Browsing by Subject "Smart City"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    The Current State and Characteristics of Cape Town's Smart City Development
    (Urban Real Estate Research Unit, 2019-09) Boyle, Luke
    In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The second report uses the analysis of the Digital City Strategy to develop an understanding of where the City of Cape Town currently is in terms of its smart city development, and the characteristics that have defined the advancement of the City’s smart city ambitions to date. Following that, the report discusses how the current state and characteristics relate to the Digital City Strategy outlined in the first report before providing some insight into what this reveals about the City’s approach to smart city development.
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    Identifying the Opportunities and Challenges that Exist for Cape Town's Smart City Development
    (Urban Real Estate Research Unit, 2019-11) Boyle, Luke
    In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The first report provides an overview of the City of Cape Town's strategy along with some critical reflections on their guiding framework, The Digital City Strategy. The third report, using interviews with stakeholders in different government, civic and corporate spheres, serves as a reflection to unpack some of the key opportunities and challenges that Cape Town faces in terms of unlocking the potential of a smarter, more sustainable urban future. Following that, the report provides some insight to what it means on a broader level for smart city development in Cape Town.
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    Overview and Analysis of Cape Town's Digital City Strategy
    (Urban Real Estate Research Unit, 2019-05) Boyle, Luke; Staines, Isabella
    In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The first report provides an overview of the City of Cape Town's strategy along with some critical reflections on their guiding framework, The Digital City Strategy.
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    The use of a user-centric smart mobile application prototype for supporting safety and security in a city: a design science method
    (2021) Mathijssen, Maxine; Tanner, Maureen; Densmore, Melissa
    Cities have always been the drivers of innovation, growth and change. Cities around the world are still rapidly expanding, especially on the African and Asian continents. Cape Town is one of those cities, where urbanisation rates are high, and crime is persisting at alarmingly high levels with crime rates being among the worst in the country and the world. Additionally, the city is home to 7 of 10 worst-performing police services in the country. Combining these factors, there is a need to look at ‘smart' ways of growth which includes facilitating a safe and secure city for citizens. Although Cape Town is pursuing smart initiatives, these have failed to place communities and individuals among the key stakeholders in the smart planning process. This research focuses on further researching smart city initiatives in Cape Town, placing citizens at the centre of the development process. As Cape Town's mobile phone penetration rate is high and access to Internet is rapidly expanding, this research aims to use crowdsourcing techniques for developing a smart mobile application prototype that is focused on enhancing community engagement and facilitating increased perceived feelings of safety and security for citizens. The study uses a Design Science Research method with Cape Town citizens as the main stakeholders, to propose an artifact based on their wishes, needs and current issues faced with regards to safety and security in the city. The proposed artifact focuses on enhancing community engagement, through a chat room and user-logged incident reports, as well as a customised safe route planning functionality where users can send emergency signals to comembers with the use of GPS live location tracking. The research shows participants are willing to adopt the use of the mobile application prototype, given there is substantial community buy-in, and the functionalities in the app are easy to use and quickly accessible. The study further identifies the need for better police follow up and involvement, as the city's police system could benefit from crowd-sourced crime-data in reducing the number of crimes in neighbourhoods to make citizens feel more safe and secure.
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    The Way Forward for the City of Cape Town and what it means to be 'Smart' in Africa
    (Urban Real Estate Research Unit, 2020-03) Boyle, Luke
    In today’s urban environment, local governments have to deal with increasingly complex mandates, social inequalities and economic growth in a context of increasing environmental and economic uncertainty (Baud et al., 2014). In Africa, these complexities are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation and the subsequent proliferation of urban poverty. This necessitates more efficient and effective management and governance of urban systems (Slavova & Okwechime, 2016; Meijer & Thaens, 2018). Given the increased role of ICT and its potential to advance the management and coordination of cities, contribute to their economic success, and improve the quality of life of its residents (Backhouse, 2015), many African cities are beginning to explore smart city interventions as a means of overcoming the rising challenges of urban development and sustainability. This report series seeks to explore the grounding of smart city concepts within an African context through an exploration of the City of Cape Town's smart city initiatives. The fourth and final report attempts to put forward some recommendations intended to assist The City of Cape Town as they continue on their digital journey. These recommendations are based on what has emerged out of the previous three reports. The report also attempts to distil the findings of this research to provide some reflection on what they may mean for Africa more broadly. These are presented as important considerations that can be applied to the context of other African cities with smart city aspirations.