Smart Cities for Dummies

Become empowered to build and maintain smarter cities 

At its core, a smart city is a collection of technological responses to the growing demands, challenges, and complexities of improving the quality of life for billions of people now living in urban centers across the world.

The movement to create smarter cities is still in its infancy, but ambitious and creative projects in all types of cities—big and small—around the globe are beginning to make a big difference. New ideas, powered by technology, are positively changing how we move humans and products from one place to another; create and distribute energy; manage waste; combat the climate crisis; build more energy efficient buildings; and improve basic city services through digitalization and the smart use of data. 

Inside this book you’ll find out:

• What it really means to create smarter cities
• How our urban environments are being transformed
• Big ideas for improving the quality of life for communities
• Guidance on how to create a smart city strategy
• The essential role of data in building better cities
• The major new technologies ready to make a difference in every community

Smart Cities For Dummies will give you the knowledge to understand this important topic in depth and be ready to be an agent of change in your community.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

How This Book Is Organized 4

Part 1: Making Cities Our Home 4

Part 2: Building a Smarter City 4

Part 3: Using Smart City Technologies 5

Part 4: Planning for an Urban Future 5

Part 5: The Part of Tens 5

Part 6: Appendixes 6

Beyond the Book 6

Where to Go from Here 7

Part 1: Making Cities Our Home 9

Chapter 1: Comprehending the Past, Present, and Future of Cities 11

Discovering the Origin of Cities 11

What is a city? 12

Building the first cities 14

Comprehending the Impact of the Industrial Revolutions 16

The first industrial revolution 16

The second industrial revolution 17

The third industrial revolution 17

The fourth industrial revolution 19

Responding to population growth 19

Urbanizing the Planet 21

Changing landscapes resulting from urbanization 23

Building megacities 23

Chapter 2: Defining Smart Cities 27

Identifying Smart Cities 27

What a smart city is 28

What a smart city is not 32

Working with digital infrastructures 34

Building the Case for Smarter Cities 35

Small cities versus large cities 36

Smart nations and other smart things 37

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 39

Examining Examples of Smart Cities 42

Amsterdam, The Netherlands 42

Konza Technopolis, Kenya 43

Chapter 3: Responding to the Needs and Challenges of Cities 45

Mapping the Evolving Needs and Challenges of Cities 45

Economic shifts 47

Increasingly complex city requirements 47

Interdependencies between systems 48

Population changes 49

Aging infrastructure 52

Lifestyle choices 54

Environment 55

Health 56

Water management 58

Housing crisis 59

Expecting Different Results 62

Changing community behaviors and expectations 63

Expanding community engagement 64

Engaging in participatory design 65

Transforming Urbanization 66

Transportation 67

Energy 70

Buildings 71

Telecommunications 73

Sustainability 74

Part 2: Building a Smarter City 77

Chapter 4: Starting from Zero 79

Establishing a Vision 79

Identifying the role of city leadership 80

Creating a vision 83

Building a Smart City Team 85

Identifying team members 85

Creating a RACI chart 88

Getting the team on the same page 89

Chapter 5: Creating a Smart City Strategy 91

Building the Plan 92

Developing a strategic plan 93

Envisioning the envisioning process 95

Converting your vision to action 98

Codifying the Plan 100

Identifying metrics 100

Communicating the plan 102

Chapter 6: Enabling a Smart City Strategy 107

Putting the Building Blocks in Place 108

Developing policy 108

Getting started 110

Examining a few examples of smart city policies 111

Establishing regulations 112

Evaluating funding models 114

Handling procurement issues 118

Managing projects and carrying out business analyses 121

Governing the Strategy 125

Defining strategic governance 125

Managing projects with project governance 126

Regularly updating and reporting 128

Part 3: Using Smart City Technologies 131

