The main challenges
Cities, if they are to endure for any significant time, need to adapt to changes both inside and encrouching from outside. The changes themselves can be gradual or sudden, man-made or “an act of nature”. A Smart City will need to provide services that can react strategically and tactically in order to mitigate the negative effects of change and to utilise the opportunities that changes present.
Growth or shrinkage and how to manage it?
As the population size changes different levels of demand impinge on the municipal services and infrastructure, which may not be able to adapt quickly enough.
The tax base will change with population fluctuation and the composition of types of economic participants, leading to fluctuations in the available resources for planning and investment and this can be exacerbated by slow adaption to the new circumstances by the city administration.
Coping with natural disasters and emergencies
Extreme weather, earthquakes, and floods put strain on infrastructure, directly by damaging or destroying it, and indirectly by requiring it to cope with extra capacity as a result of events and actions to mitigate the effects. Building in extra capacity to cope with these rare events or adding facilities to respond and adapt quickly to unfolding events requires forethought in design and investment.
(Global) competition from other cities
Changes to the economic viability occur as trading relationships with other cities and lands evolve. The services, infrastructure, and fabric of a city may have to adapt to changes in industry and inflows and outflows of people. Attracting the right talent and sustaining economic viability is paramount to the city’s long term survival, particularly in a global market place with a mobile population.
The politics of cost/benefit: making a case for long term investment
Councils and Mayoralties are on a change cycle set by the local and regional political institutions. Often those elected officials are key to investment in projects to improve and adapt service provision, but their expectations will likely not be aligned with this cycle.This can exacerbate the need to show quick returns on small levels of investment and the need to scale up quickly where benefits are proven and services are enthusiastically taken up.
Careful stakeholder management and strategic design are often overlooked in favour of tactical short term delivery for political ends.
How can we overcome these challenges?
There is a common theme to our challenges: how can we adapt the city’s administration of services in accordance with changes the citizens will experience in both the short and long term?
- Growth and shrinkage of the population mean that the capacity of existing services and the resources allocated to them will need to be able to flex up and down, in order for them to remain efficient and to make sure resources are not wasted. The pace of this type of change is likely to be foreseeable in good time to influence planning over months, years, and even decades
- Natural disasters and emergencies are by their nature unforeseen events. The capacity and resources devoted to the mix of services will need to change rapidly, coping with the priorities of our citizens in hours and days rather than months and years
- Global competition will require the city to negotiate and renegotiate trade deals and amend employment laws. This requires access to analysis and comprehensive information in order to model the scenarios and to identify and prioritise the optimum terms. This analysis and information can itself become a marketable asset
- The politics of cost/benefit will require "buy in" from the leadership of our city. A clear strategy, and the governance of planning and change delivery, is fundamental to long term success of adaptable services that continue to optimise cost/benefit over decades and even centuries