Dumb cities – a “better tomorrow” for Rome?

Davide Gallino for #IDCAMP – Viterbo 20 - 22 July 2012

tviproject [at] gmail.com

Summary

• Smart cities (SM) vs Dumb cities (DC)

• Dumb cities: not just dumb but mean, too

• Examples, metrics for evaluation

• From dumber to smarter

– Vision and political commitment + white knight + roadmap + technologies + social interaction = success

• If there is no white knight, let’s make one, ten, a hundred? By co-design

Dumb cities

While not an Italian specialty, many Italian cities are just dumb, non

cooperative communities.

The sheer sense of individualism that typifies old as well as modern

Italians does not help, too.

Someone has pointed out that Italy has a problem of abudance (in terms of its huge cultural, historical

and landscape heritage), which does not incentivize

fruition

Sometimes, there is an abusive behaviour of those (private or public bodies) in charge, coupled with very

short-sighted approaches to “development”

Technology can help address some issues, but

commitment, a vision and roadmaps are paramount for

success

Can cooperative design, shared rules and public

funds help?

MOBILITY ISSUES

28 : 72 Public transport in Rome

Private (motor) transport

• London 50-50

• Paris 64-36

• Berlin 66-44

• Barça 67-32

Italy has three of the first 10 most congested cities in Europe

25 most congested cities in EU

1. Milano, Italia 2. Bruxelles, Belgio 3. Anversa, Belgio 4. Parigi, Francia 5. Manchester, Regno Unito 6. Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi 7. Roma, Italia 8. Londra, Regno Unito 9. Utrecht, Paesi Bassi 10. Firenze, Italia 11. Liverpool, Regno Unito 12. Barcellona, Spagna 13. Madrid, Spagna 14. Gent, Belgio 15. Amsterdam, Paesi Bassi 16. Belfast, Irlanda del Nord 17. Stoccarda, Germania 18. Colonia, Germania 19. Lione, Francia 20. Bordeaux, Francia 21. Amburgo, Germania 22. Newcastle, Regno Unito 23. Nottingham, Regno Unito 24. Sevilla, Spagna 25. S. Gravenhage, Paesi Bassi

10 most congested cities in Italy and hrs wasted in congestion (in addition to average commuting time)

1.Milano: 59 hrs, worst slot = FRI 19:00-20:00

2.Roma: 41 hrs , worst slot = FRI 17:00-18:00

3.Firenze: 36 hrs , worst slot = THU 19:00-20:00

4.Palermo: 29 hrs , worst slot = MON 10:00-

11:00

5.Torino: 28 hrs worst slot = TUE 7:00-8:00

6.Genova: 28 hrs , worst slot = THU 7:00-8:00

7.Verona: 28 hrs , worst slot = TUE 6:00-7:00

8.Napoli: 27 hrs , worst slot = FRI 19:00-20:00

9.Brescia: 25 hrs, worst slot = THU 7.00-8.00

10.Catania: 24 hrs = FRI 18:00-19:00

(Source: INRIX Traffic Scorecard 2012)

Metrics for “congestion”

• In the US, the assumed number of annual commute trips is assumed at 440 – equivalent to traveling to and from work 5 days a week for 44 weeks. “Wasted Hour” Estimates are annualized and to create a monthly estimate of wasted hours, the annual result is divided by 12.

• In Europe and Canada, government published trip time estimates are used where credible and aligning with the metropolitan areas being analyzed. Otherwise a 30 minute trip time is used.

• Source: Inrix traffic scorecard, 2012

How to measure

• Sensor network for air/noise pollution, water, traffic, waste

• Cooperative sensing:

– Wedu + other apps for civic use

– Crowdsourcing traffic byGoogle

However, monitoring does not necessarily trigger action

Key roads around Rome monitored since 2005! And possibly well before that

WASTE MANAGEMENT

NO CURATION = NIMBY

Wien Energie Fernwärme Spittelauer Lände 45 1090

• Spittelau - in Downtown Vienna

• Public, real time monitoring of emissions:

• This is curation, i.e.putting citizens in the comfort zone, not “technology”.

Tele-heating and energy from waste in an urban context

Major obstacles to overcome for successful Smart City implementations (Source: IDC)

• Key inhibitors are city governance and cross-domain collaboration, budgets and funding processes, long-term political will, and the democratic process).

• How to form an effective Smart City process and what group(s) should oversee these initiatives? Is it the CIOs office? The city council or Mayor's office? A new Smart Cities office? What is the most effective department to move cities towards collaboration across silos?

• How are Smart Cities sustained? How do cities maintain citizen engagement in the projects and maintain sustainable behaviors? How is a Smart City culture created and institutionalized so that it can last even as elected officials change?

Worrysome facts in building smart cities

• Big players (large companies) are driving the process – can they produce real innovation to the benefit of citizens? Are their systems open and interoperable? Can public administrations stay ahead of the curve?

• Big companies complain that research and development funds (such as the ongoing MIUR calls) are not meant to sustain demand they have already developed products, now they need early adopters to reach critical mass)

• Often plans are well structured, but not implemented: take the Traffic master plan (PUT) in Rome (last updated in 2005!)

