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Towards High Impact Smart Cities: a Universal Architecture Based on Connected Intelligence Spaces

Authors:
Nicos Komninos at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nicos Komninos
Christina Kakderi at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Christina Kakderi
Luca Mora at Edinburgh Napier University
Luca Mora
Anastasia Panori at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Anastasia Panori
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Abstract and Figures

Smart cities constitute a new urban paradigm and a hegemonic phenomenon in contemporary city development. The concept envisages a data-enhanced future and efficiency gains made possible by automation and innovation in city activities and utilities. However, the way smart cities are created brings about two weaknesses. First, there is strong compartmentation of solutions and systems, which are developing in vertical markets for energy, transport, governance, safety, etc., silos with little interoperability and sharing of resources. Second, there is a low impact, some increase in efficiency, some reduction in costs, time gained, some decrease in CO2 emissions. There is an important knowledge gap about developing cross-sector, high-impact smart city systems. This paper deals with these challenges and investigates a different direction in smart city design and efficiency. We focus on ‘Connected Intelligence Spaces’ created in smart city ecosystems, which (a) have physical, social, and digital dimensions; (b) work as systems of innovation enabling synergies between human, machine, and collective intelligence; and (c) improve efficiency and performance by innovating rather than optimizing city routines. The research hypothesis we assess is about a universal architecture of high impact smart city projects, due to underlying connected intelligence spaces and cyber-physical-social systems of innovation. We assess this hypothesis with empirical evidence from case studies related to smart city projects dealing with safety (Vision-Zero), transportation (MaaS), and energy (positive energy districts). We highlight the main elements of operation and how high efficiency is achieved across these verticals. We identify commonalities, common innovation functions, and associations between functions, allowing us to define a common architecture enabling innovation and high performance across smart city ecosystems.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-021-00767-0
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Towards High Impact Smart Cities: aUniversal Architecture
Based onConnected Intelligence Spaces
NicosKomninos, etal.[full author details at the end of the article]
Received: 2 November 2020 / Accepted: 10 February 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021
Abstract
Smart cities constitute a new urban paradigm and a hegemonic phenomenon in con-
temporary city development. The concept envisages a data-enhanced future and effi-
ciency gains made possible by automation and innovation in city activities and utili-
ties. However, the way smart cities are created brings about two weaknesses. First,
there is strong compartmentation of solutions and systems, which are developing in
vertical markets for energy, transport, governance, safety, etc., silos with little inter-
operability and sharing of resources. Second, there is a low impact, some increase in
efficiency, some reduction in costs, time gained, some decrease in CO2 emissions.
There is an important knowledge gap about developing cross-sector, high-impact
smart city systems. This paper deals with these challenges and investigates a different
direction in smart city design and efficiency. We focus on ‘Connected Intelligence
Spaces’ created in smart city ecosystems, which (a) have physical, social, and digital
dimensions; (b) work as systems of innovation enabling synergies between human,
machine, and collective intelligence; and (c) improve efficiency and performance by
innovating rather than optimizing city routines. The research hypothesis we assess is
about a universal architecture of high impact smart city projects, due to underlying
connected intelligence spaces and cyber-physical-social systems of innovation. We
assess this hypothesis with empirical evidence from case studies related to smart city
projects dealing with safety (Vision-Zero), transportation (MaaS), and energy (posi-
tive energy districts). We highlight the main elements of operation and how high effi-
ciency is achieved across these verticals. We identify commonalities, common inno-
vation functions, and associations between functions, allowing us to define a common
architecture enabling innovation and high performance across smart city ecosystems.
Keywords Intelligent cities· Smart cities· Connected intelligence· Innovation
systems· Innovation routines· Digital platforms· Performance
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Design Thinking: Challenges and Opportunities
Published online: 4 March 2021
Journal of the Knowledge Economy (2022) 13:1169–1197
/
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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