Smart City implementation and discourses: An integrated conceptual model. The case of Vienna

In recent years many initiatives have been developed under the Smart City label in a bid to provide a response to challenges facing cities today. The concept has evolved from a sector-based approach to a more comprehensive view that places governance and stakeholders' involvement at the core of strategies. However, Smart City implementation requires lowering the scale from the strategy to the project level. Therefore, the ability of Smart City initiatives to provide an integrated and systematic answer to urban challenges is constantly being called into question. Stakeholder involvement in both the projects and the city strategy is key to developing a governance framework that allows an integrated and comprehensive understanding. This can only be done if Smart City strategies take the stakeholders' opinion into account and seek a compromise between their views and the implementation of the strategy.Multiple attempts have been made to analyse Smart Cities, but tools are needed to understand their complexity and reflect the stakeholders' role in developing Smart City initiatives and their capacity to face urban challenges. This paper pursues two objectives: (A) to develop a conceptual model capable of displaying an overview of (a) the stakeholders taking part in the initiative in relation to (b) the projects developed and (c) the challenges they face; and (B) to use this model to synthesise the opinion of different stakeholders involved in Smart City initiatives and compare their attitudes to the key projects implemented in a corresponding SC strategy. The methodology combines project analysis with surveys and interviews with different groups of key stakeholders (governments, private companies, universities and research centres, and civil society) through text analysis. The conceptual model is developed through discussions with different European stakeholders and is applied to the case of the Vienna Smart City strategy.     

City approaches to smart city evaluation and reporting: case studies in the United Kingdom

Smart technologies create opportunities for urban development and regeneration, leading to a proliferation of projects/programmes designed to address city strategies around environmental, economic and social challenges. Whilst there is considerable critical debate on the merits of smart city developments, there has been surprisingly little research on the evaluation of smart interventions, and the outcomes of embedded smart technologies for cities and citizens. This examines case-study research undertaken in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Milton Keynes and Peterborough, on city approaches to smart city evaluation and reporting. Findings exemplify contemporary city evaluation and reporting practices, challenges and recommendations to support smart urban development.     

智慧城市始于智慧设计

在智慧城市设计的各个领域中,科技最受关注,而空间设计最不受关注。但从城市建设的角度来看,现实应该正好相反。成功的智慧城市首先需要从根本上保持大城市始终具有的基本特质,它们必须是可以反复记录人类生活复杂性和多样性的载体。当前城市中的智能化数字网络必不可少,也应该加以整合,但我们更应该重点关注卓越的实际城市场所营造。目前,多伦多可能是全球最受瞩目的智慧城市创意试验场,基于此,主要详细介绍Sasaki事务所在多伦多大都市区设计的2个案例研究。     

Retrofitting cities: Local governance in Sydney,Australia

Transforming cities to a lower carbon future is one of the key challenges of contemporary urban governance. Retrofitting the city – or modifying existing urban infrastructures, buildings and daily life to suit different energy sources and different expectations of energy consumption – is essential to this transformation. In urban studies, little focus has yet been applied to the shape and character of urban governance frameworks and mechanisms required to successfully retrofit cities. In this paper we address this lacuna by exploring the logics, practices and dynamics of retrofitting governance in the Australian city. Using a governmentality perspective, the paper identifies the involvements of different scales of government in retrofitting policies and mechanisms and connections between them. Based on a unique survey of carbon reduction initiatives involving government, business and community actors across Australia’s capital cities, we outline the types of retrofitting solutions being proposed and enacted. Using a focus on local initiatives from Sydney, Australia’s largest city, the paper documents four key techniques through which retrofitting is being governed – self-governing, holistic, facilitative and educative. The findings suggest that governance gaps remain in attending to the daily life of technologies and the materiality of daily life.     

Smart City appropriation by local actors: An instrument in the making

The literature on Smart Cities lacks of research on how actors understand and appropriate the Smart City. This paper questions in an innovative way their appropriations of the phenomenon. Smart City is considered as an instrument, following the theory of Lascoumes and Le Galès (2007). Is the Smart City a functional instrument: a kind of evidence and a pragmatic solution at disposal or a public policy instrument: not neutral, provoking debates and influencing policies? An empirical analysis is carried on based on a survey among 193 Belgian actors active in the domain. The results show that the Instrument theory is relevant to analyse the actors' appropriation, which do not follow a homogeneous trend. In fact, each actor follows his own logics which will be interesting to study.     