From dumber to smarter: need for a vision

Smart city – definition, Italian agency for the digitalization of public administration

• Smart city -”città intelligente”. Una città può essere definita “smart” quando gli investimenti in

capitale umano, sociale e in infrastrutture tradizionali e ICT, producono uno sviluppo economico

sostenibile migliorando al contempo la qualità della vita degli abitanti. Una smart city è quindi uno

spazio urbano, ben diretto da una politica lungimirante, che affronta la sfida che la globalizzazione

e la crisi economica pongono in termini di competitività e di sviluppo sostenibile, con un’attenzione

particolare alla coesione sociale, alla diffusione e disponibilità della conoscenza, alla creatività, alla

libertà e mobilità effettivamente fruibile, alla qualità dell’ambiente naturale e culturale. Gli assi su

cui si sviluppano le azioni di una Smart City sono molteplici: mobilità, ambiente ed energia, qualità

edilizia, economia e capacità di attrazione di talenti e investimenti, partecipazione e coinvolgimento dei

cittadini. Condizioni indispensabili sono una connettività diffusa e la digitalizzazione delle comunicazioni e

dei servizi….

• Source: Documento di consultazione pubblica per le amministrazioni – Digit PA – July 2012

• IS THIS DEFINITION REALLY SUITABLE FOR A ROADMAP?

Traditional notion: http://www.smart-cities.eu/model.html

• A Smart City is a city well performing in 6 characteristics, built on the ‘smart’ combination of endowments and activities of self-decisive, independent and aware citizens.

• Source: SmartCities.eu 2007

Which targets for a smart city? • The European definition of smart city

comes from the SETIS project – Strategic Energy Technologies Information System - and is focussing on energy issues from consumption to efficiency

• In Italy there are different

approaches and examples, which I would call “holistic” (vs. targeted):

• [Milano] la “realizzazione di un

modello di città intelligente specifico rispetto alle risorse nazionali: il patrimonio culturale, i centri storici, le città di media dimensione, il turismo, specifici modelli di coesione sociale….”.

• At the World City Summit in Singapore,(July 2012), as pointed out by IDC:

• “ Economic growth, urban revitalization and livable cities are all key goals for city leaders, though the priorities and steps to meet these goals vary by region and city”.

• “Some cities focus on crime, transportation, or disaster management (a key topic, not surprisingly, for Japanese Mayors) or other areas”.

• “Water was a key priority area throughout the Summit ,including water conservancy, water quality, flooding, drainage and sewage”.

In other words:

La città - piattaforma

Bologna 29-31 ottobre 2012

Governance

From relabel to reliable

• Turin has renamed its Environmental agency into a "Smart City Torino Foundation for Sustainable Development“, with the aim of developing an integrated model for flexible financing and management of strategic planning.

• Turin also initiated the construction of a platform for Smart City to Turin, from experience and from the indications emerging from TAPE (Turin Action Plan for Energy).

Downtown Torino

Co design

Data vs assumption: key to co-design

• Hertfordshire county decided to turn off 70% of public lighting between Midnight and 6 AM

• Citizen survey to identify areas where lighting can be modulated

• More patrols + information to population

• Results

– No impact on crime rate

– No increase of road accidents

Estimated cut in emissions and budget: 30%

Lighting modulation map

Density models (Milano)

• Provide data on density of a specific phenomena

• In this map: number of new regular jobs in the first 6 months of 2011.

High resolution down to a single building

. (Source: lavoce.info)

Universal design approaches

• UDA comes from willingness to facilitate use of phisycal space for disabled users

• UDA set out a high minimum standard for engagement. This is making services better for everyone, by thinking through the needs of the most demanding ‘extreme’ users of physical spaces.

• Can be applied to most services, not just spaces!

Bring your own garbage: an example of well applied UDA

Co-mingled system for separate waste in Pisa

• Pisa incentivizes waste sorting by citizen

• Discounts on waste collection tax based on a point system

• Savings from reduced expenditure in sorting are passed on to citizen (up to 30% of total tax, 208 € saved for larger families)

Pisa ti differenzia

Translate small ideas into some form

of concrete action.

Experience showed that online and offline suggestion boxes do not work – people need to see, quite quickly, how their idea is being incorporated into the design of a solution that is relevant to them. The Ei je een idee ‘egg’ in the streets made it clear that a suggestion for improving things would not fall on deaf ears, or into the bottom of a ‘suggestion box’, but that someone – even if it is an egg – would hear it and do something with it.

Social network of sensors+humans

Current issues - Rome • “Urban development in Rome is a jungle”

• Any Municipality (Comune) has a big conflict of interest as long as they can use up to 75% of land conversion and property development fees (It. = oneri di urbanizzazione) for current expenses = lead to underinvested cities!

• The Urban master plan dictates future developments of any “smart application”, starting with mobility plans.

• I.e. (Metro lines cannot chase low density areas)

The way forward – a smarter Rome

• Strategic plan + stop using property development fees (Oneri di urbanizzazione) for current expenses

• Roadmap and deadlines • Clear cut responsibilities: governance 2.0? • Participation of many, but also better

stakeholders (Public/private/universities) • Inclusion of citizens • Social innovation • Co-design

Smart: Ensure continuity of administrative processes -

• Will the current local administration of Rome participate in the calls for european and national funds for smart cities?

• Time is running :

• MIUR – smart cities bid – deadline 17 november 2012;

• European Innovation Partnership: Launch of the Smart Cities and Communities Call for Proposals deadline: 4 december 2012

Need for a White knight?

• You/we are the white knights, I’m afraid….

• Let’s make 1, 10, 100 of them!