The Need for Smart Cities in India

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The Need for Smart Cities in India R. Ragavendira School of Architecture and Interior Design SRM University Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu – 603203 Mob: +91 9944443335 Mail Id: ragavendira.r@ktr.srmuniv.ac.in

Abstract: This abstract paper talks how we can think a certain city as a smart one, representation on modern practices to make cities smart. A set of the everyday multidimensional factors motivating the smart city concept and the primary things for anup-and-coming smart city lead is identified by exploring current working definitions of smart city and a diversity of various theoretical connections related to smart city. The document deals considered principles aligning to the three main dimensions (technology, people, and institutions) of smart city: integration of infrastructures and technology-mediated services, social learning for strengthening human infrastructure, and governance for institutional improvement and citizen engagement.

Key Words:Smart city, Smart technology, Infrastructure, Governance

Introduction: More than half of the World‟s population now lives in urban areas [1]. This shift from a primarily rural to a primarily urban population is projected to continue for the next couple of decades. Such enormous and complex congregations of people inevitably tend to become messy and disordered places [2]. Cities, megacities, generate new kinds of problems. Difficulty in waste management, scarcity of resources, air pollution, human health concerns, traffic congestions, and IDL - International Digital Library

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inadequate, deteriorating and aging infrastructures are among the more basic technical, physical, and material problems [3].

Although there is an increase in frequency of use of the phrase “smart city”, there is still not a clear and consistent understanding of the concept among practitioners and academia.his paper attempts to start filling this gap by identifying important trends and suggesting research agendas about cities as they invest in new ways to become “smart.” By exploring an extensive array of literature from various fields such as e-government, information science, urban studies, and public administration, we identify and discuss challenges, success factors, and impacts of government-driven initiatives to that make a city smart.Some cities are identified to successfully operate in a smarter way to solve concerns. Recent practices to make cities better for living have become successful cases for new city development strategies. We need to learn from the successfully progressive practices of the cities listed below „Smart Cities‟ aim to decrease the challenges that cities face, such as society of energy resources, healthcare, housing, water, and deteriorating infrastructure (roads, schools and transportation). They also suffer from price instability, climate change, and the demand for better economic opportunities and social benefits.

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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017 Recent advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), aligned with technology cost reduction, such as cheap mobile apps, free social media, cloud computing, and cost-effective ways to handle high volume data, provides cities with better opportunities and tools to understand, communicate and predict urban functions [25] In this context, Smart Cities and Smart City projects are being seen as a holistic approach to city planning [28]. Shah (2015) on the Government of India‟s 100 Smart Cities Programme says is is about making cities better and he emphasises the need to leapfrog towards bringing cities to a level where they deliver a quality of life that people are demanding, youth are expecting and which is everybody‟s right. Himmel et al. (2014)[26] conclude with the need for understanding today‟s urban challenges by the youth-who constitute 25 percent of today‟s world population and 28 percent (UNFPA 2015) in the case of India – and actively participating in civic engagement.

What is a smart city?

The term “smart city” was coined towards the end of the 20th century. It is rooted in the implementation of user-friendly information and communication technologies developed by major industries for urban spaces. Its meaning has since been expanded to relate to the future of cities and their development.

Smart cities are forward-looking, progressive and resource-efficient while providing at the same time a high quality of life. They promote social and technological innovations and link existing infrastructures. They incorporate new energy, traffic and transport concepts that go easy on the environment.

Their focus is on new forms of governance and public participation. Intelligent decisions IDL - International Digital Library

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need to be taken at the strategic level if cities want to become smart. It takes more than individual projects but careful decisions on long-term implementations. Considering cities as entire systems can help them achieve their ultimate goal of becoming smart. Smart cities forcefully tackle the current global challenges, such as climate change and scarcity of resources. Their claim is also to secure their economic competitiveness and quality of life for urban populations continuously on the rise.

Smart Cities Definition analysis Exploratory research focuses on multidimensional keyword analysis for definitions of Smart City[7]; a conceptual framework[9]; definition of a sustainable Smart City [8] highlighting the importance of existing literature and empirical evidence in redefining the context specific framework for Smart Cities.

The keyword analysis also facilitates the process of defining Smart Cities, while providing a framework to define each subsystem. City governments while planning for transforming their existing cities into Smart Cities or planning for new can ones can apply this framework in order to recognise their goals, components, and key stakeholders. One such case of a conceptual framework by Mosannenzadeh & Vettorato (2014) will set the context for the subsequent sections of this study. The key guiding principle of this framework is Kipling‟s method of 5W1H (Why, What, Who, How, When and Where), which is considered the most basic approach in information gathering and understanding of literature [10] relating to the Smart Cities movement.

