Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The combination of technological innovation and urban planning, however, is
not only instrumental and determines changes within the community and its
territory too. The ''Third Industrial Revolution'' and the gradual implementation of
e-Society has made it possible to delegate an increasing number of physical and
intellectual tasks, even very sophisticated, to technology. In fact, the goods and
ideas produced are increasingly less tied to a scheduled place and time, in terms of
quality and quantity; the workplace is no longer an independent variable and time
is no longer rigidly synchronized, especially as far as the intellectual work is
concerned.
The spreading of sensors, electronic networks and urban life apps has created a
proper urban cyber-physical space, consisting of the constant interaction between
physical components and digital networks, tangible actions and intangible feed-
back. ''We are at the onset of a hybrid dimension between the digital and material
world, where the Internet is invading the physical space''—claim Ratti and Sassen
(
2009
)—by identifying it, making it attractive and setting it up for social uses,
which are expected to gather the citizens in smart places connected to the network
and providing services. We are witnessing the evolution of the cyber cafés: mobile
connection disengages the user from a fixed location and brings him back into the
city, parks, waterfront and squares allowing him to communicate and interact,
learn and point out, know and judge. The dematerialization of technology and its
on cloud and mobile spreading allows citizens to ''re-materialize'' themselves in
the city.
The associated research and planning efforts provide a complex framework
ranging from the debate on the effects of technological innovation to the analysis
of changes occurring within the location of urban settlements and productive
activities or in the structure of transport networks and the related infrastructures.
Social and economic transformations, brought about by information and com-
munication technologies, lead planners to investigate changes in resources'
exploitation and the evolution of certain qualitative aspects of territorial organi-
zation (especially with regard to education and leisure structures). Finally,
opportunities offered by the Information Society provide planning and land
management with new tools, resources, real and virtual subjects. Consider, for
example, the growing role of civic networks in the processes of communication
and participation in the plan. ICT applied to collective decisions to monitor the
effectiveness of the actions, understanding processes and promoting partnerships
returns citizens their leading role in the civil society, thus contributing to an
adequate distribution of the powers of the plan.
Introducing technologies, protocols and communication digital devices in the
urban organism is not only an opportunity for innovation and participatory cog-
nitive processes but should provide an opportunity to redefine development,
competitiveness and cohesion in order to give the city a swing power able to
overcome the tsunami of the crisis (Siemens-Cittalia
2012
). The future is chal-
lenged to focus on Smart Cities, as long as they manage to gather skills, generate
creativity as innovation incubators empowering communities, in addition to being
drivers of competitiveness. Otherwise they risk becoming just ''cemeteries of
