The Bentway / Public Work. Image © Nic Lehoux

如何使未来的大城市也成为智慧城市？
How Can We Make Future Megacities Become Smart as Well?

由专筑网邢子，小R编译

城市在人类历史中无处不在，以至于我们几乎不会问自己我们为什么生活在其中，或者我们聚集在城市的原因是什么。巴西建筑师Ciro Pirondi说，我们住在城市里是因为我们喜欢有人说话，而Paulo Mendes da Rocha则将城市归类为“建筑的最高作品”，城市是人类为自己建造的世界，这里都是巨大的集体建筑，是故事、成就和失去的混合体。

自2007年以来，地球被大部分城市占据。到2050年，生活在城市的人口比例将达到70%。在未来几年，居民超过1000万的大城市预计将成倍增加，主要是在亚洲和非洲，而且往往是在发展中的国家。这样的预测提出了关于城市不可避免地催化的可持续性和气候变化的问题。它还提出了关于城市如何为其居民提供足够的生活质量，以及城市如何在通常不理想的情况下繁荣和发展的问题。城市空间如何能使其人口受益，反之亦然。旧的中心将需要改造和更新，而城市周边地区除了足够的基础设施外，还需要新的住宅和公共设施。这个过程如何帮助城市中心变得更加智能，如何利用已有的技术，以一种具有创造性和有效的方式使居民受益？

Cities are so deeply rooted in the history of mankind that we hardly ask ourselves why we live in them or what the reason is for us to group together in urban settlements. Ciro Pirondi, Brazilian architect, points out that we live in cities because we like to have someone to talk to, while Paulo Mendes da Rocha classifies the city as “the supreme work of architecture.” The city is the world that man builds for himself. These are immense collective constructions, palimpsests, and collages of stories, achievements, and losses.
Earth has been mostly urban since 2007. By 2050, the percentage of people living in cities should reach 70%. In the coming years, megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants are expected to multiply, mainly in Asia and Africa, and often in still-developing countries. Such a projection raises questions about sustainability and climate change that cities inevitably catalyze. It also raises questions about how cities can provide an adequate quality of life for its inhabitants, and how they can prosper and develop in contexts that are often not ideal. How can urban spaces benefit their population and vice versa? While old centers will require transformations and updates, city peripheries will require new homes and public facilities, in addition to adequate infrastructure. How can this process help urban centers become more intelligent, using the technology already available to benefit their inhabitants in a creative and efficient way?


Image © FangFang Tian

“在2014年至2050年期间，全球城市人口预计将增长63%，而同期的总人口增长率为32%，增长最快的是居民人数超过2000万的大城市，而且主要位于发展中国家。这一趋势带来了前所未有的可持续性挑战”。[1]因为新的技术、新的需求和新的生活方式随着时间的推移而出现，适应我们的生活、消费、出行，以及我们如何建设和更新我们的城市，包含了人类必须面对的很大一部分挑战。在一个越来越关注气候变化的世界里，这些任务中的每一项都发挥着关键作用。根据报告《智能可持续城市：调查研究》，城市占全球能源需求的67%，消耗了所有能源的40%。城市中心对全球70%的温室气体排放负有责任，对气候变化有很大的影响，并且越来越多地受到自然灾害的影响。城市是由日益严重的不平等和失业、空气和水污染、拥堵、暴力和犯罪所造成的大部分社会紧张局势的重点地区。同时，它们提供了经济发展的机会：世界上80%的国内生产总值都是在城市中心产生的，而且城市居民的收入往往更高。

“The global urban population is expected to grow 63% between 2014 and 2050 against the total population growth of 32% in the same period, the fastest increase occurring among megacities with more than 20 million inhabitants and located mainly in developing countries. The trend creates unprecedented sustainability challenges.” [1] Because new technologies, new demands, and new ways of living emerge over time, adapting how we will live, consume, move, and how we will build and rebuild our cities encompasses a large part of the challenges that humanity must face. In a world increasingly concerned with climate change, each of these tasks plays a key role. According to the report Smart Sustainable Cities: Reconnaissance Study, cities are responsible for 67% of global energy demand and consume 40% of all energy. Urban centers are responsible for 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing heavily to climate change, and are increasingly suffering from natural disasters. Cities are the scene of most of the social tension caused by increasing inequality and unemployment, air and water pollution, congestion, violence and crime. At the same time, they offer opportunities for economic development: it is in urban centers that 80% of the world's gross domestic product is generated, and its citizens tend to earn more.


Image © Pedro Mascaro

城市也显示出巨大的不平等。在世界范围内，今天有超过10亿居民生活在所谓的贫民窟（非正式的城市定居点，通常在人口密集的城市住宅区，由小型和不稳定的住房单元组成，那里基础设施严重恶化或不足，主要由穷人居住。诸如缺乏窗户或屋顶漏水等不安全或不健康的住房、以及水、厕所、电、交通等基本服务有限的住所、过度拥挤的生活空间、不稳定的房屋和脆弱的结构或没有安全的土地使用权的房屋，是世界上约1/6人口的生活现实。这些80%集中在三个区域，东亚和东南亚（3.7亿），撒哈拉以南非洲（2.38亿），以及中亚和南亚（2.27亿）。此外，据估计，到2030年，将有30亿人需要适当和可负担的住房，特别是在发展中国家，住房对很大一部分人口来说是一个关键问题。联合国人居署的专家Christophe Lalande指出，“住房是一个巨大的挑战，因为它是通往经济、社会和文化包容的门户。它必须具有内在的可持续性，这意味着它的建造方式必须能够长期提供稳定和可靠的生活条件。这是一个至关重要的问题，特别是对移民而言，因为获得适当的住房是他们有效融入社会的前提条件。”

