Cities And The Digital Revolution: Aligning Technology And Humanity 3030297993, 9783030297992, 9783030298005

Table of contents :
Foreword......Page 6
Preface......Page 12
Contents......Page 15
About the Author......Page 16
List of Figures......Page 17
Abstract......Page 19
Introduction......Page 20
The Technological Revolution......Page 24
The Rise of Data in Cities......Page 28
Smarter and More Intelligent Cities......Page 32
Data and the Modernist Town......Page 35
Conclusion......Page 40
References......Page 41
Abstract......Page 48
Introduction......Page 49
The Rise of AI......Page 51
AI and Population Increase......Page 56
AI and Climate Change......Page 61
The Need to Redefine the Applicability of AI in Cities......Page 66
Conclusion......Page 69
References......Page 70
Abstract......Page 78
Introduction......Page 79
The Digital Urban Infrastructure......Page 81
The Rise of ICT Monopoly......Page 85
Social Media and the City......Page 88
Urban Branding and Social Media......Page 92
References......Page 95
Abstract......Page 101
Introduction......Page 102
Privatization of Public Service......Page 105
Public–Private Partnerships......Page 107
Public–Private Partnerships and Intellectual Property......Page 110
Privacy, Control and Propaganda......Page 113
References......Page 116
Abstract......Page 123
Introduction......Page 124
Global Cities and Diversity......Page 127
Urban Diversity and Technology......Page 129
Autonomous and Homogenous Cities......Page 133
Conclusions......Page 135
References......Page 136
Conclusion......Page 141
Index......Page 147

Citation preview

Cities and the Digital Revolution Aligning technology and humanity

Zaheer Allam

Cities and the Digital Revolution

Zaheer Allam

Cities and the Digital Revolution Aligning technology and humanity

Zaheer Allam The Port Louis Development Initiative (PLDI) Port Louis, Mauritius

ISBN 978-3-030-29799-2 ISBN 978-3-030-29800-5  (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To Peter Newman, Nikos Salingaros, Michael Mehaffy, Gaetan Siew and David Jones who collectively shaped my understanding of cities

Foreword

In his monograph “Cities and the Digital Revolution,” Zaheer Allam hits a nice goldilocks zone when considering the future impact of AI on society. On “the porridge is too cold” extreme is Yaval Harari whose book “Homo Deus”1 and supporting paper “Why Technology Favors Tyranny,”2 outlines a depressing dystopian future where humanity is controlled by AI. I think Harari’s depressing forecasts are generally “silly.”3 On the other hand, “the porridge is too hot” side is John Tamny. His book “The End of Work”4 wonderfully describes how our future will be made easier by high tech allowing us to pursue incomeproducing dreams rather than earning money by monetarily rewarded drudgery. I really like Tamny’s optimistic book.

1Harari,

Yuval Noah. Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow. Random House, 2016. Yuval Noah. Why technology favors tyranny. The Atlantic (2018), 64–70. 3Robert J. Marks, “BINGECAST: YUVAL HARARI’S SILLY DYSTOPIAN IDEAS,” podcast interview with Jay Richards, Mind Matters.AI. 4Tamny, John. The end of work: Why your passion can become your job. Simon and Schuster, 2018. 2Harari,

vii

viii      Foreword

Allam’s monograph is in the middle and is just right. The scope is focused on the impact of AI on our cities of the future. The coverage is discussed in a well-documented scholarly fashion that does not read like boring scholarly prose. The writing is crisp, to the point, well documented and, most important to those of us with short attention spans, fun to read. What will the impact of AI be on cities of the future? The topic of Smart Cities using AI is prevalent enough to have its own substantive entry on Wikipedia. But should governments be in the practice of social engineering based on collected data? Gobs of data can be collected from our browsing, GPS sensors and the Internet of things (IoT). This data, it is claimed, can be used to organize and seamlessly run a city. The goals of the use of Big Data like this are noble, but how far are we from accurately mine data for useful information? Gary Smith has written some excellent books outlining concerns of the accuracy of data mining.5 One fundamental concern is that AI has no common sense. The so-called Winograd Schema common-sense challenge to AI remains unsolved.6 Spurious correlations in Big Data can miss the mark to the point of being hilarious.7 Humans in the loop are needed to mitigate such fallacies. Like a toddler running around the living room full of valuable vases, Big Data needs human supervision. In some areas, Amazon probably knows more about me than my wife. I share my Amazon prime account with my daughter who buys from the site as much as I do. The account is in my name. Amazon, with all its sophisticated Data Mining and AI reputation, isn’t smart enough to know a male senior citizen, me, isn’t interested in getting emails hawking baby clothes and diapers. I know from conversations that I am not the only one. Data Mining for Smart Cities needs to be smarter than Amazon.8 5Smith, Gary. The AI delusion. Oxford University Press, 2018. And Smith, Gary, and Jay Cordes. The 9 pitfalls of data science. Oxford University Press, 2019. 6Robert J. Marks, AI is no match for ambiguity. Mind Matters, July 17, 2019. 7Spurious Correlations. https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations. 8I suspect the problem could be solved using data clustering. See Meng, Lei, Ah-Hwee Tan, and Donald Wunsch. Adaptive resonance theory in social media data clustering. Springer International Publishing, 2019.

Foreword     ix

Another concern about Smart Cities is the unintended consequences of AI. Self-driving cars being confused by a wind-blown plastic bag is an example. As the complexity of AI increases linearly, the number of unintended consequences increases exponentially. Proposed Smart City managing AI looks complex in conception. This can be mitigated by disjunctive design, i.e. constructing siloed applications instead of one big general AI system. My biggest concern about Smart Cities is the Big Brother Impact. Smart Cities will supposedly better our lives through the collection of data. “This includes data collected from citizens, devices, and assets …”9 I don’t want the government to collect data from me. If I’m not violating the law, the government has no business monitoring what I do. In the USA, this right is guaranteed by the fourth amendment to the US constitution. Privacy is a fundamental component of liberty. A few decades ago, I was an organizer for a professional neural networks conference in the city/state Singapore. What a wonderful clean country it was. Many attributed this to Singapore law. I was told that anyone convicted of murder, rape or dealing drugs got no second chance. They were tried and, if convicted, executed. I saw no graffiti. Recall the 1994 Singapore incident where a 19-year-old American was convicted of vandalism.10 He was sentenced to four swings with a long whacking cane on his backside.11 Singapore doesn’t mess around with crime. When I visited, leaving a public toilet unflushed carried a fifty dollar fine. And because of its environmental impact, chewing gum was outlawed. Really. Although I occasionally enjoy chewing gum, I kind of liked Singapore’s no-nonsense response to breaking the law. But my mind was changed after asking a National University of Singapore professor how

9Smart

Cities, Wikipedia. Caned in Singapore Tells of the Blood and the Scars. Reuters, June 29, 1994. https:// www.nytimes.com/1994/06/27/us/teen-ager-caned-in-singapore-tells-of-the-blood-and-the-scars. html. 11The caning incident was soon whimsically treated in the Weird Al Yankovic song “Headline News.” 10Teen-Ager

x      Foreword

he liked living in Singapore with their uncompromising legal system. Not wishing to be overheard, he whispered. “Have you ever driven and been followed by a police car?” I assured him I had. “Living in Singapore is like this.” He said. “Even though you are not doing anything wrong, you clinch the steering wheel with white knuckles nearly paralyzed with fear you might inadvertently do something wrong.” This Big Brother Impact is what is going to happen if some have their way in designing of Smart Cities. Data will be collected from everywhere. “This includes data collected from citizens, devices, and assets….”12 Note “citizens” on this list of data sources. We’ll all be living with white knuckles while the government monitors our activities. In some Smart City plans, our privacy will be compromised. Cities will be managed from data collected everywhere. I don’t want the government collecting data from me. First, almost everything the government manages gets screwed up. Witness the frustration felt by visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Social Service Office in the USA. Take a number and wait—typically for a long time. Unaccountable bureaucracies invariably become sluggish and inefficient. The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, recently outlawed the use of cameras at red lights.13 Bravo! I haven’t had an auto accident in over fifty years. My safe driving history gives me a reduced car insurance rate.14 What right does the government have to use AI to monitor what I do at traffic lights? It only gives innocent me Singaporian white knuckles because Big Brother is watching. Allam recognizes this in this monograph. Many are concerned about the “potential [of Big Data] to jeopardize the privacy of the citizens due

12Smart

Cities, Wikipedia. Lein. Gov. Abbott Outlaws Red-Light Traffic Cameras in Texas. US News, June 3, 2019. 14I have gotten a few speeding tickets I deserved. 13Casey

Foreword     xi

to its ability to capture minute information and make predictions from such.” There is a law of conservations of rights. On the extreme, your law against murder takes away Killer Dave’s right to kill someone simply because I am angry with them. Morality rightfully trumps Killer Dave’s rights. More on case, the right of the state to collect data from me diminishes my right to privacy. Liberty gained in part from the right of privacy is a fundamental component of human flourishing. Potential governmental tyranny needs to be avoided in Big Cities. Big Data monitoring citizens can be used to weaponize attacks on political opponents. It’s happening today in China.15 Overt government tyranny occurred in the USA when the IRS delayed and denied tax-exempt status to politically conservative groups.16 Use of private businesses is addressed by Allam. The US military successfully uses military contractors like Lockheed, Boeing and Raytheon to keep a free market advantage in procuring equipment. The companies compete in bidding. The system is not perfect, but I can see this as an effective method to push away from a central authority in Smart Cities. Finally, Allam is a proponent of the use of Big Data in environmental monitoring and control. I’m a big fan of reasonable environmental control. I was raised in Cleveland, Ohio where, 50 years ago, the Cuyahoga River caught on fire.17 I remember grease balls, the size of large oranges, washing up on Lake Erie shores. My father, a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18,18 made a great living helping dredge Lake Erie’s polluted sludge bottom. Environmental legislation and monitoring helped restore these pollution extremes, so things are a lot better today.

15See,

e.g., Chris Buckley and Paul Mozur, How china uses high-tech surveillance to subdue minorities. New York Times, May 22, 2019. 16Peter Overby, IRS apologizes for aggressive scrutiny of conservative groups. NPR, October 27, 2017. 17Mark Urychi, How ohio’s cuyahoga river came back to life 50 years after it caught on fire. NPR, June 18, 2019. 18International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18. http://www.oe18.org/.

xii      Foreword

Yesterday, there were tornado warnings in my hometown of McGregor, Texas. I turned on my cell phone and there it was without any scrolling or button-pushing: the latest on the tornado warning and the latest update. This example of top-down AI in Smart Cities is great. I don’t mind paying taxes to support cyber services like this any more than I do for supporting local police and for building roads. With thought and careful planning, I can see AI enabling Smart Cities to enhance human flourishing without imposing Big Brother oversight. But let’s proceed cautiously. Texas, USA

Robert J. Marks II

Robert J. Marks II is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Baylor University. Marks is the founding director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence, the editor-in-chief of BIO-Complexity and host of Mind Matters.19 He served as the first President of the IEEE Neural Networks Council, now the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. He was elected a fellow of the IEEE and of the Optical Society of America. Marks’ eponyms include the Zhao-Atlas-Marks time-frequency distribution, the CheungMarks theorem in Shannon sampling theory and the Papoulis-Marks-Cheung approach in multidimensional signal analysis. He has consulted for Microsoft Corporation, DARPA and Boeing Computer Services. He authored over 300 peer-reviewed technical publications and contributions to the field of Computational and Artificial Intelligence, and 10 books; his latest being ‘Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics’ co-authored with William Dembski and Winston Ewert.

19Marks’

Mind Matters podcasts can be listened to at. https://mindmatters.ai/.

Preface

If we are to dig deep into the urban philosophy and how some of our current practices came about, we will be finding ourselves exploring the intricate role of religion in the shaping of our cities, and while those have their merits, we understand how in the age of science and understanding, we cannot be made to adopt literal meaning to abstract references. Today, we are living and thriving (at least economically) in an information age—mostly due to the increasing role of data. However, this transition from abstraction to precision—this new paradigm shift— is impacting on our urban morphology and beyond in intriguing and fascinating ways. In 2007, we reached the mark of 50% of people inhabiting cities, and this was a transition that took over 5000 years to achieve. While we may tend to think—like Julius Caesar—that cities take centuries to be shaped, the Internet showed us otherwise. The Internet has been quicker to reach the halfway mark, in just over 20 years, and its adoption has disrupted our lifestyles in ways we cannot stop to describe. This word ‘unprecendented’ has often been thrown around a lot to describe the exciting times we are living in, but it is nevertheless the right one. Being both highly urbanized and connected, we are seeing xiii

xiv      Preface

opportunities never seen before and we are made to leapfrog incredible distances. So much so that the process of unlearning an outdated skill can take longer than learning a new one. While some of us are taking longer to adapt, others are born and trained to see things differently. Those opportunities brought about by the digital revolution are disrupting our ways of life across various geographical contexts. This can be argued to be good for the economy, as disruption brings about innovation, which equates to monetary benefits for private companies. But looking at this from a city-wide scale, how good is it for the societal strata? How can we ensure that while we pursue this digital revolution, we do not end up designing for machines rather than for people? And finally, how can we make sure that this disruption, and fast evolution, is geared toward inclusivity, sustainability and resilience rather than the sole profit-making of ICT organizations? This book dwells upon these questions and highlights that while there may indeed be causes of concern like issues related to privacy, privatization and the rise of ICT monopolies, there are other avenues for using the digital revolution to solve some of the most pressing challenges cities are facing, like climate change. It can also be put to contribution to develop strategies toward increasing the liveability levels of the urban fabric. Doing this can be quite tricky, as the general audience will be browsing through those pages with preconceived ideas about the rise of data and the rise of machines, as this has been widely romanticized in popular literature. Movies like Terminator, Ex Machina, Minority Report, Westworld or even The Matrix paint a pretty bleak image of data and aims to remind viewers of the important bond of people between each other and of the importance of being embedded in the fabric of reality. But as learned people, can we—with objectivity and good conscience— set aside those emerging digital tools due to fears of promoting inhumane environments without trying to calibrate those to serve for the good of society? Unlike most popular literature or cinematography, a script showing technology helping society is anti-climactic. It is nevertheless one that deserves to be accredited and shared. It deserves a chance to be explored, but above all, we have the moral and ethical imperative to consider those options, as looking at the challenges of today regarding

Preface     xv

both demographic booms and climatic changes, those new emerging tools may be just what we need. However, even though we can build arguments that data can be viewed as ways to support informed and intelligent decisions, we also need to acknowledge that this rise in data will be disruptive to our society, and this will also be seen through not only the urban economy but also the urban morphology. How then can we better prepare for such a change? Today, computers are made to answer this for us. But are those answers correct? How can computers, machines void of life, create meaningful and vibrant communities? Can we rest our fate with machines? Do we ultimately have a choice? So many questions arise when looking ahead to the future, but only little can be answered, as again we are living in unprecedented times. Who knows what ahead? What we can certainly make sure is the role of technology is framed as an enabler of liveability, instead of being used for capital gains. People over machines. Liveability over profit. Port Louis, Mauritius

Zaheer Allam

Contents

1 Data as the New Driving Gears of Urbanization 1 2 Urban Chaos and the AI Messiah 31 3 Digital Urban Networks and Social Media 61 4 Privatization and Privacy in the Digital City 85 5 On Culture, Technology and Global Cities 107 Conclusion 125 Index 131

xvii

About the Author

Zaheer Allam  is a holder of a Ph.D. from Curtin University (Australia), an M.B.A. from Anglia Ruskin University (UK) and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Architectural Science from Curtin University (Australia). Based in Mauritius, he works as an Urban Strategist for The Port Louis Development Initiative (PLDI), the Global Creative Leadership Initiative and consults on a number of projects on the thematic of Smart Cities across the African Continent and on strategies dwelling in the increasing role of technology in Culture and the Society. Zaheer is also the African Representative of the International Society of Biourbanism (ISB), member of the Advisory Circle of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), and a member of a number of other international bodies. For his contributions to society, he was made the recipient of a number of awards and was elevated, by the President of Mauritius, to the rank of Officer of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (OSK)—the highest distinct order of merit in Mauritius.

xix

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Photograph of Manhattan New York showing electrification grids at night (Source NASA) 4 Fig. 1.2 Space view on Earth showing the electrification of cities in the USA at night (Source NASA) 4 Fig. 1.3 Camels working the field. Photographed by G. Lékégian (Source The New York Public Library) 7 Fig. 1.4 Colt’s armoury and machine shops (Source The New York Public Library) 8 Fig. 1.5 A typical datacentre (Source Imgix) 12 Fig. 1.6 Modernist architectural style showcasing straight lines (Source Pierre Châtel-Innocenti) 19 Fig. 1.7 Typical modern housing block (Source Pierre Châtel-Innocenti) 20 Fig. 2.1 A typical representation of AI-driven humanoid robot (Source Arseny Togulev) 36 Fig. 2.2 Robots now pursuing physical looks to showcase emotions for ensuring widespread adoptability (Source Alex Knight) 38 Fig. 2.3 Densification of the urban fabric in Lion Rock in Hong Kong (Source Steven Wei) 40 Fig. 2.4 Urban landscape of Chicago, USA (Source Patrick Perkins) 41 Fig. 2.5 Urban landscape of Tokyo, Japan (Source Terence Starkey) 41 xxi

xxii      List of Figures

Fig. 2.6 Obstructive antennas on the rooftop of buildings (Source Alexander Tsang) 44 Fig. 2.7 Flooding in Maddison, USA (Source Jim Gade) 45 Fig. 2.8 Hurricane over Yemen (Source NASA) 48 Fig. 2.9 Giant hurricane from Space (Source NASA) 49 Fig. 3.1 Shanghai Interchange showing complex engineering and investment required in hard infrastructure (Source Denys Nevozhai) 66 Fig. 3.2 People on their phones while awaiting the metro in Naha, Japan (Source Jens Johnsson) 72 Fig. 3.3 Use of mobile phones for capturing political manifestations (Source Matthew Henry) 73 Fig. 3.4 Amsterdam Branding (Source Red Morley Hewitt) 76 Fig. 5.1 WeWork co-working offices in Toronto, Canada (Source Eloise Ambursley) 115

1 Data as the New Driving Gears of Urbanization

Abstract  While there have been a slow rural–urban transition which highlighted the role that cities are the centre for sustaining economies of regions, and even countries, it was the advent of the Internet that has drastically changed the way they are planned, operate and seen. A resulting rise in data, fuelled by a heavy technological revolution, showed that there are new ways of increasing urban efficiency and productivity. This has even reflected in reforms at governance levels and has proved how the digital layer can provide stronger networks. However, while this reinforces economies, it brings substantial changes in urban lifestyle that has for centuries and decades remained unchanged. This disruption in lifestyle is happening at faster speed and impacting not only on the social strata, but also reflecting in its physical form, the urban morphology. While the primary notion of increasing efficiency of cities is understood, the question remains of how to allow change while still catering for the liveability of cities. Keywords  Urban planning · Data · Artificial intelligence Urbanization · Technology · Smart Cities

© The Author(s) 2020 Z. Allam, Cities and the Digital Revolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5_1

·

1

2     Z. Allam

Introduction The world is experiencing two great phenomena: unprecedented rates of urbanization and rapid increase in global population. The latter is confirmed in a report by Population Reference Bureau (2018) which asserts that the number of people living in urban areas will increase from the current 54% to approximately 68% by 2050. Similarly, the global population will rise from 7.6 billion to 9.9 billion in the same period (United Nations, 2017). It has been argued that the high rate of urbanization is spurred by a number of factors which are not limited to population increase and infrastructure development. As population increases, Villa (2017) argues that small towns transform to larger (and more denser) towns and with time, as more people settle in, town boundaries expand (urban sprawl) through the development of businesses and residential buildings and infrastructures like transportation networks leading to the joining of more than one two towns to form megacities, which are commonly defined as urban areas housing over 10 million people. From the record, this trend has been live and active such that the number of megacities are said to have increased to 27 by 2010, and this number is projected to reach 43 or more by 2030 (Kennedy et al., 2015). On the same note, the number of large cities—those with between 1 million and 10 million—will increase from 512 in 2016 to 662 by 2030 (Data Booklet: United Nations, 2016). The population increase and that of urbanization have been seen to result in the dissolving of some rural areas, with some becoming part of the urban areas and this is prompted by expanding urban boundaries leading to massive change in land use and also movement of people to urban areas to seek opportunities for improved incomes, education and urban life among other factors. As this happens, it has been observed that numerous sectors such as the agricultural sector, transport and communication, manufacturing and numerous service industries among others are impacted (Zhu, 2017). Similarly, service industries also improve as the number of those seeking their services increase, and as economic growth take shape, increase in their purchasing power allows them to demand more services to the benefits of the said sectors.

