YOUR GUIDE TO THE FUTURE

A study in 2019 analysed the best practices that successful European cities use as part of their strategic principles in designing and implementing the vision of smart city. One of the critical strategic principles is to accelerate the city’s digital transformation by establishing a smart city accelerator.

Praharaj et al. (2018) study India, the world’s fastest growing economy to measure how its cities can support urban innovation. The Smart Cities Mission was rolled out in 2015 in India and have faced many obstacles. One of the main hurdles in the development of the Smart City in India is the overlaps of plan, jurisdiction and responsibilities across institutions.

Urban planning in many governments may still mostly use the top-down approach, including in the development of Smart City. However, this approach often neglects what the citizens’ actually want and need. Building a people-centric smart city shows a benefit of services being used more by the citizen, as they perceived them crucial in their well-being in their urban life.

Smart City is adapted more and more for the development of cities around the world. However, the pace of change may have differed from one another. Ooms et al. (2020) recognise that for each city the level of advancement of which they adapt the concept matters to the type of governance they required to thrive.

Densely built cities made from low albedo materials, lack of green infrastructure, traffic and other human activities have caused a phenomenon called urban heat island effect (UHI), where the urban air temperature is higher than the surrounding rural environment.

Both are required to achieve smart city success, according to case study of four European cities, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Helsinki and Vienna. Government plays an important role in creating the grand design and strategies of smart city.

Mora et al. (2019) highlights the strategic principle that drives the development of smart cities in Europe, to look beyond technology. Developing smart cities is about tackling complex socio-technical systems that mitigates or resolve urban challenges.

One way to build a strong sense of community in the city is to create high quality public spaces. Citizen well being may also improve due to the greater sense of community from feeling safe, secure and sufficient civic participation in the neighbourhood.

The level of user-friendliness on our city streets is an important quality to ensure people come and enjoy the city, especially the commercial area. A successful street is part of the public space in cities, measured by how well they attract people and how many people are present.

To cope with increasing temperature in cities, Livesley et al. (2021) proposed small-scale solutions that cities can use to increase thermal comfort to not only humans but also fauna living in the urban environment.

Smart City as a widespread concept for city development around the world, Esposito et al. (2021) calls regional governments to formulate place-based strategies that are aligned with the context of each municipality. One size does not fit all when implementing smart city initiatives in cities with different socio-economic situations.

Adaptive reuse is a strategy of converting an existing building to a new kind of function or activities. It is a strategy that supports the smart growth of the city with its infill development while also serving as a historic and cultural preservation method.

Adaptive reuse is a historical & cultural preservation strategy that can benefit the economy of the city. Through the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO), Los Angeles shows how encouraging adaptive reuse within the city’s transit hubs has helped the economic revitalisation of Downtown Los Angeles.

The complex and unpredictable nature of urban problems make ways for big data to contribute to addressing it. Big data analytics that are applied to urban governance and planning, could inform decision makers and city governments in the strategic, long term urban policy, Kandt and Batty (2021) argue.

The idea of compact cities claims to provide people with everything they need within the community, from stores, schools, employment, public service, and other amenities in a densely built urban area. However, this concept received many critics to how much they contribute to the environmental, social, and economic benefit to the community.

UN defines water security as the capacity to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quality of water for human well being and socio-economic development while ensuring protection against water borne pollution and water related disaster and preserving the natural ecosystem.

Challenged with massive growth and pressure from various human activities, providing clean and save water is one of the serious issues cities must tackle. Better water management that ensures the availability of water more efficiently is urgently needed.

ICT is a powerful tool being adopted in Smart Cities across the globe, to achieve integration between agencies and enabling information to various city stakeholders. Example of the use of ICT around the city include sensors that are beneficial in gathering data in real time and social media as a bridge between the citizens and public service provider and the government.

Through analysing the Smart City initiatives that Songdo, Masdar, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Brisbane implemented through their applied technology, policy and community, there are lesson learned that other cities could apply to achieve success

Responding to the finding of five key factors that are affecting the smart city transformation readiness, Yigitcanlar et al. (2021) developed four steps that could help policy maker, planners, and city managers to encourage smart and sustainable cities.

Yigitcanlar et al. (2021) identifies five key factors that determine 65% of smart city transformation readiness in Australian cities. The factors were identified through the analysis of 180 LGAs in Australia that prioritise their policy and public fund to support the smartness and competitiveness of the city.

Helsinki provides an example on how to encourage innovation in the region that would eventually improve the quality of life of its citizens. The government held competitions that utilised the existing Open Data service to the citizens and start-ups that encouraged the creations of products and services that would benefit the city.

Generally, people choose their mode of transport based on the information that they are exposed to. However, this mostly leads to non-optimised travel choices or even inefficiency. Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), is a concept that integrates travel modes and service in a single platform to create transit that is seamless and sustainable.

In the effort of transitioning to more sustainable energy production and consumption, a smart city project SINFONIA was developed as part of the European Union sustainability agenda. Part of this project includes the deep energy retrofitting of real-estate assets in mid-sized cities in Europe.

In the sector of economic growth, Australian Smart Cities are taking the approach of ‘innovation-led’ for employment growth. However, from evidence of cities around the globe, innovation-based cities are associated with less affordable housing.

To tackle the challenges cities are facing today, transformative action must be taken. Newton and Frantzeskaki (2021) suggest a new urban governance platform that could become a medium for experiments and decision making that could accelerate the transformative changes in cities.

With the advancement and change that technology brought to the urban landscape, how we use public space in urban context also changes. Streets, plaza, and parks used to be the main physical public space where people shared the city’s resources.

Throughout the life cycle of a building, from construction, operation, and demolition, consumes a lot of energy. Accordingly, improving the efficiency of one step of the life cycle can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the building. One notable way to do this is to practice better passive design that will eventually reduce the energy demand.

The advancement of technology has given way to innovation of smarter materials for buildings. Mohammed (2017) defined “smart material” in building construction as high technological material that responds intelligently to climatic changes and different seasons.

In the age of sensors, wireless networks, smartphones and other interactive technologies; the important role of physical public space may be overlooked. However, integrating those interactive technology can improve the qualities of physical space as de Waal et al. (2021) explains the five concepts that can enhance the public space qualities in cities