scholarly journals Canadian smart cities: health remedies, side effects and hard to swallow pills

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Ramsaroop

This research paper investigates the ways in which health was talked about and addressed in Infrastructure Canada’s Smart City Challenge. Using the Smart City Challenge applications as the basis of the research, and two as in depth case studies. The main critiques of Smart City Technologies, as well as the concept of Co Creation, and a Performance Measurement Framework were used to identify if the applications could improve, how and if citizens were engaged meaningfully, and where in the healthcare system will the proposed technologies make measurable improvements. Findings from the study indicate there needs to be: greater protections for individual privacy, greater resident engagement/involvement, having health and wellbeing as core nets of a smart city challenge, and greater protections for indigenous data sovereignty. If these recommendations are taken into account, they will lead to more robust applications in the next iteration Smart City Challenge, and will provide invaluable steps towards greater national data guidelines.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Ramsaroop

This research paper investigates the ways in which health was talked about and addressed in Infrastructure Canada’s Smart City Challenge. Using the Smart City Challenge applications as the basis of the research, and two as in depth case studies. The main critiques of Smart City Technologies, as well as the concept of Co Creation, and a Performance Measurement Framework were used to identify if the applications could improve, how and if citizens were engaged meaningfully, and where in the healthcare system will the proposed technologies make measurable improvements. Findings from the study indicate there needs to be: greater protections for individual privacy, greater resident engagement/involvement, having health and wellbeing as core nets of a smart city challenge, and greater protections for indigenous data sovereignty. If these recommendations are taken into account, they will lead to more robust applications in the next iteration Smart City Challenge, and will provide invaluable steps towards greater national data guidelines.


2018 ◽  
pp. 60-67
Author(s):  
Henrika Pihlajaniemi ◽  
Anna Luusua ◽  
Eveliina Juntunen

This paper presents the evaluation of usersХ experiences in three intelligent lighting pilots in Finland. Two of the case studies are related to the use of intelligent lighting in different kinds of traffic areas, having emphasis on aspects of visibility, traffic and movement safety, and sense of security. The last case study presents a more complex view to the experience of intelligent lighting in smart city contexts. The evaluation methods, tailored to each pilot context, include questionnaires, an urban dashboard, in-situ interviews and observations, evaluation probes, and system data analyses. The applicability of the selected and tested methods is discussed reflecting the process and achieved results.


Author(s):  
Innocent Chirisa ◽  
Abraham Rajab Matamanda

The aim of this chapter is to interrogate and diagnose the concept of smart cities as it has been applied to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in a bid to decrypt the opportunities and challenges characterizing its manifestation in space and actuality. The chapter is a product of the critical engagement of scholarly work that compares the best practices in the development and promotion of the smart city concept against those practices that are antithetical and retrogressive in light of this good cause. To crystallize the realities, the chapter makes use of case studies that speak to these contrasting experiences. Case studies in SSA reveal differential practices with South Africa emerging as a country doing very well relative to others in the region. Some cities, especially the small and intermediate ones, fail to break even in terms of the revenue collections. This is partly because they have failed to attract investment in the form of industries or retain them because of politically induced instabilities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 204-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Argento ◽  
Giuseppe Grossi ◽  
Aki Jääskeläinen ◽  
Stefania Servalli ◽  
Petri Suomala

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of performance measurement systems as technologies of government in the operationalisation of smart city programmes. It answers the research question: how do the development and use of performance measurement systems support smart cities in the achievement of their goals? Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a longitudinal case study that uses an interventionist approach to investigate the possibilities and limitations of the use of performance measurement systems as technologies of government in a smart city. Interpretations are theoretically informed by the Foucauldian governmentality framework (Foucault, 2009) and by public sector performance measurement literature. Findings The findings address the benefits and criticalities confronting a smart city that introduces new performance measurement systems as a technology of government. Such technologies become problematic tools when the city network is characterised by a fragmentation of inter-departmental processes, and when forms of resistance emerge due to a lack of process owners, horizontal accountability and cooperation among involved parties. Research limitations/implications This paper is based on a case study of a single smart city, and outlines the need for both comparative and multidisciplinary analyses in order to analyse the causes and effects of smart city challenges. Originality/value This paper offers a critical understanding of the role of accounting in the smart city. The ineffectiveness of performance measurement systems is related to the multiple roles of such technologies of government, which may lead to a temporary paralysis in the achievement of smart city goals and programmes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9463
Author(s):  
Dominika Šulyová ◽  
Josef Vodák

