By: Muneera Bano (@DrMuneeraBano) and Didar Zowghi (@DidarZowghi)
It has been predicted that by 2050, around two-thirds of the world’s population might be living in urban settlements. To make the cities ready for population expansion and growth, ICT is playing a critical role in the future of urbanisation referred to as ‘Smart City’. It has recently become the hot topic of research as the tech giants such as Google and Microsoft entering the race of real state.
There is no consensus on the exact definition of smart cities, however, any definition would refer to the core concepts of advanced technological infrastructure for urban society with collaborative and interactive human-centred design. An emerging view is that smart cities aim to increase efficiency, sustainability, and improve quality of life for citizen by utilizing technologies to connect every layer of a city, from the air to the streets to underground, to capture and analyse data from various independently-managed and operating infrastructures, utilities and service providers.
The buzz words used by researchers to propose architectural solutions for smart cities include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Phones, Cloud-based Services and Big Data. In essence, a smart city is a large-scale cyber-physical complex socio-technical system for an urban population that is comprised of many interconnected subsystems. Examples of these subsystems include transportation, power and water supply, waste management, pollution monitoring, crime detection, video surveillance, emergency response system and other smart community initiatives for e-governance. Typical examples of smart city are Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Stockholm, and New York.
The three core components of a smart city are People, Processes and Technology. Regardless of the type of technology used for smart city implementation, the most emphasised factor is ‘Citizen Engagement’. As pointed out by Bettina Tratz-Ryan, research vice president at Gartner, "The way forward today is a community-driven, bottom-up approach where citizens are an integral part of designing and developing smart cities and not a top-down policy with city leaders focusing on technology platforms alone”.
Smart city design should not only allow the community of citizens to interact directly with the technology but increase their participation in the governance of the cities. However, relatively little research has focused on the complexities and pragmatics of citizen engagement leading to their participation in governance.
There are various stakeholders in the smart city and citizens are only one group of stakeholder. The intention for involving citizens in co-production and the evolution of the smart city is to turn them into a technologically intelligent community where collective human intelligence works in parallel to AI for maximum effectiveness. However, in practice, such form of citizen engagement (to the level of co-governance by society) has yet to be observed in real life examples.
The democratic concept of stakeholder involvement in system design is quite old and well established. Without careful consideration and management, involving stakeholders can cause issues rather than provide benefits. Smart city, being a complex, large-scale, cyber-physical, multi-faceted, multi-layered and socio-technical system, presents new challenges on how to involve and engage the right stakeholder (citizens).
The critical aspect of any smart city project is derived from the political, social and cultural values of the society. The design and infrastructure of a smart city, type of citizen engagement and its evolution will reflect the political system. Examples of such differences can be seen in the citizen engagement by Japan, in the Social Credit System by China, or the bio-microchip implementation by Sweden.
Whether citizen engagement is a democratic initiative (neo-humanist), where the technology is utilised to improve the life and environment of a city, or is it a step towards an increase in controlling the behavioural patterns of the citizens on politically acceptable values inherent in the governance layer of society (functionalist approach) or as simply phrased mass surveillance, the questions regarding citizen engagement such as who will be involved, why, when, how and how much, would all be answered within the political context and the paradigm of governance of a country.
There is a need for further research on various dimensions of citizen engagement not just from purely technological perspectives but also from a social perspective such as political, cultural, and ethical. It is one of the important aspects of smart city and lack of proper citizen engagement and fair representation of citizens from all walks of life can have serious repercussions. Lack of diverse representation can lead to biases in design, that can disadvantage the under-represented or underprivileged groups of citizens. Also, there is a possibility of increasing the digital divide that will impact the less technologically savvy population of cities.
Another crucial issue that requires attention is data protection and privacy. Smart cities capture and manage large amounts of data that is extremely important for their operations. Any data loss will disrupt city operations and will impact citizen’s trust and confidence. Data collected and manipulated by Smart Cities solutions are critically sensitive for citizens, businesses, governmental, and emergency services, etc. To ensure compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR, smart city architecture must include data protection as a critical requirement and must embed privacy protection in all stages of the data lifecycle.
