If you were asked to create a vision of a smart city, what would you create in your mind? Well, that is fast becoming a reality for Dutch cities with the government's adoption of the NL Smart City Strategy. Many people may ask the question, how do smart cities benefit me? What opportunities exist in a lively city? Or what is my role in the concepts of smart cities? To help in answering such questions, it is essential to understand the meaning of a smart city, as this will also help in understanding how cities would be able to restructure themselves towards becoming smart cities.
Essentially, smart cities are viewed as cities in which local governments and municipalities use data and algorithms with the focus being towards creating smart policies, as well as, ensuring that the cities perform better. On an international platform, some of the significant examples of smart cities are Singapore and Rio de Janeiro. Before the 2016 Olympic Games, held in Brazil, the Brazilian government restructured its capital city Rio de Janeiro with the aim of creating a smart city. The outcome of this transformation is that the city has improved regarding its efficiency, thus, supporting the analogy of creating what would be considered as a ‘smart city.'
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In the Netherlands, some of the municipalities have begun profiling themselves as smart cities leading to the development of the NL Smart City Strategy to support such transformations. Some of the major cities that have restructured themselves to create smart cities include Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Eindhoven. The restructuring of the cities towards becoming smart cities is expected to play a critical role towards paving the way for a general improvement in the quality of life. The strategy reflects more on the idea of ensuring that Dutch cities work towards introducing innovative solutions to some of the challenges that they face as a way of building on their performance.
The main idea to note is that smart cities are considered as being ‘data-driven' cities, as data plays a critical role in steering abstraction within these cities. In statement on the idea of Dutch cities expected transformation, the Institute for Future of Living (2018) indicated that, “The contributors to the National Smart City Strategy perceive a great need for high-end digital infrastructure and room to experiment, to allow them to develop their pilot programs into large-scale projects across a range of different areas, including mobility and accessibility of cities, sustainable and low-energy homes and building, improvements of air quality and smart, healthy urbanization" (p.1). The essential element to note is that this means that the achievement of success in building these cities requires notable coordination efforts.
To help people understand the general concept of smart cities and how they will operate in Dutch cities, the local government in Amsterdam launched the “Amsterdam Innovation Tour App.” The app seeks to not only provide the people with an opportunity to learn about the transformation of Amsterdam into a smart city but also paves the way for people to take walking tours around the city (WeMakeThe.City, 2018). The focus of the tour is to bring people closer to the concept of a smart city taking into account that majority of the people are not aware of what it means to live in a smart city. The walk also seeks to provide people with that fundamental understanding of the innovations within Amsterdam while reflecting on the fact that most of the people may appreciate the idea of smart cities.
References
Institute for Future of Living. (2018). Dutch cities urge Government to support joint Smart City strategy . Retrieved from https://instituteforfutureofliving.org/2017/01/dutch-cities-urge-government-to-support-joint-smart-city-strategy/
WeMakeThe.City. (2018). Innovation Tour, Special Edition . Retrieved from https://wemakethe.city/en/programma-item-en?programid=4444