重要的是，住房问题不仅仅是数量上的问题，像许多政府所认为的那样，住房必须与城市融为一体，并与工作、交通和城市提供的其他服务保持密切联系。城市中孤立的住宅区已多次被证明不是最好的解决方案。此外，为越来越多的全球城市人口提供更健康、更舒适的建筑是至关重要的，因为他们80%的时间都是在室内度过的，特别是如果我们考虑到，随着COVID-19的流行，住房必须包含许多新的功能，如儿童的学习空间和一些成年人的工作空间。

Cities also show enormous inequalities. Worldwide, more than 1 billion residents today live in so-called slums (informal urban settlements, usually in highly populated urban residential areas, made up of small and precarious housing units, served by deteriorated or deficient infrastructure, and inhabited mainly by poor people. Unsafe and/or unhealthy housing (for example, lack of windows or leaky roofs), residences with limited access to basic services (water, toilets, electricity, transport), overcrowded living spaces, unstable houses and fragile structures or homes without secure land tenure (i.e. the right to live on that land) are the reality for about 1/6 of the world population, 80% in three regions: East Asia and Southeast Asia(370 million), Sub-Saharan Africa (238 million), and Central and South Asia (227 million). In addition, it is estimated that 3 billion people will need adequate and affordable housing by 2030. Especially in developing countries, housing is a critical issue for a large part of the population. Christophe Lalande, an expert on the topic at UN Habitat, points out that “housing is a great challenge, because it is the gateway to economic, social and cultural inclusion. It must be intrinsically sustainable, which means that it must be built in such a way as to provide stability and reliable living conditions for the long term. This is a crucial issue, especially for migrants, because access to adequate housing is a precondition for their effective integration.”
It is important that the housing issue is not only dealt with quantitatively, as many governments tend to do. Housing must be integrated with the city and kept close to jobs, transport, and other attractions that the city offers. Isolated housing estates in the city have repeatedly proven not to be the best solution. In addition, providing healthier and more comfortable buildings for an increasingly urban global population, which spends 80% of their time indoors, is essential, especially if we consider that, with the COVID-19 pandemic, housing had to incoporate many new functions, such as a study space for children and work spaces for some adults.


Image © Arch-Exist

建造或翻新建筑物，以培养对其居住者的生活幸福的积极影响，并在其整个生命周期内减少对环境的影响，是一项重大挑战。“这意味着开发有助于提高居住者的热、声和视觉舒适度并改善室内空气质量的解决方案，同时减少建筑物的能源消耗。这些解决方案还必须保护自然资源，减少碳足迹，这主要取决于它们的重量，再生材料含量和使用寿命结束后的回收能力。最后，它们不应该对人们的健康和安全构成任何风险。为此，我们依靠创新，而创新必须解决所有这些问题，但也要改进我们的的采购和制造过程。”[2]

Constructing or renovating buildings to cultivate positive effects on the well-being of its occupants and a reduced impact on the environment throughout its life cycle is a major challenge. “This means developing solutions that contribute to the thermal, acoustic and visual comfort of the occupants and improve indoor air quality, while reducing the energy consumption of buildings. These solutions must also conserve natural resources and decrease carbon footprints, mainly as a result of their reduced weight, recycled material content and recycling capacity at the end of their useful life. Finally, they should not pose any risk to the health and safety of work teams. To that end, we rely on innovation, which must - of course - address all of these issues, but also bring significant improvements in the development of our purchasing and manufacturing processes. ” [2]


Image Cortesia de Ângelo Lopes

此外，寻找适合的特定用途和地点的材料，以及更清洁和无废物的建筑方法，应该是规则而不是特例，如模块化建筑。在可能的情况下，即在有足够基础设施的地方，密集化部署多功能建筑，混合住宅、商店、休闲、工作空间，并尽可能地模糊收入差异，可以使城市更加紧凑，减少对交通的需求。另外，现在是时候重新思考许多预先建立的概念了，比如在COVID-19的大流行的背景下，远程工作已被证明是可行的，那么我们还需要这么大的办公室吗？或者我们所有的通勤真的必不可少吗？

In addition, looking for materials suitable for the particular use and location, as well as cleaner and waste-free construction methods, such as modular buildings, should be the rule and not the exception. Densifying where possible—that is, in places where there are adequate infrastructures for this—deploying multifunctional buildings, and mixing residences, shops, leisure, work spaces, and, whenever possible, income ranges, can make cities more compact, with less demand for transportation. Also, it is time to rethink many pre-established concepts, and everyone must agree that the COVID-19 pandemic helped serve this purpose. Will we need such large offices, now that teleworking has proved viable? Or were all our commutes really essential?


Image © Hoang Le photography

众所周知，民用建筑消耗了大量的资源，在碳的释放中起着至关重要的作用，温室效应已经在城市中越发明显，并且每天产生数吨的固体废物。如果我们考虑减少碳排放和减少废物，就不可能忽视建筑业。我们目前的经济继续遵循 “提取——转化——丢弃”的线性逻辑，循环经济可以提供机会，重新思考我们生产和使用物质的方式，并探索新的方法，以确保长期发展，当然循环理念的应用也不能止步于建筑业。

回到城市，我们继续谈论众多的问题，食品生产和分配、水管理、电力消耗和发电、交通等等，不胜枚举。城市是贪婪的有机体，它需要大量的资源、食物和能源，但它在产生财富和知识的同时也产生了废物和污染。这种等式对地球的生态系统是残酷的，我们已经开始感受到气候变化的影响。

It is well known that civil construction consumes huge amounts of resources, plays a crucial role in the release