City Competitiveness and Infrastructure

This chapter introduces a new framework called “I3: Instrument, interconnect, and cultivate intelligence framework.” This framework can be used to drive the transformation of today’s not so smart cities into the smart cities of tomorrow. In i3, instrumentation is used to collect data, which is important, because data provides measurability, and measurement can lead to improvement. Interconnection in i3 is used to discover associations and relationships between seemingly independent subsystems in a city. In i3, controlled experiments are easily setup and run to test each individual policy. The intelligence bit in i3 comes from being able to test specific policy hypotheses and conduct rigorous analysis and synthesis of the integrated data. The i3 framework helps city officials and researchers discover valuable knowledge, make informed decisions based on the results of various policies that are put in place, and facilitates the culture of experimentation at every policy decision level. The overarching goal in i3 is to discover routine and well-structured patterns in city management operations, turn them into best practices, and finally automate the execution of such practices so that the framework itself can take a major responsibility over city management. In this chapter, a roadmap is provided as a guideline for policymakers to successfully deploy i3 in their jurisdiction. By using i3 continually, a regular city can be transformed into a smart city faster.

Urban Geospatial Management System

The City of Venice has been a unique tourism destination for decades and has attracted thousands of visitors every year coming for various purposes (leisure, restoration, business, etc.). Particularly important to Venice is its reputation for being the “City of Water,” but this legacy also involves challenges. The city is constantly under the threat of degradation caused by salty lagoon water that flood into the city in certain times of the year. At this point, urban maintenance of city elements is essential to ensure minimum functional levels of city infrastructure. The system introduced in this chapter is an Urban Geospatial Maintenance System designed for Venice that focuses on planning and execution of maintenance work and is based on the logic of integration of classical management concepts and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) concepts.

Personal Smart Cards

An effective information management is one of the most valuable assets of any organization, including public administration. Database integration from various municipal Information Systems is an essential tool for urban and strategic planning. The city of Curitiba, Brazil, has implemented several Information Systems to enhance its public services, from education to health care—most of these systems use several non-integrated personal smart cards to provide access to services. In this chapter we analyze some public Information Systems in use in Curitiba, and their inputs and outputs. We also advocate that the personal smart card already used in the metropolitan transportation system only as a fare collection card, is, among all others, the best option, from a technological and administrative standpoint, to integrate all municipal Information Systems, improving the effectiveness of public services and assisting for a comprehensive planning process.

From Intelligent to Smart Cities

This chapter develops the notion of the intelligent city as the smart provider of electronically-enhanced services. Set within the ongoing debate about competitive cities, it identifies how the growing interest in the notion of intelligent cities has led universities to explore the possibilities of using ‘communities of practice’ (CoPs) as a way of drawing upon the work-based learning such knowledge-based organizations offer to be smart in developing integrated models of e-government (eGov) services. It reports on the attempts made by a consortium of leading European cities to use the intelligence of CoPs as the organizational means to be smart in developing models of eGov services capable of integrating the e-learning needs, knowledge transfer requirements, and capacity building commitments of their socially-inclusive and participatory urban regeneration programmes.

The Role of GIS in City Competitiveness

Virtually every city and region is engaged in activities to improve their relative global competitiveness. The Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the powerful tools of information storage and information access, providing spatial data to different stakeholders and cities across the world. This chapter will highlight the role of GIS technology in empirical assessment of the competition among cities or regions, using a variety of data assembled by many different individuals, businesses, and institutions. This valuable information can be used in decision-making by stakeholders who are taking part in the competition and can be disseminated, accessed, and updated in a dynamic way. This chapter discusses the origins of urban competitiveness, dynamics and functions of competition, and current and future research possibilities made possible by GIS.

Urban Competitiveness, U-City Strategies and the Development of Technological Niches in Songdo, South Korea

This chapter is concerned with the recursive conflation between the concept of city competitiveness in ICT and different versions of the “knowledge city” concept based on ICT and digitalization, often responsible for ambiguous political discourses and unclear local economic development strategies. To overcome this problem, the chapter distinguishes both concepts, indentifies links between them and illustrates a way through which national and local polices can support ICT-related city competitiveness and knowledge city strategies: the development of innovation arenas. The chapter illustrates these notions with the case of the on-going development of the Songdo district in Incheon (South Korea), its competences in ubiquitous computing and the connection between this technological prowess with the ambitions of creating one of the first and most advanced “u-cities” in the world.

High Speed Rail and Regional Competitiveness

The presence of High Speed Rail (HSR) systems influences market shares of road and air transport, and the development of cities and regions they serve. Changes in accessibility have led researchers to investigate the effects on the economic and spatial derived variables. Contention exists when managing the trade off between efficiency and access points, which are usually in the range of hundreds of kilometres apart. In short, it is argued that intermediate cities, bypassed by HSR services, suffer a decline in their accessibility and developmental opportunities. This chapter will analyse possible impacts of HSR infrastructure by considering small and medium agglomerations in the vicinity of HSR corridors which are not always served by HSR stations. The benefits of accessibility and distribution will be quantified and investigated in a model that accounts for locations where an HSR station cannot be positioned and different rail transit services offered, including (i) cadenced, (ii) express, (iii) frequent or (iv) non-stopping services. This theoretical approach linking infrastructure, accessibility, distributive patterns, services, and competitiveness is applied to a case study in the North-Eastern Italian regions. Results indicate that benefits derive from well informed decisions on HSR station positioning and the appropriate blend of complementary services in the whole region to interface an HSR infrastructure. The results have significance for all countries in Europe and worldwide, not only for investing in an HSR infrastructure, but mostly in terms of building territorial cohesion, while seeking international recognition for developing successful new technology and systems.

Competitiveness and Creative Cities

These emerging technologies and applications necessitate an analysis of their place in mobilizing low urban politics. This analysis should be attuned to nuanced articulations of public interests and private initiatives that are enriched by representations of the spatial realities of cities. We are more likely to realize the importance of urban technologies and “street level” everyday urban practices if, rather than treating them as divorced from each other, we ontologically recognize their marriage. Such an approach will help to better diagnose the role that technologies play in moving beyond dualities like public and private.

City Competitiveness and Spatial Location

This chapter discusses the importance of Information Technology to spatial location and city competitiveness. Understanding spatial location in urban networks can be informed by economic geography concepts, especially those with insights into how urban areas form and develop. Relative distance to markets and the flow of goods and services influences the spatial position of cities, shapes how urban settlements evolve, and helps explain their distribution. Concepts like accessibility and centrality—and strategies for measuring them—can be used to determine a good place to locate a business or transportation hub. This chapter makes a case for the importance of considering information utilities, especially telecommunication networks, as important part of economic geography, and ultimately the growth and competitiveness of cities.

City Branding and the Role of the City Websites in Building City Brands

In today’s globalized world, the competition experienced intensively in many fields is being experienced amongst cities as well. Competition is taking place not only in the traditional environment, but in the online environment as well. In order to differentiate their cities from the rest and build an image and identity for themselves in this atmosphere of intensive competition, city administrators are taking advantage of the branding techniques used by private sector companies. At this point, the city websites have a key role for building and communicating the city brand. The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the role of the city websites in building city brands and promoting their brands. In order to fulfill the aim, the city branding, related concepts, and the role of the city websites in building city brands are introduced in the background section. Then, randomly selected city websites from the City Brands Index are evaluated using content analysis, and the results of this analysis are presented and discussed respectively.