Interview

Like many others in emerging markets, Bucaramanga is an unplanned city that has evolved organically and rapidly without the benefit of central coordination. The city has expanded on unstable mountainous ground, often threatened by natural disasters like landslides and floods. How does such a city prepare for the future? By harnessing data and technology.

Located on a small plateau of the Andes, Bucaramanga has a sprawling population of around 1.4 million, with a quarter living in remote areas of the city with limited mobility and connectivity. As urban leaders strive to improve the daily life of residents and make Bucaramanga a more resilient, sustainable, and digitally enabled city ready for the future, they are leveraging data and technology to achieve their long-term plans.

“Data is gold for this administration,” says Wilfredo Gomez, digital transformation officer of the City of Bucaramanga. “We have a completely data-focused vision. Our goal is to understand every aspect of a citizen’s life, while respecting their privacy, of course. We want to know whether they have been vaccinated, whether their kids are going to school, whether they are paying taxes, and whether they are using public transportation.”

Tech solutions

Bucaramanga has incorporated all types of data—including geospatial, behavioral, and social media data—along with smart technologies into its future-ready initiatives. The city has invested heavily in security: it has set up over 600 CCTV systems to provide real-time surveillance and is now installing facial recognition technology to fight crime. In addition, as part of its smart city strategy, Bucaramanga has implemented a remote management system for public lighting, with about 14,000 streetlights covering 10 districts of the city.

The environment is another urban priority. Using IoT sensors, Bucaramanga has optimized trash collection routes and automated waste management, which has helped make streets much cleaner. In five to 10 years, the city plans to utilize AI to find further efficiencies in waste management. It also plans to use AI for predictive modeling to be able to forecast and mitigate natural disasters in future years.

Because of the city’s rocky terrain and unplanned development, mobility is a thorny challenge. Data and technology again offer a solution. The city uses traffic data to reduce congestion and accidents, and it has installed smart traffic lights in seven intersections, with plans to scale this system across the city. In addition, the city has developed shared mobility areas where citizens can access bicycles, e-bikes, and e-scooters for free.

The future revolves around smart citizens

Transforming urban domains through data and technology is just part of the plan. Bucaramanga’s goal is to ensure that its residents trust and embrace digital technologies and data analytics—and know how to use them to significantly improve their daily lives.

“We want our residents’ quality of life to be improved by technology,” says Gomez. We want them to feel safe when they see surveillance cameras in the streets, and we want them to feel comfortable paying their taxes online.”

The importance of digital knowledge is paramount for the city, which is striving to become an IT talent hub in Colombia. With over 40,000 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students, Bucaramanga is nurturing local talent to achieve that goal.

However, retaining that talent is challenging due to nearby competition from larger cities like Bogota or Medellin. Bucaramanga is betting heavily on the rise of remote working to keep talent in the city, where the cost of living is lower.

“The pandemic gave us the possibility to have the best of both worlds. Our plan is to retain and attract talent, who can in turn help develop local startups.”

To encourage citizens’ acceptance of technology, Bucaramanga has put in place multiple “digital points” across the city. These are technology centers that offer residents free computer and internet access, as well as free lessons in computer science, robotics, digital design, English, web platforms, and related skills. Almost 100 free Wi-Fi zones are also spread across the urban center.

“The digital infrastructure that we need to develop our long-term plan is already in place and it has the capacity to scale over the next five to ten years,” says Gomez. “Our focus is on improving our data acquisition and infrastructure. We want to develop our data centers and clouds to ensure the quality and availability of data everywhere. That will be our main goal to become future-ready.”

Still reeling from the pandemic, and now facing economic, social, environmental, and digital disruptions, cities must quickly come to grips with the rising expectations of citizens. In a post-pandemic world, it is no longer enough to be a smart city. Cities also need to be also sustainable, inclusive, resilient, and economically robust. In addition, they need to be fit for future purpose, due to the permanent shifts in how citizens with live, work, travel, shop, and learn in cities. Cities have already made progress, but much more preparation needs to happen in 2023.  

To understand how cities are preparing to become “future-ready,” we recently conducted a comprehensive benchmarking survey of city officials from 200 pre-screened cities in 67 countries. The benchmarked cities are home to over 385.4 million residents, representing 4.8% of the world population. As part of our research, we developed a rigorous research methodology to identify today’s most future-ready cities and what sets them apart from others.​ 

What our future-readiness model reveals 

To create our future-readiness model, we drew on survey data showing progress that cities have made in 12 key areas of future readiness, including accelerating digital transformation, building resilience, using data for decision-making, adapting to citizen expectations, driving trust, empowering communities, building global economic links, ensuring citizen safety and health, attracting talent, developing an ecosystem of partners, finding resource efficiencies, and fostering inclusiveness. We also included data on progress made across seven urban domains: digital infrastructure, energy and utilities, mobility, living and health, environment, public safety, and the economy. To ensure the rigor of the model, our economists factored in objective third-party performance data on pollution, climate, traffic, health, safety, quality of life, cost of living, property price-to-income ratio, and purchasing power.  