1  Data as the New Driving Gears of Urbanization     3

Tajrin and Hossain (2018) explain that the convergence of large number of people in one node has the opportunity to increase the number of opportunities on economical, social, environmental and political fronts. Menike (2018) showcases that population increase, more so in urban areas though it may first be perceived as an obstacle to development and supply of basic amenities, has numerous economic and social advantages. He argues that such population increase prompts stakeholders to increase efforts in improving urban services resulting in an improvement in liveability dimensions such as health care, economic well-being and security facilitated by high levels of literacy and education, improvement of infrastructures that promotes accessibility to these services and improvement in biomedical sector, financial institutions, businesses and markets and security agencies among other are pointed. UN-Habitat (2015) argues that population increase is also pegged on political and economic stability, which, to some extent, can be seen to have prevailed in many parts of the world in the recent decade, hence allowing a conducive environment and resources for stakeholders to research on better healthcare, better agricultural practices that promote food security and construction of infrastructures that are commensurate to a surging population (Guneralp, Lwasa, Masundire, Parnell, & Seto, 2018). In the recent past, such opportunities have been accentuated by technological advancement and innovations, and their diffusion, in different spheres of the urban fabric. For instance, the inception of Internet around 20 years ago has brought drastic changes in all spheres, and as Dalglish (2006) argues, this has made the world a global village, especially in terms of communication, movement and information sharing via social and mainstream media. With the advent of Internet came the era of digital revolution which has brought numerous possibilities, especially due to the availability of the massive amount of data being generated in all quarters. In urban areas, this has been facilitated first a foremost by the advent of electrification which was the first form of grid connection witnessed by cities. Till today, the extent of this connection can be seen from high altitudes, as seen in Figs. 1.1 and 1.2.

4     Z. Allam

Fig. 1.1  Photograph of Manhattan New York showing electrification grids at night (Source NASA)

Fig. 1.2  Space view on Earth showing the electrification of cities in the USA at night (Source NASA)

1  Data as the New Driving Gears of Urbanization     5

This connected network has been later expanded in cities through the advent of the telephone and the Internet, laying the backdrop for data transfer. As technological advances made its way and the collection of data from various devices were made possible, the increasingly collected data were used to better understand different dimensions of the city, hence allowing city management and other stakeholders to device new and novel ways of increasing efficiency, productivity, liveability, resilience and environmental sustainability. Cheng et al. (2018) argue that availability of data, managed under the big data technologies, that is also integrated with other new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, Internet of things (IoT) and crowd computing among others is transforming urban cities to more sustainable dimensions. This includes the improvement of efficiency in traffic flow, environmental sustainability, climate predictability, improvement of security and optimizing on resource use among many other possibilities (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Z. Allam, 2018a; Allam & Dhunny, 2019). de Souza, de Francisco, Piekarski, and do Prado (2018) highlight that when data from different urban components are integrated and computed using other supportive technologies such as machine learning and others, it allows for the creation of Smart Cities, which, on their part have been widely associated with a potential to address social, economic and environmental developments. In particular, Bhadani (2016) supports that such technologies are lauded for allowing optimal planning and implementation of different policies that are oriented toward citizen welfare. As Alvalez (2017) explains, the availability of data is also seen to impact on cleaner energy generation and also promotes optimal usage of the said energy in residential, commercial and industrial installation, hence promoting reduction in emissions which have a significant impact on climate change. Data also allow for optimal use of other resources like water, food supplies, scarce minerals, forest products and available open spaces such that, though the population is increasing, it can provide for more intelligent resource exploitation while ensuring a sustainable outcome. While this new data-driven movement is relatively new, its application has changed the lifestyle of many and there are concerns that the association of technology to living fabrics promote a mechanical

6     Z. Allam

thinking which can negate the human qualities in cities. One notable dimension that is greatly affected is that of social interaction, especially noting that people can easily access almost any form of services without the need for human information exchange, as most of these services are automated and readily available at finger’s reach. Another field is that of transport through autonomous vehicles and unmanned drones being employed in urban centres, social interactions between human will continue to reduce though there seem to be an improvement in their living condition. This paper thus dwells into the phenomenon of technological integration in cities with an aim to increase the efficiency and performance of cities, and further explores how this is impacting on urban liveability levels.

The Technological Revolution In the world’s history, there have been five significant revolutions that have taken place and disrupted our way of life in unprecedented ways. Šmihula (2010) explains the first entailed financial-agricultural revolution which took place between 1600 and 1740, represented in Fig. 1.3. This was followed by the industrial revolution that was experienced between 1780 and 1840, where the period is extensively portrayed through the use of heavy machineries (Fig. 1.4) which heavily impacted the morphology of cities and their economy, and this was successfully taken over by the technical revolution (1880–1920). The fourth revolution was characterized of scientific-technical advancement that was experienced between 1940 and 1970. The fifth and most recent (1985–2008) is the technological revolution which has transformed numerous facets of human sphere—including culture, and as Bostrom (2006) posits, even impacting on human nature in itself. According to him, the period of technological revolution can be defined as ‘a dramatic change brought about relatively quickly by the introduction of some new technology’. Schwab (2015) shares the same thought and adds that technological revolution, unlike industrial revolution, is complex and a change in one

1  Data as the New Driving Gears of Urbanization     7

Fig. 1.3  Camels working the field. Photographed by G. Lékégian (Source The New York Public Library)

sector ultimately impacts on a wide range of other sectors due to how it allows for interconnectedness. For instance, he argues that a technological change in security influences areas such as the economy, infrastructure development, sustainability and societal dimensions among many others. Not surprisingly, the technological revolution has been found to disrupt traditional setups of doing things, like causing unemployment as certain jobs like photography are taken over by technology-enabled devices like smartphones which have the potential to capture, store and share photo via such platforms like Instagram and others. Nazarian (2014) highlights such jobs ones occupied by typists, telephone operators and office messengers that have been rendered obsolete by technological revolutions. This, as it may be, the spread of technology, is exponential, as within a short period of time it is everywhere and readily accepted across the width and breath of life (Vu, 2011).

8     Z. Allam

Fig. 1.4  Colt’s armoury and machine shops (Source The New York Public Library)

This technological disruption, however, has not always been present and is quite a recent phenomenon. As noted in the previous section, a majority of the technological advancement that have shaped the world to what it is today, interestingly, are understood to have taken roots in 1990s—a period which has been termed as the 5th wave of innovation. G. Silva and Serio (2016) term this wave as the period through which massive deployment of information and communications technologies (ICT) and networks came to life, and the world has been forced to adjust to it and the authors claim that this wave has already created a pathway for the introduction of a 6th wave which will be guided by a sustainability drive. Technologies such as the advent of Internet were introduced during the 5th wave, providing us the opportunities to further understand how to progress to the next one. Hahn (2018) describes this 5th wave as one characterized of massive innovation which has secured unprecedented countries’ prosperity, security, employment opportunities and improvement in healthcare as well as one offering solutions to energy insecurity and increasing prospects to

1  Data as the New Driving Gears of Urbanization     9

combating climate change. Šmihula (2010) discusses how these innovations which came into light in the 1990s are pointed by a mass deployment of computers, mobile phones and other devices such as broadband adoption and the Internet among many others. And, just like other authors noted above, he believes that the wave of ICT has been successful in its acceptability and application. He argues that challenges such as the financial crisis, high oil prices and economic stagnation will predict the incoming of the 6th wave, and as noted by Silvia, he also believes it is the one that would capitalize on ICT and the technologies thereof to emphasize the need for sustainability. The rapid adoption of this wave of innovation has had a lot to do with how it was being used to shape humanity especially through addressing the numerous challenges that were prompted by the fourth wave of innovation that entailed scientific-technical revolution. Šmihula (2010) contends that the previous wave had seen massive progress in sectors like air and nuclear industries, astronautics synthetic materials and oil industry cybernetics among others, and these had opened doors for great opportunities in the global economy. Nevertheless, efficiency was still a challenge since most issues relied on human interventions; hence, the inception of the era of ICT was a welcome relief for the globe. After its inception, as noted above and advanced by Pradhan, Arvin, and Norman (2015), this wave brought numerous opportunities especially due to the emergence of devices that were Internet enabled, hence allowing for data generation and sharing. Bahrini and Qaffas (2019) showcase that it is during this era that numerous developing countries like those in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions and those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been able to experience substantive economic growth, with most investments done in these regions powered by ICT. According to them, the technological advancement that has taken place since 1990s allowed government in these regions and elsewhere to manage open economies and prioritize on resources allocation and consumption, while at the same time taming the impacts of inflations and unnecessary government consumption. Besides the contributions to the development of regions, the advent of technology and its possibilities has been romanticized and celebrated in popular culture. For instance, in the entertainment industry,

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Shapero (2015) argues that ICT has revolutionized how artists and their fans interact especially after the advent of social media and the online streaming channels. The argument here is that ICT has allowed for creation of a wide range of entertainment content—from music, movie, dramas, games and web contents—and the consumers have the gained the freedom to choose from, and more so, to interact with artists and producers as well as customize their domain of entertainment. ICT has also had great impact on other popular cultures like fashion trends, media products, sports and leisure among others. Latif et al. (2018) argue that through ICT, these cultures have contributed greatly in shaping the economy with everyone in the global population directly benefiting from the diverse culture in terms of employment, business, infrastructure development, politics and innovation in the technological sphere among others. Another area that has greatly been impacted by ICT is urban planning and management with modern trends powered by ICT pointing toward turning to more intelligent city solutions. In the words of Vallianatos (2015) the first concepts of integration of ICT in cities are reported to have been drawn from Los Angeles in 1970s where it is said that the municipality then was using computer-generated data to analyze cases like crime, housing, traffic and poverty. The second concept as reported by Batty (2012) is the use of fibre optic cables in Singapore that were geared toward creating a data network that would in turn help, through the generated data, to optimize different aspects of the urban fabric like decentralization of business activities and automation of payment methods. From then, after the widespread of technological revolution, the concept of ICT in cities have taken shape, and indeed, it is the buzz word globally, as every country wants to implement these technologies in cities.

The Rise of Data in Cities After the two initial cases as portrayed of Los Angeles and Singapore, the evolution of technology in cities was seen to have been cemented by an increase in computer and Internet usage. Atkinson (1997) explains

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that earlier technologies involved the use of mainframe and desk to compute to achieve specific objectives like data generation. With time, as Internet communications became widespread, interlinkage of different components and services became possible and as Internet advanced to incorporate wireless communications, sharing of information and data became even more pronounced. Lee et al. highlights that the widespread and acceptability of this revolution has been influenced by the availability of cheaper, smaller and stronger sensors and devices and supportive technologies like IoT, machine learning and robotics among others. Costs and availability of these technologies and devices are important factord, especially in the words of Jha (2018). According to him, as the technological revolution began to take shape, there was only one website that existed globally as at August 1991 and devices such as mobile phones and sensors were rare, very expensive and clunky. Today, there are over 1 billion websites and far more mobile phones, sensors and other devices. For instance, it is reported that by this year (2019), there would be over 5 billion mobile devices globally (Statista, 2019) and over 20 billion sensors and devices employed in cities by 2020 (Talari et al., 2017)—a pointer to how much technological revolution has spread and applied in cities. The availability of these devices and technologies have resulted to generation of more data, which urban managers and stakeholders have been utilizing to improve different aspects of cities. Data are also being generated in companies and organization in respect to operations, consumption and competition, and this is helping them to improve their core operation as they compete for available markets. A report by McKinsey (Henke et al., 2016) showcases that the amount of data being produced globally keep doubling every three years as more technologies are discovered and efficient and unlimited data storage capabilities come in the fore and the cost of storing plummet as technologies improve. Today, companies are investing in both monetary and space facilities for the hosting of large data centres, as shown in Fig. 1.5, for their data requirements, and cities are slowly showing interest. One interesting fact is that the amount of data being produced (in petabytes: a petabyte is equivalent to 1000 terabyte) outweigh the world’s population (currently 7.2 billion people) by far as shown by

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Fig. 1.5  A typical datacentre (Source Imgix)

Pappas (2016). According to him, in 2011 alone, if the amount of digital data that were produced could be stored in CD-ROMS, it would require a stack of discs equivalent to 384, 400 kilometers. He comprehensively discussed that in that year alone, the amount of data were 295 exabytes (I Exabyte is equivalent to billion billion bytes, while I byte is equivalent to one character of a word). In 2013, the accumulated digital data reached 4.4 zettabytes, and this is expected to rise to 44 zettabytes by 2020 (a zettabyte is equal to 1000 exabytes) (Desjardins, 2019). Sivarajah, Kamal, Irani, and Weerakkody (2017) and other acknowledges that this wealth of data, brought about by the technological revolution is perceived as a gold mine that when exploited has the potential to spur unprecedented wealth, growth and value in all spheres. Yi, Liu, Liu, and Jin (2014) argue that this data can be regarded as the digital oil of today’s economy while Berners-Lee and Shadbolt (2011) has nicknamed it as the New Raw Material of the twenty-first century. Chen and Zhang (2014) argue that when even a portion of data, depending on its source and intended purpose, is analyzed and put into perspective, there would be increased opportunities in value creation, massive information and intelligence to help business make informed decisions,

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increased market visibility and flexibility, increased security, efficiency and response to issues among many unforeseeable benefits. For this reason, many companies and agencies are said to be positioning and strengthening themselves to provide solutions based from the interpretation of this massive data. Companies such as IBM, Cisco, and Huawei have been seen to increase their presence in this front, and they have been actively involved in some big projects like Smart City projects that rely heavily on availability of big data. On the same, as noted by Henke et al. (2016), even small companies are poising themselves for the limitless opportunities that are big data promises. In cities, various usages of data are shown to increase the safety, efficiency and performance of cities, and these factors have prompted an increase in the number of cities that are turning to the use of big data in the operation and management of cities. Barkham, Bokhari, and Saiz (2018) showcase that the availability of data and technologies that allow for analysis of the same have enabled many municipalities to come up with solutions on areas like transportation, energy, security and other areas and these are said to be improving the general welfare of citizens. Besides that, the availability of data has facilitated the opening of new business models such as Uber, Lyft and many similar platforms in different parts of the globe that offer transportation services (Henke et al., 2016; Schatzinger & Lim, 2017). Such business are said to have created numerous employment opportunities, while at the same time reduce the number of personal owned cars on the roads, thus reducing traffic, emissions and depletion of supportive infrastructure among many other benefits (Barns, Cosgrave, Acuto, & Mcneill, 2016; Joshi, Saxena, Godbole, & Shreya, 2016). In regard to safety, availability of numerous components such sensors, cameras, mobile phones and other many Internet enable devices to allow sharing of vital information, images and data that allow for quick responses to issues like accident, fires, crimes and other forms of security concerns (Regan & Monahan, 2013). Despite the promising benefits that data have and are bringing into cities, it is argued that it has proportionately provided cause for concerns in cities. Denton and Pauwels (2018) argue that the implementation of technologies in different urban fabric faces some objections from citizens who are concerned about their privacy. Some argue that

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the technologies are installed to infringe on their rights by government agencies (Monahan, 2016). Others are concerned about their personal data being misused by third parties, who are majorly contracted by governments to offer services (Sun, Zhang, Xiong, & Zhu, 2014; van Zoonen, 2016). Other concerns include the costs of successfully installing sufficient infrastructure to allow for optimal gathering and analysis of the data. According to (Fishman & Flynn, 2018), such infrastructures are expensive and capital-intensive; hence, it would be a daunting task for municipalities without solid source of revenues to finance them without engaging into debts which is another cause of concern (Arimah, 2017; Cornish, 2018; Woherem & Odedra-Straub, 2017). The primary challenge with debt financing such projects is that they take long to break even, hence would take time before a city is able to report any tangible returns from the investment (Hamilton & Zhu, 2018), tying cities to specific service delivery companies for long periods of time; this is wrongly perceived by citizens who believe that primary services need to be offered by governments and not outsourced to private sector organizations which is made to profit from the offering of those basic services (Allam, 2019b).

Smarter and More Intelligent Cities The availability of Big Data has impacted on cities in different ways, in regard to planning, governance and management. Estevez, Lopes, and Janowski notes that the increasing number of people and high rates of urbanization have been straining a majority of original urban schemes, thus prompting the need for new plans that would accommodate the changing urban profile and provide for solution to tackle challenges of insecurity, resource scarcity and climate change among many other contextual challenges that are synonymous with sprawling cities. Osman, Elragal, and Bergvall-Kareborn (2017) express how governments and stakeholders facilitate adoption of projects that have the potential to address those challenges as well as foster sustainable economic growth and improve the liveability of local fabrics. Such projects have been driven under various urban concepts that have supported the rise of

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data for better design making. These include knowledge cities, technopoles, information city, digital cities, intelligent city and finally, the current one: the Smart City concept, which has been taunted as the most complex, sophisticated and promising of other concepts that forerun it. The similitude between these urban concepts is that all rely heavily on a certain level of technological capacity, especially running on the availability of big data. However, Estevez et al. denote that the difference between the concepts is the degree and nature of how the available technology is used. For instance, they argue that in the digital city concept, digital technology is skillfully integrated into the city’s main infrastructure systems, while on the other hand, intelligent cities utilizes that integrated infrastructural systems to make the available and new structures likes buildings, transportation systems and other urban fabric ‘intelligent’ in terms of how they process data gathered. Edvardsson, Yigitcanlar, and Pancholi (2016) explain that the concept of knowledge city on its part is said to emphasis on a widespread dissemination of knowledge in all spheres of the urban fabric—be it in the public or private sector. In this concept, which was introduced in the late 1990s, the availability of big data, as we know it, was not pronounced; hence, it relied on knowledge-based development strategies (Carrillo, Yigitcanlar, Garcia, & Lonnqvist, 2014). The concept of technopoles on its part is said to have emanated from the bringing together of scientifically oriented institutions like universities and research institutions in a hightech manufacturing centres that utilizes the power of ICT (David, 2015), which has been proven as an efficient way of attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in urban development projects (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Allam & Jones, 2019a). The latest, being the Smart City concept, on its part is different from the rest in a myriad of ways, but most importantly, it is how it intelligently utilizes diverse technologies to improve various aspects of the urban fabric, the economy and the citizenry therein (Z. Allam, 2017a; Allam, 2019a; Allam, Dhunny, Siew, & Jones, 2018; Allam & Dhunny, 2019). In particular, what distinguishes the Smart City concept over others is that it dwells deeper into the usage of generated data by a myriad of connected devices, sensors, camera and systems that are integrated into the core infrastructural systems of cities. For this reason, Smart Cities

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are not the only ones seen to heavily rely on ICT but also cities with high levels of innovation on the use of data aiming at improving the liveability of their citizens and the resilience of the urban fabric, by improving performance and efficiency of urban services. Ivanov and Gnevanov (2018) share that the Smart City concept emphasizes on the use of Big Data from the initial stages of urban planning such that, ultimately, every urban fabric is linked and interconnected to each other in a single or multiple networks that are intelligently connected to a central system where data are received, analyzed and transmitted in real time to the relevant departments for action. These authors also explain that one particular strength of the Smart City is its capacity to address the numerous challenges, especially those related to sustainability that cities around the globe have been grappling with following the high rates of urbanization and population increase (Z. Allam, 2017a, 2017b; Allam & Dhunny, 2019; Allam & Newman, 2018a, 2018b). The sustainability aspect has been instigated by the unprecedented increasing demand for resources like energy, water, food and minerals and for other things like education, housing, and expounded transportation systems among others (Allam, 2012). The high consumption and increasing demand of the aforementioned urban dimensions resulted in the overexploitation of resources, change in land use to accommodate new infrastructures and urban sprawl, thus leading to challenges like increased emissions and massive degradation of the environment. The concept of Smart City, on the other hand, as related by Z. Allam (2018a) emphasizes the need for stakeholders engagements and collaborations leverages on data from different quarters to allow for fashioning the city in such a way that there is optimal use of the available resources and maximization of technologies such that the buildings, infrastructures and open spaces are planned to ensure sustainability levels. All these capabilities in Smart Cities are possible due to availability of numerous technologies such as Big Data, AI, IoT, machine learning and deep learning, blockchain technologies and crowd computing that integrate well into Smart Cities (Z. Allam, 2018b; Allam & Dhunny, 2019; Allam & Jones, 2019b). These technologies allows for real-time spawning, sharing, analysis and transmission of data in unbiased ways from stakeholders and physical objects to established

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networks and finally to dedicated sectors and departments (Jia et al., 2017; B. N. Silva, Khan, & Han, 2018; Souza, Figueredo, Cacho, Araújo, & Prolo, 2016). The interesting aspect is that AI is believed to have the potential to allow for the integration of Smart City components and devices in an intelligent ways such that, besides allowing for data generation, they comply with the sustainability efforts (Blanco, Fuchs, Parsons, & Ribeirinho, 2018; Guo, Lu, Gao, & Cao, 2018). On the same vein, IoT and machine learning can be made to provide platforms through which those components are integrated and connected (Bibri, 2018) and data from them transferred to the central nervous systems of the city, while the Crowd Computing technology allow for storage of generated data (Allam, 2019a). Reyna, Martín, Chen, Soler, and Díaz (2018) further explain that the use of blockchain technologies can ensure secure transfer of data from one node to the next, noting that one of the main objections of Smart City concept arises from the concerns on the privacy of data. When these technologies are optimally utilized, they render a datarich environment, which can be used to render more intelligent cities which, if planned correctly can help address the contemporary challenges of our time. McKinsey & Company (2018) note that such cities have the capacity to help overcome challenges of social exclusion, safety, unsustainable economic growth, unsustainable energy generation and use and a myriad of environmental challenges and many more (Barns et al., 2016; Bernal, 2016; Zyskind, Nathan, & Pentland, 2015), and thus can ensure the implementation of sustainability dimensions and ensure the livelihood of communities and of urban areas. However, there seems to be a cost associated with this, which is discussed in the next section.

