Defining Smart Government and Community:
A smart city is a community that incorporates technology and the Internet of Things in order to facilitate effective governance, community building and strategic policy planning. Smart cities utilize technology of the past, present and future to implement censors, accessibility devices, data entry tools and other tech facets to accomplish the city’s goals and objectives and work within its mission and values. Cities undertaking the label of “smart” should aspire to provide equitable access to all of its citizens regardless of socioeconomic status, identity or values. These cities strive for economically sustainable operations and seek to incorporate renewable energy solutions to fuel their economies – both literally and figuratively. City leaders should work both across the aisle and seek non-partisan solutions that best serve the people that elected them to govern.
I feel this definition best describes smart government and community as it considers both the implementation of technology and the aspects of policymaking that informs how the city operates. I thought it especially pertinent to include the issue of equity in this definition as so many of the “smart” solutions being implemented by governments around the world exclude huge portions of their populations. Environmental sustainability is extremely important with the implementation of smart technology due to the massive strain data processing centers have on the environment and electric grid. No definition of a smart city will ever be perfect as each city has its own individual traits, values and missions, however, the best definitions are those that consider all the citizens living there and how to best protect the environment the cities exist within.
What is Smart Government and Community?:
Policy making is typically associated with business suits, long meetings and piles of paperwork, but when smart technology is applied to the process, the monotony of mayorship takes a turn. Smart government and community policy planning seeks to incorporate technology and data solutions within the governance process. Governance is often bogged down by bloated bureaucracy and inefficient communication to the point that best intentions often wind up hurting rather than helping. Utilizing smart systems may ease the implementation of certain policy measures such as enforcing no turn on red signs with traffic cameras and sensors or solar powered heaters may provide warmth for homeless populations in crowded “camping areas”.
Smart policy may also be informed by data collected from the city’s citizens. Perhaps policymakers are deciding between opening a new city green space and adding more parking space. City planners might utilize smart technology to track the foot traffic in the surrounding areas, gauge the amount of cars on the road in comparison with local parking options and even measure the air quality in the area to best determine a path forward. However in addition to utilizing censor data, city planners and officials might look to social media or other smart mechanisms to poll the citizens as to what they feel will be more beneficial to their community and best utilize their tax dollars.
Another really important aspect of smart governance is the consideration of community. While some solutions may apply citywide, they may need bespoke tailoring for specific communitie. Government planning and policies have a long history of discrimination, especially when it comes to defining cities and communities. In recent decades as policies have attempted to reform many discriminatory policies, communities have played a role in bringing important narratives to light and defining core missions and values that have gone long overlooked.
Smart Government and Community Projects
Beban’s Green Grid
Egypt is endowed with over 4 billion barrels of oil, which is the world’s 25th largest oil supplier and has reserves 13 times over its annual consumption.(1) Despite these factors, cities all over Egypt are turning on its Green Grid. Dan Birns, a former U.S. State Department official shared with me that Egypt’s electric grid is extremely old and falling into disrepair. Infrastructure capabilities in Egypt are lacking to the point that it would make more economic sense to replace the grid entirely than try to salvage and update the current one. The country wide program is being modeled off a city in Egypt called Benban which has entirely replaced their electric grid with renewable power sources.
Benban’s efforts are an attempt to meet the nation’s ambitious goal of transitioning to clean energy through producing 42% of electricity generated by renewable sources by 2030.(2) In the context of Smart Governance, this case presents an interesting dilemma. The project is in response to a broader national goal, however, the city is leading the way in the nation’s efforts to achieve the goal. Additionally, despite Egypt’s large oil revenues, the country is still considered “developing” and remains home to fairly poor cities. The project is being financed largely by state owned companies and large multinational contractors(3) which leaves questions as to how much, if any, of the returns of the project are making its way back to Beban’s citizens. Yet at the end of the day, Beben’s project is still governed by the city and will at least provide reliable and efficient energy to its citizens through new solar technologies.
In summary, Beban’s green grid is a great example of how smart city governance can lay the foundations for national projects and broader implementation of generalized smart governance. City governments will ultimately have to make the political transition to renewable energy, not only in the Middle East, but in communities around the globe. I have a feeling that these world wide transitions will not come easily and will require the full cooperation of city, state and national governments to fully implement. I think Middle Eastern and other oil endowed states will be the hardest hit by this transition as a large portion of their GDP’s come from oil revenue. City governments will have to consider ways to attract new talent, new opportunities and new technologies in order to replace the jobs and revenue lost from replacing energy derived from fossil fuels.