According to our analysis, the top 20 future-ready cities are:  

1. Tokyo, Japan 

1. Hangzhou, China 

1. Helsinki, Finland 

1. Tallinn, Estonia 

1. Taipei, Taiwan 

1. Durham, UK 

1. Aberdeen, UK 

1. Sapporo, Japan 

1. Boulder, USA 

1. Madrid, Spain 

1. Amsterdam, Netherlands 

1. Christchurch, New Zealand 

1. Riga, Latvia 

1. Brisbane, Australia 

1. Glasgow, UK 

1. Salt Lake City, USA 

1. Tbilisi, Georgia 

1. Oklahoma City, USA 

1. Palma de Mallorca, Spain 

1. Perth, Australia

What is most noticeable about this list is its diversity. While some cities have very large populations, such as Hangzhou with 21 million people, others, like Boulder have just over 100,000 people. Some cities like Tokyo, Helsinki, Durham, and Amsterdam are based in developed markets, while others like Hangzhou, Tallin, and Riga, come from emerging markets. The cities are also spread across different parts of America, Europe, and Asia. 

Curiously, our future-ready rankings include cities not often found on smart city lists. While some cities are usual suspects, such as Tokyo, Helsinki, and Amsterdam, many others are typically overlooked by smart city rankings such as Bolder, Hangzhou, Riga, and Tbilisi. While digital transformation is vital for becoming future-ready, technology alone is not enough, and if applied incorrectly, can even undermine efforts around sustainability and inclusiveness. 

High-ranking cities like Tokyo, Hangzhou, and Helsinki have made good or very good progress against 12 areas of future-ready and ranked high on the performance metrics.  For example, Helsinki has a high quality of living index ranking (185.31), safety (74.04), and traffic commute (29.45) and a low pollution index score (13.95) and property price to income ratio (12.24). 

Some cities like Boulder, Colorado do not get the attention of most smart rankings because of its smaller size. However, Boulder is consistently listed as one of the best places to live and retire due to its great schools, low crime, thriving economy, and great environmental quality. Boulder has made good or very good progress on most areas of future-readiness and believes it is well prepared for future challenges. 

On the other hand, acknowledged smart cities like San Francisco fell lower on our future readiness scores, because of its poorer performance in areas such as crime, healthcare, and traffic congestion. Renown smart cities, such as New York City, Copenhagen, London, Paris, do not appear on our list because they did not participate in our study.   

What we learned  

Future-ready cities do five things better than other cities in our research:  

1. Extract more value from data.   They are more likely to take an open data approach and see data-driven tools like digital twins as important for achieving their plans.  

1. Invest more in technology.  They spend more than twice as much per capita and have more effective procurement processes and policies for adopting new technologies. 

1. Nurture citizen engagement. They develop new roles such as Chief Citizen Officer and are much better than most cities in adapting to citizen expectations.  

1. Build ecosystems of collaboration. They partner more with financial institutions, corporations, non-profits and advocacy groups, technology firms, and startups. 

1. Excel at cybersecurity.  They are more likely to take steps to enhance data privacy and security, spend more on cybersecurity, and are far better prepared for cyberattacks.  

A final thought for 2023 

As cities reel in the New Year and prepare for new challenges in 2023, they should keep an eye on what they need to do now to ensure their place in fast-transforming world.    

 

 

 

  

With sustainability a future-ready imperative, reaching net zero in carbon emissions is a priority for cities around the world. Despite only covering 3% of the earth’s surface, cities produce more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. 

To combat this trend, many cities in the European Union (EU) have set a goal to reach net zero by 2030, supported by an EU-wide initiative known as Cities Mission. Barcelona is one of the cities selected for the program.

Barcelona did not commit to be fully carbon neutral by 2030, but it pledged to accelerate its efforts as much as possible. Barbara Pons, Barcelona’s commissioner for the 2030 Agenda, says the COVID-19 pandemic and other trends—such as increasing impact of climate change and concerns over energy supplies given the conflict in Ukraine—has increased the need to speed up.

A holistic approach

Despite being a large city, Barcelona consumes less energy and generates fewer emissions per capita compared to other similar cities. Yet it still has work to do if it wants to reach its goals. Barcelona wants to reduce emissions in a holistic way, in mobility and transportation, in buildings, in the generation and treatment of waste, and in industry.

