Information, connectivity and networked life as understated but intrinsic qualities of smart cities.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The flow of information has evolved from farmers reading the sign of nature to estimate rainfall, to kingdoms relying on harbinger posted on hilltop communicating warning signs about approaching enemy convoys, to messages critical getting delivered through telegraph using Morse code, to modern-day ICT and mass media revolution.

Connectivity has not just emerged in terms of shortening the physical distance but assumed a new role and meaning that simply didn’t exist centuries back i.e., virtual connectivity.

Networked life, though has existed from the very beginning of societal structural formation, the emergence of trade activities, and evolution of economic ecosystem; it was never as organised, resilient, and transitory as today.

The way social and technological evolution occur, like an almost unstoppable but invisible force; it remained almost unnoticeable, until recently. While we assume that getting timely information, availing universal connectivity, and living a networked way of life is fundamental and intrinsic to society, almost like the presumed service rights; only until we encounter paucity of information, obstruction in connectivity or experience friction or blockage in network.

What it takes for cities to offer a seamless flow of information, ubiquitous connectivity, and resilient modern networked life? Almost all of the above values and conveniences of modern life can be encapsulated under the ambit of the smart city concept; with the concerted efforts of multiple stakeholders.

The city administrations, city managers, and urban planners have to leverage all of these in a holistic, inclusionary, and cautionary manner while creating a fail-safe provision for system redundancy. The discourse around amorphous and shape-shifting “smart city concepts”, yet seemingly an unstoppable force, is increasingly required to be directional and formulative (instead of divisive) to be constructive.  

Author: Anoop Jha

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #ICT #Digitalisation #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

Historic shift in city planning approach!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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When cities first started getting planned, it was more of a mechanical, analog and hardware approach, i.e. provision of basic minimum urban palpable elements driven by understanding of functional, social and cultural requirements of specific time period in history, configured in either abstract to subtle to articulate manner. City planning outward appeal, urban fabric and urban growth pattern kept getting readjusted as per need of changing time including industrialization, high speed mobility, migration, environmental awareness etc. but the approach of urban planning more or less remained same as always in spite of all the buzz, talk and interpretation by intelligentsia labeling same as new age of urban planning.

Historically only two major, distinct and realistic but mostly invisible shift in planning approach were felt in true sense; one when country administration changed from monarchy to democracy in multiple parts of world and the other when city planning approach shifted from analog to digital - where former shift in approach prompted a whole new set of governance redefining context, perception and necessity of urban planning while impact of later approach is yet to realise it's full potential.

#urbanplanning #townplanning #smartcity #urbandesign #iot #ict #digitaltwin #digital #urban #cityplanning #publictransport

Solving the Age-old Dilemma!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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World has to come to terms with the fact that the panacea to collective misery of missed car pool, missed bus, missed train, missed flight, missed attendance, missed opportunity, missed deadlines and lingering sense of alienation on a remote ground is to always stay connected (on demand) to your collective personal, professional and support ecosystem made of family, friends, peers, financial/medical/ legal/ spiritual advisor, mentor, payment gateway, connected home and so on, through plethora of choices and virtual communication modes like text, audio, video, augmented reality, holographic twin and soon through immersive metaverse.

While there is no substitute to being somewhere in person, still its quite an archaic mindset and primitive notion in this unparalleled technological age, realm and time of history, that if someone is unable be at a designated place in any part of world at a scheduled time for any reason all their opportunities should be systematically ceased and declare them offenders. Instead if world moves to an always connected mode in times to come it opens up a world of unimaginable possibilities!

Author: Anoop Jha

#iot #tech #technology #urbanplanning #city #town #smartcity #connectedhomes #ar #vr #metaverse #transport #transportplanning #mobility #history #future #alterego #hologram 

What it would mean to live in a Smart City 2035, for instance?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Thinking of a future time when basic efficiency has already been achieved through several rounds of smart interventions.   

So, what comes to mind, when one thinks of living in a true smart city on a future time, is possibly the ease, efficiency, on-demand, quality life, that is there for inhabitants; while for institutions of all kinds, both public and private, it may mean better information, management and rate of return. 

Will it be more flat or more hierarchical? Top down or bottom-up? Uniform or asymmetric? Need to deliberate more on “what would be?” Vs “what should be?”

Are there any trade-offs? Possibly yes, as it may have to do with “choices” Vs “(new) obligations”, “ease” Vs “dependency”, “security” Vs “infringement”, “carefree” Vs “competency”, “fragile” vs “fittest”; where each trade-off requires deep inspection, logical adjustment and subtle handling.   

Thinking of belongingness; does that mean “those inside the smart city” Vs “those outside”, “those deserving to be inside” Vs “those better left outside”? Further to brainstorm, how do we assure its equitable and widely acceptable. 

Will it reinstate the concept and need of city boundary, may be virtual geofencing, like a regression in time; boundary which took past several decades to get blurred on the contrary. 

Subject like this which touches so many lives including several facets of life, requires a visionary introspection, lengthy collaborative thinking and sympathetic approach; a true smart city cannot simply be achieved through big data, disruptive technology and linear institutional thinking. 

