1.
Dumb cities – a “better tomorrow” for Rome?
Davide Gallino for #IDCAMP – Viterbo 20 - 22 July 2012
tviproject [at] gmail.com

2.
Summary
• Smart cities (SM) vs Dumb cities (DC)
• Dumb cities: not just dumb but mean, too
• Examples, metrics for evaluation
• From dumber to smarter
– Vision and political commitment + white knight +
roadmap + technologies + social interaction =
success
• If there is no white knight, let’s make one, ten,
a hundred? By co-design

3.
Dumb cities
While not an Italian specialty, many
Italian cities are just dumb, non
cooperative communities.
The sheer sense of individualism
that typifies old as well as modern
Italians does not help, too.
Someone has pointed out
that Italy has a problem of
Can cooperative design, abudance (in terms of its
shared rules and public huge cultural, historical
funds help? and landscape heritage),
which does not incentivize
fruition
Sometimes, there is an
Technology can help address
abusive behaviour of those
some issues, but
(private or public bodies) in
commitment, a vision and
charge, coupled with very
roadmaps are paramount for
short-sighted approaches to
success
“development”

4.
MOBILITY ISSUES

5.
Public transport in Rome
28 : 72
Private (motor) transport
• London 50-50
• Paris 64-36
• Berlin 66-44
• Barça 67-32

6.
Italy has three of the first 10 most
congested cities in Europe
25 most congested cities in EU 10 most congested cities in Italy and hrs wasted in
congestion (in addition to average commuting time)
1. Milano, Italia
2. Bruxelles, Belgio
3. Anversa, Belgio 1.Milano: 59 hrs, worst slot = FRI 19:00-20:00
4. Parigi, Francia
5. Manchester, Regno Unito
6. Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi 2.Roma: 41 hrs , worst slot = FRI 17:00-18:00
7. Roma, Italia
8. Londra, Regno Unito 3.Firenze: 36 hrs , worst slot = THU 19:00-20:00
9. Utrecht, Paesi Bassi
10. Firenze, Italia 4.Palermo: 29 hrs , worst slot = MON 10:00-
11. Liverpool, Regno Unito
12. Barcellona, Spagna
13. Madrid, Spagna 11:00
14. Gent, Belgio
15. Amsterdam, Paesi Bassi 5.Torino: 28 hrs worst slot = TUE 7:00-8:00
16. Belfast, Irlanda del Nord
17. Stoccarda, Germania 6.Genova: 28 hrs , worst slot = THU 7:00-8:00
18. Colonia, Germania
19. Lione, Francia
20. Bordeaux, Francia 7.Verona: 28 hrs , worst slot = TUE 6:00-7:00
21. Amburgo, Germania
22. Newcastle, Regno Unito 8.Napoli: 27 hrs , worst slot = FRI 19:00-20:00
23. Nottingham, Regno Unito
24. Sevilla, Spagna
25. S. Gravenhage, Paesi Bassi 9.Brescia: 25 hrs, worst slot = THU 7.00-8.00
10.Catania: 24 hrs = FRI 18:00-19:00
(Source: INRIX Traffic Scorecard 2012)

7.
Metrics for “congestion”
• In the US, the assumed number of annual commute
trips is assumed at 440 – equivalent to traveling to and
from work 5 days a week for 44 weeks. “Wasted Hour”
Estimates are annualized and to create a monthly
estimate of wasted hours, the annual result is divided
by 12.
• In Europe and Canada, government published trip time
estimates are used where credible and aligning with
the metropolitan areas being analyzed. Otherwise a 30
minute trip time is used.
• Source: Inrix traffic scorecard, 2012

8.
How to measure
• Sensor network for air/noise pollution, water,
traffic, waste
• Cooperative sensing:
– Wedu + other apps for civic use
– Crowdsourcing traffic byGoogle

9.
However, monitoring does not necessarily trigger
action
Key roads around Rome monitored since 2005! And possibly well before that

10.
WASTE MANAGEMENT

11.
NO CURATION = NIMBY

12.
Wien Energie Fernwärme Spittelauer
Lände 45 1090

13.
Tele-heating and energy from waste in
an urban context
• Spittelau - in Downtown Vienna
• Public, real time monitoring of emissions:
• This is curation, i.e.putting citizens in the comfort
zone, not “technology”.

14.
Major obstacles to overcome for successful
Smart City implementations (Source: IDC)
• Key inhibitors are city governance and cross-domain
collaboration, budgets and funding processes, long-
term political will, and the democratic process).
• How to form an effective Smart City process and what
group(s) should oversee these initiatives? Is it the CIOs
office? The city council or Mayor's office? A new Smart
Cities office? What is the most effective department to
move cities towards collaboration across silos?
• How are Smart Cities sustained? How do cities
maintain citizen engagement in the projects and
maintain sustainable behaviors? How is a Smart City
culture created and institutionalized so that it can last
even as elected officials change?

15.
Worrysome facts in building smart cities
• Big players (large companies) are driving the process –
can they produce real innovation to the benefit of
citizens? Are their systems open and interoperable?
Can public administrations stay ahead of the curve?
• Big companies complain that research and
development funds (such as the ongoing MIUR calls)
are not meant to sustain demand they have already
developed products, now they need early adopters to
reach critical mass)
• Often plans are well structured, but not implemented:
take the Traffic master plan (PUT) in Rome (last
updated in 2005!)

