Citizens at the heart of smart cities
This article is also available here in Spanish.

Citizens at the heart of smart cities

My list

Author | Esther FuldauerIn a time of austerity with extreme measures and budget cuts, we would imagine that the last thing we want to do is spend more on technological investments with dubious outcomes. The past has showed us that technology becomes obsolete in a blink of an eye. We wouldn’t want to invest in proprietary technology that risks becoming locked in and rapidly becomes obsolete.Besides problems are so complex that they are beyond the mere use of technology. The whole of society must become involved. So beyond the glittery smart technology, what is smart city all about?Our cities are growing faster than ever. Cities already hold 54% of the world’s population, are expected to increase 66% by 2050, 90% of that growth happening in Asia and Africa. Current municipal infrastructures and services are no longer capable of dealing with challenges which are becoming harder to solve.Just as the challenges in sustainability, congestion and wider use of public transport, traffic management and energy management are becoming more complex, cities can also offer more opportunities to solve these issues, because their larger concentration of talent and resource gathering potential leads to more technological innovation, new business models and services.By using open innovation models originally developed for business, citizens and public servants with diverse fields of knowledge can now co­-create new municipal services solving severe problems, impossible to solve from a centric top­ bottom approach.Moreover, data can now be collected from sensors or crowdsourced from citizens, and shared as open data to find out how changes in the system are affecting the whole. New models can be quickly tested within a fraction of the time and cost of traditional structures. There are two other benefits of increasing the number of data-gathering networks and analyzing their data, the ability to visualize new applications by collating data and to forecast new outcomes.Circular economy business models are also bringing more savings in efficiency in terms of infrastructure maintenance and savings in consumption of raw materials. Peterborough (UK), named Smart City of the Year 2015, has a collaborative approach to citizen involvement that is an excellent example of the bottom-top vision of a smart city.If you ask them what makes them succeed they say, “Certainly technology is helping cities meet their challenges quicker, but the real motor of it all is their engaged citizens. Having successful programs that encourage people coming together, testing their ideas with technology and sufficient funding for their programs. Thus the Innovation Challenge Fund and Test Bed Fund have allowed us to support the great ideas of 11 start­up businesses and SMEs in Peterborough.” The outcome is a city that is compassionate, creating new business opportunities as it becomes more sustainable and efficient with a higher quality of life.Image | Dystopos/Flickr

Related content

Recommended profiles for you

JC
Jose Andres Cossio Alvarez
Esri Colombia
EP
Eliana pacherres
derecho
DS
Dayana Salvatierra
MUSEO
MS
Mercy Samuel
CEPT University
Professor
JP
Jenny Pizarro
Cushman & Wakefield
International Partner, Head of Business Development Services in South Europe
FM
Fred Mazo
Legal 500
Global Head of Production
CP
CELESTE PEREIRA
FADA UNA -APAR -RED PARAGUAYA POR CIUDADES SUSTENTABLES
Architect - urban designer -teacher
TM
Tiago Matos Santos
Universidade de Aveiro
AL
Amar LAKEL
Ubm
Professor
ML
Michael Lu
Sarawak Multimedia Authority
Head of PR
BW
brooke walters
Charter
Marketing Manager
VO
Vojko Obersnel
City of Rijeka
Executiv activities in municipality
TF
Tristan Fuhrmann
ifok GmbH
Consultant for OpenGov & Citizen Participation
DM
Devesh Mothilall
Joburg Municipality
MM
Merja Maijala
Business Tampere
Building smart city together with companies, city representatives, research institutions & citizens
JT
Jo Thompson
World Trade Centre Accra
AB
Agustina Brizuela
Secretary of Public Innovation, Presidency of Argentina
Digital Strategy advisor
CG
Carlos Gomez Sierra
Ministerio de Coordinacion y Planificacion
Director de Planificacion Urbana
AM
Audouin Maxime
Keolis
Head of innovation lab
EA
edilson alvitres ipnaque
niguno