Tech and the city: Part 1
Technology’s increasingly part of the fabric of cities. Transit trackers monitor ridership and arrival times. Buildings are monitored for energy use, and for use by people. Early warning systems listen out for the risks of earthquakes and flooding.
The tech that’s harnessed includes “the internet of things”, big data, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing (which ports are experimenting with, with varying success).
Government tech platforms can play an important role connecting people to services, while citizen-built platforms strengthen transparency in areas that range from instances of sexual harassment, to public procurement contracts. Major tech firms like Ericsson and Microsoft, and consultancies like McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group sell smart city solutions and strategies to local and national governments.
How “smart city”* technology is designed, rolled out and maintained can define whether it benefits people across an urban area, or whether it deepens existing bias and inequalities. Attention and action in these five areas can mitigate the risks.
1. PURPOSE
Harness tech to address current and projected needs of people in the city, particularly the most vulnerable
Geopolitics and their connected private sector agendas come into play in shaping the way technology gets rolled out. Smart city strategies sometimes move forward after being pitched as part of a market-share expansion strategy rather than in response to locally-identified needs.
In Sihanoukville, Cambodia, the municipality worked with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Habitat on a strategy to ensure that its approach to “smartness” and the use of technology is grounded in human rights, and contributes towards addressing issues like housing, disaster preparedness and displacement.
As the UN’s resident coordinator in Cambodia at the time, Pauline Tamesis, put it, “no city can truly be considered ‘smart’ if it ignores the interests of the poor”.
2. BUDGET
Ensure that budget allocated to tech is aligned with priority investments in infrastructure and services and is strategically financed
There’s a risk that often cash-strapped municipalities divert budget toward “smart” initiatives and away from, for example, sanitation, housing improvements or public transit upgrades.
India’s “100 Smart Cities Mission” has been critiqued in this vein. Housing and Land Rights Network lifted up the fact that promotional smart city materials often use images of high-consumption, artificially constructed spaces that contradict the goals they claim to advance:
“Though the rhetoric of the Smart Cities Mission is one of resource efficiency and inclusion, none of the images seem to portray mixed-income neighborhoods, social housing, street vendors, women’s and children’s security, and integrated development paradigms.”
A recent Institute of the Americas report on smart city strategies in Latin America hones in on the benefits of tech in urban areas, and the importance of managing the risks through planning and financing.
“[P]rioritization of smart city projects…is a task far more nuanced than simply selecting the most technologically advanced options…Crucial to this evaluation are factors such as alignment with broader strategic goals, technical feasibility, and the equitable distribution of benefits across the community.
Funding is another critical consideration…While public budgets can provide some of the necessary capital, additional financing models often need to be explored.”
3. DESIGN
Diversify tech design teams, and ensure that real-world users have a say in testing and informing how initiatives are introduced and rolled out
The rise of large language-based models has drawn new attention to the fact that technology is not “value-neutral”. In the case of language models, their seemingly authoritative responses and recommendations rest on the basis of only a narrow “understanding” of reality (including when they try to auto-correct for this), an understanding which is at odds with the multiplicity of people’s experience of their urban and built environment surroundings across language, age, ability, gender, migration experience and more.
Technological shifts and new applications also have workforce implications, which are often overlooked.
Expanding who is involved in planning for digitization and in tech development and roll-out can help ensure it does not reinforce existing bias and brings benefits across a city’s population.
4. DATA
Strengthen governance and accountability in how data is gathered and stored
Data is “the new gold”. Tech-in-the-city increases the gathering of data about peoples’ movements and choices by public and private entities, and the potential mis-use of that data in policing and targeting minority populations, from China, to Brazil, to Europe, to the US.
There are often accountability concerns around who owns and controls the data that is generated. Google’s Sidewalk Lab’s ambitious plan for Toronto’s waterfront area faced significant backlash over that issue, and the perception that the city’s future was being defined from the outside. Toronto eventually put the brakes on the partnership and issued a new tender.
In reviewing the policies and practices of 36 “pioneer” smart cities, the World Economic Forum identified key gaps in governance, expertise, and privacy measures. Around 50 cities – from Amman, to Athens, to New York, to Medellín have joined the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights to work on ways to ensure digital rights are protected in their urban areas: across five areas that include universal access to the internet, as well as privacy, data collection and security.
5. MAINTENANCE
Ensure that tech initiatives are designed to be tested and kept up over time
Technology evolves so fast that solutions that seem new today can soon become obsolete. This points to the need for continued upkeep and feedback on how tech is being used. And it links back to the first point: the need to ensure that the purpose is well thought-through and shaped with input from local populations in the first place, contributing towards the realization of wider strategic goals.
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*After reviewing 120 different uses of the phrase “smart city”, the International Telecommunications Union came up with this definition:
“A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses ICTs and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects”.
Coming up: “Tech and the City - Part 2” will look at tech firms’ increasing ownership of land and buildings
See also:
“Dignity by Design: Human Rights and the Built Environment Lifecycle”, IHRB, pages 61-62 on technology and smart cities
“AI and Cities: Risks, Applications and Governance”, UN Habitat