Watch:
An interesting view about the most significant smart city design principles comes from the blog The Urban Technologist. The author provides 23 principles that each city should consider with respect to infrastructure construction, connectivity and information accessibility, economic development and vitability, transport, governance, privacy and public safety etc. The principles do not systematically address all the potential domains of a smart city design assignment.
“Because the outcomes we are seeking are often qualitative ‘“ “vibrant communities’, for example ‘“ and because research into city systems and the work of standards bodies is still ongoing, many of them are aspirational and subjective. But by presenting active principles rather than passive observations, my hope is to stimulate a useful debate.’
Some of the proposed principles are presented below:
Principle 1: Consider urban life before urban place; consider urban place before technology.
Principle 2: Demonstrate sustainability, scalability and resilience over an extended timeframe.
Principle 3: Demonstrate flexibility over an extended timeframe.
Principle 6: Any development should ensure wired and wireless connectivity is available throughout it, and with the capacity to expand to any foreseeable growth in that standard.
Principle 7: Ensure that information from its technology systems can be made openly available without additional expenditure. Whether or not information is actually available will be dependent on commercial and legal agreement, but it should not be additionally subject to unreasonable expenditure. And where there is no compelling commercial or legal reason to keep data closed, it should actually be made open.
Principle 8: The information systems of any new development should conform for interoperability between IT systems in general; and for interoperability in the built environment, physical infrastructures and Smarter Cities specifically.
Principle 9: New developments should demonstrate that they have considered the commercial viability of providing the digital civic infrastructure services recommended by credible research sources.
Principle 10: Any data concerning a new development that could be used to reduce energy consumption within that development, or in related areas of a city, should be made open.
Principle 12: Consultations on plans for new developments should fully exploit the capabilities of social media, virtual worlds and other technologies to ensure that communities affected by them are given the widest, most immersive opportunity possible to contribute to their design.
Principle 14: Local authorities should support awareness and enablement programmes for social media and related technologies, particularly “grass roots’ initiatives within local communities.
Principle 18: Developments should offer the opportunity of serendipitous interaction and innovation between stakeholders from different occupations.
Principle 19: Developments should provide, or should be adaptable to provide, facilities to enable the location and success of future ways of working including remote and mobile working, “fab labs’ (3d printing facilities), “pop-up’ establishments and collaborative working spaces.
Principle 21: Any information system in a city development should provide a clear policy for the use of personal information. Any use of that information should be with the consent of the individual.
Principle 23: New developments should demonstrate that their design takes account of the latest best and emerging practises and patterns from Smarter Cities, smart urbanism, digital urbanism and placemaking.
Source: The Urban Technologist blog