Smart Global Megacities

There are about 31 megacities of population size 10 million and above in the universe in 2016 as per UN-Habitat which is likely to be 41 in 2030. These gigantic habitats are significant as it has all the potential to convert into smart and global cities if configured for its sustainability. This creative configuration of megacities to smart and global is the outcomes of the book through city case studies. The vast population, cultural and ecosystem diversity, diverse institutional endowments, supply chains connectivity, global linkages and size of income and expenditure in these megacities creates opportunities for configuring to a smart global city. This chapter tries to understand the title of the book and surveys the growth, development, and distribution across geographic regions. Theories of global cities are studied briefly and finally ends up with broad approaches to configure these megacities to smart and global. In conclusion, the smart global economic community design strategy is detailed out and implemented in Kochi-Kannur megacity study. This chapter serves as a background of several case studies of megacity across many continents in this book.

E-commerce has been making rapid inroads into Indian markets. Historically, markets have been central to the configuration of the city. When e-commerce is changing these markets, we need to assess what digital market platforms will mean for the future of the city’s markets and the traditional brick and mortar sellers. The current research focuses on hyperlocal e-commerce initiatives emerging as alternatives to dominant e-commerce players. Using the city context of Kozhikode, the chapter explores how hyperlocal e-commerce responses are being led by young entrepreneurs from the traditional business communities of the city and how their growth is catalyzed by the Kozhikode’s ethos of solidarity and mutual support. We would like to make use of qualitative research methods adopting a case-study approach with in-depth interviews with different stakeholders in conjunction with timeline methods to unveil this transformation. We focus on four hyperlocal e-commerce initiatives in the city. We find that there is still room for smaller ‘hyperlocal’ players from the city in the emerging digital markets and they would play a pivotal role in the ‘smartening’ of the city bottom-up. In cities where commerce thrived for centuries owing to centuries old trust and informal social control, ‘hyperlocal’ e-commerce platforms are here to stay.

Megalopolis or Mega-city is a new scale that should not be defined by population numbers. We are in a new dimension, a new DNA. In the context of Megalopolis and regions where the scale of the urbanization goes beyond the traditional definition of a Metropolis, defining an effective governance structure and strategies is a challenging yet fundamental goal. Information technology plays a vital role in building the global Megalopolis, as the virtual infrastructure and data allow a city to be strategic at the international scale while advancing inhabitants’ daily life at the local scale. In this chapter we attempt to define the governance strategies in the mega global cities in two steps: first, to trace the dynamics between the various stakeholders in the mega-project that is often complex and less hierarchical and provide a framework where the genome of a Metropolis is evident. The second step emphasizes the importance of the direct relationship between the governance structure and the territorial contexts and intelligences.

The exponential population growth has wreaked havoc on human life in the city environment. The doubling and tripling of the urban population create a strain on the existing systems, which has manifested in environmental chaos. In this chapter, the challenges faced by Chennai and a sustainable development framework for the comprehensive development of the city are discussed. A survey at the grassroots level was carried out to document the existing physical, socio-economic, and environmental aspects, the availability and level of infrastructure services, and the institutional functions of the city. An opinion survey with the stakeholders was carried out to record their views and opinion. Further, a validated system dynamics model was used to forecast the development scenario for the year 2041. A detailed policy recommendation for sustainable and energy-efficient Chennai is deliberated. The need for the use of geospatial tools, appropriate application of sophisticated forecasting models, and establishment of a big data command control center for effective monitoring of the city development and policy implementation is emphasized.   