To get closer to net zero, Barcelona is implementing or improving several programs to reduce CO2 emissions. It is prioritizing smart mobility, including expanded use of electric vehicles and development of apps that provide mobility as a service (smart parking, bike sharing, etc.) Reducing transportation speed limits is also key to cutting emissions, not only of C02, but also of other pollutants. For most of the city, car speed limits will be decreased to 30 kilometers per hour, and only the main arteries of the city will have a higher limit of 50 kilometers per hour. 

Another of Barcelona’s goals is to make it more difficult and expensive to park in the city. To make the city a low-emission zone, parking spaces are being replaced with bike lanes. Every car is also required to have a mandatory sticker that indicates whether it runs on gasoline or diesel. The city also wants to ban older cars that are more polluting from entering Barcelona during workdays. 

Addressing climate change and energy efficiency

Being ready for the challenges of the future also means preparing for ongoing climate change. As temperatures rise during the summer months due to global warming, the city is rethinking urban spaces and is developing climate refuges for residents who don’t have access to cooler areas during the day. 

“Heat waves have become a big problem,” says Pons. “We are rethinking our city to offer residents shady places, with access to water and sometimes indoor spaces with air conditioning. We are adapting places like schoolyards to offer climate refuges less than a five-minute walk from every neighborhood in the city.”

Increasing the supply of energy-efficient housing is another priority for the city, which has an average building age of 62 years. Only 2% of housing meets the modern energy efficiency requirements implemented by the city. Barcelona currently has funding to renovate around 10,000 housing units per year. With funding  from the EU’s Cities Mission initiative, officials expect to double or even triple that number of units.

Part of the refurbishing effort includes energy self-production, through installation of affordable solar panels on roofs. Through this initiative, Barcelona hopes to promote “prosumers”—users who produce the electricity that they consume. 

“We have a lot of potential for reducing domestic, industrial, and office consumption,” says Pons. “Solar panels have the capacity to shift consumers to become prosumers, so we are improving our energy infrastructure.”

Technology can help

Barcelona is also adopting some advanced technologies to help it with its efforts. To reinvent its use of energy and be able to predict consumption, it is developing a digital twin of the city.

Understanding how the future electricity market will change and develop with the use of solar panels or other technology innovations is essential. With this digital copy, the city can experiment and research without the risk of encountering mistakes along the way. As we rapidly approach 2030, when many European cities have pledged to be carbon neutral, Barcelona wants to meet its climate goals quickly and get things right the first time around. 

“Digital twins and simulators will help us understand the impacts of any modifications we make in energy, mobility, or any other infrastructure in the city,” says Pons. 

Austin has long been known as a cultural center built around the University of Texas. Over the past 10 years, its digital talent pool, social and entertainment scene, and lower cost of living helped make it one of the fastest-growing cities in the US. 

Austin’s transformation from a college town to a center for high-tech, civic technology, new mobility, and R&D has attracted businesses and residents from across the country. The influx of new residents has accelerated since the pandemic as remote workers looked to find a better lifestyle. 

“Decision-makers want Austin to become a next-generation, smart, global city, the best in its league,” says Sharmila Mukherjee, executive vice president for planning and development at Capital Metro, the regional transportation agency.

Coping with these profound changes has become essential as Austin rethinks what it needs to become a truly future-ready city. Currently, says Mukherjee, there is a big gap between the digital and physical infrastructure in Austin, a city with a small downtown surrounded by areas with a suburban feel. 

“In certain areas Austin has made significant strides—in attracting businesses and creating a knowledge and technology-based economy,” she says. However, the city lacks some urban basics–such as sidewalks. “Before we become a smart city, I think we need to have continuous sidewalks and better pedestrian infrastructure along our streets in our urban core and in the neighborhoods,” she says.  

Transition to multi-modal transport

To remedy its transportation problems, the city has taken some bold steps. It is currently implementing a $7 billion transit expansion—Project Connect—which was approved by a referendum in November 2020.  

With this big strategic mobility plan, Austin is transitioning from a car-dependent approach to a more effective multi-modal transportation system, says Mukherjee. It includes four bus rapid transit routes and two new light rail lines, along with more than four miles of subway tunnels through downtown and South Austin. Project Connect is now reviewing the program for feasible and viable phasing and implementation of the rail lines in light of higher projected construction costs and inflation.  

