How Smart Is Your City

This book focuses on the potential benefits that the so-called smart technologies have been bringing to the urban reality and to the management and governance of the city, simultaneously highlighting the necessity for its responsible and ethically guided deployment, respecting essential humanistic values. The urban ecosystem has been, in the last decades, the locus to where the most advanced forms of technological innovation converge, creating intelligent management platforms meant to produce models of energy, water consumption, mobility/transportation, waste management and efficient cities. Due to the coincidence of the punctual overlap of its own genesis with the pandemics outbreak, the present book came to embody both the initial dream and desire of an intelligent city place of innovation, development and equity – a dream present in most of the chapters – and the fear not just of the pandemics per se, but of the consequences that this may have for the character of the intelligent city and for the nature of its relationship with its dwellers that, like a mother, it is supposed to nurture, shelter and protect.

Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the various aspects for the development of smart cities from a European perspective. It presents both theoretical concepts as well as empirical studies and cases of smart city programs and their capacity to create value for citizens. The contributions in this book are a result of an increasing interest for this topic, supported by both national governments and international institutions. The book offers a large panorama of the most important aspects of smart cities evolution and implementation. It compares European best practices and analyzes how smart projects and programs in cities could help to improve the quality of life in the urban space and to promote cultural and economic development.

Over the past decade, cities have come into closer contact and conflict with new technologies. From reactive policymaking in response to platform economy firms to proactive policymaking in an effort to develop into smart cities, urban governance is transforming at an unprecedented speed and scale. Innovative technologies promise a brave new world of convenience and cost effectiveness – powered by cameras that monitor our movements, sensors that line our streets, and algorithms that determine our resource allocation – but at what cost? Exploring the relationship between technology and cities, this book brings together an outstanding group of authors in the field to provide a critical and necessary examination of the disruption that is under way. They look at how cities should understand and regulate novel technologies, what can be learned from proposed and failed smart city projects, and how innovative economies change the structure of cities themselves. Contributors dig deeply into these and similar subjects, contributing their voices to an important dialogue on the future of urban policy and governance. The first collection of its kind, this groundbreaking volume brings together social, economic, and cultural insights to enhance our understanding of the ongoing technological upheaval in cities around the world.

In a series of essays, this book describes and analyzes the concept and theory of the recent smart city phenomenon from a global perspective, with a focus on its implementation around the world. After defining the concept it then elaborates on the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an enabler for smart cities, and the role of ICT in the interplay with smart mobility. A separate chapter develops the concept of an urban smart dashboard for stakeholders to measure performance as well as the economic and public value. It offers examples of smart cities around the globe, and two detailed case studies on Genoa and Amsterdam exemplify the book’s theoretical and empirical findings, helping readers understand and evaluate the effectiveness and capability of new smart city programs.

Become empowered to build and maintain smarter cities At its core, a smart city is a collection of technological responses to the growing demands, challenges, and complexities of improving the quality of life for billions of people now living in urban centers across the world. The movement to create smarter cities is still in its infancy, but ambitious and creative projects in all types of cities—big and small—around the globe are beginning to make a big difference. New ideas, powered by technology, are positively changing how we move humans and products from one place to another; create and distribute energy; manage waste; combat the climate crisis; build more energy efficient buildings; and improve basic city services through digitalization and the smart use of data. Inside this book you’ll find out: What it really means to create smarter cities How our urban environments are being transformed Big ideas for improving the quality of life for communities Guidance on how to create a smart city strategy The essential role of data in building better cities The major new technologies ready to make a difference in every community Smart Cities For Dummies will give you the knowledge to understand this important topic in depth and be ready to be an agent of change in your community.

This book looks at what makes a city smart by describing, challenging, and offering democratic alternatives to the view that the answer begins and ends with technology. Drawing on worldwide case studies documenting the redevelopment of old and the creation of new cities, it provides an essential guide to the future of urban life in a digital world.

Almost a century since the idea of creating more humane — more human-centric — cities was brought to the fore, how far has mankind progressed towards creating a true 'city with a heart'? How far off are we, and what can we do to close the gap?The first generation of smart cities showed the limits of top-down planning, in which cities contracted out design and implementation to IT providers. As residents resented paying high taxes for 'smart' urban features that they did not want or use, it became plain that smart cities were not sustainable, and needed to be re-thought. 'Smart City 2.0' starts the design process with understanding the needs of human residents. Little has yet been written about smart cities' second wind.This book offers leading-edge, international perspectives on Smart City 2.0. It offers an overview of the sustainable smart city concept, presents leading experts' latest thinking on strategies for a new generation of smart cities, and showcases eight implementation case studies from seven countries. All chapters are contributed by prominent, leading thinkers and practitioners from a dozen countries, representing both the developed and the developing worlds.Related Link(s)