The Gadget City trap

ICT technologies are very useful tools for the construction of the 21st century city, however by themselves do not provide the desired “intelligence”. Image by Henry Marsh under CC0 License at Pexels

The Council of Vilagarrina (*), fully aware of the importance of the environment and with the clear intention of becoming a smarter city, has recently acquired three cutting-edge digital environment stations to control the quality of the air in three differents points of interest of the municipality. A consulting company has developed the whole solution, that implements an advanced wireless communications system between the stations and the municipal data center, as well as an internal web application in which city officials can consult the stored data. Finally, the developed solution implements a web service that allows to show in the City Council’s website the latest data acquired by each one of the stations. This solution, that makes use of the last technologies at each stage of the technological chain, is a clear example of how technology itself does not provide intelligence to the management of a urban space. Welcome to the gadget city!

It is important and very interesting to have this information, but it must be treated and analysed so that it can provide the desired “intelligence”. At this point the question is, what steps should follow the Council of Vilagarrina to move towards the Smart City?

The “sustainable city”, the new 21st century city?

The new 21st century city designed following sustainability criteria, and thought in green?

I have been perceiving for some time ago a change of trend to establish the criteria for developing the 21st century city. After reading several articles about urban planning I have the feeling that technological issues are leaving their place to another topics under the “sustainability” tag. Consequently the 21st century city is moving from the concept of “smart city” to the concept of “sustainable city”.

As a technologist I would like to think that this evolution is given by the fact that the use of ICT technologies is consolidated enough in the contemporary society,

Smart City Expo World Congress 2016. Cities for Citizens

© Fira de Barcelona, 2016

A new edition of the Smart City Expo World Congress, one of the most important international events for the smart cities industry, will open its doors in Barcelona in one month. Another three side events, dedicated to the promotion of sustainability and the efficient management of resources in urban areas, will take place in this edition: the Circular Economy European Summit, the iwater and the European Utility Week.

The slogan for this year’s edition is short, but it says lots of things. Cities for citizens or, equivalently, all the actions carried out in the 21st century city

Two key roles for the development of the Smart City

The Advisory Board and a coordinator, the key roles in the development of the smart city. Self-made image based on icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY

The development of the 21st century city involves all citizens. It must be an inclusive process, with no discriminations, that encourages the participation of all the city stakeholders. It is convenient to remember that an urban space for everyone must take into account everyone in its conception, and that no one better that the citizens themselves know their needs and their priorities.

However, in practice, the direct participation of the whole citizens in the definition of the strategies and the elaboration of the action plans to develop them is not feasible. Could you imagine hundreds of people, considering a conservative estimate, discussing all their ideas and reaching an agreement? Two roles I consider really important for the success of the process come into this point: an advisory board that takes the lead, and a coordinator who assumes the tasks of dynamization and management and who takes care of the correct performance of the actions that have been decided to carry out.

The key to success of innovative ideas in the Smart City

Superblock in the Poblenou neighbourhood in Barcelona, an example of an innovative idea in the Smart City.

On last 5th september it was launched the first superblock in Barcelona, in the Poblenou district, an initiative of the City Council which pretends to promote more sustainable mobility patterns as well as enhance the human scale of the city, through the pacification of the streets into the superblock so that they become in a meeting place for neighbours, who can give new uses to the new free spaces. In short, a disruptive and innovative idea that completely reverses the way these spaces are used, converting them into pedestrian places instead of being reserved for vehicle circulation.

Why intelligent cities (IV). Economical reasons & conclusion

Detail of the Poblenou neighborhood in Barcelona, also known as 22@, a declining industrial area that has been revitalized in the 21st century by the ICT technology industry.

It is said that the adoption of ICT technologies, along with the power generation from renewable sources, has brought the third industrial revolution, and as any revolution this one has had its impact on the society, that is concerned about the destruction of job positions in industries considered as “traditional”. Another negative impact on the society of the 21st century is the global economic downturn that has caused a strong restructuration of the economy as well as a reduction of the available resources. Now is time to transform the economic activities and adapt them to the new technological environment emerging from this new industrial revolution, it is a key priority to ensure economic recovery and offer an effective response to a situation that threatens the social welfare.

Why intelligent cities (III). Urban environment reasons

Around the social and economic activities of any city is the urban environment.

The urban environment is conformed by all those conditions surrounding the development of social and economic activities in cities. These conditions are related to their state of conservation and maintenance, the quality of the air in the space they are settled down, as well as the easiness of travelling within them. In this block four reasons that justify the adoption of the concept of smart city from the point of view of the urban environment are presented.

Why intelligent cities (II). Social reasons

The general use of digital devices connected to the Internet has caused the shift of the society of the 21st century to the digital domain. Image by Roman Drits at Barn Images.

The society of the 21st century has new communication channels more agile, ubiquitous and immediate. In this sense citizens are no longer passive subjects and become active sources of information, which has allowed the development of the highly collaborative nature of today’s society. On the other side, people living in the urban spaces of the 21st century appreciate the fact of dispose of exclusive spaces for them as persons, as well as the ability to access to the daily basic services safely, no depending on a motorized vehicle.

In the first block of this series, four reasons to adopt the concept of smart city from the citizens’ point of view are introduced.

Why intelligent cities (I). 12 reasons to adopt the concept of smart city

With the growth of urban population cities must grow and face new challenges caused by the growth process itself. Image by Christian Kadluba at Flickr

If you follow the topic of the smart cities you may have read and/or heard to a disgusting extent that “more than the half of the world population lives in cities”, and that it is expected that by 2050 the world urban population reaches the 66%. These are astonishing data, at least the first time you hear about them, taken from the population statistics by the UN, but do not themselves justify the adoption of the concept of smart city. There are notable differences among the different global areas, so that in Europe, which is a reference in the smart cities field, the rate of population is close to 80%, while in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, the phenomenon of massive migration from rural to urban areas is currently taking place.

How to measure the Smart City

“To measure is to know”. “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it”.
Lord Kelvin

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.
Peter Drucker

Other kind of tools are needed to measure the “intelligence” of a city.

These quotes by Lord Kelvin and Peter Drucker emphasize the need of having a knowledge as much objective and reliable as possible of what we want to manage, and the 21st century city is not an exception. It is very important to have a series of measurable and quantifiable indicators, agreed in advance, that allow us to know objectively the real state of urban spaces, as well as their evolution through time during the process of transformation according to the strategy adopted to create the smart city, moreover these indicators will be useful to consider that the objectives proposed have been achieved.