Smart City" Concept." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-smart-city-concept/.

• The Major "Smarter City" Programs and Resources Usage
• Are Children Smarter Because of the Internet?
• Watching TV Makes You Smarter?
• Are Women Smarter Than Men: Discussion
• SMART & SMARTER Goal-Setting Techniques
• Why Bilinguals Are Smarter?
• Portland Winterhawks' Marketing Plan
• "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" by Steven Johnson
• Portland Food Carts Popularity and Effects
• Watching TV Makes Us Smarter Debate
• Technology and Social Organization Relationships
• Communities and Social Change
• Automatic Teller Machines and the Older Population
• The Impact of Technology on Organizational Performance
• Technology in Education and Medicine

Introduction: Importance of Sustainable Smart City

• First Online: 05 September 2023

Cite this chapter

• Priyanka Mishra 3 &
• Ghanshyam Singh 3  

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This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art smart city which is a digitally connected urban environment that uses data, technology, and analytics to improve the quality of life for its inhabitants. It utilizes sensors and other digital technologies to enable citizens to access services quickly and efficiently. Smart cities also prioritize sustainable development and innovation. The objectives of a smart city are to use technology and data to improve the efficiency of services such as energy, transportation, and waste management, as well as to improve the quality of life for citizens. Smart cities also aim to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability. It is built on the idea of utilizing technology to enhance the lives of citizens and create a more efficient and sustainable urban environment. They are enabled by the use of a variety of data-driven technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and big data. This data is used to develop more efficient ways of managing the city’s resources and improve services for citizens. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the importance and need of sustainability and highlights the use of data-driven technologies in creating efficient and innovative urban environments with examples from around the world. Furthermore, a detailed aspect of smart cities, including their requirements, potential components, and open research challenges, along with opportunities for further exploration.

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Published: 22 November 2023 Contributors: Alice Gomstyn, Alexandra Jonker

A smart city is an urban area where technology and data collection help improve quality of life as well as the sustainability and efficiency of city operations. Smart city technologies used by local governments include information and communication technologies (ICT) and the  Internet of Things  (IoT).

Areas of city operations where ICT, IoT and other smart technologies increasingly play an important role include transportation, energy and infrastructure. As a city updates its systems and structures to incorporate these technologies, it becomes smarter. However, exactly which cities should be considered smart cities or should claim the mantle of the “smartest” city is a matter of debate. 

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Just as the body’s nervous system governs how humans respond to the world around them, evolving technologies are empowering cities to respond to changes in their local urban environments.

Technologies to collect data—including real-time data—are central to smart city initiatives and the benefits they promise. Data-driven insights help local governments improve urban planning and the deployment of city services, ranging from waste management to public transportation, leading to better quality of life for residents.

More efficient city services can also help cut carbon emissions, contributing to global efforts to address climate change while also improving local air quality. In addition, smart city solutions can be an engine for economic growth, as better infrastructure and technological innovation can encourage job creation and business opportunities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has identified three hallmarks of smart cities and communities: 1

Networks of sensors gather and integrate data that can be used for various applications and city services.

Connectivity enables municipal officials to interact directly with the community as well as monitor and manage city infrastructure.

The local government is committed to an open data philosophy and routinely shares operations and planning data with the public.

Tech and data-driven efforts to improve urban environments date back to at least the 1960s, when government officials in Los Angeles, California gathered data and used computer programs to identify impoverished neighborhoods in need of intervention. 2

The term “smart city” began appearing in academic literature in the 1990s and its definition has evolved and expanded over the years. A 2018 report from the McKinsey Global Institute noted that while city officials once leveraged smart city technologies “behind the scenes,” smart city solutions now increasingly include engagement from city residents. These stakeholders can collect and share important data through digital platforms and interactive mobile apps, playing a key role in the smart city ecosystem. 3

Today, smart city solutions are often touted as helping urban areas address challenges related to population growth. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities.

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New technologies that improve efficiency and sustainability in the private sector are also powering smart city networks:

Information and communication technology includes an array of data-related technologies. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology defines ICT as encompassing the capture, storage, retrieval, processing, display, representation, presentation, organization, management, security, transfer and interchange of data and information.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of physical devices, vehicles, appliances and other physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software and network connectivity that allows them to collect and share data. These connected devices—also known as “smart objects”—can range from simple “smart home” and “smart building” devices like smart thermostats, to wearables like smartwatches, to technology embedded in transportation systems. Wifi, or wireless connectivity, supports IoT functionality, with public wifi often considered key to IoT-powered city services.

Automation  is the use of technology to perform tasks with minimal human input. In smart city projects, automation helps cities become more responsive to the real-time data that’s transmitted by connected devices in the Internet of Things. Through automation, for instance, streetlights can be turned on and off depending on feedback from sensors that detect light and motion. Such systems automatically switch off streetlights when they’re not needed, promoting energy efficiency and the sustainability of city operations.

Artificial intelligence  combines computer science and robust data sets to enable problem-solving. Smart city projects use AI and  machine learning -based solutions to manage infrastructure efficiently and sustainably. For example, AI algorithms can optimize waste collection routes, reducing carbon emissions by city garbage trucks. AI can also help law enforcement improve public safety by analyzing data from security cameras and connected devices to detect crime.

Smart transportation  is a cornerstone of smart city planning. The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other technologies like geolocation allow local governments and private sector partners to collect real-time data. This data helps to improve public transportation as well as ease traffic congestion, reducing carbon emissions and improving quality of life for city residents and commuters alike.

Smart city technologies used in smart transportation systems can help officials predict which city vehicles are at risk of a breakdown and proactively order repairs. These technologies power smart parking systems that assess parking availability and keep motorists informed. They facilitate an efficient, AI-powered approach to traffic management, using real-time traffic data to determine the timing of signal changes at intersections. Smart transportation systems also support the use of electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, further contributing to reductions in carbon emissions and improving traffic flows.

Smart city technology like AI can help energy providers manage  smart grids , which are electricity networks equipped with sensors and software. Advanced software and analytics tools can analyze data provided through connected devices to identify patterns in energy consumption and forecast future energy use, helping providers proactively avoid outages and meet customer needs. Smart energy can also support the integration of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient technologies, helping to mitigate climate change. 

Smart energy technology can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions, waste and resources consumed in  oil and gas operations . Examples include:

• Applying predictive asset optimization with AI and IoT to extend the lifespan of assets and reduce the resources required to maintain and monitor them.
• Optimizing upstream and midstream operations with a focus on systemic asset performance. This approach helps to better time migration to digital systems and investigate underperforming, overconsuming equipment.
• Using technologies for environmental monitoring to reduce energy consumption, improve health, safety and environment (HSE) concerns.

Smart infrastructure encompasses both smart transportation and smart energy. It also includes smart approaches to utilities such as water as well as the maintenance of structures and equipment that support transportation, such as cables and decks. As with other smart technologies, data collected with sensors and connected devices helps decision makers spot and proactively address potential problems. In this case, the data helps to identify and tackle problems concerning  infrastructure assets  before they escalate while also improving efficiency and quality of life for local residents.

What urban area qualifies as a smart city and which cities are the “smartest” can vary depending on what source you consult. Cities in Europe, the Americas and Asia regularly jockey for position on various rankings. What is clear, however, is that local governments around the world are embracing a variety of smart city solutions. It includes famous centers of global commerce like New York City and Singapore, to regional powerhouses like Chattanooga, Tennessee and Zhejiang Province, China.

In Zhejiang, as with many other places in China, charging stations for electric vehicles are becoming ubiquitous. The province reportedly has more than one million charging stations. In Chattanooga, smart city projects include a collaboration with various organizations to monitor air quality through sensor networks. The project supports city air quality initiatives and provides valuable information to healthcare professionals.

But smart city innovations don’t take place in a vacuum. Urban planners, nonprofit organizations and corporations regularly come together to present ideas and solutions at global events. A key event for such exchanges is the Barcelona-based Smart City Expo World Congress, which has a stated goal to “collectivize urban innovation across the globe.”

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IDC MarketScape's report indicates that industry expertise, configurability, flexibility and IBM's partner ecosystem played an important role in IBM's placement.

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The rise of ubiquitous data collection and automation has led local governments to embrace smart transportation.

Downer and IBM keep passengers moving safely, reliably and comfortably with updated, sustainable asset management.

Through the Internet of Things, businesses can monitor, manage and automate their operations more efficiently and with more control.

Infrastructure asset management (IAM) enables organizations to optimize assets and service offerings by encouraging strategic decision-making.

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1 “ Putting People First: Smart Cities and Communities ” (link resides outside ibm.com). U.S. Department of Transportation, 9 June 2021.

2 “ Uncovering the Early History of ‘Big Data’ and the ‘Smart City’ in Los Angeles ” (link resides outside ibm.com). Valliantos, Mark. Boom California, 16 June 2005.

3 “ Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more livable future ” (link resides outside ibm.com). McKinsey Global Institute, 5 June 2018.

Introduction to Smart Cities

Welcome to the European Edition of the Smart Cities Readiness Guide. It was assembled with contributions from many of the world's leading smart city practitioners – members and advisors of the Smart Cities Council. It is intended to help you plan for the future of your smart city, and to help you develop the action plan that will help you successfully complete your smart city initiatives.

The first goal of the Readiness Guide is to give you a "vision" of a smart city that will help you understand how technology will transform the cities of tomorrow.

The second goal is to help you build the roadmap that will guide your city to the future you envision. It recommends goals you should aim for, best practices that will give you the results you desire with minimal cost and risk. It also encourages flexibility, from the earliest planning stages to completion and implementation – because that flexibility will give you the ability to integrate new technologies and respond quickly to changing citizen demands and needs.

The intended audience for the Readiness Guide is mayors, city managers city planners of all types and their staffs. The intent is to provide cities with objective, vendor-neutral information and recommendations that will help them make the right choices in planning and implementing their smart cities initiatives.

Many cities around the world are working to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability. Smart city best practices and technologies can be integrated with those existing efforts to support and enhance them.