Evolution of smart cities In Anthopoulos & Fitsilis (2013)[24] a roadmap for Smart Cities was presented.

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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017 Based on this research it is evident that Smart Cities have emerged over the last 20 years from their initial web forms to their modern ubiquitous and eco-friendly status and are considered favourable e-Government environments. The timeline presented below indicates the existence of various alternative approaches to the Smart City. The roadmap in this case was depicted via technology road mapping methods to understand recent trends in the evolution of Smart Cities and to justify alternate approaches. This roadmap was structured according to the e-service sets that Smart Cities offer and could be as useful tool for urban local bodies (ULBs). From this analysis of various approaches to Smart Cities, is is understood that technological factors are key determinants to the viability of Smart Cities. It has also raises the viability indices in measuring the sustainability of Smart Cities.

Why Smart Citites?

The keyword analysis of Smart Cities main goals and drivers is divided based on literature in three main domains (academic, governmental, industry). It shows that academic literature has a holistic approach and covers a wide range of issues. It is mostly concentrated on improvement in three main aspects: governance, community/social development, and Environment. From the industrial point of view, Smart Cities emerge mainly due to the interaction between competition ad sustainable urban development. In addition, efficiency and sustainable environment are amongst Smart Cities main objectives. Finally, governmental literature is more concerned with overall challenges including quality of life, economic growth, environment, energy, sustainability, health and safety, and mobility. The top five in the combined list included economic growth; sustainable environment; sustainability; quality of life; and improved governance.

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What are the components of a Smart City?

The components of a Smart City are its most important urban domains. These are the main targets for stakeholders to invest in. Giffinger et al. (2007) [11] lists Smart Cities different domains as economy, people, environment, governance, mobility, and buildings. Susanne Dirks and Mary Keeling (2009) [25] have a more practice-oriented division. They define the Smart Cities main components (systems) as people, business, transport, communication, water, and energy. Berst et al. (2013) [6] consider a different set of domains – built environment, energy, telecommunication, transportation, water and waste water, public health services, pubic safety, and payments.

Academic literature has a more holistic but general view about the main Smart Cities components while industrial and governmental literature has a more practical and short-term approach. The latter mainly concentrates on urban sectors that can be directly affected by urban authorities, such as transportation, energy, and buildings.

Combining the keywords for all three domains results in several common components: services, transportation, people, governance, energy, and buildings. There are other important keywords not so common to all, such as health, safety, mobility, environment, education, economy, infrastructure, and water. However, further analysis is required to sub-divide the main components of Smart Cities. For example, transportation is a sub-sector of mobility, and energy could be a sub-sector of the natural environment. These inter-relationships can lead us to choose the following areas as the main components of Smart Cities: Government, Mobility, Services, Community, Economy, Natural Environment, and Built Environment.

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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017 Who are the key stakeholders in a Smart City?

The engagement of stakeholders is key to the creation of Smart Cities. Although the perspective of each of the three domains is different they are complementary to each other. Leydesdorff & Deakin (2011)[14] introduce the university, industry and government as the three main actors of Smart Cities whose functions are subsequently organised into knowledge production, economic wealth creation, and reflexive control. Lombardi et al. (2012)[15] revised triple-helix (concept of university-industrygovernment relationships) by introducing civil society as the fourth main actor. C Aoun (2013)[13] states that Smart Cities involve business and local stakeholders, with city leadership. It introduces governments, private investors, industry suppliers, NGOs and associations, utilities, and planners and developers as different stakeholders who should collaborate to achieve Smart Cities.

CONCERTO a research project in European commission, suggests that in order to create Smart Cities, policy makers should bring all stakeholders together, including investors, local authorities, material suppliers, designers, urban planners, developers, energy utilities, contractors, engineers, tenants, and owners [16].

The keyword analysis of different notions of main stakeholders show that academic literature presents a holistic and general point of view with four main groups; people, companies/industries, government, and university, while industrial literature has a more detailed and practical approach by adding NGOs, investors, planners and developers, contractors, etc. Governmental institutions suggest a more practical point of view.

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Based on all these analyses it is finally understood that four main groups of stakeholders are involved in the creation of Smart Cities: People, Government, Industry, and Universities. In addition, some lateral groups of planners, developers, financing organisations and NGOs are also involved.

