Information Policy

Blog Smart Cities 4.0: Engaging Citizens; Transforming Urban Infrastructure through Infratech and Open Data

In Bogota, Colombia, authorities are getting citizens involved in the green redesign of a major thoroughfare to improve mobility and reduce traffic bottlenecks, using an open-source online platform. In Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, city officials are using anonymized, privacy-protected, real-time intelligence on the flows of people through urban neighborhoods, streets, parks, restaurants, and shops to guide their economic recovery strategy. And in India, city governments have partnered with a healthtech company on remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients at home, helping to reduce the burden on overwhelmed healthcare infrastructure.

What “smart city” means for 2021: How digital twins, AI and other innovations drive smart transformation

As U.S. cities feel the strain of urban growth—rents rising faster than incomes, more than half a million people homeless, persistent racial and social equity issues—some are making much-needed strides. They are becoming what McKinsey Global Institute defines as a “smart city,” a place where technology and data are used to enable better decisions that improve quality of life.

University of Helsinki: Legal expertise needed to create the smart city of the future

Smart technology offers new business opportunities and better services to citizens. However, its adoption in the urban environment involves legal balancing, since no relevant case law yet exists.

Air quality monitoring is now one of the fastest-growing smart city applications

According to a new research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of urban air quality monitoring devices reached 73,000 units in 2020 and will grow at a CAGR of 34 percent to reach 315,000 units in 2025. This number refers to any type of networked outdoor air quality monitoring device that in some way is used for supplementary air quality monitoring purposes in cities and communities. Traditional regulatory monitoring stations and devices intended for personal use only are thus not included.

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By Mia Hassoun for the OII’s #DigitalInequality blog series

Lily, a doctor and single mother of two, lives in a smart home in a new public housing estate (HDB) outside Singapore’s city centre. Hers is an eco-friendly smart home, equipped with a pneumatic waste disposal system and devices that monitor household energy usage. I asked her if the smart home was a motivation for moving, and she laughed: “Not at all. We moved here because there’s more space. Ying and Justin love it because they can have their friends over, which we could never do before.” When I asked about her participation in the smart city, she responded: “Isn’t the point of the smart city that I don’t have to participate?”

The limits of “active” participation in smart city design

By Mia Hassoun for the OII’s #DigitalInequality blog series

Lily, a doctor and single mother of two, lives in a smart home in a new public housing estate (HDB) outside Singapore’s city centre. Hers is an eco-friendly smart home, equipped with a pneumatic waste disposal system and devices that monitor household energy usage. I asked her if the smart home was a motivation for moving, and she laughed: “Not at all. We moved here because there’s more space. Ying and Justin love it because they can have their friends over, which we could never do before.” When I asked about her participation in the smart city, she responded: “Isn’t the point of the smart city that I don’t have to participate?”