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History is filled with urban utopias. A very recent one is PlanIT Valley, a dreamed smart city in Portugal near Porto. My interest was awakened from the first moment I heard about it, despite of my skepticism of ‘greenfield’ smart cities in general, which I explained elsewhere. The people behind it – Steve Lewis in the first place – believed that their Emerald City would make the difference: Carbon neutral buildings thanks to an extensive and centrally controlled sensor-network, lower construction costs because of new building techniques and autonomous cars to enable sustainable traffic. Their dream seemed genuine, unlike similar claims from large tech-companies like IBM, Cisco, and Siemens who went for the fast money in the first place: Smart city play is a $36 billion business opportunit...

There is no place in the world where all residents share the same level of prosperity, or where this prosperity has been achieved in a sustainable or just manner. Therefore, the question is what kind of prosperity is achievable for citizens around the world without destroying the environment and harming the prospects for a decent life of fellow men and future generations? In this essay I will look for an answer. The doughnut principle proposed by Kate Raworth (on the photo above) is a promising starting-point, hence the title chosen. I will try to avoid the hypocrisy of a well-fed Western man who advocates a reduction in consumption for sustainability, because billions of people are hungry or poor and dream of some wealth. Moreover, they are not the main polluters. The social origin of...

The world is getting more and more urbanized. By 2040, 65 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities. 1.3 million people move into cities every day. These are reasons why many city governments are working on smart city initiatives. But what is the anatomy of a smart city really? With the combination of low power sensors, wireless networks, and web-and mobile based applications, smart cities have arrived. Connected cities are becoming a platform for innovation. Below all information is categorized in this nice infographic from Postscapes. It tells you what is driving the need to establish smart cities, how smart city concepts and projects are different in the developing world, and what technologies and systems are needed to make them a reality. The 19th century was ...

Smart city’ is becoming a buzzword faster and faster. Many people talk about it, but what makes a city ‘smart’? What activities have to be undertaken to fall under the umbrella of smart city initiatives? The best way is to explain this by giving examples. See below some examples of Singapore, Dubai and Barcelona. And how smart is your city? Cities are becoming smarter by the year. With the enormous increase of new and better technologies, cities have more possibilities to use this in their operations. Some area’s in which cities can benefit from technology are: Public Transportation IT-connectivity Water Management Power Supply Sanitation Waste management Urban mobility E-governance Citizen participation Big Data, driver of smart cities One driver of s...