scholarly journals From the “smart city” to the “smart metropolis”? Building resilience in the urban periphery

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano de Falco ◽  
Margarita Angelidou ◽  
Jean-Paul D Addie
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Hard Material ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Policy Interventions

The “smart city” has risen to global prominence over the past two decades as an urban planning and development strategy. As a broad but contested toolkit of technological services and policy interventions aimed at improving the efficacy and efficiency of urban systems, the “smart city” is subject to several pressing critiques. This paper acknowledges these concerns, but recognizes the potential of “urban intelligence” to enhance the resiliency of metropolitan areas. As such, we focus on an under-researched dimension of smart city urbanism: its application in peripheral urban areas. The paper introduces a threefold typology of: (a) geographic (spatial); (b) hard (material); and (c) soft (social) urban peripherality. Second, it reviews the concept of urban resilience and considers how its central characteristics can inform the objectives and implementation of “smart city” infrastructures and planning. Six European smart city plans are assessed via a qualitative content analysis, to identify the target of smart city actions; the characteristics of urban resilience mobilized; and the spatial focus of planned interventions. The comparative analysis reveals a variegated set of smart-city approaches. Notably, “smart” actions aimed at enhancing social innovation are the most common type of intervention, while overall there remains a strong tendency for smart urbanism to focus on the urban core. We conclude by calling for a research agenda addressing smartness in, of, and for, peripheral urban spaces and communities.

scholarly journals A Study on the Integration of Resilience and Smart City Concepts in Urban Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Anastasia Tzioutziou ◽  
Yiannis Xenidis
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
City Management ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Management And Development ◽  
The Many ◽  
Development And Management

The continuous growth of cities brings out various concerns for improved development and management of the multifaceted urban systems, including those of resilience and smartness. Despite the many significant efforts in the research field, both notions remain changeable, thus retaining the lack of commonly accepted conceptual and terminological frameworks. The paper’s research goals are to designate the current direct and indirect links in the conceptualizations and research trends of the resilience and smart city frameworks and to prove the potential of the conceptual convergence between them in the context of urban systems. The application of a semi-systematic literature review, including bibliometric evidence and followed by content analysis, has led to the observation that as the resilience discourse opens up to embrace other dimensions, including technology, the smart city research turns its interest to the perspective of urban protection. Therefore, both concepts share the goal for urban sustainability realized through specific capacities and processes and operationalized with the deployment of technology. The paper’s findings suggest that the conceptual and operational foundations of these two concepts could support the emergence of an integrated framework. Such a prospect acknowledges the instrumental role of the smart city approach in the pursuit of urban resilience and unfolds a new model for sustainable city management and development.

scholarly journals INFLUENCE OF RAIN GARDENS ON THE QUALITY OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE CITY OF ODESSA)

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-67
Author(s):  
G. V. Kyselovа ◽  
◽  
V. N. Kyselov ◽  
M. O. Kramarenko ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Rainwater Harvesting ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Rain Gardens ◽  
The City

The article deals with the problems of sustainable development of the urban environment, which in addition to urban and architectural aspects include the problems of urban ecology. One of the important issues that needs to be addressed is the management of urban wastewater. In the long run, it is necessary to invest in sustainable infrastructure, upgrade urban systems and plant green spaces. Stormwater management allows you to apply a comprehensive approach to solving this problem, and to increase economic efficiency city. However, investments in this problem are of a long-term nature, and alternative solution of the problem could be the arrangement of rain gardens in urban space. The main purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyze rain gardens as part of a sustainable urban development strategy. The methodological basis of the study was a number of scientific works related to the study of issues related to the improvement of urban planning, ecology of urban areas, as well as the study of the theory of cultural landscape and the theory of the ecological frame of the city. The article deals with the world examples of gardens, the main task of which is rainwater harvesting. Based on the analysis of world experience, we can conclude that rain gardens can be designed as a separate object of landscape architecture or as an element of urban space. Modern research has shown that bio-drainage structures (consisting of large gardens and parks) can be effective for improving water quality and maintaining hydrological function, even when the air temperature drops below zero. Studies show that, with proper site analysis, careful design and responsible plant selection, bio-drainage systems can work well even in regions with cold climates. In addition to performing their basic functions, rain gardens have an aesthetic component - they are beautiful elements of decoration, walkings paths in the park, city streets, roads and public buildings.

scholarly journals Urban water resilience in Hindu Kush Himalaya: issues, challenges and way forward

Water Policy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (S1) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal Singh ◽  
Anvita Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Hindu Kush ◽  
Key Issues

