#DataforPolicy2021 — Anomaly of Smart Cities: On the new science of smart cities, urban-tech, and urban data-knowledge-action systems
This article is written by Dr. Ronit Purian, smart cities researcher who teaches and studies the behavioral and social aspects of urban-tech, mobility and open data. It provides an exploration of the themes and papers presented at Special Track III: “Systemic engagement: Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and the design challenge of inclusion, sustainability, and data ownership” at Data for Policy 2021. Visit this link to learn more about the conference.
How do we develop the business and data models, products, and partnerships that are smart, sustainable, and ethical? Creating a Smart City pathway to achieve social and environmental goals; how complicated can it be?
During the last two decades, major cities have become more vulnerable, exposed to recurring catastrophic disruptions. Reactions at the level of city administration, however, reveal a possible anomaly in our conceptions of smart, resilient, sustainable cities [Ronit Purian: A Smart City Anomaly: The Near Becomes Far, The Far Becomes Near, pp. 57–87 PDF].
The Mediterranean region, one of the world’s hotspots for climate change, frequently experiences extreme events — especially heat waves and drought. However, out of 34 Mediterranean cities, only one fifth were developing innovative and large-scale environmental initiatives [Avigdor Sharon, Orli Ronen: Municipal Innovation and Sustainability Readiness — Results from a Study of Mediterranean Cities, pp. 149–169 PDF]. This is an anomaly within the Smart Cities paradigm.
The Covid-19 crisis confirmed this new urban vulnerability. In addition to chronic rural poverty, we now have a global profile of the new urban poor.
Examples are plentiful:
Hurricanes: The New Orleans community was repeatedly praised for its resilience — but also launched the campaign “Stop Calling Me Resilient”. After Hurricane Katrina, and the British Petroleum oil disaster, the community was sick and tired of the empty words. Tracie Washington, New Orleans resident and Louisiana Justice Institute Director, explained: “Stop calling me resilient. Because every time you say ‘Oh, they’re resilient’, that means you can do something else to me. I am not resilient.”
Define resilience — What are the causes for the need in resilience?
The Australian actor Yael Stone announced she will give up her US green card to fight climate change. Saying goodbye to America has extreme implications for her own career — but she was horrified by the bushfire crisis. “Our enemy is our own behavior … it’s corporate-wide, it’s government-wide, it’s systematic changes that must happen”. However, the leaders who could join forces fighting in this climate war are part of the ignition system.
Define war — How do we step up and fight “the people around us” (our leaders, employer, neighbors, families, friends)?
Our country is on fire, and the arsonists control the system in the name of those who burst into flames. How complicated can it be?
Most cities do not have integrated institutionalized mechanisms for innovation, and even when they do, these are not associated with sustainability or climate issues. Apparently, innovation is not perceived, nor implemented, as a catalyst for climate action. But innovation and technology are becoming advantages and means to pursuing environmental and social resilience. The forthcoming conference special track will explore this emerging reality.
Presentation summary
The speakers will present the reasoning and the significance of our work:
I. Mobility and urban informatics: Real-world mobility data and simulation in Jerusalem, micro-mobility in the city of Atlanta; and an urban theory that mirrors complexity all the way back to frame our practical realities with data tools from our colleague in Tallinn.
II. Data spaces in the big city: Participatory framing of MaaS ecosystems — workshops in Manchester to imagine mobility futures with stakeholders; and data stewardship in India to empower migrants within civil society — leading to a new system proposal.
Discussion
This presentation will be followed by a discussion. In smart cities, we create data spaces that affect our social and physical environments. What are the main themes and relevance to the environment, to humanity, to our communities? To be concrete, the following paragraph provides the background for the expected discussion in our panel:
On-demand mobility with autonomous vehicles is expected to increase traffic loads and unequal access to transport services. We wish to design mechanisms to reduce the environmental, social, and economic costs of traffic inefficiencies — while enhancing social cohesion, community building and environmental caring: by modeling spatial behaviors, and developing a decentralized mobility system, based on an informational framework.
For that purpose, we are seeking to facilitate data sharing, opening governmental data, while creating a universal crowdsourcing platform, cross-border, and independent of governments.
Participants are invited to join for collaboration in research and in implementation, e.g., pilot study on campus, for pedestrians and a multimodal transportation network. The guiding questions would focus on the design choices. Whose decisions design places, behaviors and data products? And how do we develop partnerships and business models that are smart, sustainable, and fair?
Data & Policy is a peer-reviewed open access journal published by Cambridge University Press in association with the Data for Policy Conference. Read the latest articles, find us on Twitter @data_and_policy and sign-up for content alerts.
