What can Amsterdam learn from … Copenhagen?

From our experiences at the Smart City Expo World Congress last November, one thing became clearer than ever before: cooperation is key. We should not strive to reinvent the wheel; instead we should learn from each other, cooperate. In a series of four blog posts our intern Luc Baardman investigates the challenges of other smart cities in Europe. For this article, we contacted our friendly competitors in Copenhagen and asked for their top tips, tricks and gained experiences.

Equal to what we see in other cities, Copenhagen adopted smart technologies to combat wicked urban problems such as congestion and flash floods. Together with the set climate targets, these problems form powerful reasons why the city needs to reinvent itself. For this purpose, the Copenhagen Solutions Lab has been established as a governing body for smart city projects across all sectors.

Within this lab, a large emphasis is put on ‘triple helix partnerships’, where the lab accelerates implementation of innovation through collaborations with knowledge institutions, companies and citizens. Through focussing on five themes, Copenhagen aims to smarten the city. These five themes are stated in the image below.

Source: Copenhagen Solutions Lab

Its first theme covers people and flows. Within this, the Solution Lab aims to gather knowledge of how citizens move about in the city, focusing on movement patterns and citizen needs. This will provide a better picture of the use of the city and stand as a better foundation for the various city operations and further development in the city.

The second theme, digital services, improves the availability of the city services through digital solutions for citizens and tourists. Complementary to the first theme, this theme strengthens the physical/digital infrastructure and the digital solutions and services it will provide for both the citizens and tourists.

Another technical theme covers data-driven operations. For day-to-day operations in the city, a lot can be automated. A better basis for decision will be gathered through the collection of (big) data. This optimises current work procedures by prioritising relevant resources and targets services for the citizens through improving knowledge about citizen needs and behaviours.

Source: <http://cphsolutionslab.dk/open-data/>

The fourth theme, climate monitoring, is characterised by an improved knowledge of the environmental effects of traffic, nightlife, events etc., as well as the climate challenges related to larger incidents, such as cloudbursts. To be better prepared for these incidents, information is crucial.

A fifth and final theme focusses on the use of light in the city. Copenhagen sees lighting as a tool to increase safety, experience and usage of the urban space. Focus here is put on the qualitative human aspects, including the kind of social behaviour that light can support.

From the previous article, we already know about this network of Smart Cities in the Nordics, where Copenhagen is part of. Their special focus on climate monitoring reminds us that this is a pressing issue that we should consider to prioritise.

This was the last article of a series of four, in which we explored the possibilities for Amsterdam to learn from other cities. We have seen that in Berlin, a compelling case is made to share not only flagship projects, but also legislation and frameworks. Helsinki reminded us once again how important citizen engagement is, and Copenhagen shows how powerful a clear and strict planning can be.

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AMS Institute, Re-inventing the city (urban innovation) at AMS Institute, posted Apr 16th

Do you want to learn from and network with the best researchers and scientists working to tackle pressing urban challenges?

AMS Institute, is organizing the AMS Scientific Conference from April 23-25 at the Marineterrein, Amsterdam, to address pressing urban challenges. The event is organized in collaboration with the City of Amsterdam.

The conference brings together leading institutions in urban research and innovation, thought leaders, municipalities, researchers, and practitioners to explore innovative solutions for sustainable development in Amsterdam and other global cities.

Keynotes, research workshops, learning tracks, and special sessions will explore the latest papers in the fields of mobility, circularity, energy transition, climate adaptation, urban food systems, digitization, diversity, inclusion, living labs experimentation, and transdisciplinary research.

Attendees can expect to gain valuable insights into cutting-edge research and engage in meaningful discussions with leading experts in their field. You can see the full program and all available sessions here.

This year's theme is 'Blueprints for messy cities? Navigating the interplay of order and messiness'.

