Intention to live in a smart city based on its characteristics in the perception by the young public.
| Autor | Contreras Pinochet, Luis Hernan |
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Introduction
Having in mind the increase of population migrating to urban areas, a major concern has been that it could overload the services offered in cities and consequently reduce the effectiveness of their operations as well as contributing to many other existing problems, such as pollution and the resources' expenditure, which could be aggravated. This has led to the need of finding a way of balancing the living conditions with the population growth.
Based on this, it was then created in the 1990s the concept of smart city, which is based zon the principle that there should be an integration among the systems related to services that help living in the urban environment, connecting human and technological capital and seeking ways of improving the relationship between city and population.
A more complete definition is that a smart city is a place where information and communication technology (ICT) is combined with infrastructure, architecture, common objects and our government bodies to deal with social, economic and environmental problems (Townsend, 2014). This concept seeks to solve public problems through solutions coming from technology, supported by municipal partnerships with several stakeholders (European Parliament, 2014). Such technology provides an information and communication basis that allows smart devices to connect to a smart infrastructure, thus, improving the quality of living and the productivity in cities (Algaze et al., 2016).
However, as it is a new concept, it still presents only a few analyses regarding the size of its content and scope, with certain aspects to be further deepened and many issues to be raised, especially in the Brazilian academia. Therefore, studies on smart cities contribute to the national and global scope, as a result of possessing socioeconomic impact and functional applicability, as well as being made up of technological measures, directly changing the living standards of the population (Cunha et al., 2016).
This study addresses a still not sufficiently explored field: the field of analytical models on smart cities. It is based mainly on the research carried out by Giffinger et al (2007), presenting the six-characteristics model, and the model approached by Khatoun and Zeadally (2016), developed in order to expand knowledge on this subject. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the intention of living in a smart city as from its characteristics in the individual perception of the young public based on the proposal of an expanded model. The criterion for selecting the audience was due to the representative role that young people play in society, in the process of building more sustainable and resilient urban cities and rural areas, since they are immersed in new ICTs and regularly engage in discussions to find solutions that allow communities to adapt and grow, even when facing adversity.
The paper was structured as follows: it begins with the introduction, followed by a theoretical review to provide support for building a theoretical model, and generating the hypotheses to be tested in the empirical stage of the study. Then the methodology used for the quantitative phase of this research is presented. Finally, the results are introduced and discussed, and the conclusions drawn are presented.
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Theoretical reference and model construction
This section deepens the concepts that have been used as support and scientific basis during this study, addressing, at first, a general overview on (2.1) smart cities, technology and society; (2.2) characteristics of smart cities; and (2.3) perceived usefulness and the intention to live in a smart city. These sections provide the description of the model that was used in this research methodology.
2.1 Smart cities, technology and society
Smart cities are defined in different ways by international authors who discuss the subject; however, it is possible to realize that everyone has the idea that the development of smart cities aims to seek the solution of problems and meet the needs of society, which is inserted in the current context of constant technology and innovation. Thus, it is noticed that citizens are a key part in the smart city development (Coelho et al., 2016), as they are the creators and users of services and technologies, providing ideas and feedback about the city.
There are several technologies found in smart cities, including Big Data, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things. However, it should be emphasized that being "technological" is not a synonymous of being "smart." For example, a garbage collector that shows how loaded it is will not be "smart," unless it has an interconnected system linked to the city's cleanup center. Only when there is a "dialogue" between the technologies, one observes the emergence of the smart element. Similarly, there is an emphasis for non-linear calculations, in the search for predictive understanding of small elements in the major consequences of a phenomenon. At this point, the advancements of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning can be employed, for example, to support the prediction of environmental disasters within a shorter period.
In short, a smart city is based on the use of ICTs in connection with human capital to solve urban problems, and improve processes within the city, seeking to achieve an improved quality of living for its citizens, and achieving sustainable economic development and resource management. Thus, being a theory focused on society and on improving the citizens relationships with the city, the concept of smart city has a clearly high relevance, mainly in the social aspect, being longed for as an ideal city model and the objective for the future of the world urban management.
Moreover, since urbanization has been growing exponentially over the years, it is estimated that by 2050, over 70 percent of the world population will be living in urban areas (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2015). Therefore, the difficulty to organize and keep track of flows (for instance, people, data) of the city becomes increasingly evident. In this scenario, broad benefits arise in the political and government sphere, given a better management of the information produced by the population and, consequently, a better control over the situation in the city, thus, enabling the possibility to solving problems and increasing the efficiency of the operational systems (for instance, security), in addition to reducing management costs.
The concept of smart city is not yet consolidated, so when analyzing the understanding of several authors about the components inherent to a smart city, it can be seen that there is a lack of consensus. For many authors, the focus of a smart city is on ICTs progress; however, different areas of knowledge have been proposing definitions that discuss aspects other than ICTs.
2.2 Characteristics of smart cities
First, it is important to define what smart means to understand what makes a city be considered as such. When the term is mentioned, the immediate reaction is to think of new technologies related to digital devices that are revolutionizing the world (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatch, among others), which are understood as data systems and apps connected to the internet, which allows performing a variety of activities with greater mobility and usability. Such characteristics are the ones embedded in the technology of the smart city concept, thus, with a different direction: instead of being aimed at a consumer, they are aimed at a citizen and these aspects that have a direct impact on such a citizen, as specific characteristics of a smart city (Figure 1), in order to increase their satisfaction and value of living.
Aiming at developing a model that can give a less abstract definition for smart city, one can find some points that converge. The literature most often related to smart cities grouped into six categories or characteristics (mobility, economy, governance, living, people and the environment) according to the model originally proposed by Giffinger etal. (2007). From the available literature on these subjects and based on this theoretical construction, descriptions were made for each of these components. Economy. The objective is to create an environment that fosters the growth of the company, encouraging and recognizing the importance of the knowledge-based economy, and promoting creativity and technology development in industries. Through public-private partnerships and international connections between economies, and exchanges in research and technology, the smart city aims at improving productivity and increasing opportunities for citizens, positively influencing the unemployment rate reduction (Strapazzon, 2009; Angelidou, 2015).
Similarly, a smart economy seeks to generate an innovative capacity in an environment of competitiveness and entrepreneurship incentives, presenting as an important issue the flexibility, not only in labor relations, but also in every situation, as well as the interconnectivity, made possible by using ICT tools (Anttiroiko etal., 2013; Zygiaris, 2013).
In the smart city, a shared economy prevails over a purchase economy (Siuryte and Davidaviciene, 2016) and, in fact, the exponential growth of this phenomenon can be observed in several parts of the world. Therefore, the more people tend to share rather than buy, the less overburdened the city is, making it possible for its systems to be more efficient. This includes also the concepts of e-business, e-commerce and e-government, leveraged by the broad technological basis of the city.
People. According to Giffinger et al (2007), a smart city cannot exist without a smart population. Citizens are the key part for this knowledge-based urban development, because people not only receive information, but they are also the driving force for its creation. Thus, it...
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