Intelligent cities
Encyclopedia
The term intelligent city (IC) has been used with various meanings. At least five different descriptions of what an intelligent city is can be found in the literature:
, collective
, and artificial intelligence
available within a city
. They are constructed as multi-dimensional agglomeration
s combining three main dimensions (Komninos 2006, 17-18; Komninos 2008, 122-123).
Thus the concept of ‘intelligent city’ integrates all the three aforementioned dimensions of the physical, institutional and digital spaces of an agglomeration. Consequently, the term ‘intelligent city’ describes a territory with (1) developed knowledge-intensive activities or clusters of such activities; (2) embedded routines of social co-operation allowing knowledge and know-how to be acquired and adapted;(3) a developed communication infrastructure, digital spaces, and knowledge / innovation management tools; and (4) a proven ability to innovate, manage and resolve problems that appear for the first time, since the capacity to innovate and to manage uncertainty are the critical factors for measuring intelligence.
Smart City
is a relative concept. However, smart city research and literature seem putting more emphasis on embedded systems, sensors and interactive media
, while intelligent cities rely more on collective intelligence
/ collaborative intelligence
, innovation system
, and web-based collaborative spaces. In any case both concepts try integrating the above mentioned three dimensions of urban space (physical, social, and digital).
’ and ‘intelligent environments
’.
All intelligent cities are digital cities, but all digital cities are not intelligent (Komninos 2002, 195-201). The difference is in the problem solving
capability of intelligent cities, while the ability of digital cities is in the provision of services via digital communication. Take the following examples: (1) the administration of a city -or a local community- offers online (via its web portal) services that already was providing offline. This is a typical case of digital city offering online services for the citizen. (2) A group of people /organizations creates new products / services using digital spaces of consultation and online collaboration among the citizens. This is a typical case of intelligent city creating services with the involvement of citizens (by the citizens). In the second case, the digital space becomes a tool that contributes to the capacity of the community to use collective intelligence and engineer new solutions to people needs.
As general rule, we may say that in services provision by local administrations, digital cities are placed downstream between the public authority and the citizen as recipient of services (as digital marketplaces); while intelligent cities are placed upstream between the citizens and the public authority, enabling co-creation and co-design of services (as Living lab
). This view explains why the main building blocks of intelligent cities are related to innovation
and problem solving processes, such as competitive intelligence, technology absorption, collaborative product development, and new product promotion.
Intelligent environments are digital spaces in which the digital interaction goes out of the computer and becomes embedded into buildings and infrastructures of the city. Intelligent environments can be combined both to digital cities, automating the delivery of services, and to intelligent cities as well, automating the collection and processing of information along new product / service development.
University research labs have developed prototypes and solutions for intelligent cities. MIT Smart Cities Lab http://cities.media.mit.edu/ focuses upon intelligent, sustainable buildings, mobility systems (GreenWheel Electric Bicycle, Mobility-on-Demand, Citycar, Wheel Robots); the IntelCities http://intelcities.iti.gr/intelcities research consortium developed solutions for electronic government, planning systems and citizen participation; URENIO
has developed a series of intelligent city platforms for the innovation economy http://www.urenio.org/platforms/index.html focusing on strategic intelligence, technology transfer, collaborative innovation, and incubation, while is offering, through its portal, a global watch on intelligent cities research and planning http://www.urenio.org; the Smart Cities Academic Network http://www.smartcities.info/aim is working on e-governance and e-services in the North Sea region.
Large IT and telecommunication companies such as CISCO, IBM, MS have developed new solutions and initiatives for intelligent cities as well. CISCO, launched the Global Intelligent Urbanization initiative http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_021209c.html to help cities around the world using the network as the fourth utility for integrated city management, better quality of life for citizens, and economic development. Microsoft is working with Coventry University and Birmingham City Council on the Intelligent City Proof of Concept http://www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/projects/intelligent-cities which is an interoperable technology platform focusing on transport. IBM announced its SmarterCities http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/smartplanet/topics/cities/20090309/index.shtml?&re=spfprogram to stimulate economic growth and quality of life in cities and metropolitan areas with the activation of new approaches of thinking and acting in the urban ecosystem.
These various domains of the intelligent city rely on a few knowledge processes, which are present regardless the sector /district of the city. Fundamental knowledge processes which sustain intelligent cities are: broadband communication, interactive services, use of smart devices and agents, intelligence gathering, creative behavior, collective intelligence, upgrade of skills, innovation, monitoring and measurement. Integration is a key-factor, enabling the above processes to work together and create environments more efficient in collaborative problem-solving and innovation. See also spatial intelligence of cities
.