The program

Day 1: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Keynotes by Paul Behrens of Leiden University and Elin Andersdotter Fabre of UN-Habitat will be followed by a city panel including climate activist Hannah Prins. The first day concludes with a dinner at the Koepelkerk in Amsterdam: you're welcome to join our three-course meal with a 50 euro ticket.

Day 2️: Amazing discoveries
Keynotes by Carlo Ratti of MIT and Sacha Stolp of the Municipality of Amsterdam discuss innovation and research in cities. Corinne Vigreux, co-founder of TomTom, and Erik Versnel from Rabobank will participate in the city panel.

Day 3️: We are the city
Keynotes by Paul Chatterton of Leeds University and Victor Neequaye Kotey Deputy Director of the Waste Management Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana. They discuss how we shape the future of our cities together. This will be followed by a city panel including Ria Braaf-Fränkel of WomenMakeTheCity and prof. dr. Aleid Brouwer of the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.

To buy tickets: You can secure your conference tickets through our website.
Dinner tickets: On April 23 we’re hosting a dinner at the Koepelkerk in Amsterdam. Tickets for this can be added to your conference pass or bought separately.

Rihards Dzelme, Inclusive Cities & AI / Trained Architect and Urbanist , posted Apr 15th

We hebben uiteenlopende en interessante reacties ontvangen van stedenbouwkundigen, architecten en gemeenten. Als u wilt weten wat andere professionals denken, vul dan deze enquête in met uw e-mailadres en wij delen de inzichten met u.

Bedankt! 😀

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We've received varied and interesting responses from urban developers, architects, and municipalities. If you want to know what other professionals think, please fill out this survey with your email, and we will share the insights with you.

Thank you! 😀

Herman van den Bosch, professor in management development , posted Apr 14th

A previous post made it clear that a 15-minute city ideally consists of a 5-minute walking zone, a 15-minute walking zone, also a 5-minute cycling zone and a the 15-minute cycling zone. These three types of neighbourhoods and districts should be developed in conjunction, with employment accessibility also playing an important role.

In the plans for 15-minute cities in many places around the world, these types of zones intertwine, and often it is not even clear which type of zone is meant. In Paris too, I miss clear choices in this regard.

The city of Melbourne aims to give a local lifestyle a dominant place among all residents. Therefore, everyone should live within at most 10 minutes' walking distance to and from all daily amenities. For this reason, it is referred to as a 20-minute city, whereas in most examples of a 15-minute city, such as Paris, it is only about the round trip. The policy in Melbourne has received strong support from the health sector, which highlights the negative effects of traffic and air pollution.

In Vancouver, there is talk of a 5-minute city. The idea is for neighbourhoods to become more distinct parts of the city. Each neighbourhood should have several locally owned shops as well as public facilities such as parks, schools, community centres, childcare and libraries. High on the agenda is the push for greater diversity of residents and housing types. Especially in inner-city neighbourhoods, this is accompanied by high densities and high-rise buildings. Confronting this idea with reality yields a pattern of about 120 such geographical units (see map above).

Many other cities picked up the idea of the 15-minute city. Among them: Barcelona, London, Milan, Ottawa, Detroit and Portland. The organisation of world cities C40 (now consisting of 96 cities) elevated the idea to the main policy goal in the post-Covid period.

All these cities advocate a reversal of mainstream urbanisation policies. In recent decades, many billions have been invested in building roads with the aim of improving accessibility. This means increasing the distance you can travel in a given time. As a result, facilities were scaled up and concentrated in increasingly distant places. This in turn led to increased congestion that negated improvements in accessibility. The response was further expansion of the road network. This phenomenon is known as the 'mobility trap' or the Marchetti constant.

Instead of increasing accessibility, the 15-minute city aims to expand the number of urban functions you can access within a certain amount of time. This includes employment opportunities. The possibility of working from home has reduced the relevance of the distance between home and workplace. In contrast, the importance of a pleasant living environment has increased. A modified version of the 15-minute city, the 'walkable city' then throws high hopes. That, among other things, is the subject of my next post.