Citizen empowerment and innovation in the data-rich city

This book analyzes the ongoing transformation in the “smart city” paradigm and explores the possibilities that technological innovations offer for the effective involvement of ordinary citizens in collective knowledge production and decision-making processes within the context of urban planning and management. To so, it pursues an interdisciplinary approach, with contributions from a range of experts including city managers, public policy makers, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists, and researchers. The first two parts of the book focus on the generation and use of data by citizens, with or without institutional support, and the professional management of data in city governance, highlighting the social connectivity and livability aspects essential to vibrant and healthy urban environments. In turn, the third part presents inspiring case studies that illustrate how data-driven solutions can empower people and improve urban environments, including enhanced sustainability. The book will appeal to all those who are interested in the required transformation in the planning, management, and operations of data-rich cities and the ways in which such cities can employ the latest technologies to use data efficiently, promoting data access, data sharing, and interoperability

From Smart to Green Cities: a KPI-based model for the built environment regeneration. A study of application in Bologna

Smart City (SC) emerged during the end of last century as a reference concept for shaping the city of the future. The literature review shows how SC originates from a debate questioning about the future of cities in a world continuously object of pressures: resource scarcity, economic crisis, lack of social identity, besides continuous input from technologies. The progressive permeating of innovative devices, simplifying people life or enabling them in networking and knowledge, led to relevant modification of the built environment. The word “smart” refers therefore not only to the ICT component of city but it also refers to the need of facing an increasing complexity involving all sectors of cities. The extend of approaches, applications, testing and theories coming along with the SC topic oblige the research to critically and extensively study those elements, broadening the analysis to additional experiences, and going toward the definition of SC for coming to a wider definition of Green City as an integrated, sustainable, resilient and smart urban regeneration approach. The research studies these approaches deepening the relation between Architecture Technology and Urban Planning, with a specific insight into a step-by-step project approach and a KPIs performance assessment. The main original output of the research is the proposition of the Green City Circle: a model for addressing the regeneration of districts into existing urban contexts. The thesis is Climate KIC labelled (European Institute of Technology)

Risk Analysis for Smart Cities Urban Planners: Safety and Security in Public Spaces