In this introduction, we define what a smart city is, explain the drivers behind the smart cities movement and briefly touch on the potential barriers and strategies that can help you overcome them. It also provides descriptions of key city issues and many of the relevant topics addressed in the Readiness Guide.

Just as cities are a work in progress, so, too, is this Readiness Guide. This regional guide is based on the principles of the global Smart Cities Council’s Smart Cities Readiness Guide. Rather than make you wait until the entire localization process is completed, we are posting the regional versions of the chapters as we complete them. Until that entire process is complete, you will find that some chapters have a global tone while others are focused on your region. Keep checking back. We are posting the regional chapters as we finish them – roughly one per month. Finally, even after we have completed all the regional chapters, our work is not done. We will continuously modify and add to the chapters as new research, case studies and best practices are completed. Our Readiness Guide is a living document, so please bookmark and refer to it often for the latest guidance.

Taking a holistic view of "city"

Before we define the "smart" piece, we should first deal with the word "city." Real-world smart city examples are rarely a city in the strictest term. Many are more than a single city, such as a metropolitan region, a cluster of cities, counties and groups of counties, a collection of nearby towns or a regional coalition. Other examples are less than a full-scale city, such as districts, neighbourhoods, townships, villages, campuses and military bases. Many municipalities are taking a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood approach to modernisation, while others are taking a broader city-wide or regional approach.

Because it is in common use, we will continue to use "city" throughout this Guide. But we use it to mean all relevant examples big and small. Regardless of size, we are taking a comprehensive, holistic view that includes the entirety of human activity in an area, including city governments, schools, hospitals, infrastructure, resources, businesses and people.

The definition of a smart city

A smart city uses information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance its liveability, workability and sustainability. First, a smart city collects information about itself through sensors, other devices and existing systems. Next, it communicates that data using wired or wireless networks. Third, it 'crunches' (analyses) that data to understand what's happening now and what's likely to happen next.

Collecting data. Smart devices are logically located throughout the city to measure and monitor conditions. For instance, smart meters can measure electricity, gas and water usage with great accuracy. Smart traffic sensors can report on road conditions and congestion. Smart GPS systems can pinpoint the exact locations of city buses or the whereabouts of emergency crews. Automated weather stations can report conditions. And the mobile devices carried by many city dwellers are also sensors that can – when specifically authorised by their users to do so – collect their position, speed, where they cluster at different times of the day and the environmental conditions around them.

A smart city is self-aware in a way and connects with its citizens. No longer do we have to wonder if a street is congested – the street reports its condition. No longer do we have to wonder if we're losing water to leaks – the smart water network detects and reports leaks as soon as they occur. No longer do we have to guess the progress of the city's garbage trucks – the trucks report where they’ve been already and where they're headed next.

Communicating data. Once you’ve collected the data, you need to send it along. Smart cities typically mix and match a variety of wired and wireless communications pathways, from fibre-optic to cellular to cable. The ultimate goal is to have connectivity everywhere, to every person and every device. Interoperability – the ability of all devices to communicate and work together – is a key requirement.

Crunching data. After collecting and communicating the data, it is analysed for one of three purposes: 1) presenting, 2) perfecting or 3) predicting. If you’ve read about analytics or Big Data, then you may already know about the astonishing things that are possible by analysing large amounts of data. Importantly, analysing data turns information into intelligence that helps people and machines act and make better decisions.

The drivers of smart cities

Powerful forces are converging to make smart cities a growing global trend. As you might guess, there are both positive and negative forces city leaders are strongly advised to monitor.

Growing urbanisation. Cities deliver many benefits – greater employment opportunities, greater access to healthcare and education, and greater access to entertainment, culture and the arts. As a result, people are moving to cities at an unprecedented rate. The UN anticipates the global urban population will increase about 60% by 2050. In other words, two out of three of the world's population will live in urban areas by mid-century. Eurostat, the European Commission's statistical information agency, predicts modest growth for the 28 European Union member countries overall through 2050 and a four-year increase in the median age of the population. Despite modest overall population growth the economies in many European countries are growing quickly and becoming more competitive, a trend that attracts new business to urban areas – and more people.

Growing stress. Today's cities face significant challenges – increasing populations, environmental and regulatory requirements, declining tax bases and budgets and increased costs – at the same time many are experiencing difficult growing pains ranging from pollution, crowding and sprawl to inadequate housing, high unemployment and rising crime rates.

Inadequate infrastructure. Urbanisation is putting significant strain on city infrastructures that were, in most cases, built for populations a fraction of their current size. Much of the developed world has infrastructure that is near or past its design life, requiring massive upgrades. Europe's municipal water distribution networks are a prime example. European water and wastewater utilities are expected to invest US$526 billion between 2016 and 2025 to replace old, leaking water distribution networks .

Growing economic competition.  The world has seen a rapid rise in competition between cities to secure the investments, jobs, businesses and talent for economic success. Increasingly, both businesses and individuals evaluate a city’s 'technology quotient' in deciding where to locate. A real challenge for cities with economies based on heavy industry is creating job opportunities that appeal to recent university graduates so they will stay and help build the kind of high-quality workforce that new industries, for instance those in technology, demand. And competition also is in high gear between cities that envision a future as a smart city. They need skilled professionals trained in how to manage and maintain the evolving and complex technologies that make smart cities possible.

Growing expectations.  Citizens are increasingly getting instant, anywhere, anytime, personalised access to information and services via mobile devices and computers. And they increasingly expect that same kind of access to city services. While cities in countries such as Finland, Denmark and Germany have a very high level of autonomy, cities in the UK and others generally do not. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions and similar organizations have been pressing the European Union to relax fiscal rules they contend is stifling their ability to make the investments they need to make to ensure sustainability, liveability and adequate services.

Growing environmental challenges. Cities house half of the world's population but use two-thirds of the world's energy and generate three-fourths of the world's CO2 emissions. If we are going to mitigate climate change, it will have to happen in cities. Many regions and cities have aggressive climate and environmental goals – goals that cannot be reached without the help of smart technologies. Smart cities are better able to address resiliency and adaptation to climate change

Rapidly improving technology capabilities. Many of the smart city drivers listed above are negatives – problems that demand solutions. There are positive drivers as well, especially the rapid progress in technology. The costs of collecting, communicating and crunching data have plunged. What's more, much of the needed technology is already in place. For example, many regions have been upgrading their electric power grids to self-monitoring, self-healing smart grids and, to a lesser degree, their water and gas networks. Hundreds of millions of smart meters and smart sensors are now in place, producing valuable data for a smart city. Advances in smart building management systems, e-health, Internet of Things and related technologies and more are among the positive drivers for smart cities.

The barriers to smart cities

Despite the positive drivers, the path to smart cities has obstacles along the way. Members of the Smart Cities Council have worked on thousands of smart city projects all over the world. As they've collaborated with local governments certain consistent barriers have emerged.

Siloed, piecemeal implementations.  Cities often tackle challenges in a piecemeal fashion, due to short-term financial constraints and long-term traditions that divide city functions into separate, siloed departments with little interaction. As a result, many projects are built to solve a single problem in a single department, creating "islands of automation" that duplicate expenses while making it difficult to share systems or data.

Building a smart city requires a system-wide view and an integrated, cross-departmental approach. The bad news: holistic thinking and collaborative work are hard. The good news: done right, they can save time and enable new services that were not possible in an isolated, siloed model. For instance, a city department can drastically cut the development time for a new application by re-using data and software modules already created by other departments.

The problem with siloed cities

This is not to suggest that cities must finance and implement dozens of investments at one time. In fact, it is entirely fine to begin with just one or two projects. What is critical is that these projects all fall into a larger, integrated plan that will avoid redundant investments. Silo avoidance depends on the use of widely adopted open international standards.

Lack of financing.  Tax revenues are shrinking in many cities, making infrastructure projects increasingly difficult to finance. In fact, some cities have been forced to implement austerity measures – such as furloughing employees one day a month or cutting back on travel and discretionary expenses. Yet if those cities remain old-fashioned while others modernise, they will suffer even more, since cities must now compete globally. Fortunately, new financial models are emerging. Some require little or no upfront capital from the city. 

Lack of ICT know-how.  Although industry has developed highly sophisticated ICT skills, few city governments have had the budget or the vision to push the state of the art. Since smart cities are essentially the injection of ICT into every phase of operations, this lack of ICT skills puts cities at a disadvantage. Fortunately, more and more applications are offered as a service, which has become a strong, growing trend. That is, they are hosted in the cloud where they have access to tremendous computing power, virtually unlimited storage and innovative software. Another plus is that the smart city sector has developed a large cadre of experienced global, regional and local consultants and service providers who are partnering with cities to deploy ICT solutions.

Lack of integrated services.  To the extent cities applied ICT in the past, they applied it to their internal, siloed operations. The result has been a grab bag of aging applications that only city employees can use. Although this was an acceptable practice in the last century, today we can and must allow citizen access and self-service. There is no reason that citizens who want, for instance, to open a restaurant should have to make multiple applications to multiple city departments. In a smart city, a single portal can gather all the data and parcel it out to the appropriate departments. Likewise, residents should have instant access to up-to-the-minute information about their energy and water usage, their taxes and fees, their social services programmes and more. And ideas like Open Data not only improve transparency, they enforce a people-first perspective that is critical in smart cities

The benefits of smart cities

Now let's look at why it is so worthwhile to overcome those barriers and take advantage of the available technologies that allow you to re-imagine your city. With the right planning and investment, government leaders can make cities more liveable, more workable and more sustainable – both economically and environmentally. The following is a very brief and very general summary of the benefits well-planned and implemented smart cities can provide.

Enhanced liveability  means a better quality of life for city residents. In the smart city, people have access to a comfortable, clean, engaged, healthy and safe lifestyle. Some of the most highly valued aspects include inexpensive energy, convenient mass transit, good schools, faster emergency responses, clean water and air, low crime and access to diverse entertainment and cultural options.

