Egbert van Keulen

City leaders play a vital role in shaping the development trajectory of their city; they set a far-sighted aspirational goal for the city and drove a single-minded and practical approach towards the vision. The governance structure and the extent of a leader’s or mayor’s empowerment definitely have an impact on a city’s leadership. However, important characteristics that civic leaders need to exhibit, such as pragmatism, businessfriendliness and a can-do attitude, remain consistent irrespective of the governance structure.

Leaders need to:

* Develop a culture and mindset of agility among employees
* Promote the measurement of performance
* Create structures that reward impacts on the urban environment (rather than rewarding outputs)

But there is more. Read the full article below. Written by was Alice Charles, Cities & Urban Development Expert at World Economic Forum.

India has for long been known for fragmented technology deployment that has lead to islands of automation and pockets of excellence. But when it comes to Smart Cities, a structured approach is paramount to Smart Cities seeing the light of day in India.

With states moving forward with their individual programs for creation of Smart Cities, there are a variety of approaches, at play currently.

Western cities have done a better job of integrating technology into their infrastructure than the new wave of Asian smart cities, according to architect and television presenter Jason Pomeroy.

Singapore-based Pomeroy, the architect behind Asia's first zero-carbon house, claims that Barcelona and Amsterdam are far more successful examples of a smart city than places like Songdo, the new hi-tech satellite city in South Korea.

This case study describes how geographic information system (GIS) technologies facilitate urban planning in Japan. It draws on examples from three components of urban planning: city master planning, regulation revision and city planning ordinance revision. Urban planning is defined as “city planning, city planning restrictions, city planning projects and any other necessary matters concerning city planning for the sound development and orderly improvement of cities.”45 Spatial data (locational information) can be useful in all stages of urban planning from planning, consensus building and implementation to management and maintenance.

Read the full article below.

Smart cities are no longer the future. They are here and they are growing rapidly, keeping pace with the expansion of the Internet of Things and impacting municipal services all over the world. To improve city living, smart cities collaborate with developers, big data specialists, innovators and strategic thinkers. Large companies such as IBM and Cisco work together with civic planning authorities and universities, focusing on improving public transport, law enforcement, energy use and waste management by using data-driven systems. Think smart traffic light systems, useful apps, smart street lights and smart parking.

Here are some inspiring smart cities from all corners of the globe that are getting it right – in no particular order:

http://smartcityhub.com/technology-innnovation/six-smart-cities-smart/

Egbert

To what extent can Amsterdam and The Hague help each other?

While the worldwide attack by the Wannacry ransomware is still fresh in our memory, the city of The Hague once again underlines the importance of internet security and privacy. The Hague, the City of Peace and Justice, is emphatically presenting itself as the Secure Digital Gateway to Europe. “These days you can no longer solve problems on your own, you must cooperate and innovate.”

The Judicial Capital already is exemplary regarding cooperation. No less than 260 partners collaborate in the so-called Hague Security Delta. The town is now also organising MoCo The Hague, during which three speakers will shine a light on the approach to privacy and security on the internet. The Hague portfolio-holder Saskia Bruines, “By organising events and meetings, I hope that people will acquire the knowledge which they can use in their own organisation, and I also hope that they meet other relevant people to cooperate with.”

Read the full article below: