Smart Governance and Smart Communities

What is Smart City?

A city that uses the new age technologies combined with the city’s physical infrastructure to provide a better life to its citizens is called a smart city.  Smart cities have many definitions in practical and academic sense where in all of them emphasize on the integration of technology with the physical infrastructure in order to be sustainable and providing to its inhabitants. The definition facilitates the analysis of real-world data that are collected from sensors, kiosks, meters, personal devices, appliances, cameras, smart phones, implanted medical devices, the web, and other similar data–acquisition systems that are set–up all over the cities. 

This transition of cities to a smarter version of itself has helped the citizens of the city live a better life. Conclusions derived from analyzing the data collected from the smart devices all over the city has helped the government to better understand the people’s needs and the real-world problems, so they can take better decisions to make the city better and sustainable.

Some of the major components of a smart city are:

1. Smart Infrastructure and Buildings
2. Smart Transportation
3. Smart and Clean Energy
4. Smart Healthcare
5. Smart Waste Management

Smart Government and Community

Smart governance can be defined as the usage of new age technologies for better planning and decision making. It can be simplified as the integration of technologies like IOT, ICT and etc. in all government processes to enhance the government’s ability to provide a better life to the people. It in turn promotes accountable, transparent and good governance. The governing body uses the conclusions derived from the data that has been collected from various sources all over the city to better understand what people need, what problems the people are facing, what are the problems that need to be addressed immediately, how the decisions they have taken are impacting the people?

Smart Community can be defined as an interconnected community that leverages the use of smart technologies to help their residents. Smart communities are responsible to improve the lives of the residents sustainably. Many cities around the world are targeting to provide smart services to its residents at the community level by managing water and energy resources better, monitor and reduce local traffic and pollution, engaging citizens in the decision-making process and etc. As part of the smart community initiative interaction of local residents has helped the government to better understand their problems and how the solutions to those problems have been received by the people.

Smart City Projects

1.Carbon Neutral Copenhagen:

General Objective:

Copenhagen is trying to become carbon neutral by the end of 2025 by switching to renewable sources of energy and promoting its people to commute by cycling and public transport to reduce their carbon footprint. The city is aggressively investing in expanding cycling infrastructure and renewable sources of energy.

Overall Goal:

The government has concentrated on promoting people to change:

1. How they get around.
2. How they heat their homes.
3. How they handle their trash.

The government is fixed on turning the city into a carbon neutral city by the year 2025.

About the Project:

Copenhagen is a small city in Denmark with the population of 624,000 which is aimed at becoming carbon neutral by the year 2025. The mayor of the city has been promoting the people to switch to greener sources of energy to heat their homes, promoted the people to use public transport and cycle to get to places. For this he has aggressively invested in developing cycling infrastructure, public transportation and renewable sources of energy.

In Copenhagen the electricity is generated through wind power, the buildings are heated by burning garbage, the power plants in the city are run with wood pellets instead of coal and the city is building new ponds and lakes to store rainwater.

Through their efforts they could convince nearly 43% of people to commute to work daily on bicycles. They are building new lines in the local subway system to make subway system more accessible to people to commute to more places around the city easily. With their efforts they could reduce the carbon emissions by 54% compared to the carbon emissions in 2005. They have also launched zero-emission construction site initiative to reduce carbon and noise pollution. Installed solar panels on top of government buildings, reduced power consumption by streetlights and municipal buildings by 40% and shifting the municipal vehicles into non-polluting vehicles. Almost 66% of all the people in Copenhagen commute through bicycle, walk or public transport.

Thoughts, Criticism and Ideas how to improve:

1. I feel this is a great initiative by the mayor to put in efforts to make the people to understand the need for the city to become carbon neutral. The way they have implemented their plans to reach their goal in commendable.
2. The local government is not getting proper support from the national government to implement their plans to reduce the number of fossil fuel run vehicles.
3. I feel that the local government should provide subsidies on electric vehicles that would encourage people to buy more electric vehicles.
4. I feel all the cycling tracks in the city are cramped with the huge population of people cycling, so they should plan on expanding those tracks.
5. I feel burning wood pellets instead of coal in power plants is not really a green alternative for coal power plants.

2.E-Estonia: Estonia:

General Objective:

The project aims to provide citizens with secure, convenient, and efficient access to public services through digital means. Some of the main objectives of the project are:

1. Digitizing government services
2. Improving data security
3. Enhancing citizen participation
4. Promoting innovation
5. Improving efficiency of government services.

Overall Goal:

The main goal of the project is to leverage digital technologies to enhance public services and improve the quality of life for citizens. The project has been highly successful and has become a model for other countries looking to modernize their governance systems.

About the Project:

The project was founded on the principles of open governance, interoperability, and security. One of its key accomplishments was the introduction of a national identity card with a chip and digital signature, allowing citizens to access various online services, including voting, tax payments, and medical records. About 99% of the public services of Estonia are available online now. The public and the public servants access a wide range of services online secure digital IDs, including making payments, accessing full health records, and internet voting. Right from the mid-90s the government has been working on building a e-governance system.  About 30% of the population uses internet services to vote. As a result of the e-Estonia project, the Estonian government has successfully reduced bureaucracy, enhanced transparency, and improved the quality of its services. Additionally, it has encouraged innovation and entrepreneurship by simplifying the process of starting and running a business in Estonia.