Data and the Modernist Town While there have been numerous and diverse urban concepts as noted in the previous section, it is surprisingly that all these evolved very rapidly in a matter of decades. This fact is clearly tied to the knowledge that most urban concepts rely in one way or the other on data

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generated from urban physical components and the people there in, and these are dependent on the power of ICT, which as was comprehensively discussed, came into use after the 5th wave of technological revolution which began as at 1985 as explained by Šmihula (2010). The ICT framework and technologies such as the Internet, and also Internet-enabled devices started being used during the late 1990s, hence justifying why the first urban concepts supporting knowledge and databased planning was initiated during this period. Indeed, as noted by Carrillo et al. (2014), the first known structured urban concept was the Knowledge City which is believed to have been introduced in the late 1990s. The others, namely technopoles, digital cities, virtual city, information city, intelligent cities, ubiquitous city and finally the Smart City followed subsequently thereafter. Corey, Wilson, and Fan (2015) estimate that the first technopoles was successfully established in 1994, thought, plans for the same have been reported to have been undertaken even before the technological revolution. While other concepts followed thereafter those did not last very long, and it is now evident that today the attention is on Smart Cities, even though some previous concepts are still being pursued. Since the era of modernism in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the concept of modernism has been subject to great debates and seen to be flawed and lacking on human dimensions. In the architectural area, like in the urban one, pro-modernists are believed to have been emphasizing on modern technologies and ideologies in place of what they called ‘historical orthodoxies’ (Designing Buildings Wiki, 2019). As Benevolo posits, in regard to the changing environments, especially in cities, where urbanization and population increase was becoming a challenge, pursuing modernist ideologies like the popular principles ‘form follows function’ was perhaps the best bet then. Following this principle, such modern marvels like the adoption of highways, towering skyscrapers and diverse and unique urban landscapes have dominated modern cities. Such structures were and are still possible to constructs due to availability of technologies that allowed for production of quality building materials like glass and steel, which has ensured limitless possibilities in urban planning and construction. And true to these words, modern urban cities are characterized

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of structurally complex buildings and infrastructures, which, as seen by modernists, have given them some competitive edge over traditional ideologies. The photography of Pierre Châtel-Innocenti, through Figs. 1.6 and 1.7, captures the essence of modernist trends well, where

Fig. 1.6  Modernist architectural style showcasing straight lines (Source Pierre Châtel-Innocenti)

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Fig. 1.7  Typical modern housing block (Source Pierre Châtel-Innocenti)

we can see how those type of architectures are present in various cities, irrespective of context. Salingaros (2005) notes that the availability of functional urban infrastructure that are built to address the pressing needs like housing, reduction in traffic, reduction in emissions and improve the esthetic appeal of the city, hence attracting FDIs, tourism and high economic growth should be emphasized. The modernism approaches and ideologies are questioned if they have truly been able to help ingrain these qualities in most modern cities. Nevertheless, all these functions should be geared toward improving liveability, comfort and safety of the local citizens and those visiting, while at the same time improving resilience and sustainability of the cities—something which they lack. Relating the works of renowned scholars like Salingaros (Salingaros, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006), Mehaffy (Mehaffy, 2015), Christopher Alexander (Alexander, 1965, 1979, 2002; Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein, 1977; Grabow, 1983) and Jane Jacobs (Jacobs, 1961) on the modernism approaches to urban planning, it is clear that the social

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fabric and liveability dimensions are not given priority by the modernist, which seem to favour car dependency and alienating architectural styles, which is now further explored through data-driven architecture as new software allows for new computing capabilities able to render more structurally complex forms. However, this supply is very much driven by a demand for this approach. According to Jacobs (1961), most modern planning and building practices were driven by economic and political influences and gave little or no attention to social aspects like safety, accessibility, social relationships and vitality of city life. She argued that urban upgrading and regeneration projects only brought hopelessness, increased social delinquency and strive among the urban dwellers. In addition, she perceived modernists approach as one that subjects original dwellers homeless (through gentrification) as their neighbourhoods and streets are dominated by middle class who have resources to purchase the regenerated buildings and also finance the increase costs of living. On his part, Alexander (2002) who, though he lauds how modernisms thinking leads to urban areas with numerous aspects like open spaces, walkways, streets and magnificent built environment, argues that these, unfortunately, are focused on supporting the wrong concepts instead of bringing harmony, which is essential to hosting life in cities. According to him, modernist pursuits disrupts the identity of urban areas, and as was the view of Jacobs (1961), leading to increased seclusion and individualism if the social aspects are not emphasized. To ensure urban harmony, Salingaros (2003) explains that the modernist approaches need to incorporate the advice by Christopher Alexander (Alexander et al., 1977) who supports that cities should be planned such that, ultimately, they achieve ‘wholeness’ as well as ‘complexity’, which are attained when every aspect of the city is meticulously arranged to permeate humanism and other aspects of the city to prevail. Unless this is done, he argues that the social aspects would remain a fallacy as esthetics and complex architectural works without plight of the local considered only serve as traps meant to alienate and disjoin the habitat of such environments. This is true noting that it is only when social aspects are put into consideration that issues like sustainability, reduction in carbon emissions, containment of urban sprawl and the optimal consumption of resources, among others, can be

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actualized. Otherwise, with the modernist approach to urbanism, those prevailing challenges would continue to confront the urban form and its management, and the consequences such as global warming which Mehaffy (2015) supports are attributable to urbanism would not be effectively addressed. Unless the principles advanced by the aforementioned scholars are integrated into current planning practices, the advent and application of technology—even though with commendable pursuits—will still be seen as a failure, since it may lead to the alienation of people; who form part of the living structures of the city. As Salingaros (2000) posits, such technologies which are integrated into adhere to contemporary rules of urban planning practices would only lead to reduced complexity and social connectivity and ultimately, derail the geometrical coherence that should be the yardstick for liveable cities. On this, Salingaros (2006) is of the same opinion as Newman, Beatley, and Boyer (2017) and Z. Allam (2018a), who support that technology should instead be integrated, above other things address all aspects of social fabrics that would see the life of the citizen become more comfortable and inclusive.

Conclusion While cities have hosted civilization, since time immemorial, the changes brought about by the latter have impacted on the former through morphology and through its associative components. Today, the rise of data provides new ways to view cities and to operate, manage and plan neighbourhoods. This new model, tallying with Smart City concepts, provides alluring arguments for adoption as it promises dimensions of increased efficiency and performance. However, the rise in data is also associated with the support of modernist planning ideologies which can be counter-productive to building inclusive cities as modernist principles are showcased to negate human qualities of cities. Thus, even though cities gain in performance, its liveability dimensions are observed to be decreasing. This inversely proportional relationship is dangerous for cities and must be remediated in order to ensure that cities retain their identity and cultural legacies.

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Latif, Z., Danish, Y. m., Latif, S., Ximei, L., Pathan, Z. H., Salam, S., & Jianqiu, Z. (2018). The dynamics of ICT, foreign direct investment, globalization and economic growth: Panel estimation robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Telematics and Informatics, 35(2), 318–328. McKinsey & Company. (2018). Smart city solutions: What drives citizen adoption around the globe? Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/ McKinsey/Industries/Public%20Sector/Our%20Insights/Smart%20 city%20solutions%20What%20drives%20citizen%20adoption%20 around%20the%20globe/smart-citizen-book-eng.ashx. Mehaffy, M. (2015). Urban form and greenhouse gas emissions. (PhD), TU Delft, Aula. Menike, H. R. A. (2018). A literature review on population growth and economic development. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education, 5(5), 67–74. Monahan, T. (2016). Built to lie: Investigating technologies of deception, surveillance, and control. The Information Society, 32(4), 229–240. Nazarian, A. (2014). The technology revolution and its roles in our lives. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-technology-revolution_ b_4809786?guccounter = 1&guce_referrer = aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig = AQAAANX_yHaTBPF2Et3j2veNF7nrzBfVeT7fTfcI7TT4InZAYjeI2pW5Vq7oJhFDsuoMZgiNxFsAYfXNf_mgLtQ9ymfunC7KhSXpbwxeWir_b9s_W4QMLZaE5li2_ KqeZ7K25AaUoOfMxPaQJt9G1Tg_RAj8vj7xJmzf89D9ZamnxF0F. Newman, P., Beatley, T., & Boyer, H. (2017). Resilient cities, second edition: Overcoming fossil fuel dependence. Washington, DC: Island Press. Osman, A. M. S., Elragal, A., & Bergvall-Kareborn, B. (2017). Big data analytics and smart cities: A loose or tight couple? Lulea, Sweden. Pappas, S. (2016, March 18). How big is the Internet, really? Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/54094-how-big-is-the-internet.html. Population Reference Bureau. (2018). 2018 world population data sheet. Retrieved from Washington, DC. https://www.prb.org/wp-content/ uploads/2018/08/2018_WPDS.pdf. Pradhan, R. P., Arvin, M. B., & Norman, N. R. (2015). The dynamics of information and communications technologies infrastructure, economic growth, and financial development: Evidence from Asian countries. Technology in Society, 42, 135–149. Regan, P. M., & Monahan, T. (2013). Beyon counterterrorism: Data sharing, privacy, and organizational histories of DHS fusion centers. International Journal of E-Politics, 4(3), 1–14.

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2 Urban Chaos and the AI Messiah

Abstract  While there are predictions that the future will be highly urbanized, there are others stating that the urban world will be increasingly faced with the impacts of climate change, and cities are being pressured from various angles. Faced with this, the role of technology is being hailed and the possibilities that Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings are getting more pronounced as the technology gets more accurate and efficient. Indeed, its applicability in various fields is making a way and the results are promising. However, while AI stands as a potential saviour and as its role is being accentuated in urban planning, governance and management, there are increasing concerns that its practical implications are successful and its planning principles are disconnected with sensibilities linked to the dimensions of liveability. Keywords  Cities · Climate change · Overpopulation · Big Data Robots · Internet of Things (IoT)

© The Author(s) 2020 Z. Allam, Cities and the Digital Revolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5_2

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Introduction Today, the world population amounts to over 7 billion people, and this figure is projected to continue increasing to surpass 9 billion people by 2050 (United Nations, 2017a). Similarly, as reported by the United Nations (2018), the number of global urban areas with a population of at 1 million people currently stands at approximately 548 and by 2030—this number is projected to rise to reach 706 cities. These high numbers of people are accommodated in both the rural and urban areas, with a majority of them projected to opt to live in cities. According to United Nations (2017b) as of 2018, 53.3% of the global population was living in urban areas and with the trendy nature of how both the population and the urbanization are taking shape, 68% of these will be living in cities by 2030. The high rates of urbanization and population growth disrupts our lifestyle and brings about changes in the world’s ecosystem that threatens our livelihoods (Tajrin & Hossain, 2018). This includes the increasing demand for housing, energy, water, minerals and other natural resources to increased consequences resulting from the overexploitation and consumption of the world’s resources. Today, the human population is facing a serious challenge of climate change, resulting from increased emissions from diverse sources like energy production, automobiles and factories. Also due to wanton destruction of biodiversity as people try to create more space for urban areas—through urban sprawl and the mushrooming of new cities, and agricultural farms and industries to cater for the increasing population and the insatiable consumption behaviour. When these and many more challenges are compounded, the future is put in disarray, hence prompting urgent actions and solution to counter those trends and, where possible, reverse the situation. Various regulatory organisations at global and local levels (Landscope Mauritius, 2018; UNFCCC, 2018), UN-Habitat (2014, 2015), environmentalists (IPCC, 2018), globalists (Scoones, 2016) and other different stakeholders (Behzadfar, Ghalehnoee, Dadkhah, & Haghighi, 2017; Monfaredzadeh & Krueger, 2015; Slavova & Okwechime, 2016),

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better management of global practices, more so reduction of emissions in cities where they are more prevalent remain to be one of the key solutions to the aforementioned challenges. And true to these words, there has been concerted global efforts spearhead by UNFCCC aimed at increasing environmental awareness and pushing for global economies to reduce their emissions by adopting best practices by 2030 (United Nations, 2016). Besides the global arena, locally, it has been observed that emissions can be reduced by ensuring cities adopt new forms of urban planning concepts that not only emphasize on sustainability, but ones that also gear toward resilience, liveability and economic growth to cater for high population levels. The support of concepts, backed by technology and information, is believed to offer potential solutions. Lee et al. (2018) express that since the technological revolution, where applicability of ICT became prevalent, a reputable number of these concepts which include knowledge cities, technopoles, information city, digital cities, intelligent city and the Smart City have arisen with each geared toward exploiting the availability of data. The availability of these concepts has seen an increased change in how cities are planned to respond to challenges like increased demand for energy and other resources (Estevez, Lopes, & Janowski, 2016). In particular, especially with the Smart City concept which is seen as the most promising, there has been emphasis on ‘smartness’ including in the use of energy, where smart objects like streetlights, autonomous automobiles, and numerous devices have been devised and installed to ensure optimal use of energy (Bhadani, 2016; Van Winden & van den Buuse, 2017). On the same, this concept emphasizes on the use of renewable energies sources, proper waste management like recycling and reuse and construction of concentrated mix use buildings that can house a sizeable population, hence reducing the cases of urban sprawl among others. All the above solutions are made possible due to the availability of data which is managed under Big Data-fuelled technologies, and by integrating with other technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and crowd computing; these solutions are seen as increasing promisingly that can provide urban solutions that equally support economic profitability. Keenan (2018) shares that the importance of these technologies allows for data mining from different urban

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fabrics via a multitude of smart devices installed in physical structures and from those owned by the local citizens. Thereafter, these technologies allow for real-time storage, analysis and transmission of the results into different nodes where real-time actions can be taken (Zaheer Allam, 2019; Zaheer Allam & Dhunny, 2019). For these smart activities to function effectively, there has been a need for seam interlinkage of different components and systems, such that data from each node can be duly processed, and when spliced with those from different components and network allow for innovative solutions that works across a plethora of fields (Abiodun et al., 2018; Mahdavinejad et al., 2018; Naganathan & Rao, 2018). Tzafestas (2018) espouses that this has been made further possible by the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that not only allows for the standardization of protocols and networks under which different components run, but also allow for sifting of massive data and outlining of emerging patterns. According to the author, the acceptability of this new technology has been quick due to its immense potential in numerous fields, and more so due to its compatibility with other technologies that are geared toward sustainability, liveability, safety and resiliency among other objectives. Unsurprisingly, the applicability of AI to cities is seen as providing potential solutions of tackling the major challenges of our time. However, there have been contestations on its sustainability in regard to its support to liveability dimensions of linked to human livelihoods. Therefore, the concern of this paper is to, via an extensive literature review, elucidate whether the contestation on the sustainability of AI holds.

The Rise of AI The notion of intelligent behaviour has been explored by many and found as a fascinating subject, and as Scarcello (2018) reports, in the philosophical world, this was related to logic, reasoning and cognitive science. In the computer world, on the other hand, Russell and Norvig (2010) report that the desire to provide intelligence to machine started as early as 1940, and some breakthroughs were achieved in

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1950s, with the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ being used for the first time in 1956 by John McCarthy—one taunted as among the prominent fathers of this field. But, Turing (1950) is reported to have pushed this field and catalyzed its implementation, and he did this by proposing a question “Can machines think?” and then proceeded to provide what is known as the ‘Turing Test’—aimed at trying to get an answer to his question. This test which is a form of imitation game was used to prove that intelligence could be introduced in machines to amplify human’s knowledge and understanding by simulating their behaviours and intelligence. Since those initial years, this field has been researched, and in the recent past, with the introduction of technologies such as Big Data and Machine Learning, this technology gained increasing recognition; especially from its role in a myriad of fields like biology, physics, business, construction and numerous others (Z. Allam, 2018; Zaheer Allam, 2019; Zaheer Allam & Dhunny, 2019; Zaheer Allam & Jones, 2019; Zaheer Allam & Newman, 2018). In popular culture, the use of AI-driven robots (often mimicking human forms) has been greatly explored through literature, movies and other mediums, and while mainly dramatized, the narrative is slowly being changed. Today, those robots (Fig. 2.1) can be seen to be pursued for development by different organizations. AI is gaining acceptability in these fields due to its ability to simulate human intelligence; thus, it allows machines to perform complex and delicate tasks like in neuroscience, image processing, weather forecasting and prediction and radiology among many others. Its acceptability is pegged on the realization that in every front and sphere, it offers the best solutions and allows humans to scale and explore areas that are daunting and intricate. For instance, it has allowed scientists to build tools and machines like space ships and satellites that enable them to explore and understand other planets and terrestrial bodies. Yairi et al. (2017) further explain how AI is integrated with machine learning technology to create artificial neural networks (ANNs) which advance the entire aerospace industry more successful and complex by increasing areas like security, data utilization and in providing optimum results in data processing.

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Fig. 2.1  A typical representation of AI-driven humanoid robot (Source Arseny Togulev)

In the business and service sector, AI is said to enable impossibilities by enabling subtle innovations that can encourage numerous possibilities On this front, M. H. Huang and Rust (2018) argue that AI unleashes intelligence such as mechanical, analytical, intuitive and emphatic that have helped to improve the service industry, and Lichtenthaler (2018) highlights how the use of the predictability and analytic prowess of AI, when integrated with human intelligence and other approaches like corporate strategies, have provided companies and businesses with a competitive edge. For instance, there has been an increase in areas like marketing strategies like targeting specific demographic group based on data about their purchasing behaviour and other numerous factors that can only be analyzed and predicted using advanced technologies riding on the power of AI. In the health sector, there is a whole world of literature that describes how AI has brought living changing possibilities in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, medication, therapies and every single sphere of this field. Payne (2018) further shares how AI is very active in the security docket and has been widely employed in strategic affairs like the development of weapons; from the perceived simple to complex nuclear weapons, and this way, it

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has allowed governments to keep their boundaries safe from both internal and external threats. Even in popular culture, AI has gained much attention and is being readily acceptable, especially noting how it has helped revolutionize these cultures. Goode (2018) explains that the AI has been depicted in films, television, social media, written materials like books and in arts to invoke such emotions like love, fear, laughter, lust and many others. Through it, consumers of different aspects of pop culture have been able to customize their likes by filtering from a myriad of available materials and contents. Similarly, AI has given an edge to artists, writers, producers and investors in producing contents that are unique and specific to a particular group or market segment. Interestingly, most people in these sectors do not seem to acknowledge that it is through AI and the rise of data that everything seems so advanced. A majority of them perceive it as the rise of machines that is set to take over the world, but as Tzafestas (2018) explains, its technologies such as AI, Big Data and machine learning that make these machines such intelligent. The threats of technology misuse have always been present, but the impacts of those are greatly enhanced by advanced technologies (Bini, 2018; Yigitcanlar et al., 2018). In the hope to further advance the acceptability of AI and robotics in society and to encourage its integration in various sectors, there is emerging research on emotions and robotics being performed, and those are seen impacting on the shape and form of current robots in development, as shown in Fig. 2.2. In the urban arena, AI has had an in impact in the advancement of contemporary urban planning concepts, especially in the rise of Smart City concept which widely relies on Big Data analysis. Naganathan and Rao (2018) explain that through AI, most components like sensors, computers, cameras, autonomous and unmanned devices and systems that are installed in cities for the purposes of collecting data are becoming smaller, hence increasing the speed, velocity, quality and volume of data being sent to the servers. Similarly, AI and other technologies have allowed for speedy analysis of these data and solutions in smart cities are said to be in real time, hence improving in efficiency and performance (Bačić, Jogun, & Majić, 2018; Keenan, 2018). It has further allowed for the standardization of networks and protocols, such that there

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Fig. 2.2  Robots now pursuing physical looks to showcase emotions for ensuring widespread adoptability (Source Alex Knight)

is a seamless flow of data from different devices despite their uniqueness into the central nervous systems, which are seen to be improving to ANNs and are able to mimic human brains, hence increased capabilities. The increased potential of collecting massive amounts of data in such ways like visual recognition and live streaming among other is said to arouse some privacy concerns among locals who fear that data could be used in a disruptive way. van Zoonen (2016) shares that the fears emanate from the fact that the nature of the data carrying sensitive personal information like profiles, health records and others could be used to infringe on individual rights, be commercialized for target marketing or be used by wrong people to profile, conduct illegal surveillance and compromise on security among many other fears (Abouelmehdi, Beni-Hessane, & Khaloufi, 2018; Braun, Banjamin, Iqbal, & Shah, 2018; Elmaghraby & Losavio, 2014). Other researchers feel like most of the technologies used in collecting these data are still in their infancy stages and would require substantive progress to make them more

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subtle to be trusted with such massive data (Montjoye, Farzanehfar, Hendrickx, & Rocher, 2017). However, despite these fear, which are valid and worth every attention, looking at the challenges of our time, especially in the urban areas, the potential of AI is apparent, important and needs to be encouraged; while at the same time, strengthening areas that may deem to compromise on privacy and security.

