Page 1 of 32
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 4
April 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 156
The Model of Smart Cities in Theory and in Practice
Rajiv Singh Irungbam
irungbamrajivsingh@yahoo.com
Abstract
Today, the term “smart” is commonly
implied in various day-to-day commodities
as an attractive feature, such as smart car
for mobility, smart phones for
communication, smart TV for entertainment
or smartcard for multiple services. On a
grand scale, the term has even caught
attention in the paradigm of urban planning
policy and practices.
Globally, many approaches are undertaking
to upgrade cities as “smart”. However,
despite gaining momentum in equating the
term “smart” with cities, there is no “one”
universally accepted model of smart cities
till date. Given this limitation, this paper
reviews the theoretical construct of smart
cities from the infinite and multi-dimensional
definitions of smart cities to underscore its
fundamental concept and implication. It is
observed that smart cities as a concept has
evolved from a narrow perspective of
integrating innovative technology towards
building intelligent infrastructure, into a
more intricate urban system that calls for
social and institutional participation.
This descriptive paper seeks to acknowledge
the fundamental principle of smart cities as
an urban model by acknowledging what is
commonly implied in professional circles,
ranking system, assessment tools and
implementation procedures. It is done so
through an archival method referring to
published literature, journals, reports,
official websites, case studies, assessment
guidelines, initiatives, and practices on
smart cities as primary sources of
information.
Finally, the paper identifies similarities in
global patterns for practicing the new urban
development model and observes that
entitling a city as “smart” remains
unscrupulous due to the limitation of a “one- size-fits all” model of smart cities and limits
to a city-marketing strategy.
Keywords: Urban Model, Smart cities,
Technology, Concept and Practices
Introduction
It is eight years now, since the worlds’ urban
population was accounted to supersede rural
population (United Nations 2008). In the
midst of urbanisation comes scarcity of
resources, economic austerity, and several
other challenges occurring simultaneously.
While cities are rapidly growing physically
and demographically on the one hand, there
are trends of aging and shrinking
instantaneously on the other hand.
Demographic growth and rapid urbanisation
are explicitly associated with cities of
Page 2 of 32
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 4
April 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 157
developing countries, however, economic
austerity leading to declining population,
higher emigration changing social structures
and aging societies are some challenges of
existing developed cities. Due to the urban
turmoil, the quality of life in cities is
undoubtedly diminishing. The quest to cope
with such rapid urban changes is for many
cities a challenge. As a city changes and
expands the financial means to sustain
growth without compromising the quality of
life is still a challenge. Cities not only need
provision of additional physical
infrastructure, but also simultaneously seek a
new efficient and effective urban planning
policy and practice.
As a result, new tools for transforming cities
have evolved and many urban theorists have
devised alternative means to tackle urban
problems. Such exemplary urban models
could be seen in the form of ‘New
Urbanism’ (Congress for the New Urbanism
1999), ‘Intelligent City’ or ‘Digital City’
(Mitchell 1996; Mitchell 2000), ‘Knowledge
City’ (Carrillo 2006), ‘Eco-City’ (Register
2006), and ‘Creative City’ (Florida 2002;
Landry 2008) among others. Apart from that
IBM (global giant technology company)
kick started a “Smarter Cities”1
programme
as part of the Smarter Planet initiative during
the period of world’s economic austerities in
2008, to help improve cities (Harrison &
1
“IBM defines a smarter city as one that makes
optimal use of all the interconnected information
available today to better understand and control its
operations and optimize the use of limited resources”
(Kehoe et al. 2011).
Donnelly 2011; Kehoe et al. 2011; Paroutis
et al. 2013). The IBM initiative firmly
believes that ‘technology has a vital role to
play in dealing with many of the current
issues cities grapple with’ (Kehoe et al.
2011, pp.1). Hence, the IBM smart cities
initiative2 was conceived with the aid of
digital technology within city’s
infrastructure.
And in February 2009, Cisco (another giant
technology company) initiated a global
communities through “Smart + Connected
Communities (S+CC)” as a platform to
transform physical communities to become
digitally connected through networks of
fibre optic to enable information sharing,
and engage on ‘economic, social and
environmental sustainability’ (otherwise
referred as the three key principles of
sustainable development) (Chakrabarti 2011,
pp.1).
However, the usage of the prefix “smart” in
urban reform could be traced back to “smart
growth” Agenda 21 undertaken during the
1992 UN Conference on Environment and
Development held in Rio de Janeiro.
Similarly, in 1997 the World Foundation
conducted a Global Forum for “Smart
Communities” at the International Centre for
Communication in San Diego. The objective
of the communities was ‘...to set away from
2 Their classic example is the installation of Rio
Operation Centre in Rio de Janeiro after several
incidents of flood affecting the city. Available at:
http://www- 03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/33303.wss
[Accessed June 2, 2015].
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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 4
April 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 158
the conventional model of building towns
and cities along railroads, waterways, or
interstate highways, but rather to build along
information highways’
(smartcommunities.org n.d., pp.1).
Therefore, the aim of the smart growth
through smart communities was to support
city development through ‘collaboration and
cooperation’ by taking advantage of the
possibilities enabled by information
technology (ibid). Not much difference from
the World Foundation of smart communities,
the World Teleport Association created a
special interest group in 2001 called the
“Intelligent Community Forum (ICF)” for
similar kind of cross-cities-collaboration,
and later in 2007, a “Smart2l” community
was created as part of their special intelligent
community to promote smart practices (Nam
& Pardo 2011).
Although the rhetoric prefix “smart” before
cities is arguable, the fundament to
necessitate urban improvement with added
technology remains less contended. In this
regard, Townsend (2013) like many other
urban scholars draws the role of technology3
for the progress of cities. In his recent book
titled Smart Cities: big data, civic hackers
and the quest for a new utopia, he states that
the creation of papyrus during the ancient
Egyptian civilization, the construction of
printing press during 15th century. Or the
development of steam engine during the late
3 Oxford dictionary defines ‘technology’ as “the
application of scientific knowledge for practical
purposes, especially in industry, for example in
designing new machines”
18th century and the invention of electricity
and telegraph during 19th century all fuelled
the advancement of cities (ibid). Likewise, in
essence, smart cities concept called for
integrating innovative advanced technology
into our urban infrastructure, with the
perception that technologies were
historically evolved to enhance cities.
Undoubtedly, countless progress was made
over the last and current century in the field
of digital technology and fields such as
computers, mobile phones, tablets and
internet saw growth. These products today
are not only advanced but they have become
more accessible and affordable today.
According to the report by Kleiner Perkins
Caufield Byers (KPCB) on Internet Trends
in 2008, half of the urban population are
already using mobile phones and internet to
communicate (Meeker 2012). The figure is
only increasing with the growing market of
smartphones and tablets (Meeker 2014). The
availability of such ubiquitous technology in
our urban environment is considered as a
viable scope for introducing a new urban
model such as “smart cities”.
However, as Harrison & Donnelly (2011,
pp.4) pointed out,‘... the core motivation for
global interest to adopt smart cities concept
was grounded in the cities desire for
economic development’. This means smart
cities practices were orientated purely
towards technological market as alternate
means of economic growth. Therefore, many
critics have opposed the model of smart