In addition, Cap Metro, in partnership with the City of Austin and the BCycle company, recently took over Austin’s bike share program, renamed Metro Bike. It is phasing out older bikes and replacing them with a fully electric bike fleet over the next three years. “It will serve as a first and last mile mobility solution in some areas and expand the network for more equitable distribution of bikes and associated facilities,” says Mukherjee. 

Open-loop system

Austin is building a full mobility-as-a-service program. Its transit app permits users to pay for bike share, light rail, and bus service as one continuous journey—with an open-loop credit card payment system and fare-capping slated for the future. 

Equitable transit development 

To make the transport expansion viable, says Mukherjee, transit customers need to be able to live near stations and have housing choices available for all income levels. The city is looking to build less-expensive, higher-density housing along the major transportation corridors while avoiding displacement.

The city has also set aside $300 million in anti-displacement funds at its disposal from the Project Connect referendum. However, the effort is facing some regulatory headwinds. Zoning in much of the area is for single-family housing, rather than for apartment buildings and offices.

“There is a huge disconnect between land-use regulations and housing and transportation needs that is felt on the ground,” says Mukherjee. “If Austin is looking to truly be a global and equitable city, land use changes absolutely need to take place so as not to widen the housing and economic divides even further.” Mukherjee is hoping for council approval of the needed land use changes in the first half of 2023.

While waiting for the disposition of the land-use question, Austin’s housing and planning department is buying properties along the transit corridors for affordable housing, targeting areas where low-income residents are at high risk for displacement. However, in some instances private developers have moved faster than the city, which is hampered by archaic regulations, and the necessity for multi-layered community consultations embedded in the neighborhood level planning process, Mukherjee explains.

Looking to go bigger 

The city is poised to think more globally in its planning process—but that is not always easy in Texas, she says, where there is a strong demarcation between urban, suburban, and rural areas. That has made it politically difficult to extend innovations beyond the city limits—including the new transport options—to neighboring areas that also are experiencing ripple effects from tremendous growth in Austin and Central Texas. 

“It took tremendous efforts on part of Capital Metro and the City of Austin to get the transport plan to be approved by the voters” she says, “and now it is incumbent upon the city, the transit agency, and the Austin Transit Partnership, the new entity created to build the light rail, to make it happen for all Austinites.”

Almaty is an ancient city dating to the Bronze Age. Since then, it has undergone many economic, cultural, and political shifts, and is now gearing up for what might be its most significant transformation—becoming a preeminent digital hub in Central Asia.

For Almaty City, becoming future-ready hinges on one thing: its people. Citizens are no longer satisfied with the basic government services of the past, according to Bayan Konirbayev, Almaty’s chief digital officer. “Our citizens have a more global view and expect the same kind of services available in New York, Chicago, or Seoul.”

But the future is not just about what Almaty City can do for its people, it is also about what its people can do for the city. To this end, Almaty’s leaders are focusing on another part of their future vision: attracting and keeping the talent the city needs. “We provide the kind of user-friendly environment not available in most countries nearby,” says Konirbayev. “That is why a lot of talented people are coming here.”

Almaty’s attractions include not only its natural beauty, set in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, but also its 38 universities. They serve some 182,000 students, who make up more than 9% of the city’s population of 2 million. Once those students graduate,  Almaty seeks to hold onto this talent. 

Laying the digital groundwork 

With that in mind, Almaty has devised a future-ready city plan out to 2050, with phased short-term goals by2025 and medium-term goals for 2030. It seeks to make Almaty a highly livable, smart city with a trendy cosmopolitan atmosphere, modern services, and attractive natural environment. The city is implementing the plan in phases, starting with a major digital transformation.

Konirbayev explains that the city is implementing its digital vision on a three-layer foundation: digital infrastructure, data, and services. The infrastructure layer includes mobile towers and stations, fiber optics, data processing centers, and IoT sensors installed throughout the city. For example, the city has tripled the number of cell phone stations in the last two years, in cooperation with the four telecoms operators providing services.

The data layer includes a unified data governance and data exchange platform and warehouse. Through its data exchange platform and advanced data management system, Almaty has brought together a wide variety of previously siloed data from different government departments, such as social services, education, healthcare, and housing. “It has become our single source of truth,” says Konirbayev. This part of the data warehouse includes personalized data on citizens available only to the city government.

There is also a public side to the data warehouse that includes non-personalized datasets—an innovation that can serve as a model for other municipalities. Almaty has created five central databases in cooperation with the private sector that gather demographic information stripped of personal identifiers.

These databases include a range of information, such as data on spending and borrowing patterns from banks and credit card providers; infrastructure usage data from utilities; and housing data from landlords and real estate firms. The private sector gains access to it on a barter basis—to get data, they must also provide it.

The result is a continuously growing bank of data available to public and private entities to improve city services, infrastructure, and commercial decisions.