Enhanced workability  means accelerated economic development. Put another way, it means more jobs and better jobs and increased local GDP. In the smart city, people have access to the foundations of prosperity – the fundamental infrastructure services that let them compete in the world economy. Those services include broadband connectivity; clean, reliable, inexpensive energy; educational opportunities; affordable housing and commercial space; and efficient transportation.

Enhanced workability  means accelerated economic development. Put another way, it means more jobs and better jobs and increased local GDP. In the smart city, people have access to the foundations of prosperity – the fundamental infrastructure services that let them compete in the world economy. Those services include broadband connectivity; clean, reliable, inexpensive energy; educational opportunities; affordable housing and commercial space, and efficient transportation.

Enhanced sustainability  means giving people access to the resources they need without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Merriam-Webster defines sustainability as a method of using a resource so that it is not depleted or permanently damaged. When the Council uses the term, it refers not only to the environment, but also to economic realities. Smart cities enable the efficient use of natural, human and economic resources and promote cost saving in times of austerity, and they are careful stewards of taxpayer dollars. It isn't about investing huge sums of money into new infrastructure, it's about making infrastructure do more and last longer for less.

Life is better in a smart city – better for people and better for businesses. In the chapters to come, we will discuss dozens of specific benefits that accrue to cities that embrace the smart city vision.

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Essay on Smart City for Children & Students

June 1, 2018 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

“Build the future you envision, for your creation will one day live up to inspire others to the idea and hard work put in to achieve that pedestal of what we call a SMART CITY.”

A smart city is a technologically equipped city with sophisticated equipment’s and infrastructure so as to serve the citizens in a better and a convenient manner. The concept of Smart city was coined towards the end of the 20 th century when the world was just stepping into a digital era; an era of advancement.

Since then, this vision has been gaining popularity by leaps and bounds among the governments of the world who aim to make their cities smart as well as green to achieve sustainable development.

Smart cities are characterized by numerous features but according to me what is most important is a progressive mindset, irrespective of any bias or prejudice.

Only when we broaden our horizons to accommodate all faiths and views around us so as to articulate a peaceful environment, the city will itself become smart in no time as people become more focused and happy in a stress-free and violence-free environment.

Happiness index of the city also tends to rise when people become tolerant due to increase in personal satisfaction.

The city should be mapped out and with the help of architects and technicians; developments in infrastructure and public amenities should be carried out keeping in mind the resurrection of nature.

The city should come across as trustworthy and appealing to the business hours, entrepreneurs, foreigners so as to provide boost to the business.

Climatic change is one of the most worrying issues we are currently faced with. In the race of development, care for nature is left behind. Carbon dioxide emission must be reduced in the times to come. Cities are responsible for almost three-fourths of green-house gases produced worldwide. Thus, being major polluters they are called upon to provide solutions as well.

Cities are known to use up a lot of electricity and raw material to meet their day to day operations. Thus, they are expected to shift focus from non renewable sources of energy to renewable sources of energy so as to conserve thermal energy. Cities like Delhi and Chennai which receive a lot of sunlight should work on efficient use of sunlight to generate electricity.

Smart cities are bound to revolutionize the transport and communication facilities so as to provide smooth flow of networking on both roads and mobile networks. Better ways to manage traffic should be devised through advancements in technique, infrastructure and research and developments.

Education and health sectors should be prioritized. The entire education system prevalent should be scrapped and an innovative, books-free, children-friendly system should be adopted so as to ensure all-round growth of children.

Advancements in the health sector goes a long way in increasing the average life expectancy, boosting the health index of the population and increasing productivity of goods and services .

Government should also work on getting almost all its data and processes online so as to gives a whole new dimension to the term e-governance. This will ensure convenience to the public and the government as well. Moreover, this will ensure transparency and corruption can also be checked easily.

A smart city is the need of the hour today. Nonetheless, a smart city projects an image of development in front of domestic and foreign public.

The investments made to develop state of the art infrastructure bears fruit in short term, in the form of increased incomes i.e. GDP and in the long run, it increases the skill of human and material resource.

Also, a smart city is expected to take into consideration social and environmental benefit as well. This helps in the protection of the environment and conservation of our resources as well.

The government, in 2016 launched the SMART Cities mission at a budget of Rs. 98,000 crores with an objective of up gradation of urban areas and retrofitting program. The mission aims to develop 100 cities all over the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable. Financial aids will be given by the central and the state government to the cities or the territories nominated.

This mission is expected to show results by 2022. What is different about this scheme is, core competency. Earlier, when schemes were implemented, funds used to be allotted but people did not work on using those funds efficiently so no development was visible to the naked eyes.

But this scheme makes cities compete with one another to take hold of the financial grant and acquire the status of smart city. This ensured that even when the funds are allotted, work is being carried out at an ideal-pace without any wastage of time and funds.

But with smart city comes smart responsibilities on smart citizen. Before the introduction of this concept of smart city, people should be made aware of the project and its meaning so as to equip them with latest technology. Without the cooperation of citizens, a city can never become smart.

But the catch here is that the concept of Indian smart city seems to create very expensive and localized development, with concentration only on core infrastructure with limited citizen engagement.

Also, when we read about the ‘Smart cities mission’ on the government’s portal, they introduce the subject as ‘….there is no way of defining a smart city…..’ and ‘……a smart city might mean different things to different people…..’

This ambiguity in the mission is terrifying as one can clearly see that it can potentially develop into a major loophole which will let officials get away from the jurisdiction for non-compliance.

Without a standard definition or a guide to follow, the success of this mission is impossible because without a definite goal, no mission can ever be accomplished.

As of now, this mission stands on dangerous grounds. Though it seems like that the government is working hard to bring about a transformation yet we cannot envision a smart city before us due to the vagaries involved.

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Essay: On the smart city; Or, a ‘manifesto’ for smart citizens instead

Please note: This piece has moved over here, in the publication But What Was The Question?  at Medium . Please read, and link to, that version instead.

———–

Oh, the smart city . I have “previous” here, over about a decade of writing about the interplay between cities and technology. And particularly, having written about The Street As Platform , and the Personal Well-Tempered Environment , and The Adaptive City , and about New Songdo City , and "new smokestacks" , and how it’s easier to crowd-source a revolution than a light-rail system , and so on. And then worked on many projects, which I hope to scribble more about one day here, from Barangaroo to Brickstarter , Masdar to Melbourne .

During this time, what we might call a Urban Intelligence Industrial Complex (led by IBM, Cisco, General Electric, Siemens, Philips et al) has emerged and continues to try to insert itself into urban agendas;  with little success, in comparison to the marketing spend, it must be said. One can imagine a quiet fading away of all those “Smarter Planet” promotional schemes soon, actually.

But it’s clearly not an idea that’s going to go away (for reasons good and bad.) I was be asked by both the London School of Economics and Volume magazine , separately, to write about the smart city (both were related to different speaking engagements.)

The piece for the LSE was a contribution to their Electric City conference newspaper (thanks Philipp Rode and Ricky Burdett). I spoke there about the Brickstarter project we started in Helsinki alongside many great contributions from the likes of Richard Sennett, Anthony Giddens, Saskia Sassen, Adam Greenfield, Greg Lindsay, Michael Kimmelman, Alejandro Zaero-Polo, Erik Spiekermann, Richard Rogers and others, all of whom lined up to critique the smart city idea, essentially. My talk was a little too hurried, I’m afraid, and I felt I failed to connect—which partly spurred me to present the following piece here.

While the LSE piece was written before Electric City, the Volume article was partly reflecting on an event in Rotterdam organised by the fascinating International New Towns Institute (only in the Netherlands, eh?), where I moderated a panel on New Songdo City. Their latest issue presents four case studies of new towns which can be seen as “smart cities” to some extent (Living PlanIT’s PlanIT Valley, near Oporto in Portugal; Lavasa in India; Strand East in London; New Songdo in South Korea). Really, however, they are contemporary variants on the new town idea—what Volume call “the city in a box” approach.

(Writer’s note: This may only be interesting to me, but faced with writing two pieces in quick succession, when I have essentially a single line of critique, I first of all did what I usually do, as regular readers know—I wrote too much—and produced one piece. I then snapped this in two, trimmed around the edges, and gave one half to LSE and the other to Volume, for further edits. Both published pieces have a distinct and self-contained critique, but they spring from same source, and both suggest the key idea of “smart, engaged citizens”. I’ve stitched them back together into one whole, cleaned up a bit and added a few ornamental details, and am sharing here as one single critique of the smart cities movement. It is different to the original, and so a fourth variation on a theme. It’s a peculiarly baroque and labour-intensive outcome (oh to be able to write precisely first time round) but as a process it had a certain value.)

So, as a whole this is different to the pieces published by LSE and Volume , but is constructed from the basic components of both. I hope you can’t see the join. Look carefully nonetheless, as this might appear at first glance like a destructive critique of technology in the city. It is not. Technology is culture; it is not something separate; it is no longer “I.T.”; we cannot choose to have it or not. It just is, like air. There are different forms of technology in different cities, of course, but given that technology and culture have fused (arguably, always had) the issue is now a cultural one; what kind of culture do we want in our cities? How do we orient ourselves, with regards to today’s particular technological cultures? 

We know how our cities were oriented as regards irrigation, language, currency, double-entry book-keeping, clocks, looms, trains, sewage, power plants, elevators, cars, containers—these are all forms of technology, which were in some way aligned to, and sprang from, the core urban dynamics of their age (and perhaps those eternal urban drivers of culture and commerce.)

So, how do we orient our cities as regards The Network? And how might this then address the core issues of our age?

So the goal is entirely constructive, and to shift the debate in a more meaningful direction, oriented towards the raison d’etre of our cities: citizens, and the way that they can create urban culture with technology. 

Although it says “manifesto” up there, this is not a manifesto in the sense that Marinetti would write one—probably for the best—but instead a quest for the right questions. As such, you might infer your own manifesto from it (even in opposition to it!)

The essay surveys three types of activities, and scenarios, demonstrating active citizens, noting some issues along the way, and then critiques the opposite—the production of passive citizens—before asking a couple of questions and suggesting some key shifts in attitude required to positively work with the grain of today’s cultures, rather than misinterpret it. (Read on below.)