There seems to be a lot of room for debate, before we conclude on idea of smart city.  

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity  #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #systemthinking #institution #smartsolutions #futuretech #design #future #technology #equility #sustainability #resilience #Rotterdam #bigdata #community #Netherlands #India #Delhi #iot #AI #5G #sensorfusion #connectedinfrastructure #autonomus #machinelearning

What with data protection and privacy in smart city debate?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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DataProtection and Privacy must be assessed without fixating on SmartCity.

Data vulnerability and privacy is a subject that goes beyond surveillance and facialrecognition and many a times has nothing to do with smart city, as people are usually no less vulnerable even outside smart city jurisdictions.

To give this a perspective, from the moment a child is born they tend to become a data point for someone or other, sometimes with or without parental consent depending on which part of world they are in. From their medical test report, to vaccination record, to genetic database, to TV shows they watch, to all the schools they go to or not, even those drop out from school become data points for some research or statistics. Strange enough this is achieved without children necessarily requiring to own a phone.

Collecting data from adults is far easier. Child again become a goldmine of data as they become adult, the moment they are obliged to own a phone without which it may be impossible to access even many day to day or other services in almost every part of world, or whether they own phone by choice. Interestingly our interaction, inaction and rejection (e.g. with website) all becomes equally valid data element for someone out there. 

Hundreds of access and tracking permissions that we give to random sites and apps including saving passwords and what not, all the cookies sitting in our phones and laptops, altogether with our linked identity, possibly makes us more vulnerable sitting at home compared to being out there in street facing surveillance cameras and street sensors.

We entrust and never usually question scores of institutions who take our important data and identity information, including banks, e-commerce, phone manufacturers, assuming they will protect it, but use of data by #governments and entities for smart city purpose remains a much debatable subject. Fear surrounding data and privacy is real and natural, as threats are also real and stakes are high. It is seen that governments and knowledge institutions across the world are increasingly getting aware of this fact and are relentlessly working on safeguarding data of their citizens in smart cities, forming policies, laws and contracts. They are also seen transferring knowledge to other municipalities equipping them for future smart cities. What is also required is national, regional and global cooperation and common framework of data privacy and ethics. Bringing all possible stakeholders of smart cities in the common wider net of law is also important as you never know who is teaching their machines what bias language.

The focus has to be on how to #anonymize and #safeguard data within the network and hierarchy of stakeholders.

Author: Anoop Jha

#data #egovernance #governance #policy #machinelearning #ml #iot #mobility #AR #VR #urbanmanagement #Rotterdam #Delft #Eindoven #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands 

With possibilities of real-time response, universal payment etc. today there should be a far better public transport pricing mechanism!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The following may be true for a range of cities across the world.

When it comes to public transport of all kinds, while the process of ticketing and payment methods and modes have seen a lot of innovation, driven by technology over the past years and decades, but there seems to have been little innovation in the pricing mechanism of public transport ticketing.

When we think of ease and equity of population, but you still see the same decade or so old handful of deferred pricing mechanism like tourist ticket, day ticket, regular passenger discount pass, off-peak hour discount, and maybe age bracket discount. This is so outdated, while you can possibly charge on a scale from one percent to hundred percent of the ticket price (still honoring various categories of tickets mentioned above) based on the real-time occupancy level of the specific bus, tram, etc. at any given time, still running a profitable venture.

The pricing mechanism which is actually one of the most important affairs of the public transport sphere and which directly touches the lives of millions has remained static while everything else about public transport has changed mostly through technology, it's surprising.

Root cause, no authority or transport service provider would like to run the risk of changes in projected revenue from public transport for instance. Even if it means losing out on big profit possibilities (for both parties), as there is comfort in known! 

City is a unique place. You see scores of vacant unsold houses in many cities and you also see those struggling to buy own house and those homeless on the streets, all in the same city.

You also see in a city, public transport of different kinds, many a time running partially or near empty on one or many occasions of day, on one and many stretches of the city, every single day and over the years, and you see people who are not allowed to board these near vacant public transport modes without paying a pre-fixed price or pre-decided discounted price and hence you also don’t see the latent flux of people you could have seen otherwise if authority or transport service provider would have allowed them to board the public transport on a fraction of standard or discounted ticket price i.e., as low as 1% to 5% to 10% or other of the standard ticket price, as a function of public transport occupancy level. Just because no one wants to do the math, both parties are at loss including operators and users. 

Now considering baseline criteria as public transport quality is good, everyone uses a multimodal touch-and-go payment card and payment is made inside or at the entry of the transport system say tram, bus, (possibly LRT, Metro, train as well) etc.

Now if we use embedded sensors inside tram and bus (and possibly metro and LRT) for instance calculate the occupancy of this particular bus or tram at any given moment and allowing real-time adjustments in ticket prices for "this particular" bus or tram to the extent i.e., near vacant tram or bus means near zero ticket price (as the operator is anyways getting zero if the system is running empty, even marginal profit over business as usual is still a profit), hence pricing will keep changing for every next rider, mostly lower than typical pricing and never exceeding the standard ticket pricing, also prompting more people to board the tram or bus if they see it running at lower occupancy, knowing that they will have to pay lower or just fraction. Apps can provide such projected pricing reduction information about any particular route in real-time to prospective travelers. If we tailor the existing transport system through upgrade or retrofit and adopt a real-time pricing mechanism at this granular level powered by tech (e.g., sensor fusion, etc) both transit service providers and citizens will be winner in terms of benefits and savings respectively, and it will help people switch from private to public transport, a much desired ”model shift”.   