Serendipitous conservation: faith-to-faith conversion of historic churches in Buffalo

ABSTRACT

US cities with shrinking populations have faced tremendous challenges in conserving their built heritage. Often, conservation work involves adaptively reusing existing buildings. Most reuse activity is fuelled by the developer and market-driven rehabilitation of historic properties through tax credits and other incentives. Places of worship like churches, however, are difficult to rehabilitate, and cities lose this urban heritage after years of vacancy and neglect, and eventual demolition. In many shrinking cities, particularly those now welcoming new immigrants and refugees, serendipitous conservation of vacant churches through faith-to-faith conversion can be an asset to local planners and preservationists in their fight to save urban heritage from demolition. This paper examines two former Roman Catholic Churches in the City of Buffalo: one converted into an Islamic mosque, and another into a Buddhist temple, to argue that faith-to-faith conversions can be a viable tool for other US cities experiencing similar threats to their urban heritage.     

从“浮士德式”到“法尔式”（仿制文化）的出现——中国城市设计面临的挑战

经济的发展和城市化规模的扩大向中国城市设计提出挑战。国家政策及全球资本的诉求驱动中国经济发展,但这种＂浮土德式＂发展缺少真实性且无可持续性,只是一种仿制,直接导致城市设计脱离实际,仅为＂仿制景观＂。这种仿制在西方国家同样存在,甚至新兴经济体国家也有这种倾向。而房地产开发迫于建设的压力,使这种趋势难以逆转。因此通过考量文化的延续性、建筑设计的宜居性和中国城市发展的可持续性,参照其他发展中国家的设计案例,以期为中国城市设计师提出合理的城市设计目标。     

Sustainable smart city development framework for developing countries

ABSTRACT

Basic requirements of sustainable smart cities in a developing country are the entitlement of facilities. Here, an index named Smart Sustainable City Development Index (SSCDI) has been developed for three Indian Smart Cities. A hierarchical method has been used to construct the index with multiple layers of indicators capturing characteristics of the dimensions such as social, economic, environment, culture and lifestyle. This index is used to assess performances of the three case study cities based on the scores in various indicators. This SSCDI framework provides a conceptual landscape for developing countries for planning their sustainable urban development and evaluation of performances.     

Governing Change: The Metropolitan Revolution in Latin America

In 21st-century Latin America, cities are taking the lead. With the greatest populations and economic output concentrated in large-scale metropolises, there is a real sense that the largest cities are outgrowing their national contexts. In many cases, power has been devolved at a municipal level. This has enabled mayors to implement infrastructural and transport projects. As Ricky Burdett and Adam Kaasa highlight in their discussion of two particular initiatives in São Paulo and Mexico City, it has also opened the way for innovative new community projects. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Smart Cities and Mobility: Does the Smartness of Australian Cities Lead to Sustainable Commuting Patterns?

ABSTRACT

Smart cities have become a popular concept because they have the potential to create a sustainable and livable urban future. Smart mobility forms an integral part of the smart city agenda. This paper investigates “smart mobility” from the angle of sustainable commuting practices in the context of smart cities. This paper studies a multivariate multiple regression model within a panel data framework and examines whether increasing access to broadband Internet connections leads to the choice of a sustainable commuting mode in Australian local government areas. In this case, access to the Internet is used as a proxy for determining urban smartness, and the use of different modes of transport including working at home is used to investigate sustainability in commuting behavior. The findings show that an increasing access to broadband Internet reduces the level of working from home, public transport use, and active transport use, but increases the use of private vehicles, perhaps to overcome the fragmentation of work activities the Internet creates. How to overcome the need for car-based travel for fragmented work activities while increasing smartness through the provisioning of broadband access should be a key smart city agenda for Australia to make its cities more sustainable.     

