Global City Systems & ICT

1. Global City Systems & ICT

2. Global City Systems & ICT • Developing GSS for Cities • Evolution of intra-city systems • Evolution of inter-city systems

3. Developing GSS for Cities • Improving inter-disciplinary communication • Technologist / ICT / Social Scientist gaps • Barriers • Emphasis on quantitative modeling – consider unstructured information analysis as bridge • Emphasis on uniqueness – consider development of formal hierarchies of abstraction and scales • Formal development of “urban science” • Development of next generation of planners administrators • Shaping the futures of specific cities through collaborative narrative development • Roles of ICT • Identifying quantitative and qualitative patterns • Understanding how cities work and how people live in cities • Understanding the futures of cities

4. Evolution of intra-city systems • Need for adaptability of cities in era of rapid change – lack of adaptability in traditional design/planning methods • Transition from 19th Century industrial models of service & infrastructure management to 21st Century decentralised management • Emergence of ICT as the fifth utility • Open/closed, centralised/distributed • Making the invisible visible • Knowledge aggregation and dissemination • Decentralised decision-making • Improving perceived Quality of Life • Changing connectedness • Impacts of high-speed transportation and virtualization/dematerialisation on intra-city and inter-city structures/systems • Maslow’s hierarchy / low -> Local connectedness, physical resources & infrastructure dependencies • Maslow’s hierarchy / high –> Global connectedness, virtual resources & ICT dependencies • Roles of ICT • New flexibilities, new dependencies • Governance of information • Impacts on democracy

5. Evolution of inter-city systems • National and global coupling among cities • Decay of 19th Century “feeder network” model with hierachy of economic roles • End-point of current urbanisation – a small number of mega-cities? • Forces driving urbanisation • Resource efficiency, economic opportunity, innovation • Abandonment of countryside • Specialised roles in global ecosystems • Countervailing forces • Pollution • Need for diversity in skills and economies • Alternatives to GDP as key metric – Genuine Progress Indicator (M Porter), Better Life Index (OECD) • Questions • Can failing cities be brought back to life? • Minimal threshold of size for social & economic survival? • Is there a maximum or optimal size for a city? • Role of ICT • Globalised ecosystems • Dematerialisation of work • Macro-economic modeling, policy decisions