by Sarah Kaufman
Smart Cities, one of the most overused terms in urban planning in 2016, is intended to conjure futuristic fantasy images: driverless cars, self-repairing infrastructure and virtual reality art museums. Entirely new smart cities, like Songdo, South Korea, are master-planned on the premise of intelligent, seamless government services.
Many cities are not being built anew, but becoming “smart” incrementally, due to the rapid growth of the internet of things. An estimated 5 million things – phones, toasters, water mains – become connected every day. Experts predict that every manufactured object will have a chip in it by 2030.
While the value of intelligent, connected toilets is debateable, ubiquitous connectivity and its data output offers tremendous potential to the governance and enjoyment of cities. Better measurement leads to better management, improving services like trash pickup and traffic routing. More data leads to more informed residents, who are then better empowered to participate in government. Open data makes government more transparent and accountable. In short, smart cities optimize functions and have the potential to offer a better urban experience.
Governance of smart city functions is slowly catching up, developing open data laws, experimentation with driverless cars, building self-aware infrastructure and incubating civic engagement projects. However, there are hurdles: a government structure that is often resistant to change and risk averse; aging infrastructure that requires far more investment than sensors can provide; the ability to find patterns in the noise of the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced every day.
Smart city technologies also beg the question: Who will be the beneficiaries? As we develop new tools, certain groups are being left behind, like those who cannot afford home internet or do not have the training for data analysis. Others are being targeted, like those who are labeled as likely to commit crimes or protest due to their ethnic group associations.
The best “smart cities” will develop plans and policies that allow them to innovate intelligently and inclusively. As we sprint toward this always-on, everything-connected cities, we must keep in mind the lessons learned in the following pages.
Sarah M. Kaufman is Assistant Director for Technology Programming at the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, where she researches, advocates for and educates about cutting-edge technologies in transportation. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Planning, teaching Intelligent Cities.