Life is a Journey in Smart and Sustainable Districts

Worldwide, cities grapple with the expectation of putting the brakes on climate change. Before acting, smart districts often serve as a testing bed for strategies towards carbon-neutrality. If effective, scale-up agendas at city-level are formulated. Smart districts are touted for their sustainability lever, as their core rationale is encouraging residents to use ‘smart energy technologies’ which increase efficiency or integrate renewable energy sources. The primary focus of these districts is on technical implementations of available sustainability services instead of orienting their service-portfolio around citizens. The result is a mismatch of supply and demand of sustainability-inducing services. We take in a customer journey perspective when searching for literature and conducting qualitative interviews. Results reveal a framework for mapping service touchpoints into citizen journeys. The framework is meant to benefit district planners to tailor their service selection to meet their citizens’ needs and exploit the district’s sustainability potential at the citizen interface

Citizens motivation towards solar energy in the context of the smart city, the case of Casablanca Morocco

The protection of the environment is one of the major concerns of individuals who seek to satisfy their needs without exploiting the reserve of future generations according to the principle of sustainable development. Nevertheless, any Smart City project requires the protection of the environment, the responsibility of citizens in its realization and a desire to encourage their participation in the various issues and dimensions of the creation of a smart city. Our research question aims to determine the extent to which the residents of the city of Casablanca are ready to support the Smart City project by adopting a responsible purchasing behavior towards their environment through the use of renewable energies. In order to achieve our goal we have resorted to the positivist paradigm by adopting deductive logic based on an existing theoretical model illustrated by the literature review which is the theory of self-determination. We opted for a questionnaire distributed to the profile of Internet users and the processing of the results obtained is done using the SPSS software. The analysis of the data collected showed that the majority of citizens are interested in the use of renewable energies and are ready to collaborate in the Smart City project

Child centred Urbanscapes. A case study of Oslo and Yazd.

Childhood is one of the most critical developmental stages in human life, powerfully contributing to the productivity of society at large. Although there is evidence about the influence of physiological factors on early childhood development, the effect of the physical environment is less well investigated. Furthermore, many countries exclude children from most land use planning practices. Therefore, this thesis investigates the role of urbanscapes on children’s well-being and development. The materials were collected using the purposive sampling method. Countries were selected based on the number of initiatives and the availability of information. Ideas from eight scholars, six international programmes, and the aims of more than forty programmes in fifteen countries worldwide were investigated. Based on the literature review, six essential topics were identified for further exploration, of which, Spatial characteristics of the built environment, Safety, and Independent mobility were chosen for analysis in the two case studies. Observational techniques and reading of the urbanscape were the methodologies used for the two case studies in Oslo and Yazd. The observation was conducted as a complete observer and covert to the subjects to minimise the Hawthorne effect. Subjects’ reactions to different urbanscape settings were collected through field notes, maps, sketches and photographs. By analysing the case studies, it was understood that: children are attracted to spaces that provide unrestricted movement, exploration opportunities, and risk-taking activities in comfort conditions. An uninterrupted pedestrian network complemented with design features such as pausing/resting spots, visual corridors, and attractive destinations encourages children to walk more. Multifunctionality of the spaces, commercial-oriented edges, and mixed land use invite different people to urban areas and increase the perception of safety in children. Recommendations were made based on the findings