On the smart city; A call for smart citizens instead

Big data + social media = urban sustainability?

The promise of smart sustainable cities is predicated on the dynamics of social media alloyed to the Big Data generated by an urban infrastructure strewn with sensors. Feedback loops are supposed to engage citizens and enable behaviour change, just as real-time control systems tune infrastructure to become more energy efficient. Social media dynamics enable both self-organisation and efficient ecosystems, and reduce the need for traditional governance, and its associated costs. 

Yet is there a tension between the emergent urbanism of social media and the centralising tendencies of urban control systems? Between the individualist biases inherent within social media and the need for a broader civic empathy to address urban sustainability? Between the primary drivers of urban life and the secondary drivers of infrastructural efficiency? 

And in terms of engaging citizens, we can certainly see evidence of increased interest in using social media for urban activism, from crowdfunding platforms to Occupy Everywhere and the Arab Spring. Yet does it produce any more coherence or direction for the new cultures of decision-making required in our cities, or simply side-step the question of urban governance altogether? And what if the smart city vision actually means that governance becomes ever more passive, as it outsources operations to algorithms or is side-stepped by social media, whilst citizens also become passive in response to their infrastructure becoming active? Or might they be too distracted to notice as they’re all trying to crowd-fund a park bench?

This essay is peppered with such questions, not because there are no hints or pathways ahead, but because we tend to spend little time on framing our problems with care. As the British architect Cedric Price said in the mid-1960s: “Technology is the answer. But what is the question?” 

Efficiency as cul-de-sac

Instead of the smart city, perhaps we should be more preoccupied with smart citizens. The smart city vision tends to focus on infrastructure, buildings, vehicles, looking for a client amidst the city governments that procure or plan such things. 

But the city is something else. 

The city is its people. We don’t make cities in order to make buildings and infrastructure. We make cities in order to come together, to create wealth, culture, more people . As social animals, we create the city to be with other people, to work, live, play. Buildings, vehicles and infrastructure are mere enablers, not drivers. They are a side-effect, a by-product, of people and culture. Of choosing the city.

The smart city vision, however, is focused on these second order outcomes, and often with one overriding motivation: efficiency. Yet the city’s primary raison d’être is to be found amidst its citizens. If we look there, we find that there is more, much more, to urban life than efficiency. In fact, many of those primary drivers are intrinsically inefficient, or at least at a tangent to the entire idea of efficiency. Can a city be “smart” and inefficient at the same time? Perhaps this is a fundamental question, un-voiced by smart city advocates.

We might argue that smartening the infrastructure enables citizens to make informed decisions, and this is certainly true. But the infrastructure’s output is hugely limited—it might speak to patterns of resource use, but gives us little detail or colour in terms of those original starting points for the city, which tend to be qualitative rather than quantitative, slippery, elusive, transient, subjective.

So to see the city as a complex system to be optimised, made efficient, is to read the city along only one axis, and hardly a primary one at that.  

Enter the smart citizens

We must look somewhere else for inspiration, to the most important aspect of smart cities. That would be smart citizens.

Fear not, because as it happens, all around us, in cities worldwide, we see evidence of smart citizens—that is, citizens using social media and related technologies to organise and act. Despite the heavy infrastructure-led visions of the systems integrators and IT corporations, the most interesting and productive use of contemporary technology in the city is here, literally in the hands of citizens, via phones and social media.  

The dynamics of social media have been adopted and adapted in the last few years to enable engaged and active citizens to organise rapidly and effectively; a network with a cause. 

Occupy Everywhere is part-enabled by Twitter, just as Facebook helped tip over various perturbation points that fuelled the Arab Spring. We see it less helpfully, if minimally, implicated in the UK riots, partly brought to you by Blackberry Messenger. (Incidentally, it’s worth noting that the allegations that social media helped “cause” or drive those riots are surely flawed; after all, people have previously managed to riot quite successfully, for quite some time, without Blackberrys. What is entirely new is a nation-wide mass clean-up the morning after organised over Twitter (#riotcleanup) . That had never happened before in urban history.)

( Update : Note also the success of Beppe Grillo's Movimento 5 Stelle  in the recent Italian elections . Without spending a cent on advertising, and refusing to appear at all on any mainstream media, this party won more votes than any other. That is unheard of in a major western democracy—if not almost unthinkable, just months ago. And how? Grillo's party took to piazza after piazza, every single night of the campaign, holding huge rallies to rapt crowds, in a distinctly non-institutional mode. But they also used social media extremely adeptly, in a way that left the traditional political parties trailing in their wake (masterminded by 5 Stelle's Gianroberto Casaleggio .) Arab Spring was partly Tahrir Square + Facebook. Occupy was partly Zuccotti Park + Twitter. As the UK doesn't really do piazzas, the British equivalent was the high street + Blackberry Messenger. And so the Grillo phenomenon is  the piazza + social media too. So we see social media-driven activism finding a foothold in the essentially ancient urban form of the square—the two work together, with the dynamics of social media manifesting themselves in these relatively open urban forms (Q. Would it even work as powerfully without the piazza?)

We also see the dynamics of social media behind a flurry of crowd-sourced, crowd-funding platforms, driven by the exponential growth and increasingly disruptive success of Kickstarter, with 2012 alone witnessing numerous new platforms aimed at engaging citizens in the collaborative development of their own city.

Both strains of activism—crowds, and crowdsourcing—will be unpicked a little more below.

All of these are involved in questions of sustainability, one way or another, at least in terms of triple-bottom-line and beyond (economic and social as well as environmental), with several aimed directly at sustainable outcomes, on the basis that we have all the technology and capital we need to create sustainable cities—our problem is rather that we can’t agree what to do next. So these are platforms for agreeing .

“Smart citizens” seem to be emerging at a far faster rate than we’re seeing more formal technology-led smart cities emerging. This smart city needs no marketing campaign, and little in the way of new urban infrastructure—it relies on loosely joined internet infrastructure overlaid onto the city, and the fact that the city has become the organising principle for humanity. This speaks to a genuine interest, desire, and facility with these platforms amongst citizens—people are voting with their feet. What we are really seeing is active, engaged citizens—“smart” is too loaded a term, too easily co-opted, and unhelpfully vague. This activity is heartening; in the face of institutional collapse, active citizens are knitting together their own smart city, albeit not one envisaged by the systems integrators and technology corporations. 

But do they enable more complex decision-making? Isn’t this where Occupy falls over, or the Arab Spring gets wintry? 

There are a few dots on the radar that describe systems that might enable a more sustained form of engagement. While they borrow the dynamics, modes and functionality of social media, they needn’t rely on them, and all preference a form of public, physical engagement with urban fabric.

Moving beyond the successful "platforms-for-complaining" like FixMyStreet and SeeClickFix, some attempt to open up urban planning, design and operations to the community. Others indicate a subtle side-stepping of bureaucracy, trying to engage citizens directly, sidestepping a city in technocrat-mode.

Active citizens 1: 2011, Social media and the year of Peak News

There are weak signals that, as institutional frameworks continue to crumble, citizens are increasingly actively engaged in decision-making about their city. Again, at its most viscerally obvious, we can see it in Tahrir Square, Occupy Everywhere, Croydon, Athens, or the underreported protests in urban China. But beyond those flashpoints, we can also see numerous examples of a more systemic change: urban activism becoming urban activity. All these phenomena rely on the dynamics, modes and functionality of social media. They enable the heroic efforts of urban activists of the past—those who produced New York’s High Line, London’s Coin Street, or Renew Newcastle in Australia, say—to be shared, copied, translated and scaled.

Through the lens of democratising urban planning, we see examples like “Sub-Plan” in the UK and “Tallinna Planeeringute Juhend” in Tallinn: simple, user-centred guidebooks explaining how to exploit loopholes in urban planning legislation to more creatively and proactively rework your city. We can see movements like Friends of Arnold Circus in London, where the community has brokered a deal with its cash-strapped municipal government such that local maintenance is a shared responsibility. The outcome is that what used to be a dilapidated, syringe-strewn, rusty Victorian bandstand is now an active and well-tended community garden. Similarly, in Berlin, we see the residents of Schöneberg creating and maintaining their own planter boxes outside their apartment blocks, sometimes asking the city government for permission, sometimes not. As each apartment block is different, the streets become patterned with a playful expression of Berlin’s rich diversity. It’s an entirely informal urbanism, taking root in the cracks left by urban planning, city governance and market forces. But does it scale beyond the window-dressing of tactical planter boxes?

In Helsinki, Ravintolapäivä (Restaurant Day) started in 2011 and now runs every few months, with hundreds of diverse pop-up restaurants peppering the streets, effortlessly circumventing the city government by exploiting legal grey areas or simply relying on strength in numbers, common sense, and clear public demand ( as discussed previously .) Created in response to overly repressive, cumbersome and outdated legislation, the festival was devised and organised by a small group of friends, in emergent fashion, coordinated via Facebook and Twitter. The resulting “Ravintolapäivä” was essentially a set of instructions, and you can’t arrest a set of instructions. You can't arrest code . There is no there, there. It would be like trying to arrest smoke, and consequently the City, the biggest bureaucracy in the country, was sidestepped easier than the Maginot Line. The streets are suddenly full on Restaurant Days, a vivid expression of how fast Helsinki is diversifying, with people you don’t usually see enjoying a diverse range of food you can’t usually eat—empenadas cooked by Argentinians, crepes by French, lasagna by Italians, as well as smoked reindeer from the Finns. To locals, it must feel like a new Helsinki emerging from within the hardened shell of the old.

But interestingly, while such events are a kind of slow-release capsule in changing the culture of the city, changing the stories that the city tells about itself, such pop-ups do not strategically create systemic change, just as Occupy, Arab Spring and UK Riots have not projected any kind of suggestion for a new, resilient decision-making culture. Though it has spread throughout Finland and worldwide—a major marketing success the municipality can barely mention, as Ravintolapäivä still hovers in Helsinki’s legal grey areas—Restaurant Day is largely a phenomenon enjoyed by urban hipsters, and is here today, gone tomorrow. The only problem with Restaurant Day is the Day After Restaurant Day . There, the city snaps back to its previous shape, with no diverse food offering, little creative use of the street, and the hardening chrysalis of the old city visible again.