AI and Population Increase Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the global population crossed the 1 billion people mark and due to the numerous industrial revolutions that took place, the environment became conducive for growth, and by the peak of the century to twentieth century, this leads to a further increase to reach over 6 billion people. Though Bavel (2013) reports that this growth rate slowed in the turn of twenty-first century, it has been growing steadily, but also remarkably. For instance, during the early stages of this century, i.e. between 2000 and 2010, the population increased by nearly 1 billion people from the reported 6.122 billion to 6.9 billion, and by 2018, this number had reached 7.6 billion people (Kaneda, Greenbaum, & Patierno, 2018). By 2050, Haub (2010) projects that this number will increase by over 29% (2.3 billion people) to reach an estimated figure of 9.9 billion people. Such numbers will have significant impacts on the world, and more so on cities, where more than half of the world’s population reside. From an urban morphological perspective, population increase has resulted in overpopulation such that the available spaces and infrastructure capacities to support the populations are stretched beyond limit. The consequence of this is an unplanned expansion of the urban boundaries through urban sprawl, and these have attracted numerous challenges both on the city and to entire regions and even countries. Polidoro, de Lollo, and Barros (2012) highlight issues like strained budgets as municipalities try to accommodate some of these areas into provision of social amenities. Perhaps, a perfect example to represent the extent of over densification through overpopulated areas would be that of Hong Kong, as represented in Fig. 2.3.

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Fig. 2.3  Densification of the urban fabric in Lion Rock in Hong Kong (Source Steven Wei)

Population increase has also been reported to have devastating impacts on scarce natural resources, more so land reserves (greenbelts), and biodiversity. As expressed by Guiling, Brorsen, and Doye (2009), in most areas that have experienced urban sprawl, lands where these happen are either agricultural lands, forest reserves or ‘greenbelts’. This renders an environment usually characterized by the excessive use of cement and steel, and often renders endless perspectives, as shown in Figs. 2.4 and 2.5. The common denominators in all these matters are that these lands are converted from their initial purpose to unplanned residential buildings, scattered shopping centres, religious buildings and other such structures. Habibi and Asadi (2011) posit that when agricultural lands are unceremoniously converted for other uses, it means a reduction in production and ultimately are threats to food security, especially noting that high population exerts pressure on food supply. Related to this, Wang and Xiang (2019) argue that high populations contribute greatly to climate change through the diverse consumption behaviours

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Fig. 2.4  Urban landscape of Chicago, USA (Source Patrick Perkins)

Fig. 2.5  Urban landscape of Tokyo, Japan (Source Terence Starkey)

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in things like energy, forests and also through waste generation and disposal. Climate change on its part has a dire impact on agricultural production, water bodies and aquatic life even in areas far from the city, thus making it hard to satisfy the surging demand in cities for those resources. These numerous challenges have been reported to be surmountable by relying on modern technologies that have been widely employed in supporting the contemporary urban concepts. In particular, technologies such as Big Data, machine learning and IoT and others have widely been used in urban areas to help in areas like architecture and construction industry, where they have helped in the construction of compact neighbourhoods in cities like Singapore and Barcelona among many others. Adelfio, Kain, Thuvander, and Stenberg (2018) argue that compact cities offer valid urban models that promote sustainability as well as help solve impacts such as housing problems and urban sprawl that are instigated by a population increase. When these technologies are integrated with AI, thus allowing for smart ways of collecting data, the results are said to be overwhelming and positive, especially in the development and regeneration of existing cities. On this, Mouratidis (2018) explains that though low-density neighbourhoods have been cherished more than compact ones, the emergence and application of these technologies have made compact neighbourhoods more appealing and satisfying and hence move liveable. He attributes this to their impact on improvement in infrastructure such as transport routes and streets, water and sewerage systems and mix-use buildings among others that promote sustainability and optimal use of resources. Bolivar (2018) further shares that the availability of AI and other technologies allows for the automation of operations of these neighbourhoods; hence, the supply of important utilities, resources and services is greatly improved, thus making such areas attractive, and their very nature of accommodating a sizeable population make them ideal for populated cities. The application of AI is also said to have a great impact in improving the urban health sector which is said to be overwhelmed by high demand and facing an emergence of new traits of diseases. Smith and Neupane (2018) argue that AI can augment human expertise by improving productivity and promoting disease surveillance, hence

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reducing the costs in the entire healthcare domain. Through AI, Prakash (2019) argues that the health sector has greatly improved, and despite the high population, some urban areas have capitalized on these technology to brand themselves as medical tourism cities, hence attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), which in turn create opportunities for social and economic growth. This way, the urban managements of such areas are relived for the burden of being the sole providers for job opportunities linked to increasing local populations. Besides the health sector, AI, as noted above, has become very instrumental in the transportation sector and is being credited for the improvement in accessibility of urban centres due to improvement in the physical infrastructures and also in the modes of transport. Abduljabbar, Dia, Liyanage, and Bogloee (2019) highlight that in this sector, AI is active in innovations that lead to a reduction in emissions, improve safety concerns through reduction of accidents and improvement in environmental sustainability. Through these improvements, urban managements can safely and convincingly promote decongestion agendas since travel times are reduced and safety concerns of the travellers are addressed. This fact is affirmed by the European Parliament (Niestadt, Debyser, Scordamaglia, & Pape, 2019) that have taken a proactive role in supporting further integration of AI into the transport sector, as this would help in solving some of the issues in urban areas; one of them being the challenge of congestion and its associated challenges. Interestingly, those IoT devices are made more and more unobtrusive and almost rendered invisible to the untrained eye, which is an improvement to previous communication infrastructures (Fig. 2.6) adopted by urban areas on the early boom of the television industry. Though there are flashes of success and great improvement in urban morphology and planning as a result of integrating technologies in the planning and governance of cities, further integration of AI in various dimensions of cities can help provide faster, efficient and cost-effective solutions. This could be done by bringing onboard stakeholders, especially citizens who are always reluctant to nose dive in accepting new technologies since they have direct impacts on their lives, and due to the common notion of ‘resistance to change’ (Berntzen & Johannessen, 2016; Deakin & Reid, 2017).

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Fig. 2.6  Obstructive antennas on the rooftop of buildings (Source Alexander Tsang)

AI and Climate Change The world is not only grappling with the challenges of urbanization and population increase discussed above, but also with the impacts of increasing cases of climate change. It is noted that the strength and uniqueness of cities are based on issues like governance, size, geographical location, economic and social standing and further by the robustness of its infrastructure, both physically and virtually. However, these are facing increasing threats from incidences of climate change. Cutter, Emrich, Gall, and Reeves (2018) note that in the recent past, surface runoffs have increased, and in most cities, especially those in low-income economies and small islands, these cases have magnified to constant flooding instigated by extreme weather conditions. It is worth noting that these cases, though are not unique to these regions, but even advanced economies like Japan, USA (Fig. 2.7) and those in Europe, are also experiencing unprecedented cases of urban flooding. A case in point is the devastating typhoons like Harvey (Oldenborgh et al., 2017), Katrina, Michael (O’Connor, 2018) and Jebi (Hsiao et al., 2013) among many others that have impacted different regions leaving behind trails of destructions and losses of life. For instance, in 2017, Klotzbach, Bowen, Pielke, Jr., and Bell (2017) report that extreme

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Fig. 2.7  Flooding in Maddison, USA (Source Jim Gade)

weather such as typhoons, hurricanes, tornados and thunderstorms were responsible for a loss of over $125 billion and numerous deaths globally, with Puerto Rico (Levitt & Kommenda, 2018) losing over 4600 people during that year. Climate change has also had its toll on the agricultural sector with reported losses from unpredictable weather conditions impacting on production, reduction in water for irrigation, emergence of new straits of diseases that affect both crops and animals (Miller & Hutchins, 2017; Pumo, Arnone, Francipane, Caracciolo, & Noto, 2017; Skougaard Kaspersen, Ravn, Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Madsen, & Drews, 2015). Similarly, climate change has been responsible for an increase in global temperatures which is said to have a negative impact on water bodies and marine life (Gove et al., 2016; Trommetter, 2017). When all these cases in farms and water bodies are compounded, they mean a reduction in food supply (Niles & Salerno, 2018; Tai, Martin, & Heald, 2014).

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In turn, this results in budget constraints due to increased food prices and demand for food supplements to compensate for reduction. These also have spiral effects on the health sector as cases related to nutrition increases (Gurditta & Singh, 2016). These challenges are just a few that justifies how climate change and cities are inseparable; hence, any decision or actions that are taken in cities are inversely proportional to incidences of climate change. IRENA (2017) report contributes that activities such as construction, energy production from non-renewable sources like fossil fuel and their distribution, waste generation and management among others are key pointers to the contribution of cities in causing climate change. Furthermore, IPCC (2018) notes that cities contribute up to 71–76% to climate change from the activities listed above. The European Commission (2018) posits that the increase in consumption patterns and behaviours leads to more production from factories and industries, and this means a resulting increase in the consumption of energy and raw materials— practices that have severe impacts on the environment. In an effort to better solve the climate crisis, technology dimensions have been injected in urban planning leading to a number of concepts like Technopoles and Smart City which are the latest on the list (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Z. Allam, 2017; Zaheer Allam & Dhunny, 2019; Zaheer Allam & Newman, 2018). These concepts, which ride on availability of data warranted by availability of disruptive technologies like Big Data, IoT, machine learning and AI, have changed the discourse on how climate change should be addressed (Mahdavinejad et al., 2018; Sorda, 2018; Tzafestas, 2018). When these technologies are integrated together, they allow for a complex system and network that start from the installation of smart components and devices in different locations in the city. These collect data in different forms are relayed to a central server where they are analyzed, interpreted and stored, and subsequently solutions are produced and transmitted to respective nodes for action. The integration of AI with other technologies, especially machine learning and deep learning have allowed for the creation of ANNs which mimic the human brain (Zaheer Allam, 2019; T.-J. Huang, 2017; Zorins & Grabusts, 2015). With it, it has become easy to predict weather conditions that would impact a certain region, hence making

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it possible to implement mitigation strategies way ahead (Zaheer Allam, 2019). On this, Kumar, Singh, Ghosh, and Anand (2012) underscore that such valuable information gives urban planners an edge in planning different aspects of the city, such that they are positively impacted, and sustainability and resilience themes are better emphasized. AI is particularly important in safeguarding vital urban-related infrastructures such as transport systems, power plants and water treatment plants since any interference in them would have dire consequences on the entire urban fabric and beyond. Therefore, an emphasis on data powered by AI is seen as paramount since it is believed to be massive, real time and unbiased; hence, any decision like planning or mitigation measures informed by an analysis of such data is deemed the best to improve resiliency. It is worth highlighting that before the advent of technologies like AI, the aspect of weather unpredictability was present, and people lived at the mercy of Mother Nature. Nevertheless, with AI, there are numerous predictable aspects of weather that have successfully been undertaken. For instance, Sobash, Schwartz, Romine, Fossel, and Weisman (2016) posit that it is now a reality, via satellite, to identify even a minute activity deep inside the water body that would eventually translate into a high-impact weather event, and by so doing, even deadly hurricanes and typhoons have been identified. On this front, NASA shares fascinating data and imagery (Figs. 2.8 and 2.9) which helps further our understanding on those natural phenomena, and where every aspect of them like speed, strength, direction and landfall predicted in earnest and precaution sent to relevant authority beforehand. McGovern et al. (2017) argue that AI allows for prediction by impacting on areas like observation capabilities, computing power and model physics. He highlights these capabilities are influenced by the ability of AI to integrate with machine learning, which allows for real-time reporting of accurate data. Similarly, the power of AI allows it to extract unavailable info from forecast model, and when this is combined with observable information, the output is high-quality information that leads to informed decisions on actions to be taken.

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Fig. 2.8  Hurricane over Yemen (Source NASA)

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Fig. 2.9  Giant hurricane from Space (Source NASA)

The Need to Redefine the Applicability of AI in Cities As the role of technology in urban areas continues to gain more traction, powered by availability of data, the applicability of AI as a ­producer of solutions to current and future challenges is becoming apparent. As discussed, in the previous sections, AI has gained popularity in various sectors as it has opened opportunities and capabilities that are far beyond human limits. In particular, it has played a pivotal role in making and supporting the concept of Smart City, which is seen to be provide added possibilities as compared to other urban concepts due to its emphasis on liveability, sustainability, resiliency and economic growth—factors that are paramount in addressing the causes of urbanization and population increase (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Zaheer Allam & Dhunny, 2019). Despite its wide acceptability, there have been increasing debates from different quarters dwelling on the threats AI poses to urban areas,

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residents therein and the broader urban fabric. The main discourse is on its potential to jeopardize the privacy of the citizens due to its ability to capture minute information and make predictions from such. Liangyuan et al. (2018) argue that through AI, it is possible to capture personal data, especially health-related from devices such as smartwatches and smartphones and when this is related to demographic data, it has the potential to successfully identify an individual. Keskinbora (2019) argues that, though it is true that precautionary measures to safeguard the integrity of data and privacy of those whose data have been captured, those pessimistic of the technology need to be involved in every step so they can own it and appreciate that, their concerns, though valid, are being considered. By capitalizing on the power of AI, Doward and Gibbs (2017) discuss the fact that its potential could have been used to influence Brexit and the USA 2017 presidential elections. Based on this discourse, it shows that AI could be used to influence the governance of cities, and from literature, it is clear that the success of an urban area depends on its leadership and how it is governed. Even far much worse, it has been argued (Yudkowsky, 2008) that though AI is playing a critical role in the security docket when it has enabled the security departments to fashion weapons worth countering any sort of threat to the city or the country at large, same weapons when in the hands of the wrong people could be used to cause havoc to the city’s infrastructure, government and the citizens. This is of great concern especially in the wake of increased activities by terror groups that have embarked on using technologically oriented strategies to achieve their evil schemes (Ganor, 2018). A case in point is the terror-related incidence in New Zealand where the perpetrator used the power of social media to stream live the evil act (DeBrule, 2019). Besides debates on threats, mass utilization of AI is said to create a wide list of moral and ethical concerns that need to be taken into account. To begin with, as noted above, most cities are struggling with cases of population increases which have led to challenges like unemployment, unequal distribution of resources and social exclusion. These are tied to the availability of only a few economic opportunities, which are not proportional to the population growth, with the introduction of AI in almost every facet of the city, despite the positives they bring

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are said to exacerbate the mentioned cases. Bossman (2016) shares how intelligent machines like autonomous vehicles (Hancock, Nourbakhsh, & Stewart, 2019) like self-driving trucks promised by Elon Musk of Tesla Company (Davies, 2017) and numerous ATM machines installed in almost all financial institutions among others are said to take up jobs that could have been filled by humans. The actualization of these dreams means that numerous people with real financial need face the threat of being turned down or retrenched from their workplace in favour of machines (Bonnefon, Shariff, & Rahwan, 2016; Ford, 2015). This will translate to deterioration in their economic situation, while the owners of the machines and the technologies therein continue to enrich themselves. A different issue is the case of creating machines that will amplify already out-of-hand cases of racism and discrimination. Zou and Schiebinger (2018) argue that AI technologies could be used, accidentally or intentionally to profile people in respect to their colour, religion and gender among others. Torresen (2018) explains that AI’s misuse could lead to profiling individuals, and in worse case scenarios, especially where AI’s devices like drones are used for security reason could lead to physical harms and affect people through other ways. This is true, noting that machine’s intelligence depends on how they are trained, and ill-willed people could capitalize on this to extend dangerous agendas. And on this, Dignum (2018) raises a fair question of whether an AI system that is caught up in such a situation could be held accountable for its action. And this question raises another moral issue of whether, in years to come, there will arise issues of machine ‘rights’. This is something that will need to be observed carefully. Hagendorff (2019) further supports that the number of ethical and moral issues relating to AI are numerous and would not be resolve easily as most stakeholders, though have some framework that they tend to follow have also left some loopholes that could open doors for technology misuse in areas like reducing social cohesion as people excluded further from human interactions by availability of machines that they can interact with. The availability of tools and devices for urban planning are also seen to exacerbate the aforementioned issues. Özdemir and Tasan-Kok (2017) note that urban planning has always been based on human

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sensibilities, but since the advent of technologically powered concepts was embraced, the emphasis now is on increasing urban efficiency and productivity. This, better as it may sound, has led to a loss of identity and humanity in cities, and urban dwellers are seen to be more individualistic than there before, justifying the concerns that were vehemently raised by Jane Jacobs (1961). To make urban areas liveable, resilient, sustainable and economically stable, there ought to be a balance between humanity and AI (Bryson & Winfield, 2017). Calo (2017) argues that technology should not entire replace human efforts, and a bounder line should be established on how far its technology should be entertained. The liveability of cities is thus at threat and must be explored further in this age of digitalization, else we may face the threat of AI and the rise of machines, as feared by so many, and end up creating cities that are both disconnected to its living population and void of identity through a blind promotion of modernist principles.

Conclusion The role of technology in cities is seen as being emphasized and accelerated by the increasing challenges of our time, namely related to population increase and climate change. Numerous technological applications have been developed while increasingly making use of the substantial among of data generated in cities, especially through the Smart City concept. This catalyzed the application of AI for data processing and giving rise to new ways of understanding urban fabrics and to be better equipped to make informed decisions in order to secure vital infrastructures of urban areas. However, it is contested that with the increasing use of technology and AI, there is a rise in mechanical planning of the city, and thus disregarding the unique cultural and human dimensions urban areas hosts. A need for the redefinition and recalibration of technology is noted for cities in order to ensure that dimensions of efficiency, performance and liveability are all equally catered for.

