Abstract
Small - scale civic actions have the capacity to generate both social and urban change and push forward the localization of the SDGs. If today’s cities want improvement of environmental quality, it is necessary to engineer a way to combine sophisticated technology with citizen-driven data collection and utilization. Can this approach contribute towards the creation of the “Real Smart City”? In the current turbulent times for cities and urban planning, smart city concepts have been both heavily criticized and euphorically praised. The questions of data possession (data ownership), tech-centric, tech-company driven urbanism and planning legitimacy are getting increasingly relevant. On the other side, contemporary cities are witnessing growing efforts of different think-tanks and knowledge institutes around the world to join the Decade of Action and use many positive sides of technology and smartness to build on SDG 17: Partnership for Goals, SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities, SDG 13 Climate Action and SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure. From the perspective of Decade of Action, small-scale civic actions have the capacity to generate both social and urban change and push forward the localization of the SDGs. If today’s cities want improvement of environmental quality to go parallel with more inclusion, innovative energy production, new forms of mobility, and circular economy, it is necessary to engineer a way to combine sophisticated technology with citizen-driven data collection and utilization. The question arises: can this approach contribute towards the creation of the “Real Smart City”? The Session aims to help further the integration of both high-end, remote sensing data with data extracted from local civic sensing into the planning process and catalyse positive, evidence-based transition towards better urban living. The Session curators believe that neighbourhood scale is the scale where big data and citizens’ data can reach maximum impact if joining forces through new modes and technological solutions. Enabling active participation and legitimized decision-making in planning is possible and should be stimulated. Finally, session wants to examine the current growing elitism in data management and hyper- technologization, which prevents cities to become “really smart”. This special session is aimed for knowledge exchange and deepening of the local know-how of the civic data initiatives, and for planning authorities (civil servants) interested in strengthening the commitment to the SDGs and to the local environmental and smart agendas by engaging in citizens’ science. During the session, the curators will ask and investigate questions on a/ how civic data can become a part of the future urban DSS systems (Decision Support Systems) b/ to chart the areas where civic data is most useful (smart buildings, environmental planning, mobility planning, public space design) The 60’ session will showcase several ongoing initiatives in this field from both academia, policy and practice, in the format of short experts’ presentations and a experts panel interventions (max 30’) and the practical part of the session, when the participants will take part in a co-creation of a citizens science tool for public space design through an interactive digital poll. Session curators: Ir MSc Milena Ivkovic, Board Member ISOCARP and Creative Director Blok74 URBAN SIMs, The Netherlands Dr Haris Piplas, Co-Director Integrated Urban Solutions, Drees&Sommer, Switzerland