The Tough Minded and the Tender Minded: A Pragmatic Turn for Sustainable Development Planning and Policy

Among the many approaches being taken to sustainable development planning and policy, a basic dichotomy exists. The dichotomy is the classic one recognized over a century ago by pragmatist philosopher William James—between the tough minded and the tender minded, or in this case, those who trust in more and better information to address sustainability challenges and those who rest on the power of a plurality of voices. In this paper we demonstrate how this dichotomy confounds the construction of a holistic, actionable sustainability planning paradigm, frustrating in pragmatic terms the effort to develop sustainability planning that makes a difference. We argue for an approach to sustainable development grounded in the philosophy of pragmatism as a means to connect tough and tender minded perspectives on sustainability planning, policy and action. After detailing how tough and tender minded temperaments among sustainability advocates translate into different types of understandings and initiatives, a pragmatic framework for a holistic sustainability planning and policy suite is proposed. This framework is argued based on an understanding of pragmatic theories of truth and rationality, integration and a process basis for action, and human experience as a touchstone for public values and action priorities. This article contributes to the growing body of planning scholarship that draws upon pragmatic philosophy, connecting this with the growing body of work within environmental philosophy that highlights the utility of pragmatism in building a philosophy of sustainable development. If planners and members of the democratic public can work towards a common understanding that it is a process of continuous communication and interaction among citizens and experts that needs to be sustained in the push toward sustainable development, that knowledge is to be generated and tested in public contexts, and that stories have standing alongside scientific models and statistics, important moves toward sustainability can be made in the planning profession as a whole.     

西安主城区遗址公园文化服务绩效研究

新时代背景下，改善城市中各类文化空间设施成为城市提升文化软实力的关键举措。遗址公园是西安城市的重要文化设施，在不同尺度上发挥着多样的文化服务功能，其系统性、整体性发展有助于强化城市文化功能。基于遗址公园文化服务绩效内涵分析，建构了服务需求导向下的西安主城区遗址公园文化服务绩效评价体系，该体系由保护绩效、服务绩效、空间绩效和文化绩效4个子系统、11个因素、22个具体指标组成。基于分析评价结果简要提出了针对西安主城区遗址公园文化服务能力的规划提升策略。     

"精明增长"策略与我国的城市空间扩展

在较为系统地阐述目前国外广泛研究的"城市蔓延"("Urban Sprawl")和与之相对的城市"精明增长"("Smart Growth"Policy)的基础上,提出目前我国城市空间增长具有"城市蔓延"趋势这一基本判断,呼吁借鉴国外应对"城市蔓延"所采用的"精明增长"战略,为制定更为科学合理的城市规划进行理念更新.     

从灰到绿的城市发展转型

城市发展的"灰"与"绿"意味着城市使用土地与资源方式的不同,这在很大程度上影响着城市环境质量的变化。无节制的灰色发展方式是一种城市生态灾难,今日中国城市已在许多方面呈现出灰色发展的态势,其引发的生态危机,只能通过可持续的绿色城市发展方式来改善。笔者认为"十二五"期间的中国城市必然面临由"灰"到"绿"的城市发展转型的挑战。并提出四点绿色城市发展转型的应对策略。     

从北京、上海、广州等大城市的形态改变过程看中国城市形态、结构的转变

城市和经济的快速发展正在改变着中国城市基本的自然形态和结构。在城市发展过程中,能折射出国家动态的经济、社会和政策条件的新的模式正逐渐取代了由浓厚的意识形态所形成的带有鉴别性的模式。这篇论文提供了北京、上海和广州等大城市形态转变的模式和过程的分析。对于快速变化的城市,分析主要集中在两点:城市发展中区域的变化;在发展和形式上出现共同的趋势。文章重点谈了土地使用的专业化、交通循环和建筑的高度、规划的过程、城市的更新及房地产市场的私有化等问题。     

Guangzhou

With a history of more than 2100 years, Guangzhou, despite its glory past, has now experienced a decline in the role as a central city in the region due to the rapid growth of cities in the Pearl River Delta. Guangzhou is also suffering from problems caused by congested inner city and unregulated growth of new development areas. The city’s structure has gradually changed from a compact model to leapfrogged urban sprawl. These problems are aggravated by limited land resource under its direct jurisdiction and the pressure to reposition itself in a regional development context that is more competitive than ever before. To face the challenges ahead, Guangzhou has expanded its administrative boundary recently and has taken a number of planning and infrastructure development initiatives to enhance its competitiveness in the future.     