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3 Digital Urban Networks and Social Media

Abstract  The new gold rush in today’s day and age is that of the urban mining of data for commercial usage. In the aim of monetizing on this, ICT corporations are actively, and aggressively, offering services, often at the expense of the general population, which are then disguised to increase public acceptance. Along with the Smart City, the safe city concept is an example of this and can be argued to stand as a data mining strategy for the enrichment of ICT Corporations. However, those dimensions can be recalibrated, in particular the former, so that they include dimensions of liveability and contribute to building safer, more inclusive, sustainable cities as prescribed by the Sustainable Development Goal 11 by the United Nations and through the New Urban Agenda. Keywords  Cities · Internet of things (IoT) · Social media · Branding Placemaking · Technology · Information Communication Technology (ICT)

© The Author(s) 2020 Z. Allam, Cities and the Digital Revolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5_3

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Introduction As the rise in urban challenges increases, propagated by incidences of urbanization and population growth, most cities have turned to the use of different technologies to plan for current challenges and for the future. The reasons for the embrace of technologies are the knowledge that technology, through the use of data generated from the city in question, have the potential to provide solution with far-reaching impacts on both efficiency and cost-effective perspectives. Turok and McGranahan (2013) are of the opinion that a majority of urban managers are overwhelmed by the aforementioned challenges due to the relying on plans that, in most cases, did not preempt situations where urban areas would be home to so many people, or where urbanization would pose a challenge. This means that most infrastructure and basic amenities were designed to serve only a specific number of people, within a set of geographical distances, even though that this should not have been the case. Nevertheless, as showcased by Bavel (2013), in the recent past, especially as from the dawn of twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the urban boundaries have been stretched further, especially due to urban sprawl, and the numbers therein increased. With diverse technologies, especially those inherent to the concept of Smart City, it has become possible to keep better track of the challenge of population increase; hence, urban governance structures are able to better understand the amount of resources and infrastructure required to ensure that cities remain havens for safety, liveability, economic growth and sustainability. The success of using technology in pioneer cities like Songdo in South Korea (Kolotouchkina & Seisdedos, 2017) have attracted an insatiable demand for these technologies globally, and, in turn, this demand has prompted the rise of numerous ICT providing firms and companies that are said to have been positioning themselves to capitalize on these opportunities for their growth and profitability (Henke et al., 2016). Richter, Kraus, and Syrjä (2015) posit that the market for technologies is so lucrative that different reports have had diverse estimate of its value, but the common denominator is that it keeps on expanding and increasing. A report by Grand View Research (Grand View Research,

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2019) valued the Smart City market at $71.3 billion in 2018 and projected a rise to beyond $237.6 billion by 2025 at a compounded rate of 18.9%. Another report by Markets and Markets Inc. (Singh, 2019) within the same period showcases that this market was valued at $308.0 billion as of 2018 and at a compounded growth rate of 18.4%, it would value at approximately $717.2 billion by 2023. The differing figures showcase how the technology market is so expansive that no agreeable quantifiable method has been found to estimate its value. Nevertheless, the commonality from these two reports is that Smart Cities and technologically inclined cities are lucrative markets for technology startups to operate—both established ones and new entrants. Companies such as IBM Corporations, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Hitachi, Huawei, Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Accenture, Intel, Oracle and Ericssons have been seen to be leading in the race to be the main provider of the technologies, and this has increase competition by score folds (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Z. Allam & Newman, 2018). Luckily, to many municipalities and local governments, the competition is seen as a blessing due to the competitive pricing it renders. However, since most of these technologies are capital-intensive, and since most of the urban projects are not meant for profit-making—when operated by governments— financing them has been a challenge. But with competition, the cost of acquiring these technologies is said to be increasingly fair, generating increased interest from companies to win more contracts. Despite the increasing number of startups that are edging their way into the urban solution technologies, it is noted that each maintains its uniqueness, hence an increase in proprietary technologies. The disadvantages with these are that there are no, to little, knowledge transfer to local companies, and this is seen to favour ICT monopolies making it harder for small and local technology companies to compete or get any substantial business. On the contrary, even after the completion of a given project, the technology or device-providing company continues to be involved; hence, much of the financial benefits keep trickling to those large corporations at the expense of local companies. Viitanen and Kingston (2013) explain that theoretically, most of the established providers argue that their innovations, once they are successfully tried and tested in one city, can be rolled out in any other city irrespective

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of scale. In reality, this is far from the truth. Karvonen and van Heur (2014) support that imitating what worked in one urban context to another presents numerous tensions with regard to local needs and demand, financing, legal and regulatory frameworks, and compatibility of standards and protocols of different startups among many other things. Aggarwala, Hill, and Muggah (2018) further support that, though most established technology solution providers are based in the ‘global north’, some issues like traffic management may pose a problem to them; hence, the price of their technologies is higher, but in ‘global south’ (areas often categorized as being under-developed) managing traffic can be offered in much simpler ways; hence, such pricey technologies would not be entertained, rendering them contextually inappropriate. To solve the conundrum of foreign versus local solutions and firms, as is posited by Taylor Buck and While (2015), the clarion call is that, for successful implementation of technologies in particular cities, a healthy collaboration between local and international startups is required, and this could be made seamless by ensuring a smooth transfer of knowledge. This could be achieved by offering capacity building regarding the running of smart technologies and also allowing smaller and local companies to undertake those projects that are seemingly less technical. McKinsey & Company (2018a) highlights that the significance of such collaboration ensures that projects are aligned to support inclusive economic growth and ensures that citizens are the target beneficiaries of such projects and are made informed about urban projects, and when possible they participate in the development and deployment of those. This could be actualised by the offering of technologically inclined job opportunities and knowledge transfer, and through the training of how to use data collected from personal devices while also ensuring that the projects respect, uphold and improve on the local culture and heritage.

The Digital Urban Infrastructure It has been established that before the advent of technologies as it is known today, the emphasis on cities and urban areas was for to establish hard infrastructures, as they were seen as the potent solutions to

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urban problems. For this reason, a majority of municipalities and local governments strived to have the most expensive and elaborate infrastructures such as bridges, road networks, airports, ports and harbours among many others. Despite the importance attached to these infrastructures, their construction was marred by a number of significant challenges that most cities had to put up with. First, as Ehlers (2014) explains, financial burden has always been one of the main challenges; hence, cities around the world have been observed to have different levels of infrastructural development. For this reason, Kingombe (2014) expounds that most hard infrastructure and their key nodes have been characterized of delays, quality issues, and in some cases, plunged some economies into debts which some have struggled to pay, noting that most hard infrastructures are not meant for profit-making but for social and economic support. Ansar, Flyvbjerb, Budzier, and Lunn (2016) argue that debt-financed infrastructure, especially those that have no economic value or are unproductive, have been, in most cases, a precursor for economic fragility and unstable financial markets, thus making many economies to struggle to catch with others. On a different issue, with local governments tasked with other numerous hard infrastructural demand requiring financial input, some local governments have been found to lack sufficient impetus to initiate any tangible infrastructural development—a case that is synonymous with most cities in low-income and underdeveloped economies (Gurara et al., 2017). Today, most of those hard infrastructures are present and do present a need for upgrading. The interchange of Shanghai (Fig. 3.1) depicts this as substantial investments made to erect complex engineering feats, but which would soon require upgrading due to increasing number of vehicles and the resulting urban pressures. However, the notion of hard infrastructure as being the sole purveyor of solutions is now obsolete. The advent of technologies allowing the usage of data to solve most urban challenges has been embraced as it offers some relief to the financial constraints that a majority of cities face, where in the case of Shanghai, a more efficient use of vehicles and movement flows can be provided. The potential demonstrated by data have prompted cities to piously seek ICT-oriented companies that could provide technologies that would help the data useful in solving the eminent problems

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Fig. 3.1  Shanghai Interchange showing complex engineering and investment required in hard infrastructure (Source Denys Nevozhai)

(Z. Allam, 2017, 2018, 2019). In line to this, most ICT providing firms are seen to have been strengthening their operations to maximize the economic potential that is associated with the rising urban technology market. Those include companies like IBM, Cisco, Tesla and Microsoft among many others (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Z. Allam & Newman, 2018). As noted in the report by Singh (2019), a majority of these ICT providing startups are based in North America, followed by Europe, then Asia and other regions. Surprisingly, Henke et al. (2016) note that even local and smaller startups have been observed to position themselves to attempt to grab a share of this emerging market. Some examples of activities include those involved in offering transportation solution, biking and bike services, online shopping and delivery services (Mordor Intelligence, 2018). The digital urban solution industry, as noted in the previous section, is a multi-dollar industry that is growing exponentially. The two reports (Grand View Research, 2019; Singh, 2019) quoted previously valued

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this industry at approximately $71.3 billion and $308 billion, respectively in 2018, and each projected that the market, especially guided by the Smart City technology, would reach $237.6 and $717.2 billion by 2025. However, a different independent report by Frost & Sullivan projects that the market will be valued at $1.56 trillion by 2025. According to Frost & Sullivan (Jawad, Nalcioglu, & Vaninetti), the growth of this industry is propelled by increasing demand for technologies like sensors, cameras, software, networks, new infrastructures, new building and construction technologies and other smart devices. All these are part of what is required to actualize the need for Smart Cities and its related sectors like smart healthcare, smart transportation, settlement, smart energy and smart infrastructures among others. Hamilton and Zhu (2017) posit that the market value for digital solution is also fuelled by availability of the aforementioned ICT providers and also financial institutions that are dedicated to assist diverse cities to meet their investment needs. Despite their diverse applications in urban areas, digital solutions have had a permanent market in the reformation of hard infrastructure of the city. This fact is, before technological revolution, most hard infrastructure was vulnerable to issues like climate change and overexploitation, and sometimes they were rendered obsolete as demand shifted with time. For instance, in the case of most port cities, shipbuilding industries collapsed due to change in trade dimensions and availability of other forms of transportation, hence leaving behind a trail of infrastructure that was no longer needed. Woetzel et al. (2018) explain that through digital technologies, those hard infrastructures that are deemed inefficient in addressing urban challenges are gaining new value as some are being renovated and regenerated to be reused for different purposes rather than their original ones. Besides old infrastructures, even new, hard infrastructures are benefiting from urban digital solutions, especially in regard to resource optimization use during construction. Renz and Solas (2016) highlight that with new technologies, it has been observed that new construction companies are using materials and resources that are more sustainable, durable and providing minimal impact on the environment, and those that have the potential to withstand diverse challenges like extreme weather conditions

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(Forzieri et al., 2018), fires, and heavy loads among others. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2014) further expresses that the digital technology presence in urban areas have allowed for measures geared toward mitigation of emissions, especially by emphasizing on low energy consumption in building, transportation networks and in other infrastructures. In addition, Wang, Xue, Wang, and Zhang (2018) underscore that these technologies have opened new platforms for the reuse and recycling of materials, hence helping in reducing emissions as well as protect the environment from such materials that, in most cases are nonbiodegradable and containing elements that have the potential to pollute and compromise the integrity of neighbouring rich and fragile biodiversity areas. From these new trends warranted by urban digital solutions, the market share for infrastructural development is no longer controlled by companies that were involved in hard infrastructure construction only, as one witnesses the emergence of ICT providers in this lucrative market. To cities, the new entrant of the digital dimension provides added value as this actualizes the potential to address urban challenges while at the same time making it possible to achieve sustainability, resilience, economic growth and promote liveability at affordable cost.

The Rise of ICT Monopoly The widespread and popularity of urban digital solutions are being spearheaded by the emergence of data technologies, which in turn is being enabled by availability of devices and components that have the potential to capture diverse forms of data. Similarly, the widespread penetration of smartphones has been in the forefront in generating substantial amounts of data, and when these are combined and analyzed, they form a formidable tool that have the potential to inform and shape activities in cities. Their potential have inspired new business solutions which corporations and pioneer startups have embraced and capitalized to gain a competitive edge in the ICT solution provision market. Florida (2018) showcases how this availability has helped create successful businesses such as Uber, Airbnb, Didi Chuxing, WeWork, lyft,

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Mobike and Delivery Hero among others. These startups are in addition to overall leading companies like Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba and others that have formed their tap roots by relying on the paper of technology, and more so, on the availability of data. A report by EY (2014) supports the argument that availability of data is now seen as the basis of competition especially in the rendering of real time and fact-based decision-making tools. The report showcases that the most successful companies are those that have, or will, manage, invest, capture, store, aggregate, analyze and derive value from the available data. Similar to the findings in the EY report, Singh (2019) denotes that research on wealth accumulation showcases that digital companies are seen to be growing faster relative to their traditional counterparts that are still pursuing old business models that do not give emphasis to data and their potential. The author credits this growth, first to the increasing demand by cities across the globe to secure digital urban solutions addressing their challenges, hence making the digital market a lucrative one with trillions of dollars on the offing. This truth is affirmed in a report by Novak et al. (2018) which further supports that companies operating within the Central and Eastern Europe are competing for a projected GDP of over €200 billion by 2025, and the growth is expected to continue exponentially. An extensive analysis by Govindarajan, Rajgopal, and Srivastava (2018) shows that in the modern world, companies’ investment decisions are guided by the value of return of scale on intangible investments not by the traditional focus, where company’s financial statement determined their position in the market. They substantiated this claim by citing examples like the purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook at a cost of $19 billion despite WhatsApp having no reported financial statements. Similarly, the authors cite the case of Twitter that was able to go into an IPO with a valuation of $24 billion despite reports that it had made a loss of $79 million before this planned IPO. They showcased that these digital companies are able to weather down the negative tag of declining balance sheet through their ability to continue tapping on the digital platforms that have unlimited opportunities. According to them and others, financial statements, in most cases, paint a different picture on the reality of the company.

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The progression of digital companies can be credited, in part, from their resolve to invest substantially their time, effort and resources in Research and Development (R&D) with an aim to deploy proprietary technology. The decisions to invest in R&D as prompted by the increasing competition from both small and large companies in the provision of digital solutions, as is discussed in the previous section, a sizeable number of experienced ICT-providing companies are already taking the lead in the market. To compete with them, as advised by the Queensland Government (2016), startups need to concentrate their efforts on areas such as market research so as to be acquainted with the real local issues and demands that each target market seeks to satisfy. As explained by Karvonen and van Heur (2014), digital solutions are not conventional, such that one can ‘copy paste’ from one city to a different one especially due to varied demands. The realization of this has driven R&D practices, and the results are seen as a rise of digital solutions that may seem similar but are technically different. For instance, in the transportation sector, Uber and Lyft, though working in same geographical regions, and targeting similar customer bases are technically different and also in terms of market valuation. However, they share similar digital and technological platforms. Yu, Liu, Fung, and Leung (2018) explain that such differences are instigated by the effort level invested in R&D by various companies; hence, their sizes and value cannot be the same. This truth is affirmed by Han, Thomas, Yang, Leromonachou, and Zhang (2017) who showcased that most high-tech industries may fail to benefit from R&D if strategies to commercialize digital solutions that a company is availing are not efficient, as is the case of most Chinese companies that were observed. Extensive investment in R&D will eventually favour the development of proprietary technologies, which are promoted as designed to assure the economic prosperity of cities, especially noting that such are tailored to solve local demands and challenges. Therefore, as is extensively shared in the report by McKinsey (McKinsey & Company, 2018a), most cities opt to partner with solution providers that have showcased that their digital solution has the capacity to address the local challenges. For instance, Taylor (2014) has observed that most ICT corporations are now advancing the concept of Smart Cities and are said

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to have branded this technology as the one with answers to all urban challenges, and by so doing have stimulated an insatiable demand for it globally (McKinsey & Company, 2018b). Though this branding is a marketing strategy, the extensive R&D that most ICT corporations have undertaken on the Smart City concept are understood as if properly planned those can have the potential to change the shape and operations of cities as is the case in cities like Singapore and Barcelona among many others. Besides Smart City technologies, R&D has helped startups like Twitter and Facebook to share in the urban digital solution markets, especially through the big data they control from the substantial numbers of subscribers that uses these platforms.

Social Media and the City The rise of social media like Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+ , Youtube, Linkedin and WhatsApp among others has also transformed how people across the globe communicate and live to an extent where images like in Fig. 3.2 frequently occur, as people seem to favour digital interactions over physical ones. According to Tjepkema (2019), it is estimated that over 3.2 billion people globally use social media in one way or the other, and these trends are credited to widespread penetration of smart devices like mobile phones. The ability of these devices to support diverse social media apps has made the spread and connectivity even more expansive and the influence of social media even more commanding. The influence on people’s life is viewed in different dimensions with some arguing that social media have had numerous positives, while a substantial number of others think otherwise. Hemsley, Jacobson, Gruzd, and Mai (2018) conducted a research in the light to this to establish whether social media have brought goods or evils and argued that such moral grounds depends on individuals and their experiences with social media. Nevertheless, they outline that social media have had its field day in changing areas like governance, economic growth, security, education, health sector and transport sectors among other numerous spheres. Similarly, they also showcase that as the spread of social media became rampant, there

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Fig. 3.2  People on their phones while awaiting the metro in Naha, Japan (Source Jens Johnsson)

arouse cases of privacy violation, fake news, terrorism activities like recruitment, cyber-bullying and moral decadency among other evils. Yeung (2018) views social media as a untapped tool that has a vast potential to catalyze policy actions in different areas, and capitalizing on these can have resounding impacts on the social, political, environmental and economic arenas. On the political sphere, different social media platforms have been used as campaign tools with contestants and their supported using different kinds of strategies via these platforms. Through the platforms, politicians are able to reach a multitude of their supporters in real-time via text, video or livestream, and they are able to engage in discussions and live chats. Same platforms are used by political opponents to discredit one another, and in the worst-case scenarios, the said platforms have been used in some countries to challenge governments and even upturn elections. Tufekci (2014) explains how, in Egypt, social media was instrument in organizing the uprising and revolution that saw President Hosni Mubarak overthrown from his position. He explains

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that social media has been used in different parts of the globe like in Turkey, Greece and Spain among others since it give protesters and movement an advantage in logistics, public attention and evading security censorship. Stromer-Galley (2014) further supports that different social media platform appeal to different demographics and the ability to customize a message to cater for each demographic have allowed organizers of public and political events to succeed in reaching various quarters. Saifuzzaman (2017) shares how in the Syrian unrest, young protesters in the streets were seen with smartphones in their hands, probably relying on different forms of update via different social media platforms to different age groups and to the global audience. The coupling of urban open space and social media is a phenomenon seen in recent political manifestations in different parts of the globe. Protests and events are often coupled with the use of digital media, accelerated through the use of mobile phones and scenes like in Fig. 3.3 are seen as common and maybe even the most convenient way for capturing and transferring data in those circumstances.

Fig. 3.3  Use of mobile phones for capturing political manifestations (Source Matthew Henry)

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Schwedler (2013) explains that the availability of open public spaces have been seen to give impetus to civil and political activities due to issues like their generative capacity, the locations that provide an effective atmosphere for such activities and the energy their setting provides. Low (2017) highlights that these characteristics of open spaces have been instrumental in catalyzing tumultuous events like the Arab Springs, especially in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey. Also, they were instrumental in what was known as ‘global occupy movement’ with examples like Occupy Boston, Occupy Wall Street, and the Yellow Vest Movement in France among many others. At the core of these events witnessed in public places is the use of social media as a platform for communication and encouragement; hence, the consistency and almost synchronized behaviours witnessed in each of the aforementioned events. Another practical example of the use of urban open space for political manifestation as explained by Chrona and Bee (2017) is the case of Occupy Gezi Movement witnessed in Turkey. It is said that a heterogeneous mix of protesters representing a mix of citizens actively organized via social media converged at the Gezi Park to air their frustration with an authoritarian regime. Via social media platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter, real-time updates from the Gezi Park were shared to both local and international audience, and this made the number of protesters to increase each day. The protests did not only achieve political goals but also helped secure the same park (Gezi Park) which the local government had planned to demolish and turn into a shopping centre and build a mosque (Kuymulu, 2013); hence, the citizens were able to claim their recreation centre, which is among the few remain green spaces in Istanbul, and from it they were able to send political messages to those in power and to the world at large. The role of social media in cities goes beyond politics to influencing other areas like social life, sustainability, tourism and business and infrastructural development among many others. For instance, it is noted that travels are heavily influenced by what people see on social media, hence the spirited efforts by cities to invest piously on branding and marketing with an aim to become attractive to enthusiastic travellers who brings about economic opportunities. Such initiatives are said to demand new approaches like urban regeneration, investment

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in new infrastructures, adoption of sustainable strategies that would render the city clean from all sorts of pollution and adoption of technologies to improve on liveability, security and resilience among other areas. Similarly, this calls for concerted collaboration between different stakeholders and to ensure active participation of citizens; hence, change in perception and allowing them to own the project are demonstrated in brands like #Iamsterdam and #magicalKenya among many others that resonates well with both the residents and visitors alike. Therefore, from this example, it is clear that the rise in social media has significant impact on urban areas, and capitalizing on the positive aspect of it has the potential to spur unprecedented benefits.

Urban Branding and Social Media The advent of digital solutions focusing on cities and urban areas have had numerous positives with the ability to brand the city being a major one. This digital branding has given cities the opportunities to capitalize on economic frontier like urban tourism, where infrastructures promote and attract visitors; both local and foreign are emphasized. The focus on urban tourism is encouraged by the knowledge that a majority of global population are expected to live in cities, and this will increase from the current 54% to over 68% by 2050 (United Nations, 2017). Besides the residential component, it has been observed that cities attract a massive number of people, especially those who visit for business and leisure, and it is noted that city travels account for over 45% of global international travels (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2018). The World Travel & Tourism Council (2018) showcases how such travels are influenced and on innovation by cities, as each try to win the competition battle for visitors. Novelli (2005) explains how such innovations have led to brands like health and dental tourism, education tourism, tour and leisure tourism, business tourism and culture and art tourism among many others. And, following the advent of social media, such tourism brands have been domesticated in different cities through strategies tailored for various users in different social media platforms (Almeyda-Ibáñez & George, 2017; Kerr, Dombkins, & Jelley, 2012; Pike & Page, 2014).