Abstract The urban population is expected to rise up to 68% by 2050, adding 2.5 billion people to the urban areas of the world. The majority of the rise is expected to be in the low-income countries of Asia and Africa. Several cities/towns in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region are expanding at a rapid pace, putting additional pressure on water services and basic amenities for urban dwellers. Selected case studies undertaken by the authors suggest that the demand for water far exceeds municipal supply. Water governance in the HKH region remains a blind spot and challenges pertaining to urban water resilience are poorly understood. The paper is divided into three parts: the first outlines the development of towns and their water infrastructure through selected cases in the HKH, followed by key issues and challenges faced by urban systems and suggested measures to build urban resilience in order to deal with the projected rise in population, governance issues and anticipated changes in climate.

scholarly journals Resilience of Urban Economic Structures Following the Great Recession

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2374
Author(s):  
Shade T. Shutters ◽  
Srinivasa S. Kandala ◽  
Fangwu Wei ◽  
Ann P. Kinzig
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Economic Structure ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Global Recession ◽  
Measured Change ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Over Time

The future sustainability of cities is contingent on economic resilience. Yet, urban resilience is still not well understood, as cities are frequently disrupted by shocks, such as natural disasters, economic recessions, or changes in government policies. These shocks can significantly alter a city’s economic structure. Yet the term economic structure is often used metaphorically and is often not understood sufficiently by those having to implement policies. Here, we operationalized the concept of economic structure as a weighted network of interdependent industry sectors. For 938 U.S. urban areas, we then quantified the magnitude of change in the areas’ economic structures over time, focusing on changes associated with the 2007–2009 global recession. The result is a novel method of analyzing urban change over time as well as a typology of U.S. urban systems based on how their economic structures responded to the recession. We further compared those urban types to changes in economic performance during the recession to explore each structural type’s adaptive capacity. Results suggest cities that undergo constant but measured change are better positioned to weather the impacts of economic shocks.

scholarly journals Considering hazard estimation uncertain in urban resilience strategies

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 4235-4261
Author(s):  
B. Barroca ◽  
P. Bernardara ◽  
S. Girard ◽  
G. Mazo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Extreme Values ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Hazard Evaluation ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Strategic Orientations ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Town

Abstract. Urbanization has led to a concentration of both persons and property, which increases the potential degree of damage liable to occur in crisis situations. Urban areas have become increasingly complex socio-technical systems where the inextricable tangle of activities, networks and territories enables disruptions propagate rather than being disseminated. In risk anticipation, measures of prevention and anticipation are generally defined by using hazard modelling. The relevance of this approach may be subject to discussion (Zevenbergen et al., 2011) particularly in view of the large number of uncertainties that make hazard evaluation so difficult. For this reason, uncertainty analysis is initially called upon in a theoretical approach before any applied approach. Generally, the uncertainty under study is not assessed in hydrological studies. This uncertainty is related to the choice of evaluation model used for extreme values. This application has been used on the territory of the town of Besançon in eastern France. Strategic orientations for territorial resilience are presented taking account of the high levels of uncertainty concerning estimates for possible flow-rates. Adapting urban systems is becoming a~priority for urban resilience; this adaptation must take several spatial and temporal scales into consideration. This concerns both increasing the existing city's resilience in the face of risks, but also guiding actions wherever new urban developments are created.

scholarly journals Because people act, cities can be smart: Promoting social innovation in smart-city design-tools in the Mediterranean.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Navarro Escudero ◽  
Carolina Mateo Cecilia ◽  
Begoña Serrano Lanzarote ◽  
Vera Valero Escribano
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Organizational Empowerment ◽  
City Design

Smart city is an innovative paradigm tackling a range of emerging problems associated with urbanization, massively understood from a technology-driven approach. Much of the focus of the smart city movement to date – city authorities and other organizations deploying sensors, networks, decision support tools and data analytics to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urban systems (like transport, utilities, etc.) – is only half the story. In occasions, citizens struggle with a top-down managing city system that should help public administrators, service providers and citizens, but reports instead on personal frustration. To avoid this, an attempt to promote social innovation processes to the smart city paradigm is now taking place. In this paper, we analyze reactions to a smart city design-tool for energy strategy plans’ definition and implementation, in the three EU most populated Mediterranean countries (Spain, France, Italy). The research is based on the ACCENT study case. Interviews show common challenges with regard to ACCENT smartness, as the needs and dangers of sharing real energy consumption data of buildings, the low willingness of some energy suppliers to offer information, the user-unfriendly interfaces for citizens, the lack of linkage among public bodies, the dispersion of data, the requirement of disseminating mechanisms to make citizens aware of the benefits of the energy renovation, or the inaccessibility to existing information on the state of buildings. These challenges resulting from ACCENT study give rise to three recommendations to foster social innovation in further Mediterranean smart city design-tools: co-responsibility, hand-in-hand co-creation and citizens’ organizational empowerment.