16.
From dumber to smarter:
need for a vision

17.
Smart city – definition, Italian agency for the digitalization of public
administration
• Smart city -”città intelligente”. Una città può essere definita “smart” quando gli investimenti in
capitale umano, sociale e in infrastrutture tradizionali e ICT, producono uno sviluppo economico
sostenibile migliorando al contempo la qualità della vita degli abitanti. Una smart city è quindi uno
spazio urbano, ben diretto da una politica lungimirante, che affronta la sfida che la globalizzazione
e la crisi economica pongono in termini di competitività e di sviluppo sostenibile, con un’attenzione
particolare alla coesione sociale, alla diffusione e disponibilità della conoscenza, alla creatività, alla
libertà e mobilità effettivamente fruibile, alla qualità dell’ambiente naturale e culturale. Gli assi su
cui si sviluppano le azioni di una Smart City sono molteplici: mobilità, ambiente ed energia, qualità
edilizia, economia e capacità di attrazione di talenti e investimenti, partecipazione e coinvolgimento dei
cittadini. Condizioni indispensabili sono una connettività diffusa e la digitalizzazione delle comunicazioni e
dei servizi….
• Source: Documento di consultazione pubblica per le amministrazioni – Digit PA – July 2012
• IS THIS DEFINITION REALLY SUITABLE FOR A ROADMAP?

18.
Traditional notion:
http://www.smart-cities.eu/model.html
• A Smart City is a city well
performing in 6
characteristics, built on
the ‘smart’ combination
of endowments and
activities of self-decisive,
independent and aware
citizens.
• Source: SmartCities.eu
2007

19.
Which targets for a smart city?
• The European definition of smart city • At the World City Summit in
comes from the SETIS project – Singapore,(July 2012), as pointed out
Strategic Energy Technologies by IDC:
Information System - and is focussing • “ Economic growth, urban
on energy issues from consumption revitalization and livable cities are all
to efficiency key goals for city leaders, though the
priorities and steps to meet these
• In Italy there are different goals vary by region and city”.
approaches and examples, which I
would call “holistic” (vs. targeted): • “Some cities focus on crime,
transportation, or disaster
• [Milano] la “realizzazione di un management (a key topic, not
modello di città intelligente specifico surprisingly, for Japanese Mayors) or
rispetto alle risorse nazionali: il other areas”.
patrimonio culturale, i centri storici,
le città di media dimensione, il • “Water was a key priority area
turismo, specifici modelli di coesione throughout the Summit ,including
sociale….”. water conservancy, water quality,
flooding, drainage and sewage”.

20.
In other words:

21.
La città - piattaforma
Bologna 29-31 ottobre 2012

22.
Governance

23.
From relabel to reliable
• Turin has renamed its Environmental agency
into a "Smart City Torino Foundation for
Sustainable Development“, with the aim of
developing an integrated model for flexible
financing and management of strategic
planning.
• Turin also initiated the construction of a
platform for Smart City to Turin, from
experience and from the indications emerging
from TAPE (Turin Action Plan for Energy).

24.
Downtown Torino

25.
Co design

26.
Data vs assumption: key to co-design
• Hertfordshire county decided to turn off 70% of public lighting between
Midnight and 6 AM
• Citizen survey to identify areas where lighting can be modulated
• More patrols + information to population
• Results
– No impact on crime rate
– No increase of road accidents
Estimated cut in emissions and budget: 30%

27.
Lighting modulation map

28.
Density models (Milano)
• Provide data on density
of a specific phenomena
• In this map: number of
new regular jobs in the
first 6 months of 2011.
High resolution down to a
single building
. (Source: lavoce.info)

29.
Universal design approaches
• UDA comes from willingness to facilitate use
of phisycal space for disabled users
• UDA set out a high minimum standard for
engagement. This is making services better for
everyone, by thinking through the needs of
the most demanding ‘extreme’ users of
physical spaces.
• Can be applied to most services, not just
spaces!

30.
Bring your own garbage: an example
of well applied UDA
Co-mingled system for separate
waste in Pisa Pisa ti differenzia
• Pisa incentivizes waste
sorting by citizen
• Discounts on waste
collection tax based on a
point system
• Savings from reduced
expenditure in sorting are
passed on to citizen (up to
30% of total tax, 208 €
saved for larger families)

31.
Translate small ideas into some form
of concrete action.
Experience showed that online and offline suggestion boxes do not work –
people need to see, quite quickly, how their idea is being incorporated into the
design of a solution that is relevant to them.
The Ei je een idee ‘egg’ in the streets made it clear that a suggestion for
improving things would not fall on deaf ears, or into the bottom of a
‘suggestion box’, but that someone – even if it is an egg – would hear it and do
something with it.

32.
Social network of sensors+humans

33.
Current issues - Rome
• “Urban development in Rome is a jungle”
• Any Municipality (Comune) has a big conflict of
interest as long as they can use up to 75% of land
conversion and property development fees (It. =
oneri di urbanizzazione) for current expenses =
lead to underinvested cities!
• The Urban master plan dictates future
developments of any “smart application”, starting
with mobility plans.
• I.e. (Metro lines cannot chase low density areas)

34.
The way forward – a smarter Rome
• Strategic plan + stop using property development
fees (Oneri di urbanizzazione) for current
expenses
• Roadmap and deadlines
• Clear cut responsibilities: governance 2.0?
• Participation of many, but also better
stakeholders (Public/private/universities)
• Inclusion of citizens
• Social innovation
• Co-design

35.
Smart:
Ensure continuity of administrative processes -
• Will the current local administration of Rome
participate in the calls for european and
national funds for smart cities?
• Time is running :
• MIUR – smart cities bid – deadline 17
november 2012;
• European Innovation Partnership: Launch of
the Smart Cities and Communities Call for
Proposals deadline: 4 december 2012

36.
Need for a White knight?
• You/we are the white
knights, I’m afraid….
• Let’s make 1, 10, 100 of
them!