- Initially ICs have been defined as virtualVirtualThe term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also, differing denotations.The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real....
reconstructions of cities, as virtual citiesVirtual worldA virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
(Droege, 1997). The term has been used broadly as an equivalent of ‘digital city’, ‘information city’, ‘wired city’, ‘telecity’, ‘knowledge-based city’, ‘electronic communities’, ‘electronic community spaces’, ‘flexicity’, ‘teletopia’, ‘cyberville’, covering a wide range of electronic and digital applications related to digital spaces of communities and cities (MIMOSMIMOSMIMOS Berhad is a strategic agency under purview of the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation . The agency is led by Dato’ Wahab Abdullah, who was appointed in July 2006, to become the premier applied research centre in frontier technologies; and transform the landscape of the...
). - Another meaning was given by the World Foundation for Smart Communities, which links smart citiesSmart CityUrban performance currently depends not only on the city's endowment of hard infrastructure , but also, and increasingly so, on the availability and quality of knowledge communication and social infrastructure ....
with smart growthSmart growthSmart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
, a development based on information and communication technologies. ‘A Smart Community is a community that has made a conscious effort to use information technology to transform life and work within its region in significant and fundamental, rather than incremental, ways’ (California Institute for Smart Communities, 2001). - ICs were defined as intelligent environmentsIntelligent environmentsIntelligent Environments are spaces with embedded systems and information and communication technologies creating interactive spaces that bring computation into the physical world. "Intelligent environments are spaces in which computation is seamlessly used to enhance ordinary activity...
with embedded information and communication technologies creating interactive spaces that bring computation into the physical world. From this perspective, intelligent cities (or intelligent spaces more generally) refer to physical environments in which information and communication technologies and sensor systems disappear as they become embedded into physical objects and the surroundings in which we live, travel, and work (Steventon and Wright, 2006). - Intelligent cities were also defined as territories that bring innovation and ICTs within the same locality. The Intelligent Community ForumIntelligent Community ForumThe Intelligent Community Forum , a nonprofit policy research organization, focuses on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy...
(2006) has developed a list of indicators that provide a framework for understanding how communities and regions can gain a competitive edge in today’s Broadband Economy. Being an IC it takes a combination of: (1) significant deployment of broadband communicationsBroadbandThe term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
to businesses, government facilities and residences; (2) effective education, training and workforce able to perform knowledge work; (3) policies and programs that promote digital democracy by bridging the digital divideDigital divideThe Digital Divide refers to inequalities between individuals, households, business, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels in access to information and communication technologies and Internet connectivity and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information...
to ensure that all sectors of the society and citizens benefit from the broadband revolution; (4) innovationInnovationInnovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
in the public and private sectors and efforts to create economic clusters and risk capital to fund the development of new businesses; and (5) effective economic development marketing that leverages the community’s broadband to attract talented employment and investments. - Along the same line, intelligent cities (communities, clustersBusiness clusterA business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and globally. In urban studies, the term agglomeration is used...
, regions) were defined as multi-layer territorial systems of innovation that bring together knowledge-intensive activities, institutions for cooperation in learning and innovation, and digital spaces for communication and interaction in order to maximize the problem-solving capability of the city. The distinctive characteristic of an intelligent city is the high performance in the field of innovation, because innovation and solving of new problems are main features of intelligence (Komninos 2002 and 2006).
The three dimensions of intelligent cities
Intelligent cities evolve towards a strong integration of all dimensions of humanHuman intelligence
Human Intelligence may refer to:* Human intelligence in the species as the property of mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, problem solve, think, comprehend ideas, use languages, and learn....
, collective
Collective intelligence
Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
, and artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
available within a city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
. They are constructed as multi-dimensional agglomeration
Agglomeration
In the study of human settlements, an urban agglomeration is an extended city or town area comprising the built-up area of a central place and any suburbs linked by continuous urban area. In France, INSEE the French Statistical Institute, translate it as "Unité urbaine" which means continuous...
s combining three main dimensions (Komninos 2006, 17-18; Komninos 2008, 122-123).
- The first dimension relates to people in the city: the intelligenceIntelligenceIntelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
, inventiveness and creativityCreativityCreativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
of the individuals who live and work in the city. This perspective was described by Richard FloridaRichard FloridaRichard Florida is an American urban studies theorist.Richard Florida's focus is on social and economic theory. He is currently a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, at the University of Toronto. He also heads a private consulting firm, the...
(2002) as ‘creative city’, gathering the values and desires of the ‘new creative class’ made by knowledge and talented people, scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other creative people, which have an enormous impact on determining how the workplace is organized, whether companies will prosper, whether cities thrive or wither.
