Friday, November 28, 2014

CITIES SPECIAL ..................... The Smartest Cities In The World (1)

CITIES SPECIAL The Smartest Cities In The World




These cities that are doing the best embracing the future are focusing on improving technology, equality, sharing, civic participation, and more.

Over the past several years, the idea of the being "smart" has emerged as a key mechanism for cities to find innovative solutions to the challenges that they are facing. Increased demand for infrastructure, housing, transportation, jobs,energy, food and water are all straining city governments and infrastructure, as people around the world flock to urban centers in hopes of a better life and more opportunity. For many years, the push to create smarter cities was led by technology companies looking for uses (and buyers) for their products. But in recent years, cities have begun to think more holistically about what being a smart city could mean, and have innovated new ways to modernize how a city serves its citizens.



For the past several years, I've published an annual ranking of smart cities, and with each passing year I have sought to improve the quality of the ranking methodology. This year, This year, I embarked on a rather ambitious experiment Leveraging an international advisory panel, I expanded the survey to 62 indicators n Smart Cities Wheel that I developed a few years ago.
Smart cities are a complex phenomenon and any effort to measure them needs to contain breadth and depth of indicators—and this year I have that. I have added several more information technology related indicators, like broadband internet and the number of mobile applications that leverage open data initiatives. But I also have added low-tech indicators to ascertain how much a city is embracing shared mobility, like measuring the number of bikes and cars currently in their sharing programs. I have also added citizen participation metrics, such as the number of citizens engagement events held each year and percentage of citizens who vote in local elections.
I sent a survey of these 62 indicators to 120 cities around the world (30 cities in four regions). Unfortunately only 11 cities around the globe were able to participate due to the complexity and time required to collect such diverse data. Given the small sample size, and some inconsistencies in the data, this year I am not reporting formal rankings.
But I did learn a lot about what these cities are doing, and what makes a smart city in 2015. In looking at these examples of smart cities around the globe, I've divided them into three categories: Pioneering Smart Cities, cities that have been on the leading edge of smart city development for some time (for these cities, I also discuss the challenges that face them in advancing their development even further). Emerging Smart Cities are cities on the cusp of true innovation. And Next Stage Smart Cities will be on the leading edge of innovative metropolises soon, if they keep up their good work.

PIONEERING SMART CITIES

1. Barcelona
Barcelona has regularly ranked highy on our annual smart cities ranking Perhaps it is no surprise then that Barcelona is working on becoming the Mobile World Capital, is the host of the largest annual smart cities event (the Smart City Expo) and was recently awarded the title of Europe’s Innovation Capital. Barcelona has a very robust smart cities program with 22 program areas covering everything from ubiquitous public Wi-Fi to becoming energy self-sufficient.
A few more recent innovative projects demonstrate Barcelona’s continued leadership in the smart cities arena. Barcelona just won a Mayors’ Challenge award from Bloomberg Philanthropies. The city will receive 5 million euros for the development of an innovative program designed to support the city’s growing elderly population via a digital trust network aimed to close gaps in the care adn quality of life for this vulnerable population. Another fascinating initiative from Barcelona is their BCN Open Challenge program which utilizes Citymart.com’s crowdsourcing platform to select innovative solutions to 6 city challenges. Barcelona was the first city to adopt this approach with Citysmart, but others including Moscow have since followed.
Challenge: In light of the above, it is difficult to find problems in Barcelona that are not already being addressed. Yet one area that needs much more work in Barcelona is, ironically, how to mitigate the results of so much success for their ongoing work. Barcelona has become an innovation hub and is attracting many members of the creative class for work or pleasure. Tourism is a large and growing component of the city’s economy. Yet it is putting strain on heritage sites and historic neighborhoods. It will be interesting to see how Barcelona strategically addresses the goal of continued support of smart tourism with the need to protect and preserve the local culture and quality of life for local residents.

2. Copenhagen
Copenhagen is another city which scores well in most city rankings. It is widely considered the greenest capital city in the world and aims to be the first capital city to become carbon neutral by 2025. Copenhagen is, of course, famous for its impressive cycling culture. But the city has continued to innovate around topics such as rigorous green building requirements, expansion of green spaces and public transit, and a growing use of renewable energy to supply residents with sustainable heating and cooling from sources such as the neighboring waterway and the landfill.
But Copenhagen is more than just a green city. In fact it scored highest amongst all cities in our "smart people" category which measures things such as social inclusion, education and creativity. Copenhagen residents have amongst the highest smart phone ownership rates (75%) and are among the most engaged citizens, participating in more than 1,000 civic engagement events throughout the year.
Copenhagen has continued to invest in smart technologiesin their transportation system. For example, 81% of their traffic lights are centrally monitored and managed, and 49% of those lights have sensors to give rights of ways to buses. Also, Copenhagen partnered with MITto co-create the Copenhagen Wheel, an electric-assist wheel with embedded sensors which is now being marketed as a private initiative.

Challenge: Copenhagen is clearly a pioneer in green city initiatives. But to attract and retain the best and brightest young minds, which is a clear goal of most smart cities initiatives, it needs to grow its reputation as an innovation and creative hub.

CONTINUES
BY BOYD COHEN http://www.fastcoexist.com/3038765/fast-cities/the-smartest-cities-in-the-world?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-manual-newsletter&position=reyhan&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=11202014

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