Abstract
There is a changed perspective regarding the development of cities and increasingly many countries in the West and some developing countries, as in South Africa, are making concerted attempts to transform their cities to smart cities. Using the context of the city of Bloemfontein, South Africa and drawing on the perceptions of stakeholders, the objective of the paper is to offer a perspective on such a transformation. The study first assessed the performance of various factors and attributes that influence three important aspects of a smart city: economy, mobility and governance system. It then recorded the viewpoints of stakeholders about how these aspects can contribute to the development of a smart city. Further, Applied Systems Analysis (ASA) linked System Dynamics (SD) conceptual models based on the interlinkage and causal feedback relationships among various factors under each aspect were developed, which could assist in offering perspectives that would enable eliciting of policy interventions to develop smart cities. Findings indicate that there are potentials and positive indicators in all three aspects. It is emerged that reinforcement of the inter-relationship among entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity, economic image and international embeddedness will foster a smart economy. Efficient public transportation and advancement of Information Communication Technology (ICT) system will strengthen local accessibility and ensure an innovative, sustainable and safe transportation system that will result in smart mobility. Effective participation of stakeholders in the decision-making process alongside the elected city council and transparency will aid smart governance. The combined effect of these attributes should enable the transformation of the city to a smart city.
Highlights
Cities across the world are observed to have evolved over time
Applied Systems Analysis (ASA) linked System Dynamics (SD) conceptual models based on the interlinkage and causal feedback relationships among various factors under each aspect were developed, which could assist in offering perspectives that would enable eliciting of policy interventions to develop smart cities
The study is premised upon the philosophy of epistemological interpretivism (Creswell, 2017; Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2016). Both phenomenological and symbolic interactional approaches have been adopted. Adoption of such an approach was essential because the study relied on the perceptions of the people based on their engagements and experiences and interpretations of the focus groups due to the lack of availability of structured statistical data pertaining to various urban development parameters including the three aspects such as economy, mobility and governance
Summary
Cities across the world are observed to have evolved over time. Many cities have been transformed from one state to another, in terms of size, functions, and characteristics. Some cities have been transformed from uni-functional cities to multifunctional cities - for example, a city that starts with an administrative or governance function but develops to encompass social, economic and industrial functions. The transformation of the cities is natural, there have been concerted and deliberate planned efforts to attain qualitative transformation, such as making cities functional, liveable, efficient and, more importantly, sustainable (Marsal-Llacuna, 2016; Yigitcanlar, et al, 2019a). In recent years, a new trend has emerged that some existing cities have been transformed to make them ‘smart’, and initiatives for the development of several new smart cities have been taken (Batty et al, 2012; Das, 2017; Townsend, 2013; Yigitcanlar and Kamruzzaman, 2018)
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