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Priority "Smart City" services will be those able respond to three great challenges: time, size and the environment
11/11/2011
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Priority "Smart City" services will be those able respond to three great challenges: time, size and the environment
Ricard Frigola, Professor of Urban Management at the Business Institute
The expression “Smart City” is becoming more and more popular in the last few months in the ICT environment, giving rise to different definitions of the term, depending on the speaker and context to which it is applied. In this sense, what is your definition of a “Smart City” and what might be its benefits?
Cities are ecosystems where human activities take place 24 hours a day. However, industry, trade, work, leisure, culture, life, study, research, health, etc. all need a group of services that let them develop efficiently in these ever larger cities, where time itself is increasingly becoming a scarce resource and there also is an ever-growing demand for sustainability.
The “Smart City” concept, therefore, applies to those cities that properly organise and manage its urban services, taking advantage of the possibilities ICTs can provide to respond to its three biggest challenges: time, size and the environment. A “smart” approach will mark the difference between competitive cities with certain quality of life and those that are not.
In the current economic climate, is it possible to develop “Smart Cities”? What models make it possible?
Not only is it possible, it is essential. Technology must progressively orient itself towards “usability”, a key focus as the “smart” city is one that manages its services in a new way for the vast majority of its citizens or companies. A pilot project applied in a neighbourhood might be “smart”, but it will only end up being a footnote in the history books if not allowed to expand across the entire city to make it better and more “liveable”.
The “smart city” models with any future at all have to be scalable and easily understandable, integrate plenty of services and involve the city’s main players, both public and private. If so, all the same municipal services will be provided at a higher level of quality, but not at a higher cost. Now is the perfect time to work along these lines.
There are a great number of services that can be provided under the “Smart City” banner to citizens, to the government, to companies… What do you think the priority services will be?
Those that can respond to the three great challenges: time, size and the environment. The “smart” city optimises the time of its users and inhabitants, from students or professionals, who can interconnect from a bar, a public library or from their car (parked, of course), thus increasing their productivity without having to travel, to an excellent transport network that minimizes commuting delays for its workers and businesspeople. “Smart” services include those managing ever larger cities-regions, whether they are city operation control centres, or ones for the large utilities (lighting, water, traffic, security, cleaning…) or technologies that measure and control mobility services or urban capillarity. Finally, an environmentally “smart” city is one that optimises its urban metabolism by recycling and efficiently using the resources it consumes; we have some examples in operation, such as the electrical car and “electric station” networks, the selective management of urban waste, GPS management of public transport or logistics fleets, among others.
One of the service groups that always appears within a “Smart City” context are those related to urban mobility. How can the development of “Smart City” services affect the urban mobility model? Beyond the context of the city itself, what role can metropolitan areas or “Smart Regions” play?
Each city has to define its own urban mobility model, from models where private vehicles have sole dominion, such as Sao Paulo or Los Angeles, to the Mediterranean model of a city divided in thirds: 1st third, walking/cycling; 2nd third, public transport; 3rd third, private transport. Now it is true that ICTs and the “smart” concept can be applied to any of these, whether it is to make a city more pedestrian-friendly and its distribution and use of bicycles more efficient, or to streamline the logistics of its city bus fleets and optimise the energy needed in its underground transport, or minimize traffic jams through information systems and flow managing private traffic.
However, a huge challenge is in store for urban managers: cities are fast becoming city-regions, a sprawling city where commuters have to be time-efficient, making sustainability more and more difficult. These city-territories are physically extensive but compact from a living or working point of view. Two main impacts are implied: in the first place, citizens live further away from their places of work, study or leisure, but demand efficient travel times and therefore good (and balanced) public and private transport systems. Secondly, they require connections via e-mail, social networks or corporate networks that are 100% efficient, distributed at optimum quality and accessible throughout this new city-region. Urban competitiveness means having a “smart” concept: no longer can we have a downtown with excellent services and connections but a deficient metropolitan periphery.
Various actors will undoubtedly be taking part in the development of the “Smart Cities”, (the city council, concessionary companies, utilities…). How can the role presently being played by the city be changed by this development?
A city is the greatest workplace available to public-private partnership projects. The service quality improvements that make a city-region competitive in an international environment depend on the effective interaction of several players; to give an example, efficiently managing public transport implies citizens who participate on all levels, plus transport companies whose fleets are ICT-managed or use clean energies, a network of service stations supplying natural gas or electrical recharging points, and a local government proactive in urban planning to act as an enabler and promoter of modernisation projects in the city.
“Smart cities” will therefore be run by their own citizens and various public and private stakeholders, who will interact in a single network without static hierarchies. The role of the city council, or the metropolitan government structures of these new “big cities”, will be at once different yet essential; different, because they will be the coordinators and driving force, and essential because they constitute a reference for the different actors within the urban scene, somewhat like an orchestra conductor (with notable soloists).
One of the key factors will be the control over the services the city offers. What models can be considered in respect to this? Is there a model initiative, or is this an environment still under development?
Sure enough, in a complex city the ability to control city services takes on greater importance. Control in this new “smart” city, if it is coordinated with various public-private operators, is not centrally or bureaucratically controlled. This is why cities will develop operation control centres, along the lines of those used by utilities, but applied to 100% of its urban services. An initiative worth mentioning is the new COR, the Centre of Operations of Rio of Janeiro that consists of a huge operations nerve centre with maximum coordination of the city’s service companies, from security to city cleaning.
