Smart Cities: Governing, Modelling and Analysing the Transition

Smart city development has emerged a major issue over the past 5 years. Since the launch of IBM’s Smart Planet and CISCO’s Smart Cities and Communities programmes, their potential to deliver on global sustainable development targets have captured the public’s attention. However, despite this growing interest in the development of smart cities, little has as yet been published that either sets out the state-of-the-art, or which offers a less than subjective, arm’s length and dispassionate account of their potential contribution.

This book brings together cutting edge research and the findings from technical development projects from leading authorities within the field to capture the transition to smart cities. It explores what is understood about smart cities, playing particular attention on the governance, modelling and analysis of the transition that smart cities seek to represent. In paving the way for such a representation, the book begins to account for the social capital of smart communities and begins the task of modelling their embedded intelligence through an analysis of what the “embedded intelligence of smart cities” contributes to the sustainability of urban development.

This innovative book offers an interdisciplinary perspective and shall be of interest to researchers, policy analysts and technical experts involved in and responsible for the planning, development and design of smart cities. It will also be of particular value to final year undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in Geography, Architecture and Planning.

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Rockefeller Foundation Selects 33 Cities for Resiliency Challenge

The Rockefeller Foundation has named the first group of cities selected in the “100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge.” Each city has been chosen for demonstrating “a commitment to building their own capacities to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back rapidly from shocks and stresses.” More than 1,000 registrations and nearly 400 formal applications from cities around the world were submitted. After careful review of each city’s challenges, these 33 where chosen: 

Africa

Dakar (Senegal)
Durban (South Africa)

Central and South America

Medellín (Colombia)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Porto-Alegre (Brazil)
Quito (Ecuador)
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Europe 

Bristol (UK)
Glasgow (UK)
Rome (Italy)
Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Vejle (DK)

Middle East

Ashkelon (Israel)
Byblos (Lebanon)
Ramallah (Palestine)

North America 

Alameda (CA)
Berkeley (CA)
Boulder (CO)
El Paso (TX)
Jacksonville (FL)
Los Angeles (CA)
New Orleans (LA)
New York City (NY)
Norfolk (VA)
Oakland (CA)
San Francisco (CA)

Oceania

Christchurch (New Zealand)
Melbourne (Australia) 

South Asia

Surat (India)

Southeast Asia

Bangkok (Thailand)
Da Nang (Vietnam)
Mandalay (Myanmar)
Semarang (Indonesia)

Those selected will work with The Rockefeller Foundation’s partners to establish the suite of financial and technical assistance support to develop and implement the resilience plan, become an integrated member of the 100 Resilient Cities Network, and create or expand the role of a Chief Resilience Officer within the municipal government.

Select on each cities name to learn more about their challenge.

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