The key foundations of the project are:

1. Digitizing registers
2. Build a platform for communication between public and private sectors to share information.
3. Giving citizens the ability to access services online.

The project has reduced bureaucracy and increased transparency by providing digital methods as an alternative to traditional paperwork and in-person interactions. As part of the project the government data and services are made public in digital format to increase transparency. The quality of government services is enhanced by making all services online. The project encourages innovation and entrepreneurship by creating an environment where this infrastructure thrives. There is a great emphasis on security and has implemented measures to secure people’s data. The project also makes services available to all citizens irrespective of their location instead of people visiting the government offices.

Thoughts, Criticism and Ideas how to improve:

1. E-Estonia is a great initiative that most of the countries are trying to implement in their country.
2. The way the government has made all government services online has made people’s life easier, people don’t need to go to the government offices to get their things done.
3. They can access their services from any part of the world.
4. They can also vote a part of the services provided through online voting that is a great initiative, people can vote from any part of the world.
5. A major concern with this system that is highly tech intensive has high risk that they can sabotaged by hackers.
6. Voting online can be rigged easily compared to traditional voting method.

3.Fastag: India’s Digital toll system

General Objective:

Fastag is India’s digital toll system by the highway authorities that was introduced with the plan to reduce congestion at the toll plazas and smoother collection of tolls.

The main objective of fastag is:

1. Reduce congestion on highways.
2. Smoother collection of tolls.
3. Promote digital and cashless payments.
4. Reduce wastage of paper.

Overall Goal:

India was promoting the usage of digital money and cashless payments all over the country as part of this initiative they also planned on building an autonomous toll collection system that would reduce congestion of traffic at tolls and at the same time come up with a solution to reduce the paper wastage cased due to the toll receipts. As part of this strategy, they build a system that would work on radio frequencies, all the transactions were made electronic and cashless.

About the Project:

India is a country with a huge population of over 120 billion people. More than 50% of people in India use national highways to commute to work every day as a result this caused a lot of congestion at the tolls and the infrastructure that was built was not able to accommodate a faster way for the people to pay and pass the tolls. India at the same time was promoting the usage of digital money and cashless payment so the government has to come up with a system that would seamlessly be imbibed into the digital wave as well as speed up the toll collection process. Then the government came up with an autonomous system that worked on radio frequencies. Each vehicle was fitted with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that allows people to pass through the toll plazas without stopping to pay cash. The RFIDs would with topped up with digital cash that would be deducted from the account whenever we pass through a toll. The cards would be topped up directly through our bank accounts.

This system promoted the use of cashless toll payments and also helped solve the highway congestion issue. At the same this this also reduced the paper wastage that was caused due to the toll receipts. This system also reduced the infrastructure and maintenance costs for each toll station. This also reduced the number of people that are needed to run a toll station. This system is a huge success and a great initiative by the Indian government.

Thoughts, Criticism and Ideas how to improve:

1. This has made commute faster.
2. Reduced the hassle of carrying cash and exact change.
3. Promoted digital payments.
4. Promoted cashless payments.
5. Reduced wastage of resources.
6. Initially there was a huge backlash among people as most of them were not used to digital payments.
7. The plan was not properly implemented in the initial days.
8. Initially registration on the program was not vey user friendly.

Sources

Sengupta, S., & Fuente, C. D. L. (2019, March 25). Copenhagen wants to show how cities can fight climate change. The New York Times. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/climate/copenhagen-climate-change.html

Justin Gerdes • April 11, Justin Gerdes, Justin Gerdes, •, Justin Gerdes is an independent journalist specializing in energy issues based in Concord, & Gerdes →, M. about J. (n.d.). Copenhagen’s ambitious push to be carbon neutral by 2025. Yale E360. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://e360.yale.edu/features/copenhagens_ambitious_push_to_be_carbon_neutral_by_2025

Guardian News and Media. (2019, October 11). Inside Copenhagen’s race to be the first carbon-neutral city. The Guardian. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/11/inside-copenhagens-race-to-be-the-first-carbon-neutral-city

Heath, N., Staff, T. R., Abdullahi, A., Shacklett, M., Greenberg, K., & Stone, B. (2019, February 19). How Estonia became an e-government powerhouse. TechRepublic. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-estonia-became-an-e-government-powerhouse/#:~:text=Estonia%20is%20among%20the%20elite%20group%20of%20countries,payments%2C%20accessing%20full%20health%20records%2C%20and%20internet%20voting.

Heath, N., Staff, T. R., Abdullahi, A., Shacklett, M., Greenberg, K., & Stone, B. (2019, February 19). How Estonia became an e-government powerhouse. TechRepublic. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-estonia-became-an-e-government-powerhouse/

Karishma. (2022, March 14). FASTAG – working, Advantages & Disadvantages: UPSC notes. IAS EXPRESS. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.iasexpress.net/fastag/#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20objectives%20of%20the%20NETC%20program,idling%20and%20the%20harmful%20vehicular%20emissions%20using%20FASTag

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, January 25). Fastag. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASTag