The 'smart city' concept has existed for several years, but only now, with some trial and error, are we seeing the real fruits of these efforts coming to light. While the ambitions of Masdar City have been scaled back somewhat, Amsterdam is forging ahead, piloting a number of schemes to introduce smart technology to the way energy and other resources are managed within the city.
Governments in many places can exhibit a loss in the basic competencies required for effective urban planning. In the UK and India, some of the slack is picked up by the private and non-profit sectors, with surprising and innovative results.
The Indian government agencies responsible for managing the country's urban slums talk of ICT and GIS technology to help them keep track of slum communities, yet they should also reach out to NGOs.
Bus maps can play a role in drawing people into greater engagement with the city they live in.
An experiment to use GIS systems to capture real occupancy and ownership patterns in Uganda's cities, a major step towards formalising the interests of up to 200,000 households.
... the implementation of these systems is not so straightforward, and can only be achieved through 'smarter governance' that facilitates their coordination, integration and delivery at a city-wide level.
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
