The Smartest Cities In The
World (4) - EMERGING SMART CITIES
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.
EMERGING SMART CITIES
1.
Brisbane
Brisbane
was the only city from Australia/New Zealand to report this year. It
is not surprising that it performed best in the smart living category
since that region of the world is known for its excellent quality of
life.
Brisbane
has one of the lowest Gini Index scores of the cities studied (.32).
The Gini Index is a measure of income inequality in a reason and the
lower the score the better. While inequality, or lack of it, may not
seem to be directly related to smartness, I believe it is. It is not
of much use to have smart
infrastructure if
only a minority of the population have access to it or can benefit to
improve their quality of life. Brisbane has embraced the sharing
economy with an active bikesharing and carsharing program. Similarly,
the City
Council has
initiated a smart program to
facilitate more
collaboration between the city and the private sector, particularly
in the area of sustainable innovation.
2.
Los
Angeles
Los
Angeles has long been perceived as an unsustainable, sprawled and
congested city (i.e. far from smart). Yet Los Angeles is on a mission
to transform itself. Surprisingly, LA had the second highest number
of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the sample (300). LA
also counts some innovative partners such as LA
2050 which
is helping to drive a smart agenda in the city through citizen
participation in the creation of a bold vision for the city’s
future. Goals
established include targets
for youth education and employment, innovation and jobs creation,
increased equality, access to green space, citizen engagement,
and healthy
food systems.
3.
Montreal
Montreal
scored best in the smart living category. Of course, Canadian cities
in general score well in this area. Montreal has also been a pioneer
on the North American stage with respect to bike and carsharing with
more than 5,000 bikes and 1,300 vehicles in their sharing programs
respectively. Montreal also has a strong commitment to public transit
and has an advanced smart
card for
use across the public transit system. Montreal also recently
implemented a real-time traffic monitoring center for integrated
transit planning and routing.
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=1120201
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