Do Smart City Solutions Contribute to the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals?

Sustainable development and smart city have been two key concepts that are mentioned and referred to in any discussion on our cities. Today, more than half of the people live in cities, and the problems that we face in urban areas ranging from climate change to transportation, from waste management to communicable diseases, threaten the future of our cities and next generations. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the world leaders at the UN Summit in 2015 in order to save our planet, our generation, and next generations. As the problem is global, the solution needs to be global; and as the problem is a result of multiple actors, the solution needs to be provided by the collaboration of multiple stakeholders. Smart city has emerged as a concept that offers several solutions to the urban problems, which also overlap with most of the targets listed in the SDGs. In this chapter, the contribution of smart city technologies to the achievement of the SDGs is analysed through the in-depth case study of Istanbul, a mega city with a population of around 16 million.

Digital Transformations in Planning: An Australian Context

Australia is currently undergoing sweeping changes in transforming and digitizing its planning and development sectors. However, numerous challenges still exist in consolidating and making accessible essential data in the country to effect evidence-based development policy-making. This has been argued to have tangible consequences in formulating solutions to urban problems, such as housing delivery, and driving new urban innovations that are data-focused. In this chapter, we discuss a new urban data governance model in the context of the development of a novel single housing data and analytics platform, which has been formulated based on Australia’s current issues on data disparity, ownership, and interoperability. This platform, the Australian Housing Data Analytics Platform, seeks provide researchers with an integrated data repository and transparent analytical capabilities that hopes to drive collaboration, public participation, and data democratization across the country. In line with PlanTech principles developed through the Australian Planning Institute, this chapter describes how data in Australia can be made as a public good and integral commodity for policy-makers for the better planning for our cities.

Detecting Vicious Cycles in Urban Problem Knowledge Graph using Inference Rules

Urban areas have many problems, including homelessness, graffiti, and littering. These problems are influenced by various factors and are linked to each other; thus, an understanding of the problem structure is required in order to detect and solve the root problems that generate vicious cycles. Moreover, before implementing action plans to solve these problems, local governments need to estimate cost-effectiveness when the plans are carried out. Therefore, this paper proposes constructing an urban problem knowledge graph that would include urban problems' causality and the related cost information in budget sheets. In addition, this paper proposes a method for detecting vicious cycles of urban problems using SPARQL queries with inference rules from the knowledge graph. Finally, several root problems that led to vicious cycles were detected. Urban-problem experts evaluated the extracted causal relations.

Can the Pandemic Be a Catalyst of Spatial Changes Leading Towards the Smart City?

The worldwide spread of Covid-19 infections has had a pervasive influence on cities and the lives of their residents. The current crisis has highlighted many urban problems, including those related to the functionality of urban structures, which directly affect the quality of life. Concurrently, the notion of “smart cities” is becoming a dominant trend in the discourse on urban development. At the intersection of these two phenomena, questions about the effects of Covid-19 on the future of cities arise. These are concerned with the possible roles of the pandemic in the process of urban regeneration and the development of smart solutions. The article aims to create a conceptual framework that will allow researchers to assess the influence of Covid-19-related changes on urban structures and their functionality in the following areas: city structure, connectivity and mobility, public spaces, access to green areas, and digital transformation. In the empirical part of the article, the influence of pandemic-caused changes on the development of various aspects of smart cities is discussed. The article concludes with an analysis of the effects the pandemic might have on digital urban regeneration.

The city in the constitutional imagination

This article reviews Ran Hirschl’s City, State, a study of ‘the great constitutional silence concerning one of the most significant phenomena of our time: urban agglomeration and the rise of megacities’ and which maintains that the solution to contemporary urban problems crucially depends on a ‘constitutional emancipation’ of the city. The article argues that Hirschl is unable to deliver on his major claim. Launching his thesis on a skewed account of the development of the political role of the city, a one-sided presentation of the constitutional order of the modern state, and a failure to appreciate the impact of urbanization on the city’s standing as a unit of government, Hirschl ignores the work of public lawyers on the challenges of metropolitan government and argues, unconvincingly, that these challenges can be resolved once we turn to the abstractions of constitutional theory.