- The second dimension relates to the collective intelligenceCollective intelligenceCollective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
of a city’s population: ‘collective intelligence is the capacity of human communities to evolve towards higher order complexity and harmony, through such innovation mechanisms as differentiation and integration, competition and collaboration. ’ (Atlee and Pór 2006). This dimension is based on the institutions of the city that enable cooperation in knowledge and innovation.
- The third dimension relates to artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
embedded into the physical environment of the city and available to the city’s population: communication infrastructure, digital spaces, and online problem-solving tools available to the city’s population.
Thus the concept of ‘intelligent city’ integrates all the three aforementioned dimensions of the physical, institutional and digital spaces of an agglomeration. Consequently, the term ‘intelligent city’ describes a territory with (1) developed knowledge-intensive activities or clusters of such activities; (2) embedded routines of social co-operation allowing knowledge and know-how to be acquired and adapted;(3) a developed communication infrastructure, digital spaces, and knowledge / innovation management tools; and (4) a proven ability to innovate, manage and resolve problems that appear for the first time, since the capacity to innovate and to manage uncertainty are the critical factors for measuring intelligence.
Smart City
Smart City
Urban performance currently depends not only on the city's endowment of hard infrastructure , but also, and increasingly so, on the availability and quality of knowledge communication and social infrastructure ....
is a relative concept. However, smart city research and literature seem putting more emphasis on embedded systems, sensors and interactive media
Interactive media
Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio, etc.-Terminology:...
, while intelligent cities rely more on collective intelligence
Collective intelligence
Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
/ collaborative intelligence
Collaborative intelligence
Collaborative intelligence is a term used in several disciplines, and has several different meanings. In a business setting, it can describe the result of accessing a network of people...
, innovation system
Innovation system
The concept of the innovation system stresses that the flow of technology and information among people, enterprises and institutions is key to an innovative process...
, and web-based collaborative spaces. In any case both concepts try integrating the above mentioned three dimensions of urban space (physical, social, and digital).
Intelligent cities vs.digital cities
An important issue in understanding intelligent cities is to describe their differences from other forms of digital spaces, namely the‘digital cityDigital city
The term Digital Community or Digital City refers to a connected community that combines broadband communications infrastructure; flexible, service-oriented computing infrastructure based on open industry standards; and innovative services to meet the needs of governments and their employees,...
’ and ‘intelligent environments
Intelligent environments
Intelligent Environments are spaces with embedded systems and information and communication technologies creating interactive spaces that bring computation into the physical world. "Intelligent environments are spaces in which computation is seamlessly used to enhance ordinary activity...
’.
All intelligent cities are digital cities, but all digital cities are not intelligent (Komninos 2002, 195-201). The difference is in the problem solving
Problem solving
Problem solving is a mental process and is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping. Consideredthe most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of...
capability of intelligent cities, while the ability of digital cities is in the provision of services via digital communication. Take the following examples: (1) the administration of a city -or a local community- offers online (via its web portal) services that already was providing offline. This is a typical case of digital city offering online services for the citizen. (2) A group of people /organizations creates new products / services using digital spaces of consultation and online collaboration among the citizens. This is a typical case of intelligent city creating services with the involvement of citizens (by the citizens). In the second case, the digital space becomes a tool that contributes to the capacity of the community to use collective intelligence and engineer new solutions to people needs.
As general rule, we may say that in services provision by local administrations, digital cities are placed downstream between the public authority and the citizen as recipient of services (as digital marketplaces); while intelligent cities are placed upstream between the citizens and the public authority, enabling co-creation and co-design of services (as Living lab
Living lab
A living lab is a research concept. A living lab is a user-centred, open-innovation ecosystem, often operating in a territorial context , integrating concurrent research and innovation processes within a public-private-people partnership.The concept is based on a systematic user co-creation...
). This view explains why the main building blocks of intelligent cities are related to innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
and problem solving processes, such as competitive intelligence, technology absorption, collaborative product development, and new product promotion.
Intelligent environments are digital spaces in which the digital interaction goes out of the computer and becomes embedded into buildings and infrastructures of the city. Intelligent environments can be combined both to digital cities, automating the delivery of services, and to intelligent cities as well, automating the collection and processing of information along new product / service development.