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For instance, Amsterdam, an artistic city with iconic museums and rich history, adopted a phrase ‘I AMSTERDAM’, depicted in an icon sign bearing that phrase and located outside Rijksmuseum, as shown in Fig. 3.4. According to Hitti (2018), the sign is said to have substantially attracting tourists in the city to a point where the city leadership decided to move the letters. Its popularity came, courtesy of the Twitter hashtag ‘#I AMSTERDAM’, which promoted it to a point where it noted that over 6000 selfies were taken in front of it each day and most of them were shared via Twitter (Newberry, 2016). This branding strategy that was innocently adopted to make those who lived, worked and visited the city of Amsterdam to feel part of it and had such an enormous impact that the city was always overcrowded to a point of the tourism theme becoming counterproductive. But, moving the letters was not a welcome gesture, especially by the locals who used the hashtag #IAMSTERDAM to criticize and air their displeasure. Despite having the letters removed, Hitti (2018) posits that the I AMSTERDAM

Fig. 3.4  Amsterdam Branding (Source Red Morley Hewitt)

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branding strategy has an indelible mark on tourism tag attached to the city, and not even removing the sign can erase the success the city has achieved. Other cities, such as Izmir, Istanbul, Lyon, Chicago, Singapore, Berlin, Dundee and numerous others, have tuned their branding strategies on social media. In Dundee, for instance, the branding campaign started as early as 2011, where Rivas (2012) reports that promotions such as ‘Win a Weekend in Dundee’ were carried, targeting youthful population residing even beyond the city. To date, the city maintains active social media presence under the tagline, ‘Dundee: One City, Many Discoveries’, and this has been instrumental in its branding strategies. Saatçioğlu (2017) shares that the city of Izmir is promoted via social media by having photos and images of ‘Places to be seen’ via Instagram and Facebook, and this has had positive impacts on promoting the city. Other cities, as explained by Higham and Moyle (2016), have capitalized on the sporting culture of city and branded themselves as centres for sport tourism. For instance, they explain how the city of Liverpool, which is home to Liverpool football club, has used the popularity of this team to fashion its economy as a sport-based, and in so doing have benefited greatly in terms of infrastructure development and revenues from local and distance support who frequent the city for football and sport-related activities. To maintain the tempo of digital branding, it is observed that most cities have opted to recruit young and technologically savvy staff to spearhead the new forms of communication. Holt (2016) explains that this is important since social media has the potential to disrupt the cultural identity of the city, hence having a staff who understands the new branding tool has the potential to attract the young demographic that are tagged in a new form of culture known as crowd culture that encompasses massive number of people who share similar interest in a given culture. Such include fan pages in Facebook, and in Twitter they are advanced under a specific hashtag. The impact of having such a dedicated team to run the urban branding initiative is increased flow of visitors who are ready to consume the services that the city offers. Rehan (2014) explain that urban branding promotes the concept of sustainability and serves as a communication tools that allow cities to market

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their unique characteristics and by so doing build a city image that serve to attract diverse economic activities in the cities. In the report by World Travel & Tourism Council (2018), it is reported that the travel and tourism sector account for over 10.4% of global GDP and has employed of 319 million jobs globally as of 2018. In Singapore, for instance, Lee (2008) explain that, after launching its tagline ‘Uniquely Singapore’, a branding strategy that it adopted in 2004, it is said that by 2013, it had recorded over 16 million visitors and by 2015, this number was said to have reached 17 million and created over 100, 000 jobs. The economic benefits are spurred by increased physical and virtual investments from both the governments and private sectors. The investments are said to create a complex and better experienced network which encompasses sectors like hospitality, tour and travel, transportation, financial sector and urban management sectors among many others. Having such sectors on the same platform help reduce gaps between policy makers, urban management, private sector and citizens, and this allows for collaboration in formulating policies that help improve the sectors, and ultimately the economic status of the city.

Conclusion This chapter dwells into the increasing role of the digital media in the shaping of the city’s economy and political sphere. The role of social media in cities, particularly in public spaces, is becoming more accentuated, and politicians are seen to increasingly make use of those platforms to gain both political mileage and economic resilience through the increase in tourism-related activities by making use of new technologically inclined branding and marketing techniques.

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4 Privatization and Privacy in the Digital City

Abstract   The concept of Smart Cities is accentuated as ICT corporations engage in market monopolies under the umbrella of proprietary technology and thus further negates the possibilities of technology transfer and knowledge transfer. While technologically inclined urban solutions are seen as being tailored in accordance to the city’s need and financial capabilities, the main objective remain the selling of a product while ensuring large profit margins. This has been often contested as this gives rise to a number of issues relating to privacy and intellectual property catalysed through Public–Private Partnerships. This paper discusses this dichotomy and outlines that there are emerging areas that need consideration for the thematic of public data when coupling technology providers with cities. Keywords  Smart cities · Privacy · Privatization · Big Data Public–Private Partnerships (PPP) · Intellectual property

© The Author(s) 2020 Z. Allam, Cities and the Digital Revolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5_4

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Introduction Cities are experiencing rapid transformation from the courtesy of a rise in data accentuated by the twenty-first technological revolution that has given rise to numerous disruptive technologies that powers devices, systems and networks. These technologies catalyzes the availability of numerous, complex and high-end high-tech urban solutions that are provided by a clique of ICT corporations that have the potential to gather, analyze, store and put the data into perspective, hence come up with valid, timely and customizable solutions for different kinds of urban challenges. With the data, perennial urban problems such as increasing emissions, unsustainable resource use, social inequalities, unsustainable economic growth and environmental challenges among many others are being addressed, with positive impacts in cities where such solutions have been embraced. For instance, in Barcelona, Capdevila and Zarlenga (2015) explain how technology has helped the city council to transform the city of Barcelona into an inclusive, economically stable, innovative and community-oriented city that serves as a tech lab for other global cities. In Singapore, Phang and Helble (2016) share that the use of technology has allowed the government to ensure over 90% home ownership in compact neighbourhoods where optimal use of resources like energy, water, land and construction materials are emphasized. On the economic front, Rehan (2014) showcases how urban digital solution riding on availability of data have helped cities to brand themselves, such that they are able to attract FDIs, businesses and tourists, and by so doing have been able to promote their economies, create job opportunities and promote sustainable agendas. With numerous, successful case studies of application of urban solutions in cities, there has been an increase in demand for such in different parts of the globe as posited by Novak et al. (2018). According to them, even cities in low-income and emerging economies are ready to adopt such technologies so as to address their unique urban challenges especially those arising from population increase and unprecedented urbanizations. This rise in demand for technologically oriented solutions is seen as a welcome challenge for ICT corporations which have been reported to be positioning and strengthening themselves to

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reap from the huge financial opportunities that the technology market is providing. Green (2011) highlights how the said positioning, among other things, involves these corporations registering proprietary technologies that allow them to maximize their earnings, as well as to be involved in the implementation of such technologies in cities. According to Chamoso, Gonzalez-Briones, Rodríguez, and Corchado (2018), the trend of owning proprietary technologies is an advantage to the cities, since this increases competition among the ICT corporations; hence, they come up with quality and advanced solutions and offer the same at reasonable market prices and do not expose the cities to security issues. But on the same, Taylor Buck and While (2016) argue that proprietary technologies, though offer promises of quality, have the potential to increase the costs of implementing the prerequisite urban solutions as the city is required to contract numerous providers each providing their own technology to serve a particular aspect of the urban fabric. T. Yigitcanlar et al. (2018) argue that the divergent in protocols, standards and frameworks followed by these technologies means that the city is required to maintain multiple networks and systems to allow each technology to function as intended. Even though urban digital solutions and technologies, that a majority of cities are striving to implement, are seen as the most potent in addressing urban challenges, there is the challenge of financial burden by municipalities that accompany the implementation of those solutions. Engel, Fischer, and Galetovic (2010) highlight that in most cases a majority of these municipalities have no sufficient financial capabilities to exclusively finance the acquisition of these technologies; especially due to a diversity of other issues that require to be financed simultaneously. Also, as Tasan-Kok and Zelaczna (2010) share, the challenge of time frame required to see the implementation of projects relying on the said technologies is always live, and mostly, such projects take time to complete; hence, during that period, the municipalities have no tangible return to show for the projects. Consequently, even when these projects are complete and running smoothly, they normally have no, or very little, direct financial returns, since most of them are undertaken to improve on areas like sustainability, improve liveability, promote social inclusivity and foster economic growth, while others like housing projects are meant for

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social welfare. In many occasions, it has been observed that a majority of these projects are financed via Public–Private Partnership (PPP) models which allow them to be implemented in a timely manner, and at the same time allow the local governments the opportunities to use their available financial resources to finance and provide social services that cannot be overlooked. Cui, Liu, Hope, and Wang (2018) hail these models as among the most prominent, and which has allowed many developed cities to succeed. In addition, they help these governments avoid direct loans that have been embezzled, especially in cities where there are no stringent frameworks to guide the utilization of such funds. Despite these positive reports, there as some concerns with this form of financing model especially in regards to privacy of the data that the private partners would have access to and also the issue of technology knowledge transfer which most companies, especially those with proprietary technologies, are said to be reluctant to share. Moreover, this financing model is accused of promoting privatization of the urban spaces, and numerous authors (Carmona et al., 2019; Hollands, 2015; Lam & Ma, 2018) have been seen to question the moral and ethical dimensions of such practices. Though this is the case, in some quarters, the idea of privatization is seen as the best opportunity to allow the private sector to provide services that local governments cannot, both financially and technically. For instance, Capps (2017) showcases how privatization of some spaces in different cities in the USA have allowed the introduction of bike-sharing services that do not only help reduce traffic but plays a critical role in sustainable efforts. Such services would be a hard nut to crack for the local government, but providing spaces to the private sector allows them to invest in such projects. For the critics, they are justified, especially when such privatization would see the introduction of services that would infringe on privacy, allow surveillance of the citizens and also promote commercialization of data and personal information or lead to activities that compromise liveability, resiliency or promote activities that are environmentally unfriendly. Similarly, as highlighted by Radu and Hamlin (2005), privatization is not the best way to go if it promotes the issues of corruption, rentseeking and embezzlement of public funds, and when it is promoted by adoption of top-down instead of bottom-up decision-making practices.

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Privatization of Public Service Public services in cities have always been offered by local governments and municipalities, and for the longest time, until challenges like population increase and rapid urbanization became of concern, the provision of service has been adequate, commensurate to the knowledge and needs of the time. Curristine, Lonti, and Joumard (2007) credit this to informed urban planning, where utilities, infrastructures and other urban fabrics were designed such that there was a seamless flow of activities. Similarly, availability of resources such as land, raw materials, constant flow of revenues both from municipal corrections and distribution from national governments allowed effective provision of these services. However, Van de Walle (2016) explains that, as the demand for these service increases beyond the budgetary constraint of the municipalities, coupled with conspicuous wastage of resources, lack of sufficient technical skills in different fields to provide quality services, the service deliveries are seen to wobble. These failures or unsatisfactory services delivery is depicted by an increase in such cases like waste collection challenges, dilapidated infrastructures, insufficient resource flow in some parts of the municipalities, increased insecurity and many such problems. Other issues, as explained by Masiya, Davids, and Mangai (2019), entail the failure to meet revenue collection targets due to cases of corruption, use of outdated collection strategies, lack of enough staffs to undertake the enforcements and also lack of proper frameworks to facilitate the exercise. As explained above, with the dawn of twenty-first-century technological revolutions, there has been an increase in the digitization of services, including those that have been seen as the preserve of local governments and municipalities. For instance, before this, the provision of education and related services were exclusively dictated by governments or local authorities, but the advent of technology, many digital avenues like online classes and others have arisen, challenging the traditional setups (Kumar, 2013; Payne, 2018; Yairi et al., 2017). A more pertinent issue entails the advent of paperless payment methods accentuated by online services and mobile money services (Tigari, 2018). These, when effectively adopted have the capacity to revolutionize and maximize

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the revenue collection by local governments, especially by helping to seal loopholes that corrupt staffs and cartels use to defraud municipalities. In another case, Budding, Faber, and Gradus (2018) explain how digital platforms have the capacity to relieve municipalities of the burdens of management and maintenance through the adoption of digital solutions. Despite those expansive possibilities that the digital world has opened, municipalities and local governments do not have the technical capacity or expertise to offer those public digital services (e-government services), which are mostly pioneered and distributed by ICT corporations. Therefore, they are forced to either hire professionals to handle those sectors, or partner with those ICT corporations to ensure effective provision of digital services. In fact, the latter option is seen as the most potent option they are left with, since, as explained by Karvonen and van Heur (2014), most of the high-tech companies and/or corporations control proprietary technologies, and these come with stringent terms and conditions, which curtail the use of experts other than those working under the corporations. In addition, with the proprietary technologies, some aspects may require further training that municipal employees, though technically savvy may not be privy to. McKinsey & Company (2018) highlights that the partnership between local governments and the digital solution providing companies ensures steady cash inflow into the private company’s accounts, since most of the solutions they offer are on high demand. Indeed, Frost and Sullivan (Jawad, Nalcioglu, & Vaninetti) posit that the urban digital market is a lucrative one that is projected to reach of $1.56 trillion by 2025; hence, attracting numerous players who are eager to maintain a competitive advantage of other competitors. For this reason, Tan Yigitcanlar and Bulu (2016) underscore that there is a spirited effort by ICT corporations to invest in R&D so as to develop superior, indemand proprietary digital technologies that would ensure that they capture and retain a monopolistic market for the provision of specific services. Jin, Vonderembse, and Ragu-Nathan (2013) explain that such efforts are in top gear since proprietary technologies are not inimitable, they are rare, non-substitutable, and they have stringent security features and attract high value. Following the eminent risks of hacking

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and cybercrimes, and also the desire to maintain a unique profile, cities would opt for such unique technologies, and this is to the advantage of the specific digital solution provider. While the provision of those services has the potential to improve on service delivery and increase satisfactory levels, the market monopoly by the digital solution providers is a dangerous trend as it means there would be no or very little knowledge transfer (Zonooz, Farzam, Satarifar, & Bakhshi, 2011). Therefore, this would translate that if the monopolistic firm is registered in a different country but have secured a contract to provide a digital solution to a low-income country and it opts not to allow any knowledge transfer to the local companies, there would be no capacity building for the local community, yet the firm is bound to benefit from local revenues and resources. Kruger (1998) explains that in addition, the monopolistic firm would also play a significant role in ensuring local firms have no capacity to enter into the same niche, a move that is counterproductive to the local economy in terms of job creation, quality service delivery and stifling economic expansionary opportunities. Liu, Serger, Tagscherer, and Chang (2017) highlight that such trends also deny the local economy to invest in its own R&D on how to solve local challenges, and this is pointed by the fact that the small, local companies, which are known to be key drivers in promoting valuable innovations are given no space to showcase their potential. Filippetti and Archibugi (2011) affirms that, in most cases, as long as the large corporations are supplying the required technologies, the local government, in most cases, do not provide an environment and prerequisite subsidies that would allow smaller companies to engage in their own R&D, thus come up with competing services, which would be for the benefit of local economy and the citizens at large.

Public–Private Partnerships As much as cities across the globe are scrambling to adopt and implement the aforementioned urban digital solutions, and as corporation through intensive R&D makes such technologies more complex and accustomed to different urban contexts, the financial demand for

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such is relatively high. A report by Smart Africa (2017) explains that in most cities, resource capacity (both knowledge and funds) is seen as a challenge; hence, cities find it hard to self-finance the acquisition and implementation of technologies, where most cities have been seen to opt for PPP models that are perceived to be attractive and suitable for such capital-intensive projects. Chironga, Cunha, De Grandis, and Kuyoro (2018) explain that of the many cities that have shown desires to adopt urban digital solutions, only 16% of such has the capacity to finance the projects fully from their internal coffers, while the rest rely on donors and grants, loans from infrastructure development financial institutions and a majority choose to partner with the private sectors for the provision of said projects. On this, not many cities are financed by well-wishers, while those that opt for loans experience different kinds of challenges. In particular, most infrastructure development financing institutions prefer to work with national governments to finance infrastructures that cut across cities. Mostly, they peg their argument on the fact that governments have the capacity to guarantee loans with strategic government infrastructures like ports, airports and/or strategic energy infrastructures among such. In most cases, such infrastructures are controlled by governments and not by municipal councils. However, with PPP, municipalities have the opportunity to seek financing for any kind of service provision or infrastructural development without requiring huge collaterals. Similarly, this model allows for the privatization of some public services; hence, the local governments can manage to engage multiple partners at the same, and most importantly, such partnerships are possible with local, small companies, thus supporting local economic activities. The potential to privatize public services are seen to receive mixed reaction, with proponents commending the model for, among other things, allowing quick injection of cash in the city, while those opposing it cites issues like ethics, corruption and quality of services and products among others. Dong, Du, and Wu (2018) posit that this model has had numerous benefits to the local governments, especially in allowing optimal utilization of public resources like brownfields and degenerated and underutilized infrastructures. With this model, the local populace and those beyond the city benefit from quality services, especially in

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sectors like health, education and transport that require substantial capital investments that most local governments are constrained. Kosycarz, Nowakowska, and Mikolajczyk (2019) explains that in such sectors, private partners do not only inject their finances but bring in muchneeded innovations and expertise that local governments may not have. They argue that private partners also have the potential to keep up with the changing technologies in various sectors, unlike local governments that often lag behind in such matters due to bureaucracies, financial problems and lack of proper workforces among other issues. On the same, Ke, Wang, Chan, and Lam (2010) add that the private sector, thus, helps the local governments by sharing the risks of investing in large and capital-intensive projects that, if left in the hands of the public sector, the governments would either abandon or be forced to neglect other sectors. In the case of using this model to support urban regeneration, there are numerous practical cases that have been recorded in different cities across the globe. For instance, Bufi (2016) discusses three vital regeneration projects that were undertaken in different cities—Mumbai in India, Toronto in Canada and Minha Casa in Brazil. In the case of Mumbai, a project dubbed ‘Mumbai First’ was conceived in 1994, and the aim was to revitalize the city, by partnering with stakeholders like NGOs, business and financial institutions. The partnership was to be effected through PPP initiatives and is termed as one of the most successful projects under PPP (Bufi, 2016). In the same country, in Hyderabad, there is the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project, among the largest PPP initiatives in the world, that have seen the city redefining its transport sector and allowing traffic reduction and quick access to different parts of the region (Mahalakshmi, 2018). In Toronto, the PPP project involved regenerating the Regent Park (a culturally diverse neighbourhood) by demolishing and replacing the 50-year-old infrastructures with new ones, and by so doing creates a space for additional 3300 houses that would be sold to offset some of the redevelopment costs. Besides the infrastructure, the project entails much-need facilities like parks, schools, cultural centres and other facilities that were not part of the initial plan of this neighbourhood (Greaves, 2011). Other such projects include the $1.15-billion Blankenburg Connection PPP

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project undertaken by Rotterdam, the Netherlands, involving designing, construction, financing and maintenance of road network linking the city to its ports. The project is funded by BAAK consortium (InfraPPP, 2018). In the USA, Deye (2015) reports that between 2005 and 2014, there have been over 48 PPP mega projects worth over $61 billion with over 80% of financial transaction already closed by 2015. In improving the urban experiences, PPP for Cities (2016) highlights such projects like the placement of 66,000 street lighting columns in Surrey, UK, the bicycle-sharing program in Paris, France and the Barcelona WIFI and Optical Fibre connectivity projects are among a few that are undertaken under this financing model. In order to tap into this emerging market prompted by increasing digital possibilities, ICT Corporations, as discussed in the previous section, have undertaken spirited restructuring efforts that would place them ahead of the park (Lam & Ma, 2018). In particular, the structuring involves adopting innovative financing structures that would allow them to maximize their earnings. For instance, in the case of connecting Barcelona, the service provider Abertis Telecom was contracted for a period of 8 years since 2014 with a possibility of 2 years extension at a cost of 9 million Euros, and for it to get full repayment for this investment, it was allowed to commercialize the remaining capacity of network and Wi-Fi premium services. Therefore, in such a case, the company benefits from the two financial sources—local government and the commercial services (PPP for Cities, 2016), and its investment efforts in R&D helped in developing technologies that were seen as providing a technological edge in regards to its competitors.