Each of these groups consists of many stakeholders. For example, government includes local/regional policy makers and authorities, municipal and other authorities.

How to create a Smart City?

Creation of Smart Cities is the most important part of conceptualising the framework. All literature presents the role of ICT [18] unanimously in this endeavour, with the emphasis on technology as an enabling component of the framework in governmental, social, economic, and environmental areas [19]. Industrial literature has a more instrument-based approach [25]and governmental institutions emphasise pro-activity and the necessity of creating metrics in order to measure the function of urban systems [20].

The suggestive framework for creation of a Smart City includes ICT combines with other strategies like investment in social capital, collaboration of different stakeholders, and integration of different components of the city [9]. This requires gathering data [12] and knowledge in all domains and of all stakeholders, and communicating this data through a comprehensive and interconnected urban network in order to have an integratedcollaborative urban development [21].

When and Where to create Smart City?

The most common time reference is the „futureâ€&#x; [22], which means there is no time limit for creation of Smart Cities. This could Copyright@IDL-2017

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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017 be due to their continuous nature of evolution [13].

Since getting smart implies a continuous improvement of the urban situation [13], each city can be „smarter‟. Obviously, many factors can accelerate or hinder this „continuous improvement‟. For example, existing policy framework, recent practices in integration of technology in urban infrastructure [23], and high level of technology advancement in a city can lead to better success in „smart‟ development.

However, there is no absolute limitation to the implementation of Smart Cities.

A Probable Solution Cities are real time systems and deem to be supermodels of efficiency, friendliness and preparedness on a mass scale[4] but as the populations swell inexorably due to migration and other factors leading to formation of urban agglomerations from cities, they need to navigate their challenges of growing demand for new constituent services by identifying potential solutions for ever increasing complicated problems within the constrained budgets, often resulting into proliferation of point solutions: emergency response integration, traffic congestion alleviation, waste and water management, smart buildings, smart grids, etc. [5] ‬ The cities need to equip themselves to integrate these point solutions to cater to the increasing demands placed on them, rather than crumbling under the growing demand and pressure.

The "smart city"has become a buzzword over last few years in the realm of government/administration, marketing giants/investors, academia/urban research laboratories and the common mass or the end users. Almost everyone has their own comprehension and conception of ‬Smart City ‬i.e. “what ‬should it ‬be?” and ‬“how ‬should it IDL - International Digital Library

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be?” etc. The smart city projects (i.e. development of new towns or transformation of old cities) that are currently going on or have completed (like Amsterdam, Seoul, etc.) have different set of parameters and characteristics to address different priorities and problems and to‬call themselves SMART. In the absence of any clear cut or globally accepted definition of Smart City , various attempts have been made to define , categorize and integrate the parameters of smart cities as different subsystems of the urban system . ‬One such categorization has been ‬doneby Chourai etal [5]. as ‬eight critical factors ‬of management ‬and organization, technology, governance, policy context, people and communities, economy, built infrastructure, and natural environment [6] ‬ besides some others, and the major classification include some or all of these in one way or the other.

Some of the green field development in the name of sustainable and smart cities have also been conceptualised and developed in India as Lavasa, Gift City (Ahmedabad), Kochi Smart City, Nano City besides some other like Dholera being labelled as Smart Cities. But there are far from satisfactory in terms of numbers and scale to meet the pace of urbanization and demand in the country, and is an urgent need of brown field development in this regard.

Conclusion The migration of people from rural to urban areas is one of the main reasons for the growth of urban population, and failed regional planning is often attributed as the main reason for it. The city is swelling in its sizes beyond the organisable limits into the peri-urban, suburban and rural areas surrounding it, thus increasing load rural land too. Furthermore the cost of infrastructure and urban service delivery is also increased to be uneconomical at one point of ‬time and the Copyright@IDL-2017

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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017 urban ‬services require decentralization. To cope with the crisis ‬within the constrained budget is an upcoming challenge which could only be met with the meticulous, coordinate and planned development of new urban centres and cities or development of the satellite towns which are also‬technologically advanced, self sustaining and ecological. The smart city concept is one such upcoming concept which is deemed to be the solution for the present day problems as well as the sustainable future. But in the absence of any definite guidelines and case specific solutions to develop the smart cities inIndia, thereis need for further research to work out the parameters, definitions and ‬guidelines for ‬the development ‬of new ‬cities on ‬green field ‬as well ‬as the ‬brown field developments.‬

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