A Practical Integration of the Leading Paradigms of Urbanism: A Novel Model for Data-Driven  Smart Sustainable Cities of the Future

Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri

AbstractIn recent years, it has become increasingly feasible to achieve important improvements of sustainability by integrating sustainable urbanism with smart urbanism thanks to the proven role and synergic potential of data-driven technologies. Indeed, the processes and practices of both of these approaches to urban planning and development are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism, giving rise to a new phenomenon known as “data-driven smart sustainable urbanism.” Underlying this emerging approach is the idea of combining and integrating the strengths of sustainable cities and smart cities and harnessing the synergies of their strategies and solutions in ways that enable sustainable cities to optimize, enhance, and maintain their performance on the basis of the innovative data-driven technologies offered by smart cities. These strengths and synergies can be clearly demonstrated by combining the advantages of sustainable urbanism and smart urbanism. To enable such combination, major institutional transformations are required in terms of enhanced and new practices and competences. Based on case study research, this paper identifies, distills, and enumerates the key benefits, potentials, and opportunities of sustainable cities and smart cities with respect to the three dimensions of sustainability, as well as the key institutional transformations needed to support the balancing of these dimensions and to enable the introduction of data-driven technology and the adoption of applied data-driven solutions in city operational management and development planning. This paper is an integral part of a futures study that aims to analyze, investigate, and develop a novel model for data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future. I argue that the emerging data-driven technologies for sustainability as innovative niches are reconfiguring the socio-technical landscape of institutions, as well as providing insights to policymakers into pathways for strengthening existing institutionalized practices and competences and developing and establishing new ones. This is necessary for balancing and advancing the goals of sustainability and thus achieving a desirable future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri

AbstractThe increased pressure on cities has led to a stronger need to build sustainable cities that can last. Planning sustainable cities of the future, educated by the lessons of the past and anticipating the challenges of the future, entails articulating a multi-scalar vision that, by further interplaying with major societal trends and paradigm shifts in science and technology, produce new opportunities towards reaching the goals of sustainability. Enabled by big data science and analytics, the ongoing transformative processes within sustainable cities are motivated by the need to address and overcome the challenges hampering progress towards sustainability. This means that sustainable cities should be understood, analyzed, planned, designed, and managed in new and innovative ways in order to improve and advance their contribution to sustainability. Therefore, sustainable cities are increasingly embracing and leveraging what smart cities have to offer in terms of data-driven technologies and applied solutions so as to optimize, enhance, and maintain their performance and thus achieve the desired outcomes of sustainability—under what has been termed “data-driven smart sustainable cities.” Based on a case study analysis, this paper develops an applied theoretical framework for strategic sustainable urban development planning. This entails identifying and integrating the underlying components of data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future in terms of the dimensions, strategies, and solutions of the leading global paradigms of sustainable urbanism and smart urbanism. The novelty of the proposed framework lies in combining compact urban design strategies, eco-city design strategies and technology solutions; data-driven smart city technologies, competences, and solutions for sustainability; and environmentally data-driven smart sustainable city solutions and strategies. These combined have great potential to improve and advance the contribution of sustainable cities to the goals of sustainability through harnessing its synergistic effects and balancing the integration of its dimensions. The main contribution of this work lies in providing new insights into guiding the development of various types of strategic planning processes of transformative change towards sustainability, as well as to stimulate and inspire future research endeavors in this direction. This study informs policymakers and planners about the opportunity of attaining important advances in sustainability by integrating the established models of sustainable urbanism and the emerging models of smart urbanism thanks to the proven role and untapped potential of data-driven technologies in catalyzing sustainable development and thus boosting sustainability benefits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Elias Bibri

AbstractSustainable cities are quintessential complex systems—dynamically changing environments and developed through a multitude of individual and collective decisions from the bottom up to the top down. As such, they are full of contestations, conflicts, and contingencies that are not easily captured, steered, and predicted respectively. In short, they are characterized by wicked problems. Therefore, they are increasingly embracing and leveraging what smart cities have to offer as to big data technologies and their novel applications in a bid to effectively tackle the complexities they inherently embody and to monitor, evaluate, and improve their performance with respect to sustainability—under what has been termed “data-driven smart sustainable cities.” This paper analyzes and discusses the enabling role and innovative potential of urban computing and intelligence in the strategic, short-term, and joined-up planning of data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future. Further, it devises an innovative framework for urban intelligence and planning functions as an advanced form of decision support. This study expands on prior work done to develop a novel model for data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future. I argue that the fast-flowing torrent of urban data, coupled with its analytical power, is of crucial importance to the effective planning and efficient design of this integrated model of urbanism. This is enabled by the kind of data-driven and model-driven decision support systems associated with urban computing and intelligence. The novelty of the proposed framework lies in its essential technological and scientific components and the way in which these are coordinated and integrated given their clear synergies to enable urban intelligence and planning functions. These utilize, integrate, and harness complexity science, urban complexity theories, sustainability science, urban sustainability theories, urban science, data science, and data-intensive science in order to fashion powerful new forms of simulation models and optimization methods. These in turn generate optimal designs and solutions that improve sustainability, efficiency, resilience, equity, and life quality. This study contributes to understanding and highlighting the value of big data in regard to the planning and design of sustainable cities of the future.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Kearsey ◽  
◽  
Stephanie Bricker ◽  
Katie Whitbread ◽  
Ricky Terrington ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-166
Author(s):  
L. Bonzanigo ◽  
G. Sinnona

Abstract. The global population is increasingly concentrated in cities. Cities and urban areas face many challenges – economic, social, health and environmental – which are often exacerbated by an increase in the frequency of natural disasters. Together, these challenges call for a shift towards sustainable cities which reduce their impact on the surrounding environment, whilst at the same time succeeding to make resources available to their increasing number of inhabitants. This article explores the state of the art of water management practices of the highly urbanised Northern Italian region and plans and scope for the future development of water management. Although the region is at present not under severe water stress, recently some cities faced water scarcity problems and were forced to implement water rationing. We assessed the vulnerability of Parma and Ferrara to a water crisis, together with the regular and emergency adaptation measures already in place, and the forecast for the near future. In two workshops, the authors adapted the Australian concept of Water Sensitive Urban Design for the Italian context. Although the population remains generally unaware of the impact of the two latest severe drought events (2003 and 2006/7), many adaptation measures towards a more sustainable use of the water resource are already in place – technically, institutionally, and individually. Water managers consider however that the drastic and definite changes needed to integrate the urban water management cycle, and which minimise the ecological footprint of urban spaces, lay far in the future.


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