Proactive citizen services

Both the non-personalized and personalized data bases fuel the city’s service layer, which now includes both mobile and desktop applications for citizens to gain access to services. For example, the city provided more than 11 million health-related services online in 2021 vs. only 100,000 similar services offline. Some 97% of the city’s services—such as reserving a school place for a child or getting water service—are now available online, although there are  provisions for those who prefer to go to a physical location. “The service layer is just the beginning,” says Konirbayev. “After that, we want to focus on proactive services.”

The idea of proactive services is very much in line with Almaty’s focus on making the city comfortable, livable, and appealing to the region’s most talented people. The plan is to anticipate what citizens might need and offer them those services without any action on their part. The city government will be able to do that using its extensive databases combined with AI analytics.

Almaty has already launched two such proactive services. If a household includes a disabled person, the government will automatically include a discount in utility bills, without citizens needing to apply for it. Similarly, the government will automatically send transport discount cards to students, retired people, and people with disabilities who qualify for reduced public transport fares.

“Instead of the citizen asking for something from the government, the government will seek out the citizen, and say, let us help you with this,” says Konirbayev.

As cities face a more challenging future, city leaders need to know the best practices that will allow them to face new threats, tap funding, increase the level of trust among their citizens, and make the best investment decisions. ThoughtLab’s fourth urban research program, Building a Future-Ready City, will provide urban leaders with an action plan for meeting the challenges ahead. ThoughtLab asked sponsors and advisors of our program to share their views on how leaders can face some of the problems ahead. Here is how some of them responded.  

 

1.The recent heat wave throughout Europe and America is a serious reminder of the disruptive effects of climate change. Clearly, a future-ready city will need to be a zero-carbon city. What steps do cities need to take to achieve their longer-term decarbonization goals? 

Bill Cashmore, Deputy Mayor, Auckland Council: Transport must be a primary target for decarbonization; vehicle kilometers traveled must be substantially reduced. Road congestion pricing could be a key incentive for people to move to public transport. Building heat and cooling needs to be powered by renewable energy sources. Manufacturing also needs to transition to renewable energy. 

Kari Aina Eik, Executive Director, United Cities: First, we need to equip leaders with more information and resources to meet these challenging goals. If we are ever going to meet the goals of net-zero cities, we need to build up trust, then develop new processes, and use tools and measures that everyone understands and accepts. Second, we need to build these processes and tools based on available data and technology. If your facts are known and accepted, you can make better decisions. Third, all cities (and all countries) need a digital twin and to start developing model scenarios of cause, effect, and possible solutions. These scenarios and solutions need to be shared and discussed with stakeholders across the board.  

Jayant Kohale, Analytics, Smart Cities, Digital, AI: The impact of global warming has been felt by countries across the globe. The recent high peak temperatures in Europe have resulted in droughts with major water sources drying up. For cities to better prepare for these scenarios, they need to have a declaration and charter which defines and articulates a city’s vision and aspirations to reduce the carbon footprint and to increase the renewable index. In addition, they need investment and development to bring sustainability into the city’s roadmap. 

Bayan Konirbayev, Chief Digital Officer, Almaty City: The problem related to carbon emission basically comes from heating systems and gasoline vehicles. By 2025, the heating system in Almaty should use only gas energy. The problem related to vehicles should be resolved before 2030 by different means,  such as the development of alternative transport, the development of public transport, and the construction of new charging systems for e-cars.  

Andrea Sorri, Segment Business Development, Cities, EMEA, Axis Communications: Cities are becoming increasingly focused on improving mobility, and reducing congestion and pollution, so it’s more important than ever to base decisions on accurate and reliable data. This can be achieved by getting to know the actual traffic flow through clear and analyzable data and the monitoring of individual and group patterns. It’s important when planning and coordinating transport around cities to ensure that any changes and initiatives fit with the way people use services and roadways.  

Weather and air quality sensors can now be co-located with streaming images. This combined video surveillance and weather/air-quality monitoring can give street-by-street observations of actual weather, pollution, and traffic levels. Understanding the link between weather and traffic allows targeted interventions to be deployed to improve air quality. 

Peter Nõu, IT strategist, Uppsala Municipality: Cities need to set stretch goals towards becoming carbon neutral in the near to mid-term. Goals need to be objectively measurable, and the city needs to commit to sharing KPIs. Progress towards the set goals will be measured yearly. Transparency is a given. System boundaries need to be carefully considered. Will the municipality be responsible for the carbon load realized outside its borders through import of goods and services, from the emissions caused by travel by its citizens etc.? Cities ought to collaborate with other cities in developing these KPIs so that the holistic accumulative burden can be assessed as best possible. Sweden is progressive with regards to setting national level climate goals. Uppsala City is among the most progressive climate cities in Sweden having won certain awards three years in a row.