Events can change the city, clearly—hence the vast investments in Olympics and Expos as well as bottom-up riots—but their effects are slow, unpredictable and spotty. 

Yet what these new tools suggest, due to the platform characteristics of social media, is a more rapid, even, and sustained change might be possible. The tools could be used to create a new interface on the city that could, potentially, alter the way that most citizens interact with it. 

Moreover, behavioural psychology tells us of the importance of people actually doing things, when attempting to engender significant behaviour change. 

It turns out that changing behaviour is a way to subsequently change attitudes; this is entirely counter the thinking behind many smart systems , which are predicated on feedback loops delivering information to people, whose attitudes then change, and who then choose to change their behaviour accordingly. Instead, behaviour change happens through changing behaviour, and then attitudes. 

It is not enough to simply “make the invisible, visible” , to use the already well-worn phrase in urban informatics. But change might happen through creating convenient, accessible ways to try something different, and then multiplying that through social proof and network effects, reinforcing through feedback. (This means all those smart meters are a complete waste of time and money, and will eventually have to be uninstalled.)

Active learning—say, by trying out that idea for a pop-up café, without having to commit to it—also enables social proof. Others take part in it. And this, in turn, encourages further activity. This drive towards enabling activity—physical activity in streets, embedded within digital activity, at one and the same time—is also the future of communications concerned with meaningful change: it is no longer enough to convey the image; you have to convey the tools too.

Active citizens 2: 2012, crowdfunding platforms and the year of collaborative city-making

Running along parallel tracks, numerous cities have witnessed an explosion in crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding platforms throughout 2012. Following in the wake of the increasingly high-profile crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and almost popping up at the rate of one every couple of weeks over the year, these include Neighborland, In Our Backyard (IOBY), YIMBY, SpaceHive, Brickstarter, Neighbor.ly , Change By Us, Give A Minute, Smallknot, Joukkoenkeli, Lucky Ant, Voorderkunst, I Make Rotterdam, as well as several more general crowdfunding services occasionally bent into shape to serve as urban incubators (Indiegogo, PeopleFundIt, PleaseFundUs, Crowdfunder, and Kickstarter itself).

The basic notion is that someone thinks of and pitches a local project, and people in the community “back” that idea, typically donating small amounts of funding. The network effects of social media enable an aggregation, whilst the architecture of contemporary websites enabled the projects to be tracked, discussed, updated, voted upon, and so on. (See Brickstarter.org for a more thorough unpacking of these ideas.)

All these systems are predicated on the idea that citizens want to engage in their city; that implicitly, citizens are best-placed to notice, suggest, aggregate and drive a certain kind of urban intervention. This “Kickstarter urbanism“, like Kickstarter itself, is typically oriented towards the small things in cities—let’s turn this parking lot into a community garden; let’s start a co-working space; let’s start a bike-sharing scheme—rather than taking on urban governance models, or attempting to fund large-scale infrastructure.

This in itself is no criticism: what city wouldn’t benefit if people started caring about the small things? But is there is a lingering sense that this might be a little “bread and circuses”? A stream of micro-distractions to occupy the community while the big boys in government get on with the big stuff—education, transit systems, energy policy, grand civic buildings, and so on.

Of course, the basic model of crowd-funding currently limits the capital it might produce, even for dense neighbourhoods. Kickstarter can generate tens of millions of dollars at best, which is a lot for a watch but doesn’t get near the investment required for a light-rail system, say. And the average Kickstarter project raises under USD10k, on a global platform, often promoting global projects. Most urban projects are intrinsically not global, but highly local, limiting the size of the crowd that might fund, whilst asking the basic question of who decides what is best locally, when using a global platform.

Equally, crowdfunding could have a political edge, consciously or not, in that raising capital directly from particular members of a community could impact upon a municipality's capability to raise money through taxation. Crowdfunding could inadvertently become a substitution for taxation. If these are public projects—and they tend to be—then why does the municipality not fund them via the public purse?

Besides, money speaks rather loudly in crowdfunding systems. A wealthy local resident could increase the likelihood that a project might happen simply by dropping a million euros on it. Such systems tend to use a financial target as primary organising object, rather than its potential appropriateness, quality or any more thorough assessment of need or desire. There is nothing intrinsically democratic about social media .  (Of course, we might argue that this is still an improvement on a situation where only a few large players—developers and governments, primarily—can really promote and progress projects, also through their sheer weight of capital.)

We should not pretend that hitching our decision-making apparatus to crowdfunding is in any way a more "democratic" approach, or that it will necessarily produce more appropriate or beneficial local solutions. Whilst it might increase transparency in urban development, which could lead to increased accountability, this is not necessarily a given. Any system so clearly oriented around simple accretion of financial capital will be easily gamed by those who happen to already possess large wads of said financial capital.

So, it is indeed easier to crowdsource a revolution than a light-rail system. We can generate an Arab Spring, but when a contemporary platform like Neighborland, for example, tries to influence the likelihood of a commuter rail extension in Denver, it can attract only 51 “neighbours” backing it. Their well-meaning comments are unlikely to change the situation much—that billions of dollars would need to be found, somehow, from within a culture not predisposed to funding sustainable public transit. Neighborland is a wonderful example of a new platform, but in itself it is not enough to create a new decision-making culture for making more sustainable decisions. It might however contains the seeds of such a thing, if we see it as a sketch rather than a solution.

For we need to bind the energy and dynamics of social media—those active citizens—to active government too . Government is partly there to take such disruptive innovations and productively absorb them into a resilient system that smoothes social inequalities and generates broader access. How should Helsinki take the spirit of Ravintolpäivä and learn from it, to shape its own regulations and culture such that the city benefits from better-quality street food, a facility with diverse urban cultures, and more active, democratic use of the street? Can we enable systemic outcomes rather than simply one-offs?

Equally, crowdfunding systems, by their very nature, will rarely enable a systemic change. They create a tapestry of one-offs and events, but will rarely generate city-wide services or infrastructure. While this might or might not be a problem, depending on the service in question and your point-of-view, the ability to shape legislation, governance and effective services in order to produce urban social equity (or mobility) must surely depend on watching, listening, learning, and acting in response.

Active citizens 3: A suggested precursor, in shared space

Perhaps an equally active form of governance, in a symbiotic relationship with active citizens, is required to take such emergent activity and productively absorb it into the city more broadly. This might look to concieve these activities as strategic rather than simply tactical, through participating. It would enable a city to stop being Maginot Line 'd and instead imagine how each one-off pop-up might actually be thought of as a Trojan Horse for a wider systemic change.

So how might we build systems that create active users within active governance, systemically? Rather than look to Silicon Valley for inspiration, we might instead look for a precedent in the unlikely location of an intersection in a small town in the Netherlands.

Hans Monderman's "shared space" traffic system, designed and implemented in many places from the 1980s onwards, removes all signage and formal “rules" from intersections, instead relying on human interaction—people looking each other in the eyes and making shared decisions, in an network of interdependent trust. Cars, lorries, bikes and pedestrians come together in the same place and negotiate their way through together. Everything slows down, but nothing stops. 

This is the safest way to design an intersection. Add traffic lights to this, and we get more accidents, not fewer.

So one can design a system, or culture, in which individual actors are aware that they are part of a wider interdependent system of complex movements, with positive end results—safer, smoother—at a systemic level as well as individual.

Wonderfully, it believes in people; it rewards trust, and demonstrates that this is viable.

It requires governance, to help shape a city that can work in such a way ( Search YouTube for “shared space Monderman” and you’ll find videos demonstrating that the Dutch examples are all relatively dense—though not high density—environments with active streetfronts and wide pavements. It wouldn’t work where peoples’ idea of urban space is something you drive through at speed. But then what would?)

Removing all "regulation" at this micro-level turns out to be the safe and effective thing to do as it relies on active citizens, not abdicating responsibility for wider systems and acting as an individual or outsourcing the decision-making to traffic lights. So removing regulation, though not governance, here implies far greater personal responsibility. It is not simply "self-interested actors maximising personal gain”—it relies on smart, engaged, aware and active citizens, rather than the passive systems that smart city visions are often predicated upon.

Passive citizens 1: not so smart

Ironically, given Monderman’s shared space, those currently promoting the idea of “driverless cars” talk of being able to remove traffic lights due to automation. With active citizens, Monderman indicated we don’t need technology to remove the lights. 

Smart buildings have systems that automatically turn off lights in meeting rooms, leading to the absurd sights of people leaping to their feet and waving their arms in the air to trigger a light sensor. Look at what such systems do to us! 

Smart buildings also turn off our desk lamps for us. Can we not turn off our own desk lamp when we leave the office? We used to be able to, when energy has been more closely managed in the past. In fact, does removing the conscious decision-making element make us less likely to be aware, to care, about our impact on the environment? Are we becoming passive citizens in response to our systems getting smart? Will this approach really lead to a sustainable city for people?

Part of the promise of the events previously mentioned is that they begin to deal with the asymmetry of power in urban decision-making. The fact that citizens can now rapidly organise more quickly and more effectively than bureaucracies is a useful brake on the technocratic approaches typical to city governments. It could be even more useful if that new symmetry can be re-imagined as a powerful counterpoints, a creative tension which recognises the value in both emergent systems and bureaucracies with long-term responsibilities and coherent decision-making. 

Yet with passive citizens that asymmetry of power is likely to remain intact; if not made worse, as citizens devolve their decision-making and responsibility to software , as well as city government. Their awareness of their environment diminishes in line with their ability to do something about it. While those promoting smart buildings clearly mean to Do The Right Thing, the subconscious focus on what technology can do, as opposed to what it should do, could be entirely counter-productive.