More efficient cities
Intelligent cities create more effective urban systems capable of addressing contemporary challenges and urban problems. They create more innovative and competitive cities, based on knowledge clusters, people-led innovation, and global networking; offering higher capacity of monitoring and management of environmental issues; improved city transportation; more secure urban spaces. This greater effectiveness is based on solutions /platforms integrating human, collective and artificial intelligence (in other words urban activities, institutional capacity, and IT). Some major fields of intelligent city activation are:| ------- Innovation economy ------- | ------- Urban infrastructure ----- | ----------- Governance ----------- |
|---|---|---|
| - Innovation in industries, clusters, districts of a city | - Transport | - Administration services to the citizen |
| - Knowledge workforce: Education and employment | - Energy / Utilities | - Participatory and direct democracy |
| - Creation of knowledge-intensive companies | - Protection of the environment / Safety | - Services to the citizen: Quality of life |
University research labs have developed prototypes and solutions for intelligent cities. MIT Smart Cities Lab http://cities.media.mit.edu/ focuses upon intelligent, sustainable buildings, mobility systems (GreenWheel Electric Bicycle, Mobility-on-Demand, Citycar, Wheel Robots); the IntelCities http://intelcities.iti.gr/intelcities research consortium developed solutions for electronic government, planning systems and citizen participation; URENIO
URENIO
The URBAN AND REGIONAL INNOVATION Research Unit is a University Lab in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. URENIO is a non-profit research organization that started its operation in 1995...
has developed a series of intelligent city platforms for the innovation economy http://www.urenio.org/platforms/index.html focusing on strategic intelligence, technology transfer, collaborative innovation, and incubation, while is offering, through its portal, a global watch on intelligent cities research and planning http://www.urenio.org; the Smart Cities Academic Network http://www.smartcities.info/aim is working on e-governance and e-services in the North Sea region.
Large IT and telecommunication companies such as CISCO, IBM, MS have developed new solutions and initiatives for intelligent cities as well. CISCO, launched the Global Intelligent Urbanization initiative http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_021209c.html to help cities around the world using the network as the fourth utility for integrated city management, better quality of life for citizens, and economic development. Microsoft is working with Coventry University and Birmingham City Council on the Intelligent City Proof of Concept http://www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/projects/intelligent-cities which is an interoperable technology platform focusing on transport. IBM announced its SmarterCities http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ideasfromibm/us/smartplanet/topics/cities/20090309/index.shtml?&re=spfprogram to stimulate economic growth and quality of life in cities and metropolitan areas with the activation of new approaches of thinking and acting in the urban ecosystem.
Fundamental processes
Intelligent (smart) cities are deploying online services in different sectors of cities - the local economy and development, environment, energy, transport, security, education, health, trade, housing, governance; and in different districts of cities - the CBD, financial, university, marketplace, port, airport, technology, and industrial districts.These various domains of the intelligent city rely on a few knowledge processes, which are present regardless the sector /district of the city. Fundamental knowledge processes which sustain intelligent cities are: broadband communication, interactive services, use of smart devices and agents, intelligence gathering, creative behavior, collective intelligence, upgrade of skills, innovation, monitoring and measurement. Integration is a key-factor, enabling the above processes to work together and create environments more efficient in collaborative problem-solving and innovation. See also spatial intelligence of cities
Spatial intelligence of cities
Spatial intelligence of cities refers to informational and cognitive processes, such as information collection and processing, real-time alert, forecasting, learning, collective intelligence, distributed problem solving, which characterize "intelligent" or "smart" cities...
.
Intelligent cities and globalization
Recent publications on intelligent cities stress the convergence of innovation systems and virtual environments in creating global systems of innovation (Bell et al. 2009; Komninos 2008; IJIRD 2009). As open innovation theory came to show, the emphasis has now shifted from the internal in the company innovation process to external innovation networks and knowledge environments, which have now taken on global dimensions. Virtual spaces and embedded systems are generating a wave of new hybrid environments (global digital ecosystems, living labs, i-hubs, COINs, smart cities, e-gov,digital cities, u-communities, intelligent environments, etc.) which amplify networking, experimentation and innovation on a global scale.See also
- Smart citySmart CityUrban performance currently depends not only on the city's endowment of hard infrastructure , but also, and increasingly so, on the availability and quality of knowledge communication and social infrastructure ....
- Collaborative innovation network
- Collaborative intelligenceCollaborative intelligenceCollaborative intelligence is a term used in several disciplines, and has several different meanings. In a business setting, it can describe the result of accessing a network of people...
- Collaborative softwareCollaborative softwareCollaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...
- CrowdsourcingCrowdsourcingCrowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
- Knowledge ecosystemKnowledge ecosystemThe idea of a knowledge ecosystem is an approach to knowledge management which claims to foster the dynamic evolution of knowledge interactions between entities to improve decision-making and innovation through improved evolutionary networks of collaboration....
- Swarm IntelligenceSwarm intelligenceSwarm intelligence is the collective behaviour of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence...
- The Wisdom of CrowdsThe Wisdom of CrowdsThe Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, published in 2004, is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better...