The Smartest
Cities In The World (2)
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 continued
3.
Helsinki
Helsinki
is a very innovative city which has embraced the smart cities
construct in many ways—of these 11 cities, it actually scored the
highest. It hasbeen one of the leading cities in the world with
respect to transparent and open data. The city has more than 1,200
open data sets (the most of all cities in this study) and 108
applications have been built and are in operation which leverage
their open data program.
Helsinki
has a strong commitment to digital
technology.
A full 100% of residential and commercial buildings have smart
meters, and 70% of commercial buildings leverage automation
systems to
enhance efficiency. Helsinki has also implemented a smart grid
throughout the city.
Helsinki
is also experimenting with new technologies and has 3 living labs
which are part of the European Network of Living Labs. Helsinki is
also the first city I know of to experiment
with an on-demand bus service.
Challenge:
Helsinki scored well across the board on the indicators. One area
where they could improve is in embracing the sharing economy. For
example, Helsinki does not have a bike sharing program and they have
a small fleet of shared vehicles.
4.
Singapore
Singapore
is unique in that it is a city-state. As a nation, it has recently
unveiled a bold Smart Singapore strategy which aims to convert the
city-state to the first true smart
nation through
a range of initiatives leverage intelligence, integration and
innovation to become a major player on the world stage. Part of this
strategy involves the rollout of smart boxes containing sensors and
connected via fiber
optic cables
which will sense the city and deliver real-time information to cities
and citizens.
Clean
and organized city, the city has excellent public transit and a
handful of powerful incentives to discourage personal vehicle use,
like an advanced electronic road pricing scheme and very high permit
and sales tax rates for new vehicles. The city also has a very active
smart governance program including a strong commitment to online
service delivery
(98%
of all government services are accessible online). Singapore is very
committed to greening its infrastructure reflected in the fact it has
2,155 certified green buildings, by far the most of the responding
cities
Challenge:
Singapore is already a major player in the smart cities arena. Yet
one challenge I see for its progress is to not just innovate from the
top-down but rather to more actively engage citizens in the
transformation of the city and support citizen co-creation. They need
more programs to foster entrepreneurship which is still often a less
desirable career path in Singapore than working in the many
multinational companies which have established headquarters there.
BY
BOYD COHEN
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