Passive citizens 2: Shanghai Expo’s urban control rooms

The 2010 Shanghai Expo gave us numerous insights into the state of contemporary urbanism, not all of them good. Several of the more intriguing aspects were not to be found in obvious locations, like the glamorous “architecture as soft power” national pavilions, but instead in the massive, banal spaces constructed for corporations to convey their visions of the Expo’s theme “Better City, Better Life.”  

These giant sheds were occupied by the likes of General Motors, Cisco, Broad, China State Shipbuilding Corporation and others. Within one such hangar, General Motors was showing a science-fiction movie about future Asian cities in which cars are the organising principle, projected in a vast movie theatre with moving rollercoaster seats. 

Unsurprisingly, the IT corporations preferred to see IT as central to the future of the city. While Cisco's movie had a strikingly similar plotline and mis-en-scene to that of General Motors , IT is a little harder to make a rollercoaster ride around, “The Social Network” notwithstanding. So the centrepiece of Cisco's pavilion was a mocked-up "urban control centre", a "NASA Mission Control"-like environment but for urban processes. Cisco staff were dressed up in lab-coats, pretending to operate screens with no connections, as if they were a urban physicians, carefully nurturing and treating the city, massaging it into a safe, secure, efficient condition. Well-meaning, but ultimately a little like the main street in an old Western; all facade.

Wandering around these various prototypes at the Shanghai Expo in 2010, there are clearly uneasy tensions in the philosophical foundations of such an enterprise. Even given the context of an Expo in the Peoples’ Republic, the conceit of centralised control of a city felt a little awkward. Mercantile, chaotic, heterogenous Shanghai would surely resist this as much as anywhere.

This control room or dashboard metaphor, common to most smart city visions, seems hopelessly inappropriate for cities, even if we focus on the "urban systems” that a city government might ostensibly run. As Saskia Sassen points out, there is a further tendency to “make these technologies invisible, and hence put them in command rather than in dialogue with users.” 

The users, in fact, were also invisible. The nearest you got were the fictional narratives threaded through such pavilions, all essentially variants on Chinese soap-opera archetypes. So, equally a confection, rather than the glorious unpredictability of real life.

It betrays a technocratic view that the city is something we might understand in detail, if only we had enough data—like an engine or a nuclear power station—and thus master it through the brute force science and engineering. To dig into the shortcomings of that approach, philosophically, would be a book in its own right. And probably one already written by Callon or Latour, so fortunately I don’t have to. Not that I could.

It reminds me of the first part of Richard Wilbur’s poem “Epistemology” …

“Kick at the rock, Sam Johnson, break your bones: But cloudy, cloudy is the stuff of stones.”

The city is certainly cloudy, and that is its immense strength. The reason it works, in fact. That’s what continually beguiles and seduces, such that the story of humanity is essentially the story of cities, a slow reveal on a decision: of people choosing the city, over 20,000 years. The entire premise, and promise, of the urban control room is flawed in this sense— we can no more understand Shanghai through that data than we can from the sense data gathered from a long walk through the city on a sultry June afternoon. The focus on the former over the latter, as if it is a quantifiably “better” way of understanding the city, and thus managing it, generates another slew of unasked questions about the way we run cities.

The centralised approach to city-making, and city-running, that it implies could simply be the latest incarnation of the same sensibility that brought us the suffocating, oil-dependent latticework of suburbs, malls and flyovers of the mid-20 th century city, one of the more unhelpful cul-de-sacs in human history. 

Passive citizens 3: Songdo, we have a problem

Well beyond the Expo’s smoke and mirrors, yet still in the East, New Songdo City rises from the wetlands outside Seoul and Incheon. It’s the clearest living example of the ideas glimpsed in that faux-urban control room in Shanghai. 

At the International New Towns conference in Rotterdam, "New Towns, New Territories", earlier this year, the Songdo project is being discussed as an exemplar of the smart cities movement. (The other case studies are not so obviously "smart"—Lavasa in India, Strand East in London—although the other, PlanIT Valley in Portugal, is the work of a vocal contingent from  Living PlanIT, a start-up who are trying to deploy "tech start-up" culture and the principles of contemporary operating systems onto the city.)

Some approximation of “an operating system for the city” is being deployed there, by Cisco and others, as part of the development phase, and in broadly holistic, top-down fashion. (In fact, Cisco’s more interesting projects, perhaps in a later, more considered mode, are smaller scale discrete experiments in Amsterdam, New York, Barcelona and Nice, which integrate over time. Equally, the really interesting people at Cisco are in their IBSG group: the likes of Nic Villa, Martin Stewart-Weeks, Dimitri Zhengelis et al.)

To see one aspect of the problem with Songdo, let’s zoom into the apartments, sitting in their over-scaled towers surrounded by over-scaled roads.(It’s easy to critique Songdo from an architectural or urbanist standpoint—shooting fish in a barrel with a gatling gun, in fact—but let’s not bother to do that.)

When reviewing the promotional literature, we read Stan Gale suggesting that equipping the buildings with pervasive Telepresence videoconferencing might "take anxiety out of where do I meet, need to be?" 

Sorry, but is this a problem? Who gets anxious about this? Meeting different people in different places is one of the joys of urban living, one of its clear advantages. A good city is replete with a variety of spaces and scenarios in which to conduct a business meeting, run a workshop, chat through a idea, share your problems, read a book, have an affair, or simply create chance encounters. The idea that dealing with physical space and finite time is problematic might actually reveal a deeper issue that a particular culture has with these "constraints" on humanity, a kind of machine thinking. It describes a desire to control experience, obliterating serendipity. It would subdue the city’s ability to generate encounter with the other, which as Sennett and others have pointed out, is perhaps the great “civilising” condition of cities.

Cisco’s Telepresence is currently best in class videoconferencing, and fairly astonishing quality—I am always amazed when I use it—but it is an entirely neutered experience compared to meeting in person. In 1976, Antony Jay wrote the classic business text "How To Run A Meeting" , noting:

"From time to time, some technomaniac or other comes up with a vision of an executive who never leaves his home, who controls his whole operation from an all-electronic, multichannel, microwave, fiber-optic video display dream console in his living room. But any manager who has ever had to make an organisation work greets this vision with a smile that soon stretches to a yawn."

This vision is now here—you see it whenever Stan Gale, or one of his execs, addresses a conference from their apartment at Songdo—but you get the sense this vision is still being greeted with smiles and yawns, and rightly so. David Brooks' "The Social Animal" recently deployed the benefit of another four decades' worth of psychology and sociology research since Jay's essay to underscore the importance of face-to-face physical interaction.

For Gale and others, the physical matter of the city might be a problem to be solved through data transfer, perhaps a reflection on the semi-privatised urban culture they emerge from, but might it be the case that for most people, the physical matter of the city is not only its raison d'etre, but part of its appeal, an everyday luxury, an adventure without end? Matter matters.

That cloudy, cloudy condition of stone is preferable to the limited affordances and experiences of the cloud. But don’t read this as a paean to a pre-digital city, or a traditional architect’s plea for the physical qualities of ancient materials—what Gale et al don’t understand is that we can now revel in both—the cloudy and the cloud—at the same time, in a real street. 

Moreover, we can use this example of installing pervasive Telepresence to unpick another error at Songdo; a lack of understanding of, or allowance for, the different layers of change regarding domestic technology in domestic spaces. 

Put simply, domestic or personal technology now tends to move extremely rapidly, whereas the fabric of domestic and personal spaces does not. While Cisco and Gale might state that "building a city and deploying tech at same time is more efficient", this is from the builder's perspective, and will leave the users of the space with a potential problem when they try to unravel these layers at a later date.

In other words, what happens when someone wants to uninstall the Telepresence in their apartment and use Facetime or Skype instead? Or Microsoft Surface or Google Android? The average citizen would not think of uninstalling their building’s drainage systems, but installing and uninstalling software is now an everyday activity. It's sometimes an unfortunate reality, but a new iPad emerges every six months. New apps emerge every day. Literally hardwiring urban services to a particular device, a particular operating system, is a recipe for disaster, not efficiency. It betrays a lack of understanding of people all too common to large IT equipment manufacturers and property developers. (It's worth noting that the representative of Ikea's property development division, working on Strand East, spoke in markedly different ways to other property developers in the room at the INTI conference, or elsewhere in the industry for that matter. If ever an industry was ripe for "radical disruption" from outside, it's this one.)

Put simply, city fabric changes slowly yet technology changes rapidly. The key, which we can draw from Stewart Brand’s “How Buildings Learn” and other texts , is to enable these layers to move naturally at their different rates. All new cities are somewhat interesting at his early stage, but they are more interesting over time, as they adapt, just as all cities are. There is a worrying lack of thought about adaptation in this desire to install the consumer tech layer as if it were core building services.

There are numerous issues with the vision, beyond these somewhat telling examples. Another was evident in the perceptible shiver that ran through the audience when they were told that the in-apartment systems would enable a parent to track the location of their child, to ensure that they have entered the private school at Songdo. For an extra few bucks a month, that is. This is an anxiety-generating feature, a baby monitor applied to grown children and adults, that would rent asunder delicate social fabric rather than help create it.

Zooming out of that Songdo apartment, we might observe a Cisco exec at the conference noting that their company’s value is directly linked to the volume of internet traffic, and that building a city like Songdo, networked to the hilt, should increase that traffic. This has, inadvertent I’m sure, echoes of that earlier era of technology-led urbanism, when companies like General Motors would allegedly covertly coerce a city like Los Angeles to remove its tramway—the largest streetcar network in the world at that point—whilst lobbying for freeways and roadbuilding on a vast scale as part of an economic shift towards cars. The contemporary Los Angeles is now faced with a near-impossible task of unpicking these decisions. 

Infrastructure companies, whether cars and highways or screens and routers, look to increase traffic on their infrastructure. It is in their interest. We can hardly blame them for trying—that’s their job—but we should not so blithely and carelessly let it drive urban strategy as it did 50 years ago. 

The landscape architect Richard Weller describes the Australian versions of this outcome as “the cities that cars built when we weren’t looking”. I know what he means, but the problem is that we were looking.

Question: Unproductive efficiency versus productive inefficiency?