Muneera Bano na Didar Dujarric wanasema kuwa kufikia mwaka 2050 asilimia mbili ya watu duniani watakuwa wanaishi katika maeneo ya mijini. Ili kufanya miji tayari kwa ajili ya upanuzi wa idadi ya watu na ukuaji, ICT ni kucheza jukumu muhimu katika siku zijazo za mijini inajulikana kama <unk>Smart City<unk>. Hivi karibuni, teknolojia ya teknolojia imekuwa suala la kuvutia kwa sababu ya teknolojia kubwa kama vile Google na Microsoft, ambayo ni moja ya makampuni ya teknolojia ya kisasa. Hakuna makubaliano juu ya ufafanuzi sahihi wa miji ya akili, hata hivyo, ufafanuzi wowote ungeelekeza kwa dhana za msingi za miundombinu ya teknolojia ya hali ya juu kwa jamii ya mijini na muundo wa ushirikiano na mwingiliano wa binadamu. Mtazamo unaojitokeza ni kwamba miji ya smart inakusudia kuongeza ufanisi, uendelevu, na kuboresha ubora wa maisha kwa raia kwa kutumia teknolojia kuunganisha kila safu ya jiji, kutoka hewa hadi barabara hadi chini ya ardhi, kukamata na kuchambua data kutoka kwa miundombinu mbalimbali inayosimamiwa na kuendeshwa kwa kujitegemea, huduma na watoa huduma. "Neno la ""buzz"" linalotumiwa na watafiti kupendekeza suluhisho la usanifu kwa miji ya akili ni pamoja na akili bandia (AI), mtandao wa vitu (IoT), simu za rununu, huduma za wingu na data kubwa." Mji smart ni mfumo mkubwa wa kibiashara, kiuchumi na kiteknolojia kwa ajili ya wakazi wa mijini ambao unajumuisha mifumo mingi ya chini iliyounganishwa. Mifano ya mifumo hii ni pamoja na usafiri, umeme na maji, usimamizi wa taka, ufuatiliaji wa uchafuzi, kugundua uhalifu, ufuatiliaji wa video, mfumo wa majibu ya dharura na mipango mingine ya jamii ya smart kwa e-utawala. Mifano ya kawaida ya jiji la akili ni Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Stockholm, na New York. Sehemu tatu za msingi za mji smart ni Watu, Utaratibu na Teknolojia. Bila kujali aina ya teknolojia kutumika kwa ajili ya utekelezaji wa mji smart, sababu zaidi alisisitiza ni <unk> Citizen Engagement<unk>. "Bettina Tretz-Ryan, makamu wa rais wa utafiti katika Gartner, alisema: ""Njia ya mbele leo ni jamii inayoendeshwa, mbinu ya chini-juu ambapo wananchi ni sehemu muhimu ya kubuni na kuendeleza miji ya akili na sio sera ya juu-chini na viongozi wa jiji wakizingatia jukwaa la teknolojia tu.""" Ubunifu wa jiji la smart haupaswi tu kuruhusu jamii ya raia kuingiliana moja kwa moja na teknolojia lakini kuongeza ushiriki wao katika utawala wa miji. Hata hivyo, utafiti mdogo umezingatia utata na vitendo vya ushiriki wa raia unaoongoza kwenye ushiriki wao katika utawala. Kuna wadau mbalimbali katika mji smart na wananchi ni kundi moja tu ya wadau. Lengo la kuingiza wananchi katika uzalishaji wa pamoja na mageuzi ya jiji la akili ni kuwafanya kuwa jamii ya kiufundi ya kiteknolojia ambapo akili ya pamoja ya binadamu inafanya kazi sambamba na AI kwa ufanisi wa juu. Hata hivyo, katika mazoezi, aina hiyo ya ushiriki wa raia (kwa kiwango cha utawala wa pamoja na jamii) bado haijaonekana katika mifano ya maisha halisi. Dhana ya kidemokrasia ya ushiriki wa wadau katika kubuni mfumo ni ya zamani sana na imeanzishwa vizuri. Bila kuzingatia kwa uangalifu na usimamizi, kuhusisha wadau inaweza kusababisha matatizo badala ya kutoa faida. Jiji la Smart, kuwa mfumo tata, wa kiwango kikubwa, wa cyber-physical, wa hali nyingi, wa tabaka nyingi na wa kijamii, inatoa changamoto mpya juu ya jinsi ya kuhusisha na kuhusisha wadau sahihi (raia). Sehemu muhimu ya mradi wowote wa jiji la akili hutokana na maadili ya kisiasa, kijamii na kitamaduni ya jamii. Ubunifu na miundombinu ya jiji la akili, aina ya ushiriki wa raia na mageuzi yake itaonyesha mfumo wa kisiasa. Mifano ya tofauti hizo inaweza kuonekana katika ushiriki wa raia na Japan, katika Mfumo wa Mikopo ya Jamii na China, au utekelezaji wa bio-microchip na Sweden. Kama ushiriki wa raia ni mpango wa kidemokrasia (neo-humanist), ambapo teknolojia hutumiwa kuboresha maisha na mazingira ya jiji, au ni hatua ya kuongezeka kwa kudhibiti mifumo ya tabia ya raia juu ya maadili yanayokubaliwa kisiasa katika safu ya utawala wa jamii (mtazamo wa kazi) au kama tu kutaja ufuatiliaji wa wingi, maswali kuhusu ushiriki wa raia kama vile ni nani atakayejihusisha, kwa nini, lini, jinsi na kiasi gani, yote yatakuwa na majibu ndani ya muktadha wa kisiasa na mfano wa utawala wa nchi. Kuna haja ya utafiti zaidi juu ya vipimo mbalimbali vya ushiriki wa raia sio tu kutoka kwa mtazamo wa kiteknolojia lakini pia kutoka kwa mtazamo wa kijamii kama vile kisiasa, kitamaduni, na maadili. "Hii ni moja ya mambo muhimu ya ""smart city"" na ukosefu wa ushiriki sahihi wa raia na uwakilishi wa haki wa raia kutoka maeneo yote ya maisha inaweza kuwa na athari kubwa." Ukosefu wa uwakilishi tofauti unaweza kusababisha upendeleo katika kubuni, ambayo inaweza hasara underrepresented au underprivileged makundi ya wananchi. Pia, kuna uwezekano wa kuongezeka kwa mgawanyiko wa dijiti ambao utaathiri idadi ya watu wasio na ujuzi wa teknolojia katika miji. Suala jingine muhimu ambalo linahitaji uangalifu ni ulinzi wa data na faragha. Miji ya smart kukamata na kusimamia kiasi kikubwa cha data ambayo ni muhimu sana kwa ajili ya shughuli zao. Uharibifu wowote wa data utavunja shughuli za jiji na utaathiri imani na uaminifu wa raia. Takwimu zilizokusanywa na kusindika na suluhisho la Smart Cities ni muhimu sana kwa raia, biashara, serikali, na huduma za dharura, nk. Ili kuhakikisha kufuata kanuni za ulinzi wa data kama vile GDPR, usanifu wa jiji la akili lazima ujumuishe ulinzi wa data kama mahitaji muhimu na lazima uingize ulinzi wa faragha katika hatua zote za mzunguko wa maisha ya data.