Chapter 7: Embracing Urban Innovation 133

Defining Urban Innovation 134

Relying on urban innovation networks 136

Creating urban innovation labs 137

Implementing Urban Innovation 139

Examining the discovery process 141

Running pilots and experiments 143

Setting up living labs 144

Engaging in hackathons 145

Participating in urban challenges 149

Open innovation versus closed innovation 151

Sharing urban innovation 152

Converting ideas into projects 153

Chapter 8: Enabling Change through Technology 155

Recognizing Technological Change in Modern Cities 156

From analog to digital 157

The fourth industrial revolution 160

The fourth industrial revolution and cities 162

The Internet of Things (IoT) 163

Exploring a Variety of Urban Technologies 166

Social media and communication tools 166

Artificial intelligence (AI) 169

Blockchain technology 171

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) 175

Drones 178

Wireless communications 181

Smart street lighting 184

Smart grids and microgrids 189

Smart water 192

Digital twins 193

Digital signage 196

Application programming interfaces (APIs) 198

Chapter 9: Unleashing the Power of City Data 205

Becoming City-Data-Savvy 205

Enabling data-driven decision-making 207

Managing data 208

Developing a data strategy 209

Implementing data governance 211

Working with City Data 214

Securing data 214

Opening data 215

Making sense of data through analytics 218

Using geographic information systems (GIS) 220

Hiring a city chief data officer 223

Part 4: Planning For An Urban Future 225

Chapter 10: Building a Secure Foundation 227

Securing Your Smart City 228

Urban resilience 228

Public safety 233

Addressing Digital Security and Privacy 238

Cybersecurity 239

Privacy 241

Chapter 11: Imagining the City of the Future 245

Recognizing That the Best Is Yet to Come 246

Green cities 247

Inclusive cities 251

Healthy cities 253

Regenerative cities 256

Envisioning Big Ideas 259

Hyperloop 260

Flying cars 262

Cities without cars 264

Chapter 12: Engaging in Your City’s Future 267

Embracing an Urban Future    268

An increase in civic engagement 270

Continuous improvement in urban quality of life 274

The difference between quality of life and standard of living 275

Making a Better Tomorrow 278

It’s your community — get involved 280

Five things you can do tomorrow 281

Part 5: The Part of Tens 283

Chapter 13: Ten Smart City Pitfalls to Avoid 285

Making Your Smart City Project a Tech Program and Putting IT in Charge 286

Garnering Insufficient Support and Engagement from Stakeholders 287

Limiting Efforts to Your City Boundaries 288

Paying Insufficient Attention to Inclusiveness Issues 289

Moving Forward with Inadequate Governance 289

Working with No Clear Vision for the Program 290

Downplaying the Essential Roles of Security and Privacy 291

Sharing Successes and Failures Too Narrowly 292

Sticking Stubbornly to the Old Ways of Doing Things 293

Thinking Too Short-Term 294

Chapter 14: Ten Ways Cities Will Define Our Human Future 295

Most People Will Live, Work, and Play Their Entire Lives in Cities 296

The Increasing Demands of Sustainability Will Shape Human Behavior 297

City Interactions Will Increasingly Be Digital 298

City Data Will Drive Community Decision-Making 299

People Will Have Expanded Opportunities to Co-Create and Collaborate on Urban Solutions 300

Crime May Be Reduced Significantly 301

More Diversity Will Show Up in What Humans Do and How They Work 302

The Way People and Goods Move Will Continue to Evolve 303

The Delivery of Healthcare Will Be Transformed 305

Everything Will Be Delivered 307

Part 6: Appendixes 309

Appendix A: Smart City Strategies 311

Africa 311

Asia 312

Australia 313

Europe 315

Middle East 317

North America 319

South America 321

Appendix B: Smart City Organizations 323

Appendix C: Open Data Portals 333

Africa 333

Asia 334

Australia and New Zealand 335

Eastern Europe and Russia 336

Western Europe 337

Middle East 339

North America 340

South America 343

Appendix D: Solutions Built on Open Data 345

Appendix E: City Performance Dashboards 351

Asia 351

Australia and New Zealand 352

Europe 353

Middle East 354

North America 354

South America 356

Index 357

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