Its aim is to coordinate a big city from knowledge and proximity standpoint, in real time, facing its sustainability challenges; once again, Time, Size and the Environment.
Cities are ecosystems where human activities take place 24 hours a day. However, industry, trade, work, leisure, culture, life, study, research, health, etc. all need a group of services that let them develop efficiently in these ever larger cities, where time itself is increasingly becoming a scarce resource and there also is an ever-growing demand for sustainability.
The “Smart City” concept, therefore, applies to those cities that properly organise and manage its urban services, taking advantage of the possibilities ICTs can provide to respond to its three biggest challenges: time, size and the environment. A “smart” approach will mark the difference between competitive cities with certain quality of life and those that are not.
In the current economic climate, is it possible to develop “Smart Cities”? What models make it possible?
Not only is it possible, it is essential. Technology must progressively orient itself towards “usability”, a key focus as the “smart” city is one that manages its services in a new way for the vast majority of its citizens or companies. A pilot project applied in a neighbourhood might be “smart”, but it will only end up being a footnote in the history books if not allowed to expand across the entire city to make it better and more “liveable”.
The “smart city” models with any future at all have to be scalable and easily understandable, integrate plenty of services and involve the city’s main players, both public and private. If so, all the same municipal services will be provided at a higher level of quality, but not at a higher cost. Now is the perfect time to work along these lines.
There are a great number of services that can be provided under the “Smart City” banner to citizens, to the government, to companies… What do you think the priority services will be?
Those that can respond to the three great challenges: time, size and the environment. The “smart” city optimises the time of its users and inhabitants, from students or professionals, who can interconnect from a bar, a public library or from their car (parked, of course), thus increasing their productivity without having to travel, to an excellent transport network that minimizes commuting delays for its workers and businesspeople. “Smart” services include those managing ever larger cities-regions, whether they are city operation control centres, or ones for the large utilities (lighting, water, traffic, security, cleaning…) or technologies that measure and control mobility services or urban capillarity. Finally, an environmentally “smart” city is one that optimises its urban metabolism by recycling and efficiently using the resources it consumes; we have some examples in operation, such as the electrical car and “electric station” networks, the selective management of urban waste, GPS management of public transport or logistics fleets, among others.
One of the service groups that always appears within a “Smart City” context are those related to urban mobility. How can the development of “Smart City” services affect the urban mobility model? Beyond the context of the city itself, what role can metropolitan areas or “Smart Regions” play?
Each city has to define its own urban mobility model, from models where private vehicles have sole dominion, such as Sao Paulo or Los Angeles, to the Mediterranean model of a city divided in thirds: 1st third, walking/cycling; 2nd third, public transport; 3rd third, private transport. Now it is true that ICTs and the “smart” concept can be applied to any of these, whether it is to make a city more pedestrian-friendly and its distribution and use of bicycles more efficient, or to streamline the logistics of its city bus fleets and optimise the energy needed in its underground transport, or minimize traffic jams through information systems and flow managing private traffic.
However, a huge challenge is in store for urban managers: cities are fast becoming city-regions, a sprawling city where commuters have to be time-efficient, making sustainability more and more difficult. These city-territories are physically extensive but compact from a living or working point of view. Two main impacts are implied: in the first place, citizens live further away from their places of work, study or leisure, but demand efficient travel times and therefore good (and balanced) public and private transport systems. Secondly, they require connections via e-mail, social networks or corporate networks that are 100% efficient, distributed at optimum quality and accessible throughout this new city-region. Urban competitiveness means having a “smart” concept: no longer can we have a downtown with excellent services and connections but a deficient metropolitan periphery.
Various actors will undoubtedly be taking part in the development of the “Smart Cities”, (the city council, concessionary companies, utilities…). How can the role presently being played by the city be changed by this development?
A city is the greatest workplace available to public-private partnership projects. The service quality improvements that make a city-region competitive in an international environment depend on the effective interaction of several players; to give an example, efficiently managing public transport implies citizens who participate on all levels, plus transport companies whose fleets are ICT-managed or use clean energies, a network of service stations supplying natural gas or electrical recharging points, and a local government proactive in urban planning to act as an enabler and promoter of modernisation projects in the city.
“Smart cities” will therefore be run by their own citizens and various public and private stakeholders, who will interact in a single network without static hierarchies. The role of the city council, or the metropolitan government structures of these new “big cities”, will be at once different yet essential; different, because they will be the coordinators and driving force, and essential because they constitute a reference for the different actors within the urban scene, somewhat like an orchestra conductor (with notable soloists).
One of the key factors will be the control over the services the city offers. What models can be considered in respect to this? Is there a model initiative, or is this an environment still under development?
Sure enough, in a complex city the ability to control city services takes on greater importance. Control in this new “smart” city, if it is coordinated with various public-private operators, is not centrally or bureaucratically controlled. This is why cities will develop operation control centres, along the lines of those used by utilities, but applied to 100% of its urban services. An initiative worth mentioning is the new COR, the Centre of Operations of Rio of Janeiro that consists of a huge operations nerve centre with maximum coordination of the city’s service companies, from security to city cleaning.
Its aim is to coordinate a big city from knowledge and proximity standpoint, in real time, facing its sustainability challenges; once again, Time, Size and the Environment.
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