Ramya Ravichandar, Vice President of Product Management, Sustainability & IoT, JLL Technologies: Given that more than 60% of carbon emissions within our cities typically come from buildings, a growing number of city governments now recognize the urgency to decarbonize their commercial and residential buildings.  Technology is likely to be the biggest catalyst of green progress in the built environment as requirements grow for the mandatory reporting, benchmarking, and auditing of buildings’ energy efficiencies and emissions standards. 

2. In today’s era of high social change and low government confidence, what can city leaders do to build the level of citizen trust and engagement they need to drive future change? What do you see as examples of best practice? 

Kari Aina Eik, Executive Director, United Cities: To gain trust, city leaders need to step up in terms of knowledge, understanding, and communication. Cities don’t need super-heroes, but leaders who are open about the challenges now and involve city stakeholders in meeting these challenges. 

Jayant Kohale, Analytics, Smart Cities, Digital, AI: The biggest challenge for city leaders is trust. There is a huge trust deficit with governments across the globe. In these turbulent times, it’s not easy for city leaders to meaningfully engage stakeholders. The initiatives I have seen having an impact are citizen charters, where a group of citizens interacts with a wider city population, shares pros and cons of new initiatives, and discusses their impact and outcomes. 

Bayan Konirbayev, Chief Digital Officer, Almaty City Government: The main problem in emerging countries is the lack of trust in the government. To address the lack of real information, we launched open data access for depersonalized data sets related to city activities, like economic, social, and land use data. Citizens can use this data to better understand the reasons behind each decision being made by the local government. Another instrument is the budget participatory program, under which citizens prepare proposals for city development and vote for certain projects that the city government will finance.  

Mary Nicol, Director of Policy, Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT): One way to build trust is to bring community and advocate organizations into the policy-making process. CDOT partnered with the Energy Foundation to provide funding for the Transportation Equity Network (TEN), a coalition of community groups, transportation advocates, and other stakeholders that advocate for racial equity and mobility justice. Through the funding provided, TEN was able to consult and help develop CDOT’s three-year strategic plan. 

Peter Nõu, IT strategist, Uppsala Municipality: This question might not be quite as applicable in Sweden where trust in government is still very high (80+%) albeit falling slowly. We consider transparency to be the most trust building that city government and processes need to accommodate, to further this goal. Adhering to shared standards with regards to KPIs in different sectors will allow for comparisons and help citizens and companies in evaluating our progress. There are many already regulated processes for sharing and potentially amending Plans with citizenry. Development is however needed along the outcome/evaluation dimension, after the city is built, and continues to live and develop with its inhabitants and businesses, neighbors near and far.

Liz Van Dyke, Head of Public Sector, North America, JLL Technologies: Our clients want to create spaces that engage citizens and provide healthier, more collaborative environments. Many have some or all of the IT building blocks in place to facilitate this, such as IWMS systems, reservations systems, and IoT sensors, but often these data points are not well integrated or optimized to produce these outcomes. We’ve found that digitizing the entire real estate portfolio management process, including space management, is foundational to designing compelling, inclusive public spaces.

3. To help cities prepare for a more challenging future, multilateral, national, and regional government bodies are offering funding and grants to local governments. How are cities tapping such funding programs, such as the Biden infrastructure plan in the US or grants for environmental initiatives in Europe? What can cities do to stake their claim?  

Bill Cashmore, Deputy Mayor, Auckland Council: Cluster with other cities and share goals, concepts, and ideas. Be flexible. Source government, federal funding to deliver in the short, medium, and long term. Funding needs to be locked in and not vulnerable to political change. 

Kari Aina Eik, Executive Director, United Cities: There is a gap in knowledge in cities both about how to access these grants and funding and about how to deploy this funding in the context of other initiatives and programs. So much funding is available, but not accessed and much is being deployed without effect. To achieve net-zero cities by the needed deadlines, there is no time for overlap and waste of resources. Holistic cross-sector cooperation is the only way forward. 

Jian Liu, Professor, School of Architecture Tsinghua University: The funding and grants offered by multilateral, national, and regional government bodies should be seen as a kind of development guidance for localities which can be well integrated with local development demands.  

Mary Nicol, Director of Policy, Chicago Department of Transportation: It is critical for city leaders to have a clear vision of the city they are trying to build with and for residents. Chicago has a citywide vision of trails and open spaces that will contribute to a network of community-led green infrastructure projects to promote the health and well-being of residents and visitors. The city is working closely with community stakeholders to plan each project and identify funding for engineering and construction, including funds recently passed through Biden’s infrastructure plan.  

