| Abstract | The term “smart city” has recently become a popular buzzword with as many taints and shades of meaning as urban life itself. Not only does it describe the applicatons of technology to urban infrastructure and service provision, it has also become an umbrella containing all manner of innovatve management and organizaton. It attracts stakeholders coming from different branches of industry, who perceive it as a chance to develop and sell products and services. Because of this successful marketng, the concept of smart city will contnue to develop and be adopted, whether we as urban planners and designers, support this growth or not.
Smart city implies a systematc approach to the urban economy using telecommunicaton, informaton and communicaton technologies [01]. Smart City as a concept is currently understood as authorites using technology to beter manage the city. Smart cites initatves around the world are driven by the pressure on public fnancing, climate change, producton of energy, limits of resources and rapid urban populaton growth. Wirz Schneider [01] lists Smart Economy/stakeholder management, Smart Buildings, Smart Mobility, Good Governance, Smart Grids and Technologies and Scarcity of resources and energy producton as some of the key factors of the urban assets of smart city initatves.
ISOCARP has been involved in “smart cites” for many years, and this is reflected in Society programming and artcles in previous issues of the Review. Former ISOCARP President Alfonso Vegara was a leader in this movement. In 2004,
he authored the book Territorios Inteligentes describing the Spanish natonal program for a regional system of smart cites. More recently ISOCARP collaborated in many global events that focus on smart cites. At the May 2016 Metropolitan Solutons conference in Berlin, ISOCARP coordinated with public and private sector organizatons on smart city planning. In October 2016, Habitat III in Quito had several sessions devoted to this topic, and ISOCARP was engaged in many of these as a partner with UN-Habitat and the Global Planners Network. In 2017, the theme for the ISOCARP World Planning Congress was “Smart Communites” with an emphasis on blending technology with social, environmental, and economic planning theory and practce. These programs were revisited earlier this year at the World Urban Forum where ISOCARP organized a session devoted to “Internatonal Smart Cites”, again in coordinaton with UN-Habitat and the Global Planners Network. ISOCARP members have also been actve in promotng smart city discussions through sessions organized at multple events including several American Planning Associaton conferences, Moscow Urban Forums, REAL CORP conferences, Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cites and Regions conferences, and many others. |
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