The development of mega regions in different parts of the world has opened up possibilities of better economic investments, infrastructure facilities and job opportunities. In India, though there are series of mega regions evolving, the most prominent one is the emerging mega region particularly along the coastal belt of the Kerala state. The capturing of this potential among the major urban nodes of the state is of utmost importance in bringing it into the lines of a megacity in the future. The present study thus aims to delineate such a potential region in Kerala and to analyze its existing scenario. The delineation of the mega region in Kerala included six different steps, i.e.: identification of the districts, identification of current and future urban areas as per the census of India data (2011), overlaying the density map, overlaying the settlement population map, overlaying the land use areas, and finally overlaying the panchayat and block boundary maps to derive the study area region. A careful investigation on the existing scenario of the delineated mega region was performed to understand and analyze the urbanization trend, occupation pattern, settlements based on population density, and to carry out density analysis of core urban areas. It was understood that the urbanization has increased from 2001 to 2011 mainly due to the designation of many rural settlements into urban, a shift in the occupational pattern (i.e.: a shift of main male workers in the agricultural field to non-agricultural field). It was inferred from the study that the urban centres and the settlements along the highways are getting densified at a faster rate. A brief demographic and economic analysis of the region was also conducted. The key issues found out from this analysis are that although the state is having high a human development index (HDI) and literacy rate, the rate of educated unemployment is increasing and the economic growth is less. Hence, there is a need for an “alternate model of development” by using “smart” global sustainable techniques and initiatives to address and meet the inevitable growth and development of the region and the state.

Smart Global Community (SGC) is an innovative concept of community development involving economy generation within a community using appropriate smart technologies. The location of SGCs is ideal within the vicinities of various institutes, which can impart technological support for the betterment of the neighborhood, thereby elevating their economic status. The SGC proposes a symbiotic relationship between the institutes and the neighborhood that serves the requirements of the institute. The present study identifies Kattangal, a neighborhood community, near two national level institutions, the National Institute of Technology, Calicut and the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology as a model for the development of such SGCs. The study area is delineated based on the walkable neighborhood concept within a 1.5 km radius from the primary node called Kattangal. A reconnaissance survey identified the natural features that form the boundary of the study area. An extensive field survey identified the issues, potentials, and opportunities presented by Kattangal. The field survey’s thrust area includes land area identification for suitable workspaces, availability of human resources, infrastructure, and recreational open spaces in the study area. The survey identifies the primary stakeholders in the study region. A household sample survey, shop owners survey, and NITC student’s aspiration survey follows the initial reconnaissance survey. The survey inputs are processed, which proposes essential strategies to elevate the community to an SGC. It follows a Focus Group Discussion involving various stakeholders. The Focus Group Discussion helps arrive at suitable strategies that the community can accept and adopt. The study also explores the connectivity of the community to augment and establish suitable supply chain management strategies.

Smart-Global-Economic-Community (SGEC) is the basic module of planning megacities. It connects the local economy to the global economy. The design of the SGEC-Kattangal which is a part of the Kochi-Kannur megacity study is discussed in the present chapter. Significant concerns about the community are unplanned urban growth, exclusion and rising inequality, challenges in providing municipal services, economic sluggishness due to bureaucracy and political system. The study aims at making a reference module (SGEC-Kattangal) for the likely to be Kochi-Kannur megacity. The study has three parts. The first and second parts of the study which deals with the identification of possible sectors and the analysis of the issues and potential to transform the selected community cluster (Kattangal at Kozhikode, India) into an SGEC, are already discussed in the previous chapters. The third part of the study presented in the current chapter, explains the proposals that could help to make a smart-global-economic-community in Kattangal. The study redefines the approaches to issues and strategies based on smart principles; the initial plan based on economic development, which leads to growth in other sectors. The custom framed smart components include smart-economy, smart-living, smart-environment, smart-mobility, and smart-governance. Smart-economy bases on Industry-4.0, Social Manufacturing, and it frame strategies that utilize the untapped skilled workforce in Kattangal to build an economic base for the community. Smart-living gives proposals that enhance the living quality of the people by well-defined public spaces. The study discusses strategies for smart-water management and smart-waste management under the smart-environment principle. Smart-mobility encourages a sustainable transport model based on electric vehicles (EV) and non-motorized transportation (NMT). Smart governance integrates information and communications technology (ICT) and the internet of things (IoT).

This chapter has two parts. In the first part, objectives, and the organizational details of the international collaborative research project “Smart Global Megacities” are discussed. In the second part are presented in consultation with the team leaders of the city study, their general conclusions of the study Smart Global Megacities.