Abstract
In this article, written for The City Reader in 2019, Michael Batty, director of University College London’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, describes the smart city movement within urban planning and policy analysis. Computer systems have become ever more powerful, the storage of data vast, and costs continue to fall at an accelerating rate. For example the number of emails per second is about 2.4 million, some 205 billion each day. Batty describes how every aspect of the city is now subject to the influence of new information technologies. Computers imbedded into the built environment linked to sensors monitor and control many city functions. Massive streams of real-time “big data” can be “mined” to enhance our understanding of cities. Most cities will be completely networked by the end of this century. Transport is one of the major functions that is being informed by big data. Digital information is now widely available for systems such as the payment of fares, the status of the network (which is routinely transmitted to passengers), and about navigation for the driver (and the user). The delivery and collection of water, waste, energy, telecommunications, and other city services are also being informed by smart technologies that are focused on managing these services and their products better. For example, the supply and demand for London tube services is available in real time. Disruptive technologies such as Uber ride-sharing and Airbnb are reshaping private markets and cities.
Published Version
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