15 May 2013
The unstoppable ascent of world bike-sharing systems
The map headlining this article reflects one of the leading trends in urban mobility of recent times. Bike-sharing has taken root in the cities of every continent through different formulas of citizen services and use, and the dense network of cities shown in the map demonstrates that this is a highly-developed service which has evolved towards a new generation of systems in which integration with other modes of transport and other public services has helped it to expand. Although the map also features certain systems that are no longer active - which also shows that in many cases they were set up without sufficiently solid financial backing - it offers an excellent tool for accessing all the existing bike-sharing systems around the world and providing updated information on them.
15 May 2013
Big data and the potential of quantitative urbanism
Recent developments in the potential of using the big data derived from urban services is enlarging the playing field from the perspective of quantitative urbanism. This emerging approach, based on the use of patterns, formulae and data to understand the way a city works, is winning plaudits as a discipline capable of shaping a kind of ¿city science'. This wide-ranging article details the visions of some of the people and institutions working in this field and highlights the contributions of scientists such as Geoffrey West, the work of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, and the recent launch of the Center for Urban Science and Progress in New York as a centre specializing in the concentration of Big Data-based knowledge applied to cities.
15 May 2013
The future of research on smart cities
The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis of University College London published, in its Working Paper 188 in October 2012, an interesting approach to the challenges and objectives involved in academic research of smart cities. It states the response the academia must give to different stakeholders to provide valuable knowledge about the relationship between technology and urban life. The contribution from such a highly specialized centre is of equal interest for local authorities, industry and the general public.
15 Mayo 2013
The mobility of the future: will we really see driverless cars?
It still seems too early to see driverless cars as a common feature of our city streets. But everything points to the fact that, sooner or later, they'll be here. Indeed, the first prototypes are already driving around certain cities in something more than just a pilot scheme, and in non-urban areas (logistics centres, for example) their use is already fairly widespread. This article goes over the necessary conditions for their introduction and the prospects for their definitive implementation, and it gives an insight into some of the transformations this may entail in terms of the design of transport systems, commuter behaviour, road safety and the impact on the automotive industry in its different sectors.
29 April 2013
Major cities fighting against climate change
The C40 Cities organization put together a report in 2011 on the actions being taken in the fight against climate change by some of the biggest cities in the world. This article reviews the latest research on the role played by citizens in global CO2 emissions and the emission-reduction margin that can be achieved if they commit to firm reduction policies. Using the conclusions of the study, the article makes a brief overview of some of the most noteworthy actions being taken by cities such as Sao Paulo, Copenhagen, Addis Ababa, New York and London.
29 April 2013
The Knight Foundation sets the challenge of improving interaction between citizens and government
The Knight Foundation has launched a selection process of projects and initiatives geared towards accelerating innovation in new open government actions. The News Challenge focuses on improving the way our citizens and Public Administration interact, and various projects have been submitted for the selection process based on technology and digital data as a support for innovating in public services and citizen intermediary systems to improve the actions of public authorities.
The selection procedure for the projects that will finally win financial support from the Foundation has led to more than 800 projects being submitted, representing a fantastic compilation of initiatives on different topics and with different approaches in the form of digital apps and solutions.
29 April 2013
The MIT Media Lab launches a research initiative based on the science of cities
The MIT Media Lab, one of the world's most prestigious centres for the exploration of digital media and their impact on society, has come up with a framework for its research work on cities. The City Science initiative embraces this whole subject with a research programme specializing in the design of technologies and infrastructure, big-data analysis and a broad understanding of how cities work. This has led six lines of research to be established ¿modelling, governance, mobility networks, living and working spaces, social networks and energy networks ¿ from an integrated and cross-disciplinary perspective.
29 April 2013
Resilient cities for the future
In this article, Leo Hollis, the author of the soon-to-be-released book Cities Are Good for You: the Genius of the Metropolis, analyses some recent crises and emergency episodes and examines how the way in which we tackle them is decisive. The robustness of cities and their ability to overcome traumatic episodes or natural disasters are increasingly crucial factors in city management. Amongst other things, he suggests that this is not only a matter of technological or constructive solutions but also entails intangible factors that are equally important, such as the social cohesion, equality and strength of communities and neighbourhoods.