Quality indicator of the smart city transportation and logistics system

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 2116-2135
Author(s):  
G.V. Savin
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Intelligent Transportation ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Logistics System ◽  
Organization And Management

Subject. The article considers functioning and development of process flows of transportation and logistics system of a smart city. Objectives. The study identifies factors and dependencies of the quality of human life on the organization and management of stream processes. Methods. I perform a comparative analysis of previous studies, taking into account the uniquely designed results, and the econometric analysis. Results. The study builds multiple regression models that are associated with stream processes, highlights interdependent indicators of temporary traffic and pollution that affect the indicator of life quality. However, the identified congestion indicator enables to predict the time spent in traffic jams per year for all participants of stream processes. Conclusions. The introduction of modern intelligent transportation systems as a component of the transportation and logistics system of a smart city does not fully solve the problems of congestion in cities at the current rate of urbanization and motorization. A viable solution is to develop cooperative and autonomous intelligent transportation systems based on the logistics approach. This will ensure control over congestion, the reduction of which will contribute to improving the life quality of people in urban areas.

Engineering in the time of cholera: overcoming institutional and political challenges to rebuild Zimbabwe's water and sanitation infrastructure in the aftermath of the 2008 cholera epidemic

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa Brocklehurst ◽  
Murtaza Malik ◽  
Kiwe Sebunya ◽  
Peter Salama
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Rapid Improvement ◽  
Cholera Epidemic ◽  
Rapid Action ◽  
Water And Sanitation Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Rehabilitation

A devastating cholera epidemic swept Zimbabwe in 2008, causing over 90,000 cases, and leaving more than 4,000 dead. The epidemic raged predominantly in urban areas, and the cause could be traced to the slow deterioration of Zimbabwe's water and sewerage utilities during the economic and political crisis that had gripped the country since the late 1990s. Rapid improvement was needed if the country was to avoid another cholera outbreak. In this context, donors, development agencies and government departments joined forces to work in a unique partnership, and to implement a programme of swift improvements that went beyond emergency humanitarian aid but did not require the time or massive investment associated with full-scale urban rehabilitation. The interventions ranged from supply of water treatment chemicals and sewer rods to advocacy and policy advice. The authors analyse the factors that made the programme effective and the challenges that partners faced. The case of Zimbabwe offers valuable lessons for other countries transitioning from emergency to development, and particularly those that need to take rapid action to upgrade failing urban systems. It illustrates that there is a ‘middle path’ between short-term humanitarian aid delivered in urban areas and large-scale urban rehabilitation, which can provide timely and highly effective results.

scholarly journals Landscape Design toward Urban Resilience: Bridging Science and Physical Design Coupling Sociohydrological Modeling and Design Process

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4666
Author(s):  
Yoonshin Kwak ◽  
Brian Deal ◽  
Grant Mosey
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Landscape Design ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Planning Support Systems ◽  
Creative Solutions ◽  
Resilient Communities ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Resilient Design

Given that evolving urban systems require ever more sophisticated and creative solutions to deal with uncertainty, designing for resilience in contemporary landscape architecture represents a cross-disciplinary endeavor. While there is a breadth of research on landscape resilience within the academy, the findings of this research are seldom making their way into physical practice. There are existent gaps between the objective, scientific method of scientists and the more intuitive qualitative language of designers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to help bridge these gaps and ultimately support an endemic process for more resilient landscape design creation. This paper proposes a framework that integrates analytic research (i.e., modeling and examination) and design creation (i.e., place-making) using processes that incorporate feedback to help adaptively achieve resilient design solutions. Concepts of Geodesign and Planning Support Systems (PSSs) are adapted as part of the framework to emphasize the importance of modeling, assessment, and quantification as part of processes for generating information useful to designers. This paper tests the suggested framework by conducting a pilot study using a coupled sociohydrological model. The relationships between runoff and associated design factors are examined. Questions on how analytic outcomes can be translated into information for landscape design are addressed along with some ideas on how key variables in the model can be translated into useful design information. The framework and pilot study support the notion that the creation of resilient communities would be greatly enhanced by having a navigable bridge between science and practice.

scholarly journals Challenges and Barriers for Net‐Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts—Empirical Evidence from the Smart City Project SPARCS

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Daria Uspenskaia ◽  
Karl Specht ◽  
Hendrik Kondziella ◽  
Thomas Bruckner
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Multidimensional Representation

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.

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