The city for the people

Smart City is a concept that has evolved over the last few years and, today, we can define it as a set of initiatives oriented towards the development of city management, with a focus on improving the quality of life of citizens and increasing social equity, with technology and data as the lifeblood of smart solutions.

A common mistake of companies and governments, in Smart Cities initiatives, is to treat the concept as a specific thematic area, creating a responsible sector for projects. The subject must be analyzed in a transversal way, involving all segments, so that the actions developed by each area have a clear dimension of its responsibility and impact on the lives of citizens. Each product, service, project or platform will have a direct or indirect, positive or negative impact on people's daily lives and the authors of these actions need to consider the effects of these initiatives, so that they can promote sustainability, equity, social inclusion and the quality of life to the entire population. These are essential items for the existence of a smart city.

The city is the setting where everything happens and it must be a collective project and not just a government action, even if it leads territorial and urban transformations. All sectors of society must be involved in building a smart city and it is up to governments to guarantee this participation, with transparency and using the most appropriate technological solutions.

But the cornerstone of smart cities is smart people. Overcoming the barrier of lack of professional training is vital for a city's sustainable economic growth. The transformation of a city, from conventional to intelligent, essentially depends on the quality of the decisions that are taken and the way in which these decisions are executed, therefore, citizens need to contribute, proactively and daily, in a process of co-creation.

People as agents of change

A city is smart when, through participatory governance, financial investments made in human and social capital, traditional infrastructure and disruptive technologies, stimulate sustainable economic growth and produce a high quality of life, with intelligent management of natural resources. Note that, once again, people are at the center of the debate. It is for them that cities will be smart and they are the ones who will make them smart.

Intervening Sectors:

• Companies

• Political Entities

• Non-Governmental Entities

• Governments

• Media

• Teaching and Research Entity

• Development Organizations

• 3rd Sector Organizations

• Multilateral Organizations

• Civil society

The good quality of life in a city can be perceived by various indicators, whether economic, social, political, cultural, and many others. Generating wealth is fundamental for a city to offer quality of life and, therefore, be perceived as good for living. This includes being a safe city, having good schools and study centers, having a vibrant socio-cultural life, having a democratic, accountable and transparent government, having good urban planning, a high level of health services, respect for diversity and equity. All of these are aspects that reinforce the perception of a good city to live in, attracting talent and creating a virtuous cycle that will lead it to be a smart city.

 

Therefore, technology is an important means by which the serious problems experienced by cities will be solved, but people will be decisive for the correct decision-making process in the creation of a Smart City.

The city as a smart ecosystem

A modern designation to understand the concept of smart city is to see it as an ecosystem that integrates physical, digital and human systems in the built environment, oriented towards social inclusion and economic development, with sustainability.

This ecosystem allows the creation of numerous action fronts in economic and social areas, which, in turn, lead to the development of a living, creative and complex laboratory, generator of an endless number of intelligent innovations, capable of solving challenges of cities.

In this way, co-creation and collaboration between the various economic, political and social sectors gain their own dynamics and are enhanced by spontaneous demands that begin to emerge from all corners, originating from this new environment. These are demands that will generate socioeconomic development, in addition to forcing institutions to adopt a more rigorous process of transparency and inducing society to adopt a new attitude towards social problems.

In this context, a favorable environment is also created for investors, agencies and development banks to finance the high costs of physical and digital transformations required by cities. This makes the creation of wealth and the level of professional qualification even more dynamic, stimulated by market opportunities, creating a virtuous economic circle.

 

A Smart City, then, needs to be equitable, circular, open and democratic, but it requires smart infrastructure and highly skilled people to deal with new technological innovations which, in turn, need to be combined with social innovations so to become sustainable.