Comparative housing,urban crisis and political economy: an ethnographically based ‘long view’ from Auckland,Singapore and Berlin

Abstract

This paper follows a call for a ‘long view’ perspective on contemporary housing problems and policy. It applies this longitudinal lens to a multi-city comparative ethnographical study that investigates and relates place-specific and common trajectories and policies in regard to contemporary urban housing. By comparing Auckland, Singapore and Berlin from a heterodox political economy perspective, it demonstrates how contemporary challenges and proposed solutions over housing have deep-seated historical and geographical roots that are usually overlooked. It suggests that comprehending current housing issues as cumulative effects of developments and policy (non)-action taken in the past, and relating and evaluating those constitutive trajectories and transformations across (disparate) cities, current academic and policy debates can be enriched and deepened. One lesson is that ‘learning from the past’ may be a more promising crisis response than nowadays’ politically fetishised learning via global best practice and spatially mobilised policy.     

精明收缩理念在美国锈带地区规划实践中的新进展:扬斯敦市社区行动规划研究

近年来,尽管以精简建成空间规模从而适应人口收缩为特点的"精明收缩"理念已经得到了越来越多学者的关注,但是其在规划实践领域的进展,尤其是在中微观的社区规划层面,还缺乏足够的研究。在收缩城市中,人口的迅速流失往往伴随着房地产市场的崩溃,大量房产出现空置与废弃的现象,并进一步导致了社区的衰败。如何在规划实践中对此进行积极应对,是目前国际收缩城市研究学者关注的核心议题之一。本文聚焦于全美第一个颁布"精明收缩"总体规划的扬斯敦市,关注其近年来为了应对上述问题颁布的社区行动规划。通过深入剖析社区行动规划的编制过程,以及实施中采用的两种政策性工具--税收止赎与法规实施,及其实施管理机构的运作模式,本文展现了美国收缩城市如何将应对房产空置与废弃的技术工具与社区规划较好地结合在一起,以及面临的困难与挑战。最后,本文就美国经验在我国的适用性与可借鉴性进行探讨,从而提出未来我国收缩城市在应对房产空置与废弃上的相关制度和规划改革建议。     

Improving city-scale measures of livable sustainability: A study of urban measurement and assessment through application to the city of Birmingham,UK

Despite the attention sustainability-related urban measurement and assessment methods have received it is still not well understood how accurate (or not) the various methods are; their limitations in holistic city performance assessment; or, how they can be effectively used to better the design of the urban environment, city services and policies. Necessarily, urban measurement and assessment methods focus upon what is known. However, reflecting upon the unknowns and their impacts has the potential to deliver crucial insights into the assessment of city performance and governance. To this end, this study applies and critiques the city performance measurement and assessment method UK City LIFE₁ in order to explore the challenges of, and prospects for, filling these gaps. UK City LIFE₁ is designed to measure ‘livable sustainability’ at the city scale for the purpose of aiding UK policy makers and urban design decisionmakers. Results suggest that definitional uncertainties, the availability and viability of data, and the design of the method introduce inaccuracy, uncertainty and bias into data interpretation. This, combined with the complexity of city systems and the nascent ‘science of cities’, prevents causal effects from being fully described, potentially rendering decision-makers impotent. However, the language of ‘realizing the multiple benefits of interventions’ and ‘coupling and uncoupling relationships’ alongside making the unknown explicit has the potential to empower decisionmakers in the face of absent and disconnected data and interpretational challenges.     

Smart City and information technology: A review

Smart City is a recent concept that is gaining momentum in public opinion, and thus, it is making its way into the agendas of researchers and city authorities all over the world. However, there is no consensus of what exactly is a smart city, and academic research is, at best, building applications in numerous silos. This paper explores the computer science and information technology literature about Smart City. Using data analysis techniques, we contribute to present the domain from an objective data-based point of view, aiming to highlight its major trends, and providing a single entry point for newcomers.