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Since a crucial part of Smart City technologies and solutions is based on the collection and interpretation of vast amounts of data, achieving this while protecting data privacy, which is an increasing concern, has become a major challenge.
The historical city of Grenoble, in southeastern France, is offering a potential solution.
Schenectady, NY. An example of a small smart city.
Smart City initiatives are usually associated with major cities, like Barcelona, Amsterdam or London, or with burgeoning Asiatic metropolises eager to relieve the problems caused by rapid urbanization. However, there is no reason why smaller cities cannot be smart too. But being a smaller city comes with a distinct set of advantages and disadvantages when it comes to applying smart city initiatives and solutions.
The World Economic and Social Survey 2018 reviews the advances in frontier technologies – automation, robotics, electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, biotechnologies and artificial intelligence – and analyses their economic, social and environmental impact. Advances in frontier technologies present new and unique challenges. While promising prosperity, these technologies also present risks of growing unemployment, underemployment and inequality, and raise new ethical and moral challenges.
In this report, Francesca Bria and Evgeny Morozov discuss how cities can regain control over technology, data, and infrastructure, as well as over the services that are mediated by smart technologies—such as utilities, transportation, education, and health. Through a wide range of case studies from across the globe, the authors discuss alternative smart city models, which rely on democratic data ownership regimes, grassroots innovation, and cooperative service provision models.
With the technological leaps of recent years, the evolution of the smart city from limited solutions to “truly” smart cities that streamline or automate all of the challenges of urban life is now possible. The only remaining obstacle are concerns about data security and privacy. Blockchain can provide a solution to this, and offer the breakthrough which smart cities need to realize their potential.
In his new article, Dr Igor Calzada discusses the role of citizens and their relationship with data in the smart city paradigm. Through a closer look on the case of Barcelona, he argues that there is a growing consideration of citizens as decision-makers rather than data providers. The article is entitled “(Smart) Citizens from Data Providers to Decision-Makers? The Case Study of Barcelona” and it is open access.
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have a great potential for making passenger and freight transport greener and more efficient. Nevertheless, the introduction of ITS applications to the market remains a major challenge. Collaboration of different stakeholders is thereby key for success.