Christopher Alexander in his famous writings "The Timeless Way of Building" and "A pattern language" defined a formal language for the description of a city. Alexander developed a generative grammar able to formally describe complex and articulated concepts of architecture and urban planning to define a common language that would facilitate both the participation of ordinary citizens and the collaboration between professionals in architectural and urban planning. In this research, a similar approach has been applied to let two domains communicate although they are very far in terms of lexicon, methodologies and objectives. These domains are urban planning, urban design and architecture, seen as the first domain both in terms of time and in terms of completeness of vision, and the one relating to the world of engineering, made by innumerable disciplines. In practice, there is a domain that defines the requirements and the overall vision (the first) and a domain (the second) which implements them with real infrastructures and systems. To put these two worlds seamlessly into communication, allowing the concepts of the first world to be translated into those of the second, Christopher Alexander’s idea has been followed by defining a common language. By applying Essence, the software engineering formal descriptive theory, using its customization rules, to the concept of a Smart City, a common language to completely trace the requirements at all levels has been defined. Since the focus was on risk analysis for safety and security in public spaces, existing risk models have been considered, evidencing a further gap also within the engineering world itself. Depending on the area being considered, risk management models have different and siloed approaches which ignore the interactions of one type of risk with the others. To allow effective communication between the two domains and within the engineering domain, a unified risk analysis framework has been developed. Then a framework (an ontology) capable of describing all the elements of a Smart City has been developed and combined with the common language to trace the requirements. Following the philosophy of the Vienna Circle, a creative process called Aufbau has then been defined to allow the generation of a detailed description of the Smart City, at any level, using the common language and the ontology above defined. Then, the risk analysis methodology has been applied to the city model produced by Aufbau. The research developed tools to apply such results to the entire life cycle of the Smart City. With these tools, it is possible to understand how much a given architectural, urban planning or urban design requirement is operational at a given moment. In this way, the narration can accurately describe how much the initial requirements set by architects, planners and urban designers and, above all, the values required by stakeholders, are satisfied, at any time. The impact of this research on urban planning is the ability to create a single model between the two worlds, leaving everyone free to express creativity and expertise in the appropriate forms but, at the same time, allowing both to fill the communication gap existing today. This new way of planning requires adequate IT tools and takes the form, from the engineering side, of harmonization of techniques already in use and greater clarity of objectives. On the side of architecture, urban planning and urban design, it is instead a powerful decision support tool, both in the planning and operational phases. This decision support tool for Urban Planning, based on the research results, is the starting point for the development of a meta-heuristic process using an evolutionary approach. Consequently, risk management, from Architecture/Urban Planning/Urban Design up to Engineering, in any phase of the Smart City’s life cycle, is seen as an “organism” that evolves.Christopher Alexander nei suoi famosi scritti "The Timeless Way of Building" e "A pattern language" ha definito un linguaggio formale per la descrizione di una città, sviluppando una grammatica in grado di descrivere formalmente concetti complessi e articolati di architettura e urbanistica, definendo un linguaggio comune per facilitare la partecipazione dei comuni cittadini e la collaborazione tra professionisti. In questa ricerca, un approccio simile è stato applicato per far dialogare due domini sebbene siano molto distanti in termini di lessico, metodologie e obiettivi. Essi sono l'urbanistica, l'urban design e l'architettura, visti come primo dominio sia in termini di tempo che di completezza di visione, e quello del mondo dell'ingegneria, con numerose discipline. In pratica, esiste un dominio che definisce i requisiti e la visione d'insieme (il primo) e un dominio (il secondo) che li implementa con infrastrutture e sistemi reali. Per metterli in perfetta comunicazione, permettendo di tradurre i concetti del primo in quelli del secondo, si è seguita l'idea di Alexander definendo un linguaggio. Applicando Essence, la teoria descrittiva formale dell'ingegneria del software al concetto di Smart City, è stato definito un linguaggio comune per tracciarne i requisiti a tutti i livelli. Essendo il focus l'analisi dei rischi per la sicurezza negli spazi pubblici, sono stati considerati i modelli di rischio esistenti, evidenziando un'ulteriore lacuna anche all'interno del mondo dell'ingegneria stessa. A seconda dell'area considerata, i modelli di gestione del rischio hanno approcci diversi e isolati che ignorano le interazioni di un tipo di rischio con gli altri. Per consentire una comunicazione efficace tra i due domini e all'interno del dominio dell'ingegneria, è stato sviluppato un quadro di analisi del rischio unificato. Quindi è stato sviluppato un framework (un'ontologia) in grado di descrivere tutti gli elementi di una Smart City e combinato con il linguaggio comune per tracciarne i requisiti. Seguendo la filosofia del Circolo di Vienna, è stato poi definito un processo creativo chiamato Aufbau per consentire la generazione di una descrizione dettagliata della Smart City, a qualsiasi livello, utilizzando il linguaggio comune e l'ontologia sopra definita. Infine, la metodologia dell'analisi del rischio è stata applicata al modello di città prodotto da Aufbau. La ricerca ha sviluppato strumenti per applicare tali risultati all'intero ciclo di vita della Smart City. Con questi strumenti è possibile capire quanto una data esigenza architettonica, urbanistica o urbanistica sia operativa in un dato momento. In questo modo, la narrazione può descrivere con precisione quanto i requisiti iniziali posti da architetti, pianificatori e urbanisti e, soprattutto, i valori richiesti dagli stakeholder, siano soddisfatti, in ogni momento. L'impatto di questa ricerca sull'urbanistica è la capacità di creare un modello unico tra i due mondi, lasciando ognuno libero di esprimere creatività e competenza nelle forme appropriate ma, allo stesso tempo, permettendo ad entrambi di colmare il gap comunicativo oggi esistente. Questo nuovo modo di progettare richiede strumenti informatici adeguati e si concretizza, dal lato ingegneristico, in un'armonizzazione delle tecniche già in uso e in una maggiore chiarezza degli obiettivi. Sul versante dell'architettura, dell'urbanistica e del disegno urbano, è invece un potente strumento di supporto alle decisioni, sia in fase progettuale che operativa. Questo strumento di supporto alle decisioni per la pianificazione urbana, basato sui risultati della ricerca, è il punto di partenza per lo sviluppo di un processo meta-euristico utilizzando un approccio evolutivo

Negotiating the City: Urban Development in Tanzania.

