Soft Assets Consideration in Smart and Resilient City Development

Eiko Wataya,Rajib Shaw

doi:10.3390/smartcities5010007

Abstract

For a smart city, soft or non-physical assets share an important capital component with many impacts in different contexts. They enable a city to deliver and mainstream a people-centered policy in addition to the benefits provided by traditional, hard infrastructure. Soft assets can involve social and human capital, knowledge, participation, and innovative approaches that drive value in the city. However, it is always a challenge for city policy makers to identify and strengthen these soft assets using a systemic approach due to their inherent characteristics. This paper argues that soft assets should be strategically integrated into the development process of smart and resilient cities. Therefore, exploring various approaches to prioritize soft asset consideration would provide helpful guidelines to city policy makers for municipal value creation, and identify where the greatest needs for soft or intangible assets lie. This paper examines how to identify and decide which soft assets should take priority in smart and resilient cities. The findings can assist policy makers in their consideration of an optimal mix and balance of soft assets required in the city to improve living structures for a people-centered approach.

Highlights

Smart and Resilient CitiesEach city in developing countries has their own values, approaches, and objectives. there is no single definition of a smart city, there are two main dimensions in the evolution of the smart city concept [1]
This paper examines the following items: (i) why soft assets are a value driver and what assets are involved; (ii) some guidelines to understand the integration of soft assets and creating value; (iii) explanation of the key components of the tool for identifying soft assets; (iv) two case studies from the India Smart City Mission to examine how soft asset consideration and decision making work in actual cases, including network analysis, elements influencing the decision, and the use of analytical tools such as the Cytoscape
The City Profile section includes the past efforts and current states, so the information reviewed was more on the present state and future plan; (ii) the key words from the matrix were used to identify activities or initiatives from the proposal and completed with each item of the tool (Appendix A); (iii) once the review was completed, the dataset has been examined by an application for network visualization. It examined if the living structure and the two fundamental laws, i.e., scaling law and Tobler’s law, could be observed in soft asset consideration and decision making; and (iv) based on the dataset, a radar chart was prepared for each value element to examine gaps and assumptions for preparing the research step (Appendix B)

Summary

Introduction

Smart and Resilient CitiesEach city in developing countries has their own values, approaches, and objectives. there is no single definition of a smart city, there are two main dimensions in the evolution of the smart city concept [1]. One is the ICT and technology-oriented approach (hardware) and the second is a people-oriented approach (software). The importance of human and social capital should be highlighted and emphasized, since smart city development needs a variety of resources, along with innovative and creative approaches to customize a city and build robust social systems for the needs of its citizens. Considering this dichotomy between hardware and software as well as blended options, cities need to be smart, lean, integrated, cost-effective, and resource efficient. Cities must strive to be environmentally friendly and sustainable, and create a positive impact on citizens’

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Conclusion