So real issue and opportunity is how to deal with occupancy level for (sometimes mutual) benefit of supplier and consumer?

Occupancy is a wonderful tool!

The hospitality industry learned this long back and hence early bird and last-minute discounts. The rental market is already thriving on this in some places. Aviation also leveraging it somewhat. Taxi services learned the other way around, how to inflate the price 2X or 4X or more through congestion charges. The public transit segment world over is still lagging far behind wrt innovation on real-time occupancy-based pricing (for price reduction not increase) with the unimaginable potential using real-time pricing adjustment mechanism with help of sensors and other connected technology.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #transportplanning #its #intelligent #trafficmanagement #policy #surveillance #databreach #ml #machinelearning #iot #delhi #mumbai #india #camera #urbanmanagement #urbandeveloent #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven  #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

 

Its poised time for city administrations and urban management and development professionals.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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It’s interesting to recognise how empowered a city administration can be today to take evidence-based decisions, depending on what kind of, how recent, and what level of access to information they have in their city dashboard; compared to few decades ago when decisions about “urban future” used to mostly get made in closed board rooms and on literal mechanical drawing boards; mostly based on past trends, white papers, fancy of the creative class, administrative zeal, and sometimes based on intuition.

To draw a parallel of insufficiency that old times had, imagine the great architects and planners of history who somehow still managed to deliver all the job old school way, in absence of now integral and pervasive modern survey and modelling tools like satellite imagery, Geographic Information System (#GIS), #LIDAR, #DGPS, #drones, Building Information Modelling (#BIM), #TrafficSimulation and #CrowdManagement software, structural, hydraulic, lighting and range of #EnvironmentalModelling software, including some more which are still taking shape and trying to find widespread application in urban management and development including #DigitalTwin, #ParametricDesign, #AI and #ML.

Technology and data combined (proliferation of data, universal access to technology and open data) has not just minimised the information asymmetry between public and private entities but has also provided a level play field for urban professionals in different parts of world. It has been a journey from then “private entities educating city administrations about how to approach urban problems” to now “city administrations finally resourceful enough to ask ‘why this and not that’ while increasingly interrogative private entities about checks and balances of ethical practices they follow (e.g., data anonymity). Technology and information have made this journey possible from “just a handful” in history to “so many” great young architects and planners who exist today for instance. Technology and wider access to information (data) have made possible the faster diffusion of creativity today and also created an abundance of highly skilled manpower including multi-disciplinary urban managers, at the same time minimising the gap between low-skilled and highly skilled professionals.

As urban problems have become more and more complex and wicked, access to tools, resources, and technology to manage these problems has also become sophisticated and widely available today. There wasn’t a more promising time ever than today in the area of urban management and development.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #delhi #mumbai #gurugram #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

 

While working in a fuzzy space of smart city development public institutions may like to think of innovative approaches in different parts of the world!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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[01] For instance, #PublicInstitutions may (a) address the apprehensions of the community at large, upfront, by acknowledging the legit concerns over #privacy, #datasecurity and may like to widely publish how they intend to tackle such issues including what safeguard mechanisms are in place, before actually launching the project.

[02] While role of community involvement in smart city development process is increasingly being considered important, the approach should consider exploring innovative ways to go beyond conventional notion of #CommunityParticipation and #CommunityEngagement; i.e. going beyond community workshop venues, road shows and smart city webpage to seek stream of timely inputs from community and expert members and think of devising mechanism (b) to seek early input (e.g. through #LinkedIn, series of short #VideoConference etc.) from wider professional segment who are anyways going to write much of their critical insights on professional media sooner or later about the subject, post-implementation, suggesting what could have been done better (c) Likewise, need of a mechanism to find ways to offer a chance of involvement for wider latent community members to contribute in the process (eg. through #Facebook, #Twitter, #Instagram etc.), those who are going to post, share and possibly vent much on social media (direct #stakeholder), about what interventions couldn’t work well in their city or challenges they are still facing post implementation.

[03] While the critical role of #academia in developing smart cities can’t be denied (d) it may be a good idea to form a mechanism for the active representation of students as well, as they can leverage more creative freedom and contribute through out of box thinking, adding to much-needed innovation.

[04] While the #industry is invited or offers innovative and disruptive tech and solutions, (e) there can also be room for engaging those in the smart city development process who may be having sound innovative ideas but lack the entrepreneurial spirit or resources to launch a #startup or to make it to VC round. Like shopkeepers pitching ideas for the redevelopment of the street next to their shop, or kids floating ideas about retrofitting streets around their school for instance.

When there is no clear pathway to #innovation or maybe multiple pathways, then it makes sense to also innovate on approaches we take towards making better cities, sometimes under the title of the smart city.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands