YOUR GUIDE TO THE FUTURE

To express their commitment to the promotion of human rights of digital access, The City of Barcelona establish the Institutional Declaration on Technological Humanism. This declaration not only fosters the value of equity in digital accessibility but also protects the citizen right and liberties in the digital space.

Whether they are premeditated or unintentional by the policy makers, in the process of land use and development control, there may be regulation or procedure that deter sustainable urban development. UN Habitat listed some of the most common in zoning law and urban management practice that incentivise the unsustainable city development.

Incentives and disincentives in Development Control can promote or discourage certain adaptation and mitigation objectives. In the long term it can encourage behavioural and investments towards climate-friendly urbanisation as opposed to the business-as-usual model of development that depletes our natural resources.

To ensure that new developments are located in appropriate locations, consistent with the urban design guidelines, have the necessary service and facilities, as well as consistent to the environmental protection; Development Control can become a powerful tool that urban planners use to manage city development.

Developing infrastructure and providing services for urban inhabitants require massive financial resources, including the aim to climate-proof the city. Through the study of numerous cities globally, UN Habitat provide examples that other cities can adopt to enhance municipal finance by generating diverse portfolio of income stream.

Buildings are responsible for the 32% of total global energy use and emits significant share of Green House Gas emission (GHG). How we design neighbourhood can substantially reduce the emission and energy use those urban buildings use. Designing the neighbourhood into urban form that minimise trapping the solar radiation and allows for wind access (ventilation) is one way to do it.

Green spaces play a critical role in improving environmental quality in urban areas. It acts as a carbon sink that reduces the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect as well as reducing air pollution, providing shade/cooling, rainwater catchment and biodiversity support.

The urban forms of a city, which is defined as “the patterns and spatial arrangements of land use, transportation systems and urban design elements, layout of streets and buildings, as well as the internal configuration of settlements”, significantly determine the amount of energy used by that city.

Urban areas play a critical role in reducing the amount of GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emission as it generates 70% of human induced GHGs. Smart Cities can take up this role by designing their cities that integrate climate mitigation into their urban planning process, building design, construction as well as through their services & infrastructure.

Following the Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, the next step is to identify and prioritise adaptation options. City must first identify and create catalogue on all adaptation options that for their specific context. New and innovative adaptation strategies are required to cope with the novel and unique challenge of climate change.

Due to the concentration of people, economic activities, social and cultural institutions; urban areas have higher vulnerability to climate change-related disasters. Millions of urban dwellers around the globe have already experienced this direct existential threat.

Regardless of the pervasive adoption of Smart City concept. There is no one size fit all solution that can be implemented in every city. Some policy initiatives may fail to achieve the goals that have been set.

Policy Entrepreneurs is one of the most critical actors that sets a certain policy objective in Smart Cities. In 2010 for example, the initiative of Automated Vehicles (AVs) as part of the Smart Mobility agenda was successfully set by the Policy Entrepreneurs from private companies, academics, and other various sector of stakeholders.

Policy Entrepreneurs are groups or individuals that can map the dynamics of the governance structure related to smart cities that become the communicator and facilitator between stakeholders that ensure that successful implementation of a certain policy agenda, including in the smart city development.

In setting a new policy in smart city innovation, the role of Policy Entrepreneurs are critical from agenda-setting through the implementation of the policy. In the case study of Automated Vehicle (AV) in the Netherland, Gironés et al. (2020) described the process of how AV was first proposed in 2010 until being implemented starting 2018.

Despite the growing population, the resources of land and road infrastructure in the cities are finite and limited. Thus, the future of urban transport is public transport (PT) while discouraging the growth of private cars. There are several essential elements in the development of better Smart Public Transport that will have an important impact on the shaping of next generation, urban transportation systems.

What would the next generation of urban transport offer? Ceder (2021) explains the trends in the innovation and technology and the possibilities of logistics and travel modes of future urban transportation. The future urban transport is going towards a more sustainable approach that considers the integration of environment, society, and economics aspects of the mobility system.

Active mobility is so crucial in promoting physical activity that the World Health Organisation (WHO) provided a tool that could help cities quantify and monetize the effect of measures from promoting walking and cycling.

In promoting active mobility, urban planning and transport planning sectors play a critical role in providing the infrastructure, design and engineering of the city roads. However, the public health sector is also in support of the promotion of active mobility due to the health benefits of walking and cycling for the human body.

There are two determinants that are most significant in establishing active mobility identified in the research of the past years. The two determinants are Built Environment and social, economic & psychological aspects of the demographics.

How cities design their built environment is one crucial determinants of the utilisation of active mobility in their local municipalities. The land use planning that determines the diversity of use, density of population, connectivity to nearby areas and the accessibility of the infrastructure can either invite or hinder people to choose walking and cycling as their transport mode for daily and leisure commutes.

Modern lifestyles that neglect physical activity pose significant risk to our physical well-being. One of the ways smart cities can promote better quality of life for their citizens is to push for active mobility as part of their sustainable transport system.

The future of mobility in Smart Cities incorporates transport systems that are socially and environmentally sustainable. A sustainable transport system can improve the quality of living in cities as it reduces the risk of air & noise pollution as well as the decrease the threat of traffic collision.

Study by Mouratidis (2021) explain the theoretical and empirical evidence on how the built environment that city established can influence and shape the subjective well-being (SWB) of its citizen. In this case the SWB is described as combination of three aspects, life satisfaction, emotional well-being and eudaemonia (meaning in life).

Mouratidis (2021) study revealed that the quality of our built environment, including in cities influence our subjective well-being.

Previous article has explained Li et al. (2022) findings on the six factors that supports the policy transfer between smart cities. Further, this study recommends three action points that local governments can take to accelerate the process of policy transfer for the development of local smart cities.

One important strength in embracing the Smart City concept is benefitting the open knowledge and collaborative principles in the effort of improving the quality of life of the city. Partnerships and collaboration among smart cities allow the local government to learn from each other case studies and implement the best practice in their own cities.

Digital and data technology are often seen as the key ingredients of smart city development. Yet, many cities come across roadblocks when establishing their smart city only by adopting the latest technology. Often the technological reliance has only created additional complexity related to data management, security and governance.

To embrace urban transformation toward smart city development, the local government needs to not only prepare the installation of ICT. Smart cities also benefit from strengthening the city's physical and social readiness to acquire optimal growth.

The implementation of smart technologies in the city expected to promote connectivity and accessibility to public services for everyone. However, in reality, there is a disparity of accessibility to digital infrastructure for various socio-economic groups.