The UK pioneered smart cards such as Oyster. But now, experimentation is being stifled as cash-strapped councils struggle to deliver basic services.
Technology and artificial intelligence are already profoundly changing how we live, work and travel. Are we ready for more profound changes?
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Technology is already changing how we live our lives and go about our days. Are we ready with collaborative planning processes so we are not taken by surprise by more profound change?
A residential rain garden in Portland’s Tabor to the River project.
City of Portland Government
Faced with a drought, it’s tempting for cities to reduce the amount of space that needs water. But this is not a good idea.
A smart city is usually one connected and managed through computing — sensors, data analytics and other information and communications technology.
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As cities become ‘smarter’, they need more and more objects fitted with technology. We need to think about designing these objects to accommodate computers, which often break down and create e-waste.
What algorithm turned these lights red?
monticello/Shutterstock.com
New research has uncovered a previously unknown weakness in smart city systems: devices that trust each other. That could lead to some pretty terrible traffic, among other problems.
Toronto could learn a lot from Brazil following the flawed and opaque consultation process to develop parts of the city’s waterfront.
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Toronto’s Quayside smart city project needs a new, truly consultative process. An innovative method used by Brazil to develop its landmark Internet Bill of Rights may be the answer.
China has its eye on technological dominance.
ROMSVETNIK/Shutterstock
Now is the time for China to put its technological and diplomatic skills on display in its quest for superpower status.
Tel Aviv has a reputation as a “non-stop city” but is also known for its local government’s use of smart technology to listen to and respond to residents’ needs and concerns.
Alexandra Lande/Shutterstock
To be a smart city is to know what your people want and need. And smart city leaders make sure residents can tell them by using technology to maintain a constant two-way flow of information.
At a construction site in New Delhi, workers are exposed to mosquito repellent.
Manan Vatsyayana/AFP
Olivier Telle, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
The spread of infectious diseases such as chikungunya is closely linked to urban mobility, yet small Indian cities could play a crucial role in the resilience process.
Researchers are installing sensors to collect data about the use of public spaces. This can improve the management and public amenity of these places, but will users see the technology as intrusive?
A rendering of Quayside, a neighborhood designed by Sidewalk Labs.
Sidewalk Labs
When building a smart city, it’s vital that governments and citizens know up-front who will control the collected data.
Jakarta’s traffic system is one of many facets of the city that could be improved by smart cities technologies, but at what cost?
Vasenka Photography/Flickr
Governments are using Big Data to design improvements and upgrades of cities. But ethical questions need to be considered, lest we end up jeopardising citizens’ privacy or deepen social inequalities.
Big data provides a rich picture of the physical city, but it won’t tell us much about the social city – that’s where agent-based modelling comes in.
Federal and state government representatives descended on Geelong when a memorandum of understanding for the latest City Deal was signed on January 17.
Ellen Smith/AAP
With the emerging emphasis on regional City Deals and Smart Cities funding, perhaps Australia is beginning to find its way to a national cities policy, rather than just a big cities policy.
Telstra and the City of Joondalup have joined forces in a trial of ‘smart park’ applications at Tom Simpson Park.
Public spaces have become more, not less, important to our experience of cities in the digital era. These technologies can be used to confound and enlarge our experiences of and connections to place.
Many cities collect valuable data on themselves.
TDKvisuals/shutterstock.com
With the rise of the knowledge-based economy, fab labs, maker spaces and more, cities are being transformed into production centres. This dynamic movement is ripe with promise, but also has risks.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff launch Sidewalk Toronto, a high-tech urban development project.
Mark Blinch/Reuters
Toronto has entered a joint venture with a Google sister company to create a high-tech urban development area. The goal is to ‘re-imagine cities from the internet up’ – Google’s internet, of course.
Play activates cities and engages people, and by appropriating urban spaces it changes what these mean to people.
As adults we often trivialise the value of play. But playing games lets us play with possibilities, see how they play out – and exploring alternative realities helps us see the familiar in new ways.