Urban policy reforms across the globe over the last thirty years were unpinned by models of urban development as a market place where private actors meet space demands. This model of urban development fails to address existing pre-conditions in many cities in the Global South where private market reforms shifted the negotiation process of urban development without creating a market for urban space. In order to examine the shift in development this research project examines recent urban development in three Tanzanian cities: Dar es Salaam, Arusha, and Mwanza. Each case study includes two sites of observation: central city redevelopment and satellite city development. Variation in site characteristics includes the type of developer, presence of international investors, partnership types, and community responses. The case studies reveal that current urban development is driven by entrench business structures, plural governance systems, incentives for speculation and policy reform demand. The outcome of this process is an urban development pattern that is increasingly modular, unequal and fragile. The implication of the research is that policy unduly focused on the steps involved in development and deregulation without accounting for local factors. These factors can be categorized to account for potential bottlenecks. To create more sustainable and well functioning cities policy and planning could be refocused on infrastructure and service provision, long term hierarchical planning, improving rental markets, increasing housing safety nets, offering opportunities for small scale investors and increasing data transparency.PhDUrban and Regional PlanningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110333/1/kateo_1.pd

From Associations to Info-Sociations: Civic associations and ICTs in Two Asian Cities

Non-profit civic associations are experimenting with information communications technologies (ICTs) in their work inside ‘global cities.’ The “info-sociational” concept is introduced in this paper as a heuristic and an approach for investigating ICT-linked organizational, participatory and spatial transformations in civic associations. The info-sociational approach is applied to four cases of civic environmental associations in two ‘Asian tiger’ cities-Hong Kong and Taipei-to compare their experiments with: urban map mash-ups; digital storytelling; participatory e-platforms; green new media; and networked activism. An info-sociational approach-besides providing a frame for comparatively analyzing digital practices amongst civic groups-arguably advances theory on the co-evolution of civic associations and ICTs.Special Issue: Linking the Local with the Global within Community Informatic

BEYOND ALL LIMITS : Procedings on International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design : 11-12, 13 May 2022

[Italiano]: Il volume raccoglie gli atti della seconda edizione del convegno “BEYOND ALL LIMITS. International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design”, tenutosi nei giorni 11 e 12 maggio 2022, presso il Complesso del Belvedere di San Leucio, sede di Officina Vanvitelli. Il convegno è stato promosso e organizzato dal Dipartimento di Architettura e Disegno Industriale dell'Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, in partnership con la Faculty of Architecture della Çankaya University di Ankara e la Faculty of Engineering della University of Strathclyde di Glasgow. L’obiettivo principale di questo convegno scientifico e multidisciplinare, che ha interessato i campi dell'architettura, della pianificazione e del design, è stato quello di affrontare il tema della sostenibilità all’interno dell'attuale dibattito internazionale scaturito dal New European Bauhaus (NEB)./[English]: This volume collects the Proceedings of the second edition of the conference “BEYOND ALL LIMITS. International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design”, held on May 11 and 12, 2022, at the San Leucio Belvedere Complex, home of Officina Vanvitelli. The conference was sponsored and organized by the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture of Çankaya University in Ankara and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The main objective of this scientific and multidisciplinary conference, which covered the fields of architecture, planning and design, was to address the issue of sustainability within the current international debate that has arisen from the New European Bauhaus (NEB)

Imagining the Future City

London is one of the world’s leading cities. It is home to an extraordinary concentration and diversity of people, industries, politics, religions and ideas, and plays an important role in our highly globalised and tightly networked modern world. What does the future hold for London? Investigating any aspect of the city’s future reveals a complex picture of interrelations and dependencies. The London 2062 Programme from University College London brings a new, cross-disciplinary and highly collaborative approach to investigating this complexity. The programme crosses departmental boundaries within the university, and promotes active collaboration between leading academics and those who shape London through policy and practice. This book approaches the question of London’s future by considering the city in terms of Connections, Things, Power and Dreams

Airports in cities and regions : research and practise ; 1st International Colloquium on Airports and Spatial Development, Karlsruhe, 9th - 10th July 2009

This book is a compilation of research and practise questioning the relationship between airports, regional developments and urban planning. It is structured in two parts, research and case studies, as well as practise and policy approaches. It answers questions like: how can airports be perceived as part of the urban structure? Which economic effects foster spatial development at airports? Which policy approaches exist to tackle the various conflicts in the airport-region relationship