One of the main motives for creating this article was to explore the importance of cultural aspects in building smart city approaches. The aim of this article was to obtain answers to three research questions, the answers to which made it possible to identify the elements of multiculturalism that affect the development of smart cities, to find out how multiculturalism affects smart cities and how to manage diversity. The ambition was to create and organize the most important findings into a comprehensive framework. To achieve this goal, secondary analysis methods were used by examining the literature and case studies of best practices from Europe, North America, and Asia. The choice of case studies was conditioned by the placement of smart cities in four global indices (smart city index, Arcadis, IESE and global power index), the existence of a multicultural strategy and elements of successful diversity management, including positive effects and possible limitations. In addition, methods of analysis, comparison and summarization were used. Effective diversity management acts as an accelerator of the sustainable development of smart cities. The results of the analysis of the case studies serve as a basis for recommendations and the creation of a proposed general model, whose task is to simplify the adoption of intelligent concepts, which creates space for the specification of local or cultural conditions of the country. Testing the model in practice is the subject of the following research activities of the authors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 03006
Author(s):  
Stefano Bracco ◽  
Federico Delfino ◽  
Paola Laiolo ◽  
Luisa Pagnini ◽  
Giorgio Piazza

A microgrid can be considered a profitable solution to be adopted in smart cities if it is marketable, i.e. more, or at least equally convenient than other traditional energy supply sources. Different economic parameters can be defined to determine its affordability. In particular, the LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) is the most popular indicator adopted in the energy sector, widely used both for conventional and renewable power sources. However, the use of this metric still disregards important aspects that concerns microgrid applications. After providing a state-of-the-art of the use of LCOE, the present paper proposes a new methodology for sustainable microgrids in smart city, taking into account benefits due to cogeneration and trigeneration, integration costs as well as positive and negative side effects.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey P. Lauriault ◽  
Rachel Bloom ◽  
Carly Livingstone ◽  
Jean-Noé Landry

This executive summary consolidates findings from a smart city environmental scan (E-Scan) and five case studies of smart city initiatives in Canada. The E-Scan entailed compiling and reviewing documents and definitions produced by smart city vendors, think tanks, associations, consulting firms, standards organizations, conferences, civil society organizations, including critical academic literature, government reports, marketing material, specifications and requirements documents. This research was motivated by a desire to identify international shapers of smart cities and to better understand what differentiates a smart city from an Open Smart City.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Mohammed Saeed ◽  
Colin Duffield ◽  
Felix Kin Peng Hui

Purpose A study of the current practices for evaluating the ex-post performance of public-private partnership (PPP) school projects in Australia via literature review and qualitative case studies has found that no consistent approach exists for evaluating operational performance. A detailed critique of international PPP audits and practices has identified existing gaps in ex-post performance evaluation. Through a process of comparative analysis and industry confirmation, a performance analysis technique aligned with international practice has been developed that can be utilised by the educational departments across Australia to evaluate the ex-post performance of PPP projects (PPPs). The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper opted for qualitative archival analysis of case studies using pattern matching, explanation building, time series, and comparative analysis. The data used for document analysis included value reports, project summaries, and contract documents, as well as local and international audit guidelines. Findings This paper reviewed current practices, identified a range of processes, and reported the best practices. However, consideration of the approaches taken in the UK and Australia for evaluating operational performance indicates that current techniques lack consistency. Research limitations/implications The developed ex-post performance measurement framework is limited to Australian PPP school projects and, at this stage, cannot be generalised to other social PPP projects. Practical implications The paper includes implications for the development of better performance evaluation practices and audits. Social implications An enhanced framework for measuring operational performance will increase the accountability of taxpayers in the content of their utilisation by the government. Originality/value This paper presents an enhanced ex-post performance measurement framework for education departments across Australia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Varró ◽  
Damion J Bunders

Recently proliferating ‘smart city’ building efforts have lent themselves well to interpretations through the lens of the policy mobilities literature. Applying this perspective, studies have insightfully shown how policymaking centred around smart cities is at once a messy, networked process stretching across scales, while also manifesting itself in concrete practices shaped by territorial–regulatory contexts. Informed by empirical research on smart city policies in Hungary and the Netherlands, this paper argues that the policy mobilities approach tends to overemphasize the global and the local. Notwithstanding the transnational circulation of smart city ideas, the national scale continues being reproduced by these ideas as a relevant scale of urban regulation, discursive framing and strategy-making under globalization. To acknowledge this, and to move towards a more decidedly multiscalar perspective on actually existing smart urbanisms, it is suggested that we incorporate the national scale, understood as a relational set of practices and discourses, more explicitly into our analysis. Insights from the Hungarian and Dutch case studies are used to illustrate the manifold ways in which the local embedding of the globally mobile smart city concept is shaped by the national scale, as well as how the national itself is being renegotiated in this process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document