Dissecting Smart City Initiatives: Week 7
Looking back at my research from last week about trying to figure out and understand what a Smart City actually is and how they function. From my research and reading, I looked at how cities are able to use the existing urban fabric as a platform to introduce the systems that make a Smart City. During this last week, I continued to try to define the concept of a Smart City and felt that the most beneficial way of figuring it out is to begin to look at different cities and their implementation of technology into the urban fabric and everyday lives of people. For this process, I looked at four cities: New York City, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Songdo.
The relation of these particular cities is relatively different in the way in which the city functions. New York is a bustling urban environment, while Amsterdam and Copenhagen are pedestrian-friendly and more sanitary and clean than that of New York City. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Songdo, South Korea is the most technologically advanced of the four. The city was built to be a Smart City and did not use an existing urban environment, but rather creating one from scratch.
New York City
New York is very innovative in the ways in which the city government is implementing technology and the use of technology into the pre-existing urban fabric. One of the main concerns with people and Smart Cities is who developed and controls the technology? To combat this concern, an organization, NYCx, holds competitions that challenge developers in the industry to developed bold technological ideas that integrate into the city to combat urban problems such as sustainability (pollution), transportation, traffic, etc. These competitions help the people who live in the city have the opportunity to develop an integration that works with the existing city. Another organization that is changing the urban fabric is LinkNYC. This company is developing stations that provide wifi, integrated cell service, device charging, and tablets to access city services, maps, and directions. The stations will be retrofitted to replace the old payphones. The company is already using predetermined locations that they know will reach a lot of people where payphone stations used to be located.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam started its Smart City initiative in 2009 that began with over 170 projects to develop across the city. One of the major advancements, that many cities have not taken, is opening its traffic and transportation data up to developers. This position allows developers to work together to create public institutions to make the city and its transportation more accessible to the broader public. These developers made free apps that connect all transit systems into one place. This compares to a method that Anthony Townsend had mentioned, in the introduction of “Smart Cities”, that it is not always about making physical technology for the city, but using the technology and accessibility that almost everybody carries around the smartphone. Another advancement that the city had made is by creating and using autonomous delivery boats through the city’s waterways. This physical advancement is making it easier for companies to control deliveries all from one place and receive real-time data.
Copenhagen
Copenhagen followed in the success of Amsterdam by opening up its data and sharing it with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in order to develop an innovative bike system that runs throughout the city. The system is said to be able to monitor real-time usage of bikes and bike traffic. The system will be integrated into the existing traffic system within the city and will allow traffic data to adjust based on people that are on the road, on a bike, or on foot. The sensors will take real-time data and the computer system will be able to move traffic in the most efficient way possible.
Songdo
Songdo is one of the first cities to be built from scratch based on the ideas and principles of a Smart City. The worry people are having with the success of the urban environment is that it does have the inconsistencies and qualities that a previous urban fabric contains. The city’s goal was to attempt to eliminate a majority of the problems with the urban environments of today. One major implementation that the city was built on is the trash system. Every space has a pneumatic tube that takes trash to an underground waste facility where it is sorted, recycled, or burned for energy. The systems that the city has in place are ones that create a stable environment for the people that live there. Songdo is one of the first cities to fully be able to call itself a “smart city”, but the reality is that technology has taken over too much power from the people that live there.
From this analysis of case studies, it is easier to comprehend the implication and results of initiatives within a city and when there is a possibility of giving technology too much power within the urban fabric and way of living. My understanding has been able to broaden based on positives and negatives that can be found within the typology of the Smart City. Cities are platforms for technology to enhance and not to try to build a city from scratch.