Smart cities, Smart Dublin

Rob Kitchin

NIRSA, National University of Ireland Maynooth

Programmable City

• A European Research Council (ERC) and Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) funded for 5 years

• Investigating the relationship between networked digital technologies and infrastructures and the management and governance of city life

• Two main case study sites: Dublin and Boston

• Sub-projects include: • smart city policy/programmes and municipal governance;

• the political economy of smart cities;

• the creation of smart city standards;

• the procurement and deployment of smart city technologies

• open data, real-time data, urban dashboards and city management

• Spatial big data, public administration data practices, new official statistics

• ethics, data privacy issues and security vulnerabilities of smart cities and urban big data;

• public participation, civic hacking and hackathons;

• social innovation and bike-share schemes;

• urban resilience and emergency management;

• smart grid technologies and new energy markets;

• wearable computing, locative media and spatial behaviour;

• networked digital technologies and the changing nature of work practices

Smart cities

• Lots of definitions of smart cities. Generally encompass three

dynamics:

• Instrumentation and regulation

• Cities composed of ‘everyware’ - ICT infrastructure, devices, sensors,

software - produce urban big data

• Cities become knowable and controllable in new, dynamic, reactive

ways; improved models and simulations for future development

• More efficient, competitive and productive management and service

delivery

Smart cities

• Lots of definitions of smart cities. Generally encompass three dynamics: • Instrumentation and regulation

• Cities composed of ‘everyware’ - ICT infrastructure, devices, sensors, software - produce urban big data

• Cities become knowable and controllable in new, dynamic, reactive ways; improved models and simulations for future development

• More efficient, competitive and productive management and service delivery

• Economic development and governance • Reconfiguring human capital, creativity, innovation, education,

sustainability, governance; foster economic growth

• Cities as competitive, entrepreneurial, knowledge-driven systems

• Social innovation, civic engagement and hactivism • ICT provides means for transparent and accountable governance, new

forms of civic participation, better informed citizens

Smart Dublin?

• From the accidental smart city

• Each LA and depts largely working on their own

• No clear agenda, ad hoc, reactive

• No clear processes of engagement, opportunistic

• Dublinked the main coordinated programme

• Capacity issues – staffing, expertise, funding

• Fractured landscape of initiatives and stakeholders (LAs,

industry, civic, universities)

• Narrative largely economically focused pre-2010 – creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, inward

investment – shifted to service delivery 2011-14

Smart

economy

Dublinked Provides access to city datasets, including to some real-time data feeds

Digital Hub Cluster of digital content and technology enterprises; provides space, infrastructure and support services

Startup commissioner Advocates for tech start-ups; organizes events and support schemes

NDRC Provides supports and capital investment for startups; runs/sponsors hackathons

Greenway Cleantech cluster supporting and developing the green economy

Smart

government

Fix-your-street A website and app for reporting issues (e.g., vandalism, dumping, potholes) to local authorities

Public realm operations map An interactive map that reports where and how local authority funds are spent

CRM workflow Customer relations management system used to interface with the public and undertake workflow planning

Library digital services A suite of library apps for various services

Smart

mobility

Intelligent transport system A suite of different technologies feeding into a centralised traffic control room

Eflow road tolling Automated roll tolling/billing using transponders

Fleet management GPS tracking of local authority fleets and route optiminisation

Leapcard Smart card access/payment for trains, buses and trams.

Real-time Passenger Info Digital displays at bus and tram stops /train stations providing info on the arrival/departure time of services

Smart parking Transponder payment system; park-by-text; display around city; API feed

Information display signs Traffic (crash/delay) alerts; speeding display signs

Bliptracker displays Bike counters; car parking spaces counters; airport queue counters

Dublin Bikes Public hire bike scheme

Smart

environment

Sensor flood monitoring Use of sensor network to monitor river levels by Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and local authorities

Pollution monitoring EPA network of pollution sensors

Public building energy use Real-time monitoring of energy use with local authority buildings; publicly displayed on screens

Big Belly Bins Networked compactor bins that use sensors to monitor levels; waste collection route optimisation

Smart living Street CCTV Network of digital interactive CCTV cameras (alter direction/zoom)

Community CCTV Network of CCTV in public places (e.g., parks); provides SMS alerts; speakers in lampposts

Sonitus sound sensing Network of sound sensors monitoring noise levels

Monitored sheltered housing Remote monitoring of movement sensors and panic buttons in sheltered homes

Smart Stadium Sensor network monitoring different facets of stadium use

Smart people DublinDashboard Interactive graphs and maps of city data, including real-time data, as well location-based services

Fingal Open Data Local authority open data sets

Map Alerter Real-time alerts of weather and flooding

CIVIQ Consultation and deliberation tool for planning and development

Citizenspace Consultation and deliberation tool for planning and development

Tog Civic hacking maker meetups

Smart Dublin

• To the coordinated smart city

• Four local authorities working together

• LAs setting agenda, much more strategic and long-term

focused

• More coordinated approach with stakeholders (industry, civic,

universities) and managed process of engagement

• Willingness to experiment with procurement and testbedding

• Still capacity issues, but now resourced

• Better tie-ins with European initiatives – Open and Agile Smart

Cities, City Protocol, Urbact – and with other Irish cities

• 2014 onwards a more focused narrative that balances all three

elements of smart cities

Conclusion

• At an exciting juncture

• Smart Dublin is a coordinated and agenda-driven

approach to smart city development

• Dublin becoming recognized internationally as a

potentially leading smart city

• Still capacity and governance issues but

• Huge opportunities given stakeholder strength (SMEs,

MNCs, Universities, Civic)

• The challenge is to realise those opportunities in ways

that serve all Dubliners

Rob.Kitchin@nuim.ie @robkitchin

http://www.nuim.ie/progcity

@progcity

Kitchin, R. (2016) Getting smarter about smart cities: Improving data privacy and data

security. Data Protection Unit, Department of the Taoiseach, Dublin, Ireland.

Kitchin, R., Lauriault, T. and McArdle, G. (2015) Knowing and governing cities through urban

indicators, city benchmarking and real-time dashboards. Regional Studies, Regional Science

2: 1-28

Kitchin, R. (2015) Making sense of smart cities: addressing present shortcomings.

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 8: 131-136

Kitchin, R. (2014) The real-time city? Big data and smart urbanism. GeoJournal 79(1): 1-14.