Public–Private Partnerships and Intellectual Property Despite the numerous benefits of PPP described in the previous section, there are some emerging challenges that critics of this model cite as their reservation for its adoption in cities. Among these challenges is that of Intellectual Property (IP) which a majority of ICT corporations

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and other urban digital solution providers have been seen to maintain. To the firms, IP as noted in a definition given by Syngenta as an important and essential legal tool that they (modern technology-based organizations) use to catalyze production or development of a stream of innovative digital solutions borne after intensive R&D. According to the author, IP help firms to protect the fruits of their hard work and innovations from counter-feits and piracy, and they do this by adopting one or more IP mechanisms which include patents, trademarks, geographic marks and trade secrets among others (World Intellectual Property Organisation). On the part of municipalities, engaging companies and firms with their own IP ensure that the solutions provided are of high quality, thus ensuring high demand. That way, the city is assured of improved economic growth, creation of job opportunities for the locals, improved liveability status by ensuring safety and security components are enhanced. In addition, this also helps in encouraging other firms, especially local ones to conduct their own R&D, innovate and also contribute in providing solutions to the city. The ownership of such IP by corporation though beneficial to the city they are contracted under the PPP model, the concern of how they handle the massive data that the local governments allow them to collect, store, analyze and transmit still lingers. Hong, Hyoung Kim, Kim, and Park (2019) underscore how such data can be transcribed into various forms such as textual, numerical and graphical form in a bid to extra meaningful insightful that has the potential to improve the urban fabrics. Such transcriptions, however, would entail having a different IP right for each form; hence, increasing the challenge of who owns each of these IPs. The biggest challenge would arise if the contracted company owns the property right for such data, since it would be in control of such data, hence having the liberty to use such for whatever purposes they may choose (Seuba, Geiger, & Pénin, 2018). The challenge that the local governments experience once they enter into a PPP contract with the private company is that they cannot always claim right to the data generated. First, as explained by Braun, Fung, Iqbal, and Shar (2018), most of the machines, sensors and other components that are used to collect and generate the data are owned by the private companies. Secondly, once the data are collected, most local

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governments do not have the prerequisite capacity, both in terms of staffs and technical knowhow on data analysis, and storage and sharing, and would rely on other IT companies for such services. Therefore, since most of the devices used to collect the data are IP of the company offering digital solution, or such a company may have entered into a legal agreement with another one for the provision of such devices, the resulting data would, in most cases, be the property of the company collecting it. He and Qiao (2018) and Allam (2019) explain that the ambiguity on who has the right to data has given private organizations a leeway and a platform to mine and syphon data, where even data generated from services geared towards the public sector are used for commercial benefits. Samuelson (1999) explains that in the last few years, market incentives to mine and process private data from the public are common in its utilization, and sometimes may include the permission to commercialize generated data from public service as a commercial asset. Also, with access to such data, a firm is deemed to have undue advantage of other firms in many aspects, and thus has the power to influence the field in which they operate. Indeed, Atkinson (2019) explains that data are now seen as ‘the new oil’ and is said to evoke rivalrous competition; thus, the private company will be seen to engage in any available opportunity to licence data as its own IP to use it for or against its competitors. In the urban context, the main challenge is that the technological revolution is moving faster than bureaucratic processes linked to IP and this is impacting heavily on the privacy of the urban dwellers. As noted above, as technology advances at unprecedented rates, new and complex devices, systems and technologies such as AI, IoT, machine learning, crowd computing and others are being developed, and these facilitate the collection of even minute data and in real time, but it takes a longer time for laws, controlling their use, to be proposed, formulated and adopted. Such discrepancy between technology and legislation gives the ICT companies an advantage over the local governments, but at the expense of the citizens. As Emily Mossburg, Fancher, and Gelinne (2016) posit, the concern on the privacy of data does not only arise from fear of it being commercialized, but also from the fact that ICT private companies have had, in the past, their intellectual properties

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rights stolen by hackers and unauthorized agencies. Noting that they control data bearing private information of numerous urban dwellers, a breach to their systems would mean exposing the citizens’ data to any kind of manipulations. Tao et al. (2019) showcase how a compromise on data would also expose citizens to threats of physical damages of critical infrastructures like energy or water plants, transport infrastructures like airports among others. Unfortunately, as explained by Hitsevich (2015), due to constraints on law and ubiquitous nature of the Internet, the infringement may be done from any part of the world and synonymously such that it becomes hard to enforce the laws in such cases. On a different but related issues, Borissova (2018) underscores how a local community or a city can lose a right to its cultural heritage the intellectual property-related issues. In his view, in a bid to digitize the cultural heritage is thus engaging in a PPP with an ICT company, and there may arise some contestation on who is the rightful own of the IP.

Privacy, Control and Propaganda The grey areas pointed out in the previous section in regard to IPs, accelerated through PPP ventures, are the terrain on which ICT monopolies are surfing through. And more so, when proprietary technologies are concerned, it becomes even harder to monitor what companies are doing with data regarding urban structures. The reason behind this, as explained by Bass, Sutherland, and Symons (2018), is that proprietary technologies are encouraged by private ICT firms to discourage interoperability and to also serve as technological ‘silos’ that cannot be accessed even by the authorities unless through the technology provider in question. This means that the public data are at the mercies of the private digital solution providers, who release the data to the public at their own convenience and in piecemeal. In relation to this, Bass et al. (2018) highlight that even the data that these monopolistic companies make possible may be in a format that the local governments or the public may not be conversant with. Samaila, Neto, Fernandes, Freire, and Inacio (2018) explain that the genesis of such ambiguity in data format and lack of interoperability is during the manufacturing of

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sensors and other devices that they use to collect the data. In this case, it is said that most private companies with proprietary technologies ensure that the components they manufacture are unique in design, such that they are not compatible with the conventional standards and protocols; hence, data from them cannot be extracted by other agency or company unless they have the underlying technologies that power those devices. Townsend (2013) highlights that using proprietary technologies thus allow the ICT firms to lock in massive private data, and at the same time; without regard to the need for innovations that would make the cities liveable, resilient, safe and sustainable, such technologies interferes with the need for openness and interoperability, thus raising concerns of whether data can be trusted in regard to smart and safe city concepts; which have gained in popularity and have seen a widespread adoption. Besides the unstandardized networks and protocols, the devices such as cameras and sensors that most ICT corporations install in a bid to implement the safe city concept that a score of cities are pursuing have raised concerns over their potential to allow policing and private surveillance. Though these two issues are important when it comes to crime prevention, they are seen to have gone overboard if that surveillance is done by the private companies and not monitored by authorized public security agencies and their municipal partners as per the agreements usually in place (Vigne, Lowry, Dwyer, & Markman, 2011). In an ideal situation, the mandate to provide urban safety is on the shoulders of local governments, but due to numerous constraints mentioned in the previous sections, through PPP models, such services are outsourced and left in the hands of the private sector. From the literature review above, it has been established that, in most cases, the private sector steps beyond their mandate especially when the data they control has the potential to warrant profitability and market control. According to Seuba et al. (2018), these two factors serve as incentives to commercialize collected data, and by so doing, they pose a risk to the safety of citizens, urban infrastructures and national security at large. The surveillance is perpetuated through the use of numerous cameras, sensors and other devices that have the capacity to capture different forms of data synonymously, and those are installed in cases where the safe city concept or the Smart City Concept is being implemented. As

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noted above, since a majority of these devices are protected via IP rights, it is always hard to know the type of data they capture and how they utilize it. For this reason, since safety is a perception in the mind of the locals (Márquez, 2016), they would feel insecure when they realise their data are in the hands of third parties. Martínez-Ballesté, Pérez-Martínez, and Solanas (2013) explain that the only time the citizens can feel part of the process is when they are actively involved, and by so doing, they would appreciate the importance of the security devices and the purpose of having the data collected. A practical example of how such issues pertaining data in the hands of the private sector and the use of proprietary technologies is the case of Huawei, which is currently facing strict scrutiny for what its critics perceive to be a strategy of syphoning data from the public sector for its private monetary gains. In particular, the gains are said to benefit the Chinese government which have passed China’s National Intelligence Law in 2017 that demands even private companies to support, collaborate and cooperate with the country’s national intelligence services in the works. As O’Flaherty (2019) highlight, for this reason, governments, especially those from developing countries, are wary of Huawei’s 5G network roll-out plans, since most of them argue that it would allow for espionage, based on their argument that the Chinese government has been using tech companies to collect its citizens data, and those accused of being on the wrong have been imprisoned. Due to disaccords from governments on this issue, countries like the USA (The Economist, 2019a) and Australia (BBC News, 2018) have banned local companies from cooperating with Huawei with other countries expected to take similar actions in due course (Turner, 2019). The backdrop of all these problems is the intensive effort by the company to position itself as a leader in the telecoms-equipment business that is backed by over 80,000 employees working in R&D department alone and over $15 billion budgetary allocation toward the same (Jiang, 2018). Similarly, as The Economist (2019b) shares, the company owns almost 10% of all the 53,345 patents filed in China in 2018. As explained above, with such numerous IPs in the hand of a private company (Qingqing, 2019), and the power of 5G technologies, fears of massive data compromise are real.

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From the Huawei case, it is clear how ICT corporations are gaining in notoriety and are now seen to yield a certain influence in political spheres, with their reach to impact on national policies becoming evident. Like in the case of Huawei that is seen to have the capacity to assist the China’s government access data from foreign governments, the rise of high-tech private companies and the power they hold, especially due to their ability to use data to gain immense insights, needs to be monitored so as to prevent control and propaganda and escalation of trade wars that can be made to hurt the global citizenry.

Conclusion This chapter explores the rise in data and the need for digital infrastructures, increasing a demand for such services that the public sector cannot provide, where the reason is that those technologies are being pioneered by ICT corporations and are usually tied to IP rights due to heavy investment in developing proprietary technology through Research & Development. This prompts the public sector to call those ICT monopolies to provide services originally aimed at the public sector, and this is being disputed in various domains as it increases the risk for the syphoning of data for commercial usage and can even pose threats to national security and geopolitical instability. It is noted that while the need for PPP is essential, it is required that there are well-established laws and protocols in place regarding the use of public data for private endeavours.

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InfraPPP. (2018, October 18). Largest PPP project awarded in the Netherlands achieve financial close. Retrieved from https://www.infrapppworld.com/ news/megaproject-1351-largest-ppp-project-awarded-in-the-netherlandsachieves-financial-close. Jiang, S. (2018, July 26). China’s Huawei to raise annual R&D budget to at least $15 billion. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-r-d/ chinas-huawei-to-raise-annual-rd-budget-to-at-least-15-billion-idUSKBN1KG169. Jin, Y., Vonderembse, M., & Ragu-Nathan, T. S. (2013). Proprietary technologies: Building a manufacturer’s flexibility and competitive advantage. International Journal of Production Research, 51(19), 5711–5727. Karvonen, A., & van Heur, B. (2014). Urban laboratories: Experiments in reworking cities. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(2), 379–392. Ke, Y., Wang, S., Chan, A. P. C., & Lam, P. T. (2010). Preferred risk allocation in China’s public-private partnership (PPP) projects. International Journal of Project Management, 28(5), 482–492. Kosycarz, E. A., Nowakowska, B. A., & Mikolajczyk, M. M. (2019). Evaluating opportunities for successful public-private partnership in the healthcare sector in Poland. Journal of Public Health, 27(1), 1–9. Kruger, D. (1998). Access denied? Preventing information exclusion. London: Demos. Kumar, V. (2013). Information technology and its effects on urban communities: With special reference to Bangalore city. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 17(6), 84–89. Lam, P. T. I., & Ma, R. (2018). Potential pitfalls in the development of smart cities and mitigation measures: An exploratory study. Cities, 91, 146–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.11.014. Liu, X., Serger, S. S., Tagscherer, U., & Chang, A. Y. (2017). Beyond catch-up—Can an new innovation policy help China overcome the middle income trap? Science and Public Policy, 44(5), 656–669. Mahalakshmi, B. V. (2018, October 15). Hyderabad metro, the largest PPP metro project, has become a big success. Retrieved from https://www.financialexpress.com/infrastructure/railways/hyderabad-metro-the-largest-ppp-metro-project-has-become-a-big-success/1349078/. Márquez, L. (2016). Safety perception in transportation choices: Progress and research lines. Ingenieria y Competitividad, 18(2), 11–24.

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5 On Culture, Technology and Global Cities

Abstract  The role of technology becomes more pronounced and advances in various fields emerge and are made to impact on the lifestyle of people. One such notable impact has been on that of the transportation and tourism sector which are seen to witness an incremental rise due to the substantial rise in middle-income groups and through newly renovated and increasing access networks, hence moulding our interaction with cities. This gives new ways of mannerisms and interesting patterns, as seen through the youth and their intimate relationship with social media when travelling. However, as the implementation of technologically inclined solutions gain ground, we are made away of its risks that can reverberate on the urban form as well as on governance decisions and the innate identity of place. Keywords  Diversity · Global cities · Migration · Homogeneity Autonomous cities · Culture

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Introduction Between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the world has experienced a trend of momentous magnitudes. Among these include the advent of technology which has brought about disruption in various sectors. Others include globalization, urbanization, population increase and a new challenge of climate change among many others. These, in turn, have impacts on sectors like health, education, business, transport and communication, energy and tourism among others. In respect to tourism, the number of those travelling in different destination has greatly increased. The World Tourism Organisation (2012) highlights that as of 1950, the annual number of travellers worldwide was only 25 million, but by 2011, the number of those travelling had increased to 990 million. This is credited to advancement in the technology and the transportation sectors, especially air transport which has undergone significant changes. Similarly, such travels have been accentuated by the exponential growth in wealth of industrialized and emerging economies, accelerated due to globalization. The potential in the travel industry has a direct impact on cities, which, in most cases, is the target destination for the travels and if this not the case, most major transportation hubs are based in cities; hence, such population are made to interact some way or the other with the urban fabric. Realising this potential, it has been observed that local governments and city managements have been increasing their investments, especially in digital infrastructures to support the new influx of visitors. Such investments focusing on providing facilities tailored to maximize the experience of the visitors are not innocent as cities and businesses understand the substantial economic benefits of this market and its resulting impact on local economies. Barbier, Delaney, and France (2017) explain how digital solutions such as the use of mobile applications (Mobile Apps) to request for taxi services are transforming the automobile industry, especially in cutting costs on parking, municipal taxi licences and reduce traffics. These are giving visitors new levels of experiences which can be customized to fit one’s way of life and language. Besides requesting for taxis, Mobile Apps and Websites have also

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emerged that are allowing travellers to book and schedule their travel via the Internet, hence experiencing the convenience of not having to queue, travel to travel agencies or even carry cash to perform payments. However, as travel conveniences continue to advance with new technologies, there are some interesting studies showing that such convenience travels may be more popular with the elder generation, as millennials are seen to be opting for cultural experiences and rather enjoy travelling for meaningful purposes, even if this means for personal development or personal explorations. For the older generations, convenience and security are deemed more desirable, and they are seen to be more interested in material goods. On the other hand, the travel decisions of millennials are influenced by the unique cultural attractions experiences that different cities offer. Fromm (2018) denotes that this demographic group is interested in memorable moments, which, in the modern days, has been taken a notch due to the availability of a diverse array of social media platforms, and the convenience of mobile devices with the potential to capture and share such moments in real time to a wider audience. The quest for new cultural experiences means that the millennials are comfortable even to travel locally as long as the experiences they are looking for is available. To them, the availability of local experiences like food, art, nature and other local experiences suffice to feed their travel desires. Such trends by the youthful generation should be seen as opportunities of magnitude to cities; which need to respond to such by branding themselves in such a way that millennials would find contentment and excitement in their areas. While branding, the local authority needs to capitalize on the digital infrastructures since these are more compatible with the youth, and above all, they should maximize the potential of social media, which are the most used mode of communication by millennials. According to Ogg (2019), over 87% of the youthful generation trust social media for travel inspiration and these translates to almost 46% of successful bookings; hence, the city management should make note of such statistics. Starčević and Konjikušić (2018) further note that millennials are price-sensitive, but such would be willing to spend beyond their budget limits if the target destinations offer unique and memorable experiences that can be shared via social media platforms.

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For this reason, they are seen to spend a substantive amount of time in the Internet searching and comparing destinations that offer superior experiences at affordable prices, and these do not matter whether they are locally based or abroad. While the economic role of tourism is apparent, the role of technology coupled with that of mixity can also, however, provide negative consequences as it can lead to the homogeneity of the urban fabric through popular modernist planning ideologies. This is also accentuated through the way decisions sourced from various collected datasets are computed by AI models, especially if such dataset is borne out of the said simplistic planning trends. Li et al. (2016) express that modern cities are characterized of a built environment that has almost similar characteristics, which are better captured by five main indicators of urban fabric indicators, which include variance, cohesion, fragmentation, density and compactness. To achieve these in a city, the authors underscore that cities, especially indigenous ones, are impacted as most of their heritage architectural works are dismantled, demolished, deformed or undergo extensive renovations. Such practices, though they yield desired outcomes, threatens the uniqueness and cultural aspects of cities, and ultimately negatively impact on their attractiveness especially in regard to cultural tourism. Meyer-Bisch (2013) argues that the homogenization of urban fabric threatens the cultural diversity and thus water down the authenticity and integrity of cities—characteristics that help in their classification of being unique and attractive to cultural travellers. Indeed, the same argument is shared by UN Habitat III (2016) that affirms the demand on the New Urban Agenda; requiring urban developments to be based on place-based urban development that piously respect, uphold and endeavors to promote the culture and traditions of communities that form the residence of the cities. By doing this, the applicability and importance of digital technology are reinstated as this could stand as a key tool accelerating the branding old and cultural cities to celebrate diversity and subsequently build a more vibrant urban life.

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Global Cities and Diversity In the past few decades, due to globalization warranted by technological advancement, there have been some notable trends seen to disrupt major global sectors like transport and communication, art and culture, education and health among others. One of the emerging trends has been linked to the increase in the number of travels—more so through airlines and cruise ships. According to a report by IATA (International Airline Transport Authority) (IATA, 2018), the number of used airline travel services in 2017 reached a high of 4.1 billion, representing a 7.3% increase in the number of those who travelled in 2016. The number is projected to continue rising to reach over 4.6 billion people by the end of 2019 (Mazareanu, 2019). In regard to the use of cruise ship, Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) (Kennedy, 2019) data show that the number of global ocean cruise passengers keep on increasing. For instance, there were only 23 million such travellers in 2015, but, as of 2017, the number had increased to 26.7 million and it is projected that this would reach 30 million travellers by the end of 2019. Unlike in the air travel, most of those who board cruise ships are said to be out for new experiences, especially in those remote areas that are majorly accessible via the cruise ship. But, of importance is that such huge travel data showcases the magnitude potential that travel presents to cities and urban areas. And, from literature, it is true that cities are said to be responding positively to this influx, especially by changing the way they accommodate tourists who are drawn from an ocean of diverse cultural backgrounds. In line with the above, Postma, Buda, and Gugerell (2017) highlight that cities are seen to provide new infrastructures and facilities that allow for better interaction with those tourists. In particular, cities are said to have diversified their array of facilities to ensure the comfort and experience of the travelling tourists are maximized. For instance, it is now possible to have cuisines and restaurants of various remote places in the same city; hence, tourists have options, thus no point of leaving the city to another one for such services or experiences. Zukin (2009) also explains that in today’s digital age, people do not have to take long

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travels to go for shopping for a particular or unique product in specific cities, like there before when cities were identified with unique products or cultures that were exclusively found in them. With technological advancement, it is now possible to have such products in different cities or in different shops within the same city at the same time without any compromise on quality or pricing. Such strategies by cities are seen to be actualizing the concept of global cities. But, before the dust settles on this, it is worth noting that such trends of diversifying the experiences in a single city have been seen to negatively impact the cultural and innate identity of cities, as these can be found everywhere. This eventually leads to homogenous landscapes, which according to urbanists like Jane Jacobs (Jacobs, 1961), Nikos Salingaros (Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein, 1977) and Christopher Alexander (Alexander, 2002; Seamon, 2007) among many others, leads to the deterioration on the value of the city, especially in terms of liveability, inclusivity and sustainability (Alexander, 2002). When this happens, Hocaoğlu (2017) shares that the city then finds it hard to create a brand or image that would render uniqueness and attracteness, hence rendering it more difficult to increase its ability to appeal to the emerging market of cultural tourism. The challenge of homogeneity, however, is surmountable if the city opts to integrate technology into its urban fabric, thus giving them the capacity to satisfy some of the unique cultural demands that travellers are yearning for (M. Z. Allam, 2018; Z. Allam & Jones, 2018; Z. Allam & Newman, 2018). Genç (2017) explains that technology provides a platform to reinstate those lost heritages by transforming them into varying and diverging forms that attract and relate to the different demographic groups that make up modern cultural tourists. Technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are among the most popular ones today that cities can make use of to improve their attractiveness. The advantage of using such technologies is their enhanced mobile capabilities as is discussed by Jung, Chung, and Leue (2015). By relying on such technologies, it is possible for cities to capture their cultural heritage in form of text, video, and graphics among other multimedia format, and such are visualized using the AR technologies which augment one’s view and perception of reality, while coupling that with

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the existing surrounding environment. Thus, by using technologies like AR, cities are able to improve on their value addition on the services they offer, since this technology offer travellers the latitude to personalize the content of their liking as they wish, and this way, they are able to get maximum information about different aspects of the city that integrates this technology into its urban fabric.