Peter Nõu, IT strategist, Uppsala Municipality: Our city is increasingly aware of national and international funding opportunities. There are signs that Sweden as a whole, wants to and will commit to a more decentralized model with regards to robustness and resilience at all levels of society in terms of crisis. How (if) responsibilities for decision making and action will be redistributed is currently an active area of research inside larger national funding schemes, and cities with foresight are encouraged to take initiatives. Our city of Uppsala has such ambitions and one context where we work is the Viable Cities framework program [https://en.viablecities.se/].

4. Even with greater access to public funding, resource-strapped cities may not have the wherewithal to invest in the smart innovation they need to become future ready. How are cities leveraging corporate, professional, and academic partnerships, as well as working with regional neighbors and local communities, to achieve their goals in these tougher economic times?  

Bill Cashmore, Deputy Mayor, Auckland Council: Cities should Invest in private-sector relationships. Incentivize innovation, promote success, and illustrate positive change. Use real people as examples, average people who have changed their habits and their lives for better results as individuals, families, and communities. 

Kari Aina Eik, Executive Director, United Cities: New structures and processes are established in cities around the globe and there is a lot of information exchange during conferences and in meetings. But what is really missing is real cooperation among cities at concrete levels, and practical sharing of experience. What is needed is joint net-zero projects that are scalable and then shared with cities and regions globally. 

Jayant Kohale, Analytics, Smart Cities, Digital, AI: The best way to deal with this would be to leverage the ecosystem. Learn from each other. Share best practices amongst peers. Some city initiatives could have global impact while some could be local. 

Bayan Konirbayev, Chief Digital Officer, Almaty City Government: The budget for digital development will require a lot of resources, which the city by itself will never be able to cover. Our digital public-private partnership model allows private investors interested in the development of the new forms of business, like marketplaces, new digital services etc., to directly apply for financing from the city government, which will cover 20-30% of expenses, while the rest can come from consumer payments. 

Jian Liu, Professor, School of Architecture Tsinghua University: Becoming future ready or implementing smart innovation may not necessarily imply high tech that relies on funding. It can also be achieved through the application of appropriate technology that is not costly. Finding common values can serve as a solid foundation for cities to work together with corporate, professional, and academic partners, as well as regional neighbors and local communities. 

Mary Nicol, Director of Policy, Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT): Chicago’s climate action plan calls for 2,500 new public passenger electric vehicle charging stations by 2035. To reach that goal, the city will partner with communities to identify ideal locations for charging stations, with the private sector to make investments in the stations, with the utility company to ensure the grid is ready for the additional electricity demand, and with state and federal governments to ensure there is the financial backing for these large-scale infrastructure investments. 

Clay Pearson, City Manager, City of Pearland, Texas: At the City of Pearland, we are partnering with private investment to get the mobility that is underappreciated, but mandatory. We do that wisely with well-researched strategies on economic development, retail trends and gaps, and workforce needs, in partnership with outside experts that care about giving us executable strategies. We think about where and what we can leverage and where we can partner with public schools, business associations, and not-for-profit organizations to achieve success. We bring a light touch to regulation and tend not to impose top-down aesthetic requirements which can stifle, rather than enhance. 

Peter Nõu, IT strategist, Uppsala Municipality: These collaborative dimensions are very important for the Uppsala Municipality. The organization STUNS (“Sustainable growth in Uppsala; at https://stuns.se/en/) is an almost 40 year old collaboration between public organizations, academia and local corporations. Uppsala also collaborates with other Swedish cities in different areas, and with the Swedish capital of Stockholm with regards to developing the corridor north south between our cities. We will build two new parallel train tracks to a total of four, in the coming decade. Very large residential and commercial developments are being planned as a new part of Uppsala, with yet to be decided super ambitious climate and sustainability goals. Breaking of ground is planned to happen in 2023.

Jeremy Kelly, Global Research Director, City Futures, JLL: The magnitude of the climate change challenge and the urgency with which we need to create a significantly decarbonized economy requires the mobilization of resources across multiple stakeholder groups. Ecosystems of partnerships will be crucial in driving progress, pooling resources and knowledge, sharing or copying best practices, and educating and helping scale technology. There is strong potential to leverage the real estate sector’s intelligence, skills, innovations, and financial acumen to help deliver sustainability goals.

5. City leaders need to make hard decisions on where to invest across urban domains to become future ready. Which urban domains are cities prioritizing for investment over the shorter and longer term? What are they doing to ensure a holistic approach to urban development?  

