Introduction
Various smart cities approaches
Does innovation make a city smart?
Is smart better and if so for whom?
People at the centre of debate
Approaches and definitions of smart cities
Smart cities foundations
Adjusting the focus
Domains | Terms | Definitions |
---|---|---|
Infrastructure & ICTs |
Ubiquitous city
| An urban space where ubiquitous technologies are embedded into the physical objects and structures in order to make urban functions more efficient and consequently improve the quality of people’s life (Lee 2009, p. 11). |
Digital city
| A digital city is a community digital space, which is used to facilitate and augment the activities and functions taking place within the physical space of the city (Komninos 2006, p. 15). | |
Smart community
| A community in which government, business, and residents understand the potential of information technology, and make a conscious decision to use that technology to transform life and work in their region in significant and positive ways (Lindskog 2004, p. 13). | |
Informational city
| The informational city consists of creative clusters and spaces for personal contacts to stimulate sharing of implicit information (Stock 2011, p. 963). | |
Creative economy & knowledge-based society |
Intelligent city
| Intelligent cities and regions are territories with high capacity for learning and innovation, which is built-in the creativity of their population, their institutions of knowledge creation, and their digital infrastructure for communication and knowledge management (Komninos 2006, p. 13). |
Creative city
| Broadly, creative cities is about how local urban spaces can be re-imagined, rejuvenated, and re-purposed within a competitive global framework (Tay 2004, p. 220). | |
Knowledge city
| A knowledge city is a place where new knowledge is constantly being created. An entire social system is devoted to produce, share and apply knowledge, which in turn, can be leveraged and exploited by companies and organisations (Ergazakis, Metaxiotis, and Psarras 2004, p. 79). | |
Innovative city
| Innovative city is an urban development pattern, in which we solve the city problem with creative solutions to achieve urban renaissance, and employ innovation as a driver of sustainable urban development. (Lu et al. 2011, p. 2) | |
Sustainability |
Sustainable city
| A sustainable city is one in which the community has agreed on a set of sustainability principles and has further agreed to pursue their attainment. These principles should provide the citizenry with a good quality of life, in a liveable city, with affordable education, healthcare, housing, and transportation (Munier 2007, p. 43). |
Eco-city
| An eco-city is an ecologically healthy city. It is a healthy human ecological process leading to sustainable development within the carrying capacity of local ecosystems through changes in the production mode, consumption behaviour and decision instruments based on ecological economics and systems engineering (Wang and Ye 2004, p. 341). | |
Zero-carbon city
| A ‘zero-carbon city’ is a city that entirely runs on renewable energy and hence produces no carbon footprint (Yigitcanlar and Lee 2014, p. 101). | |
Human infrastructure |
Human smart city
| Application of citizen-centric and participatory approaches to the co-design, development, and production of smart cities services that balance the technical ‘smartness’ of sensors, meters, and infrastructures with softer features such as clarity of vision, citizen empowerment, social interaction in physical urban settings, and public-citizens partnership (Rizzo et al. 2013, p. 677). |
Humane city
| Places and environments where people enjoy everyday life and work have multiple opportunities to exploit their human potential and lead a creative life (Streitz 2011, p. 429). | |
Learning city
| A learning city, town or region recognises and understands the key role of learning in the development of basic prosperity, social stability and personal fulfilment, and mobilises all its human, physical, and financial resources creatively and sensitively to develop the full human potential of all its citizens (Longworth 1999, p. 4). |
Smart cities definitions
Authors | Definitions |
---|---|
Bowerman et al. (2000) | A city that monitors and integrates conditions of all of its critical infrastructures including roads, bridges, tunnels, rails, subways, airports, sea-ports, communications, water, power, even major buildings, can better optimize its resources, plan its preventive maintenance activities, and monitor security aspects while maximising services to its citizens. |
Giffinger et al. (2007) | A city well performing in a forward-looking way in [economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living] built on the smart combination of endowments and activities of self-decisive, independent and aware citizens. |
Rios (2008) | A city that gives inspiration, shares culture, knowledge, and life, a city that motivates its inhabitants to create and flourish in their own lives. An admired city, a vessel to intelligence, but ultimately an incubator of empowered spaces. |
Caragliu et al. (2009) | A city to be smart when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory governance. |
Eger (2009) | A particular idea of local community, one where city governments, enterprises and residents use ICTs to reinvent and reinforce the community’s role in the new service economy, create jobs locally and improve the quality of community life. |
González and Rossi (2011) | A public administration or authorities that delivers (or aims to) a set of new generation services and infrastructure, based on information and communication technologies |
Nam and Pardo (2011) | A humane city that has multiple opportunities to exploit its human potential and lead a creative life. |
Zhao (2011) | Improving the quality of life in a city, including ecological, cultural, political, institutional, social, and economic components without leaving a burden on future generations. |
Lazaroiu (2012) | The smart city represents the future challenge, a city model where the technology is in service to the person and to his economic and social life quality improvement. |
Schaffers et al. (2012) | Smart city is referred as the safe, secure environmentally green, and efficient urban centre of the future with advanced infrastructures such as sensors, electronics, and networks to stimulate sustainable economic growth and a high quality of life. |
Piro et al. (2014) | A smart city is intended as an urban environment which, supported by pervasive ICT systems, is able to offer advanced and innovative services to citizens in order to improve the overall quality of their life. |
Yigitcanlar (2016) | A smart city could be an ideal form to build the sustainable cities of the 21st century, in the case that a balanced and sustainable view on economic, societal, environmental and institutional development is realised. |