So both approaches—the smart city and the city that cars built when we weren’t looking—are driven by a desire for centralised control in order to produce “efficiency”, and focused on second order outcomes: energy, buildings, infrastructure, mobility. These are not the starting points for cities—let’s say culture, commerce, community, conviviality—all of which are intrinsically inefficient, or at least tangential to the idea of efficiency.

When it comes to obsessing over efficiency, we have a bit of previous history here. Have another look at a book like Brian Richards’ “New Movement in Cities” , from 1966 ( mentioned here previously ). It’s actually a sharp, intelligent, forward-thinking book, featuring diagrams by Warren Chalk and Dennis Crompton of Archigram, and with a relatively strong dose of humane urbanism, but it is soaked in the technocratic stance of the time. It might purport to be solving problems for citizens, yet citizens barely feature. In a short passage on getting projects done, Richards describes the necessary players involved in decision-making, and citizens are conspicuous by their absence, amidst the engineers, planners, architects and occasionally politicians.

Throughout the text, Richards describes the likelihood that traffic congestion will be a problem for cities in the future, then summarises a range of possible technology-led mobility solutions, generally based around building new infrastructure. Yet while his more outlandish suggestions—ranging from moving pedestrian walkways to motorways through London’s Soho to hovercrafts—did not happen, the more commonplace solution of engineering traffic to optimise and “solve” traffic would get enacted, and this is what would later be found to be highly flawed. You can look through any number of lenses—air quality, carbon, conviviality, aesthetics, productivity, safety, fatalities, stress, land value and so on—and see that the outcome of this technology-led mindset was highly damaging for our cities, and our citizens. (Some of his later predictions, such as driverless cars and automated roads are only now being deployed.)

“New Movement in Cities” , in focusing almost entirely on mobility, this second-order aspect of cities, eventually reveals an emphasis on unproductive efficiency rather than productive ineffeciency. 

And of course beyond mobility, the same approach would be played out more broadly in architecture, planning and bureaucracy, throughout the numerous new town projects of the post-war era.

Decades later, smart cities have exactly the same problem. How could we develop a vocabulary, a dialogue, about how how a city could be inefficient and yet be productive, delightful and engaging? Or how inefficiency is at the heart of human communities and endeavours? Would one wish one’s marriage to be "efficient"? A dinner with friends to be efficient? A game of football? A great book? A walk in the park? On some occasions, perhaps, but it is hardly the point.

How might we avoid making the same errors, in focusing on second-order drivers, in deploying technology-led “solutions”, in trying to optimise the city, in suggesting that efficiency should be something we aspire to? Are we destined for urban planning history to repeat itself, first as tragedy, and second as tragedy as well?

Question: Just what is it about today’s ecosystems that makes them so appealing?

Partly due to privacy fears, but perhaps also due to a more general discomfort with engaging the messiness of humans, smart cities tend to sense objects not people, infrastructure not culture. While the drive behind monitoring infrastructure is understandable, could it be that it inadvertently generates a less human-centred approach to urban governance? You manage what you measure, after all. 

This would be the last thing we need. It’s not that we shouldn’t manage the infrastructure using these new tools; it’s just that we need an equal and opposite effort in terms of understanding and engaging with new patterns of living—not simply patterns of movement, or of resources, but with urban culture, with people.

Even then, the idea that we can produce a harmonious equilibrium in urban systems through systems thinking may be fundamentally flawed. These technologies are not necessarily neutral, of course, in that they often betray the cultural conditions they have been created. There are particular dynamics to both social media and crowdsourcing/funding, which we must be aware of if we are to deploy them as a part of our interface with government, the city, or the neighbourhood.

The filmmaker Adam Curtis , in "All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace" , powerfully connected the machine logic of the internet to a form of “neoliberal” ideology, based on a belief in self-righting automated systems and markets. Curtis took apart the idea that “natural ecosystems”, the biological constructs partly underpinning this philosophy, inherently tend towards harmonious equilibrium. In fact, both markets and natural systems are apparently riven with ruptures, waste, inefficiencies and conflict. Thus the idea of feedback loops, common to many smart cities projects, may well be hopelessly insufficient in terms of reversing our carbon-intensive patterns of living, for instance. 

Cities, like actual natural ecosystems, are not steady state systems; as capital generators, they tend towards disequilibrium, they move in violent ruptures, they are wasteful, just as nature is. Their progress tends to be produced through cascades of tumbling imbalances, constantly resisting a steady-state. But this is precisely why they work, and why they attract people. It might be worthwhile pondering why that is, and working with the grain rather than against it.

Instead, however, smart cities tend to run counter to the conditions of urban culture, just as traditional software models struggle to comprehend and mimic the complexity of a savannah. When software does achieve that complexity, which it increasingly can, it moves beyond human comprehension. As Kevin Slavin has said of trading software, we are now writing code that we cannot read. Here, the machine thinking that often underpins sustainable city visions could be seen as the equivalent of a kind of "high-frequency trading for urban processes" . as well as an overly simplistic reading of ecosystems.

Is this really the condition we want in our cities as well?

It is still early days, yet the success of social media means that it is being thoroughly critiqued. As a result, we have to be aware that it may be exemplifying characteristics that are in direct conflict with the idea of a "new toolkit for 21st century urban democracy" or “the sustainable city”.

For NYU/Harvard Law School researcher Alice Marwick , social media implicitly and explicitly encourages what she calls “status seeking behaviour” within a “competitive attention economy”. Her critical research describes the effects of transposing a Silicon Valley-derived model of neoliberal, free market principles onto our social organisation, our relationships with our self, and each other. What happens when we deploy this ideology in the cities of, say, Northern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Asian Sub-Continent, Latin America, the Far East? Each has a completely different set of preferential social structures, governance structures, living and working patterns, cultures of decision making.

But let's assume, just for a moment, that this airdrop of transposed culture via software may be harmless, in terms of these wider cultural effects. But Marwick’s key point—the creation of the selfish, “attention economy”—cannot be ignored in the context of urban culture, and particularly sustainable urban culture. Even the proponents of social media talk of the “attention economy” as if it is just ipso facto a natural state of organisation. But at its most basic level, sustainability necessitates a selflessness, a scaling of empathy beyond one’s immediate concerns, a scaling in terms of space, to those immediately affected by our changing of the climate, and time, to those subsequent generations who have to live with the consequences of our actions over the next few years. At the very least, this is surely in tension with “status seeking behaviour” and we need to critically assess how, why and what to do about it.

Similarly, the basic premise of crowd-funding tends to rely, implicitly at least, on the idea that a kind of bottom-up “civic entrepreneurship” should be the primary motor driving urban development. As this is generally in opposition to state-led innovation, this can also be seen as part of a certain kind of ideological backdrop. In the UK, it could be seen as a Big Society -driven abnegation of urban services, in favour of 1000 startups blooming to take care of the city. Crowd-funding becomes a useful substitution for municipal taxes, offering up obvious political opportunities. 

So these political aspects of "smart city" thinking could embody both a centralising technocratic dynamic, albeit aligned to increasingly privatised delivery, and a decentralised individualist dynamic, with urban services delivered by a rag-bag of third sector, private sector and diminished public sector, or not at all. 

It is clearly of our time, and with such a strategy Your Mileage May Vary, as they say.

Numerous thinkers, from Zadie Smith to Malcolm Gladwell to Douglas Rushkoff, have written of the implicit limits, or even dangers, when we are unthinkingly uncritical of this culture. Equally, many simply don't get it, much as Baroness Susan Greenfield simply doesn't get video games. And for every Gladwell, there's a Clay Shirky or Steven Johnson, thinkers capable of genuinely engaging in constructive critique. You can choose which side of the Shirky vs Gladwell debate you land on, but at least it's happening. Personally I see huge value in well-designed social media, and the cultures it might enable. But there are two issues. The first is that the value might be enabled only when subjected to considered critique, continuous exploration, asking the right questions, and engaging with the outcomes in ongoing, iterative fashion. The second is that you have to do apply all of this to anything social media touches too, such as the city.

We should not let the idea of smart cities continue to be so untroubled by informed, constructive critique.

Suggestion: A prototyping culture, beyond IT

Yet critique or not, there is only one true way to find out what balancing act might tend towards sustainable outcomes, and that is to try it. But as "trying it" means considered, iterative prototyping of user-centred platforms, as local experiments that can nonetheless scale, and produced by designers, coders and product managers that understand both The Network and The City, do we have the right people in place, able to take the right approaches?

Sadly, most city officials have absolutely no idea how to do any of this, with a handful of honourable exceptions. Their culture—and thus their operations, attitude, behaviour, skillset—is from another age. Hence we see the systems integrators of the previous age—let's call it "The Age of IT ”—mercilessly exploiting this condition through anachronistic procurement cultures designed almost exclusively for these players. 

The results will be the same as for the Age of IT : over-scaled monolithic vertically integrated systems that take too long to develop, are too expensive to buy and maintain (by orders of magnitude), and have an appalling overhead on anyone that tries to use them. Exactly what image does the phrase “government I.T. project” conjure up, after all? (By way of comparison, observe how the "start-up within the UK Cabinet Office", Government Digital Service , is laying waste to a previous generation of IT systems in a matter of months, creating elegant, simple and user-focused systems using the same agile methodologies and user-centred design that build the likes of Amazon and Twitter, and saving millions upon millions of pounds along the way. You cannot outsource this: it is strategic. We have even more reason to take the same intrinsically internet-age "small pieces, loosely joined" approach to our urban governance systems, given our understanding of the way cities work. But are we?)

This is not about "IT" anymore. A 14 year-old girl updating her Facebook status on her iPhone while she's walking down the street is not really "IT" What we used to call "IT" is now too important for the "IT" department. These technologies are part of cultural and strategic approaches, and have long since shifted from the back room to front of house, to the top table. 

Observe how Amazon and Net-A-Porter are changing the physical fabric of the high street; how Nike+ is changing how we exercise; how Kickstarter is changing the structure of the creative industries; how Apple has changed media; how Google is altering basic literacy, almost extending cognition; how Facebook and Twitter helped drive last years' Peak News events. 