NOS TRILHOS DA DEMOCRACIA:

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o papel do ensino de Geografia na formação cidadã. Inicialmente, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, foram discutidas as contribuições da ciência geográfica e do seu ensino para o debate em torno da efetivação da cidadania. Posteriormente, foi apresentado e discutido o projeto de ensino “Nos trilhos da Democracia”, que objetivou analisar e solucionar os problemas urbanos locais mediante a participação política dos alunos do C.E. Nelson Pereira Rebel, localizado em Campos dos Goytacazes/RJ. A pesquisa evidencia o potencial da escola como espaço de formação cidadã e a importância da Geografia Escolar nesse processo. O território se apresenta como um componente central - não como uma ilustração do conteúdo, mas um princípio para o desenvolvimento de práticas de educação para a democracia. Muito mais do que aprender sobre direitos e deveres, ou ainda sobre o funcionamento da organização político-administrativa do Brasil, é essencial que os alunos protagonizem ações de investigação e intervenção no território, compreendendo que a participação é a base de uma democracia efetiva. Palavras-chave Geografia, Ensino, Cidadania, Território. IN THE TRACKS OF DEMOCRACY: geography teaching in citizen's formation Abstract This paper has the objective of analyzing the role of Geography in citizen's formation. Firstly, through bibliographical research, we discussed the contributions of geographical science and its teaching to debate about the establishment of citizenship. After that, we presented and discussed the teaching project "In the tracks of Democracy", which aimed to analyze and solve local urban problems, by the political participation of the students from C.E. Nelson Pereira Rebel, located at the Campos dos Goytacazes/RJ. The research confirms the school's potential as a local to form citizens and confirms the importance of School Geography in this process. The territory presents itself as a main character - it would not be an illustration of content, but a principle to develop educational practices for democracy. Much more than learn about rights and duties, or the political-administrative organization, it is crucial that the students create and star investigation and intervention actions in the territory, understanding that the participation is the key to an effective democracy. Keywords Geography, Teaching, Citizenship, Territory.

Mixed Land Use Evaluation and Its Impact on Housing Prices in Beijing Based on Multi-Source Big Data

The tense relationship between the supply and demand of land resources and the past spatial expansion of urban development in Beijing have brought many urban problems. Mixed land use is considered to be able to solve these urban problems as well as promote sustainable urban development. In this context, this study uses multi-source big data such as POI, OpenStreetMap and web crawler data to construct current land-use data of the area within the sixth ring road of Beijing, and then uses the entropy index and type number index to analyze the spatial distribution and aggregation characteristics of the mixed land-use level. Finally, a multi-scale geographically weighted regression is applied to explore the impact of the block and life circle scale mixed land use on housing prices. The results show that: (1) the accuracy of land use data obtained by using multi-source big data is high, and the consistency with the real land use situation is as high as 82.67%. (2) the mixed land use level in the study area is higher in the urban center and lower in the periphery of the city. However, it does not show the spatial distribution characteristics gradually decreasing with the increase of the distance from the urban center but shows that the area from the third to the fifth ring road is the highest. (3) the impact of block scale and life circle scale mixed land use on housing price is different. The type number index has a negative effect on the housing price in block scale mixed land use, while the entropy index has a positive effect on the housing price in life circle scale mixed land use. Based on the existing “bottom-up” individual-dominant development mode, the government of Beijing should issue relevant policies and documents to give “top-down” control and guidance in the future, so as to promote the maximization of the benefits of mixed land use. Furthermore, in the practice of mixed land use in Beijing, land use types should be reduced at the block scale and the area of different land use types should be balanced at the life circle scale.

Further Urban Development from the Beginning of the Century to the End of the 30s

The years 20 - 30 of the last century brought great economic development for our country, and in particular for the city of Korca. In this period, urban planning and especially its implementation received great attention. At this time Korca was thinking of changing and improving its existing urban structure. The citizens and intellectuals of Korça, through numerous discussions that took place in the press of the time, provided their solutions to the main urban problems, such as the city river, electrification, roads and boulevards, forestation, etc. The introduction of new ideas for solving the urban problems that the city faced in that period turned Korca into a reference point for their implementation. Making it the center and reference point for the urban developments that he was conceiving and using in that period. This was the Korca of the 20s and 30s, the city of ideas, development, and social, economic, architectural, and urban change.

A Smart City Service Business Model: Focusing on Transportation Services

Most cities have adopted smart city services to solve urban problems. However, an examination of their operations reveals that many of these services have either been discontinued or have failed to advance further since they were not profitable. Therefore, this study reviews and proposes the business models of smart city services at a fundamental level. It defines and classifies the smart city service focusing on transportation and the components. The business model has been constructed for electric vehicles and autonomous shuttle businesses in terms of transportation services. It found that the model was profitable in each business only when various stakeholders were linked for mutual interests. Since various service stakeholders cooperate in smart city service, if one of them is unable to secure profitability, it is difficult to operate the smart city service fully. Therefore, a detailed review of the business model is required before providing a smart city service.