The Future of Smart Cities and Their Economic Impact
Abstract
This research paper deals with the link between new technological paradigms and the shape of urban life, that is smart cities. Understood as cities that are not merely equipped with a sophisticated ICT infrastructure but are in fact using the Available Network Technologies (ANT) as a driver for more sustainable, greener, open and just forms of economic growth. A general point is made on the novelty of smart cities, their multidisciplinary nature (IT Governance, Urban Economics, Policy Evaluation), and the theoretical and methodological challenges they raise. At an analytical level, attention is paid to the effects of smart cities on zurban change, and the emergence of a new urban structure.Cities are hubs of economic activity, innovation, cultural life and law-making, their fertility depends on their ability to smoothen the aggregation, production and distribution of tacit and codified knowledge. Urban productivity growth is robustly associated with higher quality of life. Furthermore, the issue of urban sustainability has gained much attention, being cities the source of most carbon emissions the world over. This links to the traditional urban economy literature. The aggregate ecological footprint of many cities is much larger than the biocapacity of their local natural environment. As such, a sustainable management of their natural resources is necessary for their long run economic success. At another level, the depletion of these natural resources can affect the availability of production factors for future generations. These points have been captured by a rich literature dealing with the impact of urban form (compact vs. sprawl) on economic performance and social sustainability. These issues are especially pressing given the expected, and much feared, population trajectory of the world’s largest urban areas in the coming decades, a funnelling of an ever growing (and increasingly less educated) number of new urbanites into what in turn will be mostly informal, low-productive, over-polluted and crime-ridden economic enclaves.
Keywords- smart cities, economic impact, urban sustainability, technology infrastructure, urban economics, innovation, quality of life, resource management