Fully Smart City
Abu Dhabi has begun the process of planning for its future by creating an entirely new smart city out in the desert. This new city is being called Masdar city, which in Arabic means “source”. Masdar city has four goals, optimisation of solar energy through maximizing efficiency gains,integration of all aspects of city life by providing minimal use of transportation, limiting height of construction and buildings, and providing high quality of life in an efficient ecosystem and environmentally smart way.(4) Masdar City has implemented various technologies to produce these desired effects. Some examples include water monitoring to measure how much water is being used when showering, doing laundry and other household chores and watering the lawn. Additionally all buildings have strict efficiency standards. In a normal city these standards would be incredibly difficult to enforce and maintain. However, as Masdar is a new city with all new builds, the city will be inherently smart before its inhabitants move in. Other cities like Masadar are being planned throughout the UAE. Other cities throughout the region plan to focus on more specific projects such as entertainment industries or solely transportation industries while simultaneously ensuring they are done so efficiently and “smartly”.
While there are definitely merits to starting anew in order to bring infrastructure up to code, introduce highly efficient buildings, and establish greener transportation, I worry about the equity of such a project. So many of the issues that cities around the world face stem from discriminatory policies and systemic government oppression. It’s never cheap to up and move your entire life to a new city, let alone into a state of the art, smart city in the middle of the desert. Additionally, even getting out to the new city will pose a challenge for new inhabitants, potential commuters and others. It seems as if these new cities are inherently designed with the rich and upper class in mind.
Outside of Masdar City, Dubai is working to reform itself into a smart city. According to the United Arab Emirates national website, Dubai “plans to incorporate all government bodies and turn them into a single entity, in order to provide comprehensive services to customers in an easy and efficient manner.”(5) This is particularly interesting for the topic for Smart Governance as it requires an overhaul of the bureaucratic process. In fact it almost single handedly eliminates it all together. It will be interesting to see how Dubai attempts this process and how effective it ends up being. In a way, it may streamline some processes, ensuring all systems are focused on particular projects. On the other hand, in my opinion, it will make multi-tasking and multi-deployment projects nearly impossible. Obviously not every single worker will only be focused on one task at a time, but I do believe that having separate agencies and organizations does have its strengths.
The Luck of the Irish
Dublin is going green and adopting smart city tools to better serve its residents and constituents. The city has six focus areas for smart projects; environment, people, mobility, economy, government and living. As my project focuses specifically on smart city governance, I thought I would highlight the “government” sector’s guiding question; “How can we use technology and data to make better decisions and deliver better services?”. (6) This guiding question really exemplifies how well Dublin has begun to grasp the idea of smart city governance. The city of Dublin’s government recognizes that they must divide their attention between both their citizens and the actual tasks they must complete and provide as the stewards of a large international city.
Dublin recognizes that it can’t become a smart city on its own, it needs the help of its many stakeholders and partners to fully incorporate smart city processes. The city boasts prominent partners such as Microsoft, Google, Deloitte, Intel and Mastercard. Alongside these industry partners, Smart Dublin also calls upon major research and academic entities such as Insight, Building City Dashboards, Trinity College Dublin, and the Tyndall National Institute. Finally, The City of Dublin must rely on its national partners such as the European Union, Sustainable Energy Institute of Ireland, and Our Public Service 2020.(7)
One of Dublin’s partners, Bikelook’s CEO, Mark Bennet mentioned in a Smart Dublin promotional video that “The Internet of Things, smart cities, no one can own it, and that its actually all about partnerships, and I think Dublin’s seen that early.”(8) This quote, I think, is the key for the governments of potential smart city candidates. Get in the game early and make yourself partners at multiple levels of society. Smart Dublin is a collaboration of Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal County Council and South Dublin County Council. This collaboration is the result of multiple local level communities coming together to ensure the success of the larger city government. I could see where similar amalgamations could prove useful even for U.S. cities, like for example with Indianapolis if the suburbs of Fishers, Carmel and Greenwood worked together to make solutions for the larger Indianapolis area. Or with Cincinnati, who may work with Kenwood, Hyde Park, and Over the Rhine to expand smart city solutions to the city’s more prominent suburbs.
The City of Dublin seems to be pioneering an entirely new industry, smart tourism. “Smart Tourism is a model for supporting innovation and driving positive transformation within destinations. It uses technology, data analysis and digitalisation to build more accessible, sustainable and equitable destinations, ultimately creating more inclusive prosperity for locals and better experiences for visitors.”(9) I think this is an extremely clever campaign to both appreciate the past while looking forward to the future. According to the Smart Dublin website, “In 2021 Dublin was shortlisted for the European Capital of Smart Tourism Designation. The programme and its partners consistently work to collaborate with our European counterparts and apply best practices here in Dublin. Dublin is now mentioned multiple times in the latest European Handbook for Leading Examples of Best Practice in Smart Tourism in Europe.”(10) Was it luck afterall or is Dublin just smart, to pave the way for Smart Cities around the world?
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