Smart Cities and Smart Governance - Towards the 22nd Century Sustainable City

ELSA ESTEVEZ; THERESA A. PARDO; HANS JOCHEN SCHOLL

Springer

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021 p. 371

978-3-030-61032-6

PrefaceThis book is timely, useful, and prescient. By bringing together both the application and research regarding smart cities, the book offers its readers significant insights into the strategic utility of global smart cities initiatives. In addition, the book reminds us of our interconnected policies, technologies, applications, and services at the local, national, regional, and international levels. In doing so, the book not only serves as a guide for today?s smart cities context, but also tomorrow?s as we struggle on a global scale with the COVID-19 pandemic. At present, more than half of the world?s population lives in a city, with a projected population rate of 60 percent by 2030 (United Nations, 2018). The rate of densification is accelerating. In 2000, 371 cities had populations of one million inhabitants or more; by 2018, this number had grown to 548, and it is projected that there will be 706 cities with one million or more inhabitants by 2030 (United Nations, 2018).Simultaneous to this population growth has been an investment in technology infrastructure: broadband; wireless; and increasingly, 5G mobile networking capabilities. Milestones of note in 2019 included (International Telecommunication Union and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2019):?More than half of the world participated in the online global digital economy; ?There were an estimated 21.7 billion connected devices;?More than half of households have broadband access globally, mostly concentrated in urban areas; and?There were an estimated 5.1 billion unique mobile subscribers.By 2023, it is estimated that 5G wireless technology, with speeds of approximately 10 GB/sec will account for nearly 11% of total mobile connections (up from 0.0% in 2018) (Cisco, 2020).At the same time as the growth has occurred in urban areas in particular and there have been investments in technology infrastructure, we have witnessed substantial investments in artificial intelligence and big data. Together, artificial intelligence, big data, and data analytics have fostered unparalleled opportunities for governments to better address community needs in critical areas of transportation, environmental impact, health care, citizen services, and more (Mergel, Rethemeyer, & Isett, 2016). In short, we are at the precipice of a new era of governance due to the intersection of community changes and growth, data, technology, connectivity ? and the integration of devices (broadly defined as in-home devices, mobile devices, vehicles, and other internet-enabled devices) and networks, often referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). Core to this new era is the Smart Cities paradigm. Though the notion of Smart Cities has been in existence for some time (Wilhelm & Rhulandt, 2018), emerging technologies are bringing the vision closer to large-scale reality. While until now communities have been able to experiment and implement a range of smart technologies that have offered improvements to governments and the governed, this book documents that the foundation is set for exceptional progress. The realization of this vision is not without its challenges. As the book brings to light, we have various issues to address in key areas of security and privacy, access, policy, governance, and ubiquity, to name just a few. And more recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the intersection of public safety, privacy, innovation, and health care due to tracing apps and other contact tracing mechanisms have shined a light on both the promise and perils of smart technologies and abilities. This book offers insights into the opportunities, practice, future, and challenges of Smart Cities. The book is destined to be a critical resource for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who wish to have a foundational understanding of the origins and future directions of Smart Cities.John BertotAssociate Provost for Faculty AffairsProfessor, College of Information StudiesUniversity of Maryland College Park