Kari Aina Eik, Executive Director, United Cities: Top priorities are roads, mobility solutions, health, and energy. For net-zero cities, the focus needs to be turned more to renewables, waste management, water, and food security. In terms of real challenges facing this earth and our cities today, I have not heard of a city that is able to implement a holistic approach and is able to do a radical shift to really meet these challenges. If there is one, please let us know so we can learn and share this with 10,000 other cities in need. 

Jayant Kohale, Analytics, Smart Cities, Digital, AI: Sustainable development is the need of the hour. Cities need to focus on their carbon footprints to be future ready. Sustainable development must be all encompassing and benefitting all stakeholders equally. The priorities are building sustainable transit models, more cycle paths, and public transport. Also, smaller airports, community centers, and hospitals or health care facilities. Technology can play a vital role in helping the city leadership in decision-making. Technology can provide historical data pointers, do prognosis, and provide what-if scenario analysis to help city leaders define the road ahead. 

Bayan Konirbayev, Chief Digital Officer, Almaty City Government: Population growth, especially in the big cities, and the lack of infrastructure funding brings new challenges. Our priorities are first, construction and renovation of infrastructure related to the water and energy supply systems. Our second priority is construction and renovation of social infrastructure (school, kindergartens, hospitals). Our third priority is development of digital infrastructure (telecom infrastructure, data centers, new software solutions with data sources flow). Finally, to create an attractive environment for talent, we are focusing on development of creative industries with funding programs together with methodological support and grants for creative entrepreneurs.  

Jian Liu, Professor, School of Architecture Tsinghua University: As a key component of a city’s support systems, investments in social, civil, and green infrastructure should be a long-term consideration. For the short-term goal of decarbonization, investments in energy infrastructure and green infrastructure should be considered.  

Mary Nicol, Director of Policy, Chicago Department of Transportation: Chicago is currently prioritizing investments in historically under-resourced neighborhoods to create jobs, better housing, and more amenities to foster long-term economic development and neighborhood vitality. The initiative is providing support for small businesses, creating public realm improvements, restoring historic buildings, and fostering equity and resilience where it’s needed most. Through a collaboration among multiple city departments, community organizations, and corporate and philanthropic partners, the city has aligned more than $1.4 billion in public and private investment.  

 Clay Pearson, City Manager, City of Pearland, Texas: At the City of Pearland, we have been combining advanced practical technologies along with the hard traditional infrastructure of roads and trails, water and wastewater plants and pipes, as well as facilities necessary to serve our dynamic and diverse community. A key component is both basic and essential – a fiber communications ring. Atop that is a reliable communications and data system upon which the sensing for everything from rainfall to city vehicle location to traffic volumes can be reported and compiled. Our approach is to have smart people inside and partners outside with a clear IT strategy. That gives us the makings of practical success in improving service delivery, economic opportunities, and trust. 

Andrea Sorri, Segment Business Development, Cities. EMEA, Axis Communications: We have identified three core areas that shape smart, more livable cities and keep citizens positive about the urban experience. The first area is urban mobility solutions to help ensure that city residents and visitors can move freely within the city. The second is environmental monitoring solutions using technology to help cities reach sustainability goals. The third is public safety solutions to support a city’s security and emergency response networks. To achieve these goals, the first step is understanding what your city needs, and how small changes within these areas can help achieve bigger goals. Then, map out how city departments can work together to achieve a common goal. Finally, scale up as needed within the same system. The important part is finding a path that is right for the specific priority. 

Peter Nõu, IT strategist, Uppsala Municipality: Our city has outsourced establishing and running some infrastructure to private sector actors, over the last 20 years. Discussions are emerging on whether it would make sense for us to re-enter, inside the framework allowed by Swedish regulations. The aim would be to become more robust in terms of crisis response, to better control climate impact of establishing and running said infrastructures etc. These are very complex issues with large financial stakes, and will be researched thoroughly. Uppsala is Sweden’s largest (in terms of population) rural municipality as well as being the fourth largest city. To us, planning for all of us at the same time, is the way to balance and make sure that we grow responsibly & sustainably. We live in trying times. A potential global recession might hinder some of our ambitious plans, but we are committed to being transparent with regards to goal setting and transparent in reporting.

Jeremy Kelly, Global Research Director, City Futures, JLL: Decarbonization is increasingly playing a core role in city policy and cities’ operations. However, governments must look beyond carbon and balance decarbonization goals with social equity, affordability, biodiversity, and climate adaptation. The best sustainability strategies embrace real estate and adopt a holistic approach in which the drive towards decarbonization is considered alongside positive social outcomes.