Compare to your average municipality’s IT department: do we have the right people, the right culture, around the decision-making table?

We can now easily see the problem when city governments attempt to engage with this. Trained by pervasive, professionally-produced experiences like Facebook, citizens can now see that almost all the efforts of municipalities thus far are embarrassingly bad in comparison. Politicians can see this too, as we all now use these systems. The issue is with people and culture, not the role of government itself. it’s not that they can’t do it; it’s that they can’t do it . They literally do not know how to. They are currently not equipped to work in this way, with these tools, skillsets and attitudes. They need to build a culture of doing, rather than outsourcing, but most do not yet realise that they now have competition. The UK’s Cabinet Office appear to understand that now, and perhaps a few municipalities like New York and Chicago, but they are an exception, and even in the best cases have not reacted enough.

IT was once a service like catering or postage, to be procured. IT, or what replaced iT, is now at the core of almost everything. It is becoming the medium for a government’s relationship with their citizens. The systems and cultures that municipalities are looking to take advantage of are not outsourced, they are not put together by “systems integrators”, they are not IT. They are quite different. The platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon are not outsourced; they are owned and operated, designed and researched, coded and maintained, communicated and supported, almost entirely in-house.

Suggestion: Active city government

Yet there is no fundamental reason why municipalities could not work in this way, in terms of its strategic positioning, function, history. It is a question of talent, which in turn is a question of motivation. There are plenty of examples of innovation within a public sector environment. From a tiny sliver of personal perspective alone, I can speak of GDS above, or the BBC ten years earlier. You cannot tell me that those core public sector environments were not "innovative" . Beyond that, Sitra's recent Helsinki Design Lab event was set up to explore further examples, from IDEO’s work with the US Government to Mindlab’s at the heart of the Danish government.

Yet you do not hear enough about them as it runs counter to contemporary political thinking, much contemporary economic thinking, and they can also easily be outweighed by the number of counter-examples (as I just did in the previous section.) They illustrate, however, that it is entirely possible, it is going on, and thus there are no structural reasons why it should not happen. Such good work, in a public sector environment, is usually not in opposition to the idea of innovation in the private sector—often, the people involved have significant experience of both sectors, and tend to blur the boundaries between them, driven instead by “the mission” in either case (a discussion for another day.)

We need to hear more about such examples of public sector innovation , however, as Western culture is soaked in a form of propaganda suggesting that public sector is slow, big, cumbersome and entirely devoid of innovation. This is genuinely damaging.

If you want to get things done, do you turn to government as your potential employer? Not at the moment, not often enough. Yet what if government was directly and boldly prototyping new versions of itself, using these new technologies? It might be that a sense of public good, of civic responsibility, can be found within a re-calibrated approach to municipal government. If we dovetail active citizens with active governments, building the interactions of both around these new logics but balancing their inherent biases, we might discover better cultures for producing good, sustainable decisions.

As Marco Steinberg says, we currently have 18th century institutions facing 21st century problems. Contemporary municipal governments are entirely redolent of their 18th or 19th century counterparts, despite some facile difference. Drop an employee from, say, 1890s Helsinki city council into their 2012 equivalent and they'd recognise much of what they saw. Some of the clothes might be different, there would presumably be more women around, and they might wonder about those small glowing rectangles people keep looking at, but they'd see a department of planning, a city engineer, a schools department and so on, run in largely similar ways (although arguably rather more risk averse). 

Yet we are in a radically different urban condition. Not just in terms of built fabric, whose significance is overplayed due to its sheer obviousness, but in terms of our highly interconnected patterns of living amidst the radically different systems that produce the contemporary city, localised and globalised simultaneously. The nature of our challenges are entirely different, with climate change the clearest example of that.

Even accepting that cities evolve—and slowly—urban sustainability will require a transformation. To produce transformative products or services, you must transform organisations. So you must to redesign the city’s organisations, recalling Peter Drucker’s insight that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, in order to be able to redesign the city. If we want the city to produce a different outcome, it will take a different kind of organisation running it, responsible for it. 

The very idea of the city as a public good fundamentally rests on this. And the very idea of the sustainable city relies on understanding that the city is a public good.

Possibility: NIMBY to YIMBY

There is genuine possibility in the new tools, after all. Several of the emerging crowdfunding projects indicate that they might be able to generate significant funds, certainly enough to build serious funding at the start of projects, which is often when they fail, alongside mechanisms for otherwise backing, discussing or sharing best practice. 

City halls rarely have a meaningful “suggestions box” on the front door, and these new platforms could be just that. They might reverse a Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) tendency such that it becomes a YIMBY—Yes In My Backyard!—through genuine collaboration and participation in city-making, rather than the dread-word “consultation”.

Few urban interventions currently leave traces of their progress for others to follow, copy, learn from. The internet is built to do that, meaning that you might be able to “view source” for every urban project. Urban activism is usually the province of someone who wants to give up every weekend for years, just to get something done, learning from scratch in each instance as there are no breadcrumb trails to follow from previous projects. With new platforms deployed, activism might become something more akin to plain old urban activity, in which many if not all citizens are more deeply woven into the fabric of their city’s decision-making. Entirely new governance models are implied as a result, with far more frequent, open and active engagement than a vote in the municipal elections every four years . There are different responsibilities both sides here.

Practically and technically, you can read the settling patterns in social media platforms as a blueprint for what a 21 st century “social service” might be, whilst also deriving some of the changes in institutional cultures required. And the mode of production in prototyping—starting small, pivoting and scaling, as all contemporary systems do—suggests how we might build. ( Brickstarter was a manifestation of this thought.)

For if sustainability fundamentally requires us to think long-term, and with the welfare of others in mind, we must surely create decision-making cultures that not only take into account but actively counter the tendencies of these swirling vortices of individualism and short-termism. If, after Eliel Saarinen, we need to think of our house in terms of the neighbourhood, of the neighbourhood within the city, of the city symbiotically connected to its wider region, and so on, we will have to actively build systems with this in mind. Like judo, we might need to use the powerful dynamics of social media against itself . Otherwise these forces pulling in opposite directions may cause the system to shear itself apart.

In which case, what possible models for cooperative urban governance might emerge from such a culture? Do we need a city in which citizens understand that they are part of a wider system, and behave accordingly, to take a more holistic view beyond individual drivers, to be actively engaged rather than passively observed and “fed back to", with governments equally engaged as collaborative actors rather than passive procurers? What is the equivalent of Monderman's dynamic, responsible “shared space” system?

We do need smarter cities

These are questions we cannot fully answer yet, but we should ask them nonetheless.

Yet beyond governance, it’s also clear that much of our existing urban infrastructure is indeed broken . It is, in comparison to "smart", mostly dumb. The way we procure, develop and construct buildings is well past its "use by" date, and construction, as an industry, is so cumbersome as to be largely ineffective. The way we run our cities tends to be pathetically anachronistic, largely oriented for the 19 th century rather than the 21 st . Bureacracies cannot seem to scale empathy and engagement, and often seem unable to turn strategy into delivery. The strategic drivers for decision-making about patterns of living and working are either non-existent or not understood. Our shared civic culture is being allowed to atrophy in the face of a powerful hegemony reinforcing a sophisticated individualism as its organising principle .

And we do need to deploy the clear promise of technology into our cities, using a "post-IT" culture to unlock its immense potential to address some of these issues. I, and many others, have written enough about the promise of the smart city in this respect elsewhere—we don't need to go into it here. There are clear benefits to a more contemporary urban infrastructure—in efficiency, yes, but also in firmness, commodity, delight . 

But as well as a new urban hardware and software, it’s in this interface between engaged citizens and engaged government that its real promise may lie, as evidenced by the way that citizens are racing ahead while the smart cities movement lags behind. This medium, as long as it does not put technology in the driving seat, might be immensely useful in terms of introducing genuine efficacy and verve into the way the public sector works, reducing the cost of government massively whilst increasing its positive impact, rebuilding an meaningful civic interface with citizens.

Looking at these emerging patterns described above, we can read a sketch full of promise, indicating the value in an active, engaged government and active, engaged citizens . It will not be enough to have emergent communities without a transformed attitude within bureacracy, just as the Gov2.0 movement has to be more than a Web2.0 front-end plastered over Gov1.0.

The challenge with smart cities, just as with most aspects of cities, is in our various cultures of decision-making. Steven Johnson's latest book "Future Perfect" , on what he calls "peer progressive" political systems that are built with The Network in mind also provides a useful primer on the emerging thinking here. Similarly, see also  the “hybrid forum” approach being pioneered by architects Elemental and strategic communications firm Tironi in Chile . There, new collaboration methods are transforming the practice of masterplanning, architecture and civic engagement. They are radical in comparison to today's approaches yet seem entirely common-sense when you dig deeper. We might learn a a lot.

In order to unlock the potential of technology in the city, we must explore a wider frame of reference than that offered by IT corporations and property developers, where a tangle of vested interest and path dependency can only give us neutered, potentially damaging and ironically rather outdated ideas. Let's be careful not to make the same mistakes we made 50 years ago, which we are still paying for, and still making.

Closing questions: the city as public good

Finally, yet more questions.  

Might we enable patterns of living that recognise that cities, as the richest expression of the diversity and dynamism of human culture, thrive on the very unpredictability and inefficiency of citizens, that the city is in itself a form of resistance to steady state systems and refuses to settle on “natural equilibriums”, that it can nonetheless be guided and shaped by shared governance cultures based on its incompleteness, openness and sense of possibility, and recognition that it is a process, not an accretion of infrastructure? 

Do we have smart citizens at the core of our smart cities? Are our governance cultures and tools in the right shape to genuinely react to the promise of The Network?

Are we sure that these ideas—drivers and enablers, unpredictability and inefficiency, prototyping and pivoting, personal and civic responsibility, meaningful activity from citizens and government, the city as public good—are part of the smart city vision? 

For these are all part of what makes a city work, what makes a good city, and what will make a genuinely resilient city. 

Understanding that might be a smart thing to do.

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