Urban Diversity and Technology As shared in the previous section, the travel industry is experiencing a substantive growth due to positive transformations in the transportation industry, and more so through air travel, which has linked almost all parts of the globe, especially major cities. This growth has translated to increased numbers of people travelling to different destinations for business, education, leisure and tourism among other reasons. Such trends have prompted unprecedented competition in the tourism and hospitality industries, and also between cities who position themselves to tap on the increasing number of travellers, especially millennials who are seen to be more adventurous of all the other demographic groups. According to Richards (2018), among areas that are gaining additional attention is that of cultural tourism, which is seen as the interest of most of the travellers; hence, traveling agencies and cities are said to be innovating to refine their products to fit the cultural tourism concept. However, as noted above, through modern planning ideologies, most of original urban heritage has been fading, as buildings and other cultural symbols have been demolished, removed or undergone serious renovations to align with the modernist perspectives. Such trends have not augured well with cultural tourism, as most modernist planning ideologies, as is extensively showcased in this book, leading to homogenous-built environments, which discourages competitiveness, authenticity and innovation Appendino (2017). Despite the planning challenges, cities are seen to be crafting innovative ways, especially through the use of technology to promote diversity of culture, which in turn help increase their vibrancy and tourism activities. A case in point is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao which

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is seen to have not only helped in the revitalization of the city, but also increasing the number of both local and foreign travellers (Plaza & Haarich, 2013), specifically to visit the museum. Another recent case is to be found in Petersburg Kentucky, where a museum of its kind, the Ark and Creation Museum, capitalizes on the power of technology and the Christian’s belief of creation to give a new dimension and experience of the creation theory to those visiting the museum (Ham, 2017). Besides the employment of technology in architectural designs, technologies are also widely used to promote services, products and different information concerning cultural product offerings of different cities around the world. With the emerging disruptive mobile devices technologies, especially through the use of apps, the competition game to promote cities as cultural centres is gaining momentum. Pietro, Mugion, and Renzi (2018) explain how such apps are being used to showcase information like cultural calendars, cultural sites and share live images from different parts of the cities. Also, it serves as platforms for booking and reserving seats, ticketing, taxi rides around the cities among many others (McKinsey & Company, 2018). Such apps have been meticulously branded using innovative and cutting-edge technologies to attract more users and consumers while increasing convenience Besides the utilization of technology in the architectural sector, technologies areas are also being widely used to promote services, products and different information concerning the cultural products that different cities around the world are offering. With the disruptive mobile devices technologies, especially in the use of apps, the competition game to promote cities as cultural centres is gaining momentum. Pietro et al. (2018) explain how such apps are being used to showcase information like cultural calendars, cultural sites, share live images from different parts of the cities and also others for booking and reserving seats, for ticketing, for taxi rides around the cities among many others. Such apps have been meticulously branded using innovative and cutting-edge technologies to attract more users and consumers. Examples of such apps, especially ones running on smartphones as explained by Jamaluddin (2017) include Eventbrite that allows event organizers to put relevant information on upcoming events, and via the app, where they are able to promote and sell virtual tickets. The app is made

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customizable, such that users can search for events within their locality or in any places they may be planning to visit. Another similar app, but one that uses current technologies like AR, is that of Field Trip which is made and promoted by the technology giant Google (Ingraham, 2012). This app employs aural features of AR, such that, instead of displaying information visually, it relates information through user headphones and contains valuable information on cultural interest like food, history and architectures among others that may be of interest to modern cultural tourists. Another valuable app that cities have been using to promote events within their perimeters is Vamos—a powerful app that is able to capture events captured even in other apps like Facebook, Eventbrite, Tricketmaster, Gravy, SongKick Concerts, MapMyNearest and Pathable; hence, its users cannot miss anything within their areas. Interestingly, another trend that has emerged from the increasing connectiveness brought about by technology has been that of co-working, where those types of spaces (Fig. 5.1) can be seen as popping up in various cities around the world. Those are often supported by an identity

Fig. 5.1  WeWork co-working offices in Toronto, Canada (Source Eloise Ambursley)

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promoting diversity and culturally oriented branding, as opposed to the traditional cold office layouts. In addition to using the apps, cities have also been spending a substantial amount of their budgets to brand and rebrand themselves using creative and innovative ideas. The most notable of such brands include the famous, I Love New York, #IAMSTERDAM Hewitt, State of COLORADO, Helsinki (Nothing Normal ever changed a damn thing), “The Wild Within” for British Columbia (British Columbia, 2019), “MY Neighborhood” in Buenos Aires, “Chief Storyteller” in Detroit and “Let’s Make it Happen” for the city of Luxembourg among unlimited numbers others (The Place Brand Observer, 2018). On all these, what is common is that each have had a success story that can be told from various dimensions, and each of these have relied on the power of technology to support and promote the campaign geared toward demonstrating each of the city, in their unique way, deserve the attention of the travellers. Such branding ideas are made to integrate into social media platforms under captivating hashtags showing short clips, brand logos, images from the cities and the discussions revolving around what make such cities superior to others and worth visiting. Commensurately to the amount of energy and resources invested in those, such strategies have been very successful. Such branding is not only focused on promoting the attractiveness of the city, but much more, they are used as tools to drive the concept of unique identity that those who reside or visit the city could associate with (Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013). More so, as Cotirlea (2014) explains, that such are done to promote the concept of cultural diversity which are synonymous with most cities, which, over time, have become ‘the melting pots’ of culture. By promoting such practices, cities are seen to benefit from a more inclusive society; moulded by the complex multiplicity of cultures, rendering more attractive, resilient, liveable and sustainable urban fabrics. However, on a different front, Burgess (2007) posits that such unilateral belief in multicultural society breeds a homogenous culture. With this, it then begs the question of whether the world is about to witness, in the near future, a new urban culture born from the crossbreeding of various groups of people coupled with the city’s historical legacy. When this happens, such cultures will

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pose new challenges to cities, with the most probable ones being the trampling on the existing cultural heritage. As Hervé (2017) explains, some of these will be prompted by the emergence of a new approach to governance and social networking, where new and innovative forms and methods of income generation, new entertainment and recreation aspects among many others will be sought. In cases where existing cultures need to be retained and emphasized, technologies can be made to facilitate those. For instance, as explained in the previous section, some cultural aspects are already integrated into AR technologies, and these are being accessed differently from how this was done before the emergence of these technologies (Boboc et al., 2019).

Autonomous and Homogenous Cities The pivotal roles that cities play in any given economy are immense, and such needs to be safeguarded at all cost. On this front, cities are seen to be on haste to adopt the best and most advanced strategies to ensure they remain abreast with the competition and technologies, such that they can always manage to surmount ever-increasing urban challenges. Luckily, due to technological advancement, especially in the field of data management, cities have the opportunity to continue improving on their urban fabrics, based on such data. Tzafestas (2018) and Cheng et al. (2018) single out the contribution of Big Data analytics and the artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in helping city managements to make informed political and management decisions. With these two technologies, complemented by numerous others that are being employed in the cities, more so riding on the Internet of things (IoT) platforms, urban planners, managers and other stakeholders are able to gather, process and make insightful conclusion from data generated from numerous components that make up the city. In particular, most of the data are sourced from different social media platforms that most of the residences and visiting travellers share about the city and their experiences. Alam, Sajid, Talib, and Niaz (2014) denote that using mobile devices have become ubiquitous in modern days, where an impressive array of useful data on almost every aspect of urban fabric is

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captured and shared, especially in social media and such can be used to improve on the decision made. As shown in the section above, this can be particularly a key in the aspect of branding and the improvement of cultural diversity. But, far from this, the potential of Big Data Analytics and AI is immeasurable (Huang, 2017; Lekaota, 2018; Obinikpo & Kantarci, 2017; Souza, Figueredo, Cacho, Araújo, & Prolo, 2016; Wright & Schultz, 2018). There is an emerging literature that supports that a reliance on these technologies can also lead to the creation of autonomous cities (Danigelis, 2017; Van Winden & van den Buuse, 2017). In particular, the power of AI is seen to be on the forefront in actualizing this as it can be made to make informed decisions on numerous issues, often, much faster than humans. It has the potential to make faster decisions than any political processes that are linked to, for instance, passing a billing and voting for a particular among other such processes. On this, it is worth appreciating the benefits that a city can leap from becoming autonomous. First, as Kim, Ramos, and Mohammed (2017) explain, decisions made would be real time, unbiased, and such based on the magnitude of data, hence would have far-reaching, positive impacts. For instance, the impact of having an autonomous traffic sector, including the automobile themselves, would save the city from issues like congestions and reduce accident levels and human-related errors. Norman (2018), on this front, fancies the efficiency and improvements that sectors like health, energy and education among others would derive from automation of urban processes. Despite the fact that AI functions provide an interesting feature of detecting emerging trends, its potential to be fully relied upon, in absence of any human intervention, is, to some, not yet viable. For instance, according to Dubey, Naik, Parikh, Raskar, and Hidalgo (2016), this technology has the potential to overlook, neglect and sometimes classify some sectors as less important to others or as opposed to human behavioural issues. For instance, cultural attributes in a city can be placed as less desirable compared to others lie security, health or education, and, to some extent, in the short run, this may seem acceptable. Nevertheless, as has been demonstrated in this chapter, neglecting the cultural aspects of a city can only be done at one’s own peril. On the

5  On Culture, Technology and Global Cities     119

same, AI functions have a higher propensity to figure urban functions in a homogenous way; hence decision made is oriented toward addressing issues in a unilateral manner and would not augur well with cities that are trying to reintroduce the aspect of cultural diversity. For this reason, as much as the technology has revolutionized and the digitization of urban centres has brought about numerous positive impacts, the role of human being is irreplaceable. Indeed, on this, Zorins and Grabusts (2015) underscore that even in the most advanced AI technologies like artificial neural networks (ANNs) are at their infancy stage compared to human capabilities when it comes to real problem-solving. Such may demonstrate superiority in terms of speed, accuracy, reliability, latency, volume and convergence (He & Garcia, 2009), but, as Zorins and Grabusts (2015) contend, AI processes cannot be compared to human decision-making capabilities, especially on contentious issues. Therefore, dwelling on the intricate and complex nature of urban fabrics and relationships, such cannot be relegated to be handled by technologies, or technologically powered programs or components like apps alone, but humans, who are able to make decisions even on subtle matters should always be on the forefront.

Conclusions The role of technology in cities must then be carefully integrated so as not to encourage the washing of the unique cultural fabrics of old cities, as the mixity of various cultures, even if appreciated, must be carefully done so as to both provide economic narratives just as much as social ones. On this front, the use of technology, through AI processes, in the computing of autonomous cities must be treated with care and sensibility as we must not negate or made to cluster cultural attributes as those can quickly encourage the creation of homogenous spaces.

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Conclusion

The rise of data has been romanticized in literature, especially as from the dawn of twenty-first century when the ICT phenomena were known, leading to the changing various (if not all) facets of our lives. This notorious data are sourced from numerous devices such as sensors, camera, mobile devices like phones and cars among others and from sectors like health, transport, agricultural, environment and the economy among many others, and those have opened many possibilities across various fields, changed how things are done, and opened new frontiers that have shaped human interactions, liveability, occupations, accessibilities, health and dietary and many other areas. But, with the same, other quarters have equated the advent of data with negative consequences and argue that such will bring the downfall of humanity. Those are readily manifested in a number of movies and motion pictures showing how intelligent robots will be able to take control of the world and that of the human race. They showcase how such will have the intelligence to prompt human behaviours and thus, manage to curtail any form of retaliation that man fashion to defend themselves. On the same, there are also books and other forms of print media depicting a bleak future where humans will be at the mercy of data and those who control it. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Z. Allam, Cities and the Digital Revolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5

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Despite such negatives, which some may argue are just a mirage, the advent of data is one of the most promising resourceful raw materials of this generation. In respect to the cities, data provide unlimited avenues that can be exploited to better understand how urban areas can be (re)shaped, thus leading to better and informed decisions, which can enhance both the productivity and efficiency of our urban fabrics. Through the use of data, areas such as security, environmental sustainability, transport sector, energy production and consumption, and the supply of basic resources like water, building materials and food among others can be optimized. From the literature explored throughout the five papers, it has comprehensively been demonstrated that the rise in data has had profound impacts on how our cities functions in terms of governance, societal structures and even its morphological structures. In particular, since the advent of the Internet, cities have changed in the way they are designed, especially to comply with the subtle, yet complex frontiers that generate data from Internet-enable devices. For instance, the advent of Internet has allowed real-time communication, especially via the different social media platforms, that in our day and age connects most people in developed countries and gaining ground every day, leading to even larger amounts of data generated. With these data at their disposal, urban managers and other stakeholders are able to respond, in real time also to issues like transport, security concerns, waste management and provision of services among many others. The Internet has thus opened opportunities to new ways of how urban governments communicate with locals, and this has increased citizen participation, which in turn has allowed governments to initiate projects that are embraced by everyone, rendering more inclusive communities. But, while still on this, it is worthwhile to appreciate that those changes are disrupting, at greater speed, the lifestyle of people. And, because of this, there have been warning issues about how urban digitally inclined solutions need to be re-calibrated to improve, first and foremost, the quality of life of people rather than focusing on increasing productivity of urban areas, corporates, or specific dimensions in isolation. This is true especially recognizing that true productivity increase can only be realized when those working towards it, and those that are

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being targeted by productivity, are able to experience positive improvement in their lifestyle. Specifically, such ought to focus on improving their economic status, improve on the quality of service they receive, improve on supply of the basic resources like water, energy, food and health-related resources among many others. In addition, to achieve that objective of increasing liveability, the focus should also extend towards ensuring that cities are resilient, especially in regard to climate change and environmental sustainability. Climatic changes, in particular, have always been presented as a thorny issue, which it is truly is especially in regard to its impacts and the serious threat it poses on the survival of neighbourhoods and communities. This work has demonstrated how the challenges of our modern time have led to the destruction of infrastructures, loss of lives, wanton destruction of properties, increase in health-related problems and increase the final burden on both locals and city governments. Climatic changes are also being credited with declining agricultural productivity due to unpredictable weather conditions, disruption of water bodies and soil structures among other reasons. This has caused a reduction in food supplies especially in cities prompting health-related problems, and also resulting in rural–urban migration which impacts on cities, increasing the scarcity and preciosity of available resources. Climate change can also be credited to give rise, indirectly, to an increase social disparities in cities; leading to a rush in temporary solutions designed to accommodate an increasing population. On this, city planners have been observed to capitalize on the availability of data and have even brought forth numerous models that are employed in areas like forecasting and modelling to provide new insights to urban planners on a diverse range of issues. In particular, there has been a spirited effort in weather forecasting to enable sound mitigation strategies to be put in place. Such efforts have benefited even further by the availability and increased use of artificial intelligence, especially in the capturing and processing of urban generated data, hence allowing for a new understanding of emerging patterns of both people and climate. Such has allowed for quick responses on emerging issues and more so in regard to investment in infrastructures with the potential to slow down the impacts of climate change.

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Through the availability of the Internet and the spurring of interesting shifts and in the communication realm, where new platforms with far-reaching impacts have emerged, we have seen how social media have brought numerous breakthroughs in how people communicate and interact with in different spheres of life. They have transformed how businesses are conducted, especially by allowing closer interaction between companies and target markets. They have also given such business and corporation platforms to showcase their products and advertise products and services among other things. Same benefits have been present in other urban realms where communications and responses to the same are quick, elaborate and diverse. From the review of literature on the impacts of these platforms, it was established that these platforms, especially social media, has the potential to change urban governance. One cited example is how such have been used in urban public spaces in different regions to bring changes in the political spheres, both nationally and in cities. People are increasingly using them as mobilizing tools since they have the potential to reach multitudes of targeted demographics and other audiences in real time, and also allow them to respond at the same speed while being cost-effective. On the flip side, such platforms have also increased concerns, especially with respect to national security when they are used as platforms to spread propaganda, recruit ill intent people and as tools for propagating cybercrimes. Their ability to generate massive data has also given opportunities to private companies to, in some instances, syphon personal data and use of for commercial operations, aimed at increasing their competitiveness or for profit-making. Such practices have raised fears among locals in various communities, who are wary of their privacy and the damaging impact they can experience when their personal data can have when in the hands of the wrong people. The challenge with data, especially in its management, is, among other things, as established in this book, the increased privatization of selected public digital facilities, more so those that the public sector has no capacity to provide. One of the most common challenges is the commercialization of the data as mentioned above. The most disturbing part about this is that the privatization of public service delivery is warranted by the lack of capacity on the part of the local government, particularly

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due to lack of sufficient finances to secure the desired digital solutions and the lack of local experts to manage such digital tools or to interpret the generated results. Such practices, as shown in the discussion, give those who secure the public digital facilities the leeway to amass massive amounts of data whose ownership is contested. With most private companies offering such solutions, while having an upper hand in relation to the ownership of the data due to the intellectual property rights they have in respect to their digital tools and software, efforts from local government to protect the public data are always seen as a knee jack reaction. The challenge is even increased when those companies grow in size, hence accentuating their monopoly in the field they operate. This is so since they acquire almost exclusive rights to the collection and processing of data through the installation of their products, and this can lead to the challenges with urban governance. In some scenarios, such can lead to the emergence of privately managed cities as existing ones may succumb to urban decay. When this happens, it may lead to the skewed provision of basic services and amenities, and this has the potential to increase social exclusion, especially to those who are poor, living in unplanned settlements and facing other social and economic problems. The same has the potential to increase urban sprawl, uncontrolled use of scarce resources, and above this leads to violence, as witnessed in some urban cities described in the literature review. The future of the urban fabric thus leads to an interesting conundrum, which lies in the use of data. In particular, this is more on how such data are influencing and reshaping our infrastructures and the governance structures of the cities. On the positive front, there is much to hope for, as such data will allow for the creation of cities that are resilient, especially noted cases such as climate change, environmental degradation and economic crisis. Such will also help in decision-making in regard to investment in infrastructures that have the capacity to accommodate surging urban populations and the increasing demand posed by urbanization. With the availability of data, the governance of the city will allow for both top-down and bottom-up type of decision-making, and thus, promote the path toward social equity as almost everyone will feel part and parcel of the city, thus building on inclusive dimensions.

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Nevertheless, on the negative side, such data will open a Pandora box of numerous challenges like those discussed above. In particular, such challenges may be amplified due to the increasing use of AI, coupled with the creation of new private governance structures, leading us to the question and thematic of autonomous cities and the emergence of new political structures. As data are becoming the cornerstone of urban planning, it is worthwhile to ensure that the sound management of data is made with associated technologies. Without doubt, the primary objective is to design the city for people and those digital and intelligent tools must be made to support every effort geared toward increasing liveability levels, foster inclusivity and promote rich urban fabric in a sustainable fashion. Similarly, such technologies need to be supported by sound and vibrant governance, such that these can increase their collaboration, leading to participatory planning and governance structures, with local citizens to achieve better results against those current and upcoming challenges of our times while ensuring economic growth and competitivity at both regional and global scales.

Index

A

C

Agriculture 2, 3, 32, 40, 42, 45, 125, 127 Amsterdam 76 Architecture 20, 21, 42, 115 Artificial Intelligence (AI) vii–x, xii, 5, 16, 17, 34–37, 39, 42, 43, 46, 47, 49–52, 96, 110, 117–119, 127, 130 Autonomy 6, 33, 37, 51, 118, 119, 130

Chicago 41, 77 Cities viii, 2–6, 10, 10, 11, 13, 13, 14, 14–18, 20–22, 32–34, 37, 39, 42–44, 46, 50, 52, 62–65, 67–71, 74, 75, 77, 78, 86–89, 91–94, 98, 108–119, 126–130 Climate change xiv, 5, 9, 14, 32, 40, 42, 44–46, 52, 67, 108, 127, 129 Cultural identity 77 Culture 6, 9, 10, 35, 37, 75, 77, 110–113, 116, 117, 119

B

Big Data viii, xi, 13–16, 33, 35, 37, 42, 46, 117, 118 Branding 71, 74–78, 109, 110, 116, 118

D

Digital xiv, 3, 12, 33, 66–71, 73, 75, 77, 78, 86, 89–92, 94–97, 100, 108–111, 128–130

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Z. Allam, Cities and the Digital Revolution, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29800-5

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132     Index E

R

Economic resilience 78

Resilience xiv, 5, 16, 20, 33, 47, 68, 75

G

Governance 14, 43, 44, 50, 62, 71, 117, 126, 128–130 I

ICT monopolies xiv, 63, 68, 97, 100 Information Communication Technology (ICT) 8–10, 15, 16, 18, 33, 62, 66–68, 70, 71, 86, 87, 90, 94, 96–98, 100, 125 Internet xiii, 3, 5, 8–11, 13, 18, 97, 109, 110, 126, 128 Internet of things (IoT) viii, 5, 11, 16, 17, 33, 42, 43, 46, 117

S

Smart Cities viii–xii, 5, 15, 16, 18, 37, 63, 67, 70 Social media 10, 37, 50, 71–75, 77, 78, 109, 116–118, 126, 128 Sustainability xiv, 5, 7–9, 16, 17, 20, 21, 33, 34, 42, 43, 47, 49, 62, 68, 74, 77, 87, 112, 126, 127 T

Technology xv, 5, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17, 22, 33–35, 37, 43, 46, 49–52, 62–64, 66–68, 70, 71, 86–89, 96, 97, 100, 108, 110, 112–116, 118, 119 Tokyo 41

M

Modernism 18, 20, 21 U P

Privacy ix–xi, xiii, xiv, 17, 38, 39, 50, 72, 88, 96, 128 Privatization xiv, 88, 89, 92, 128

Urbanisation 2, 16, 32, 44, 49, 62, 89, 108, 129 Urban planning 10, 16, 18, 20, 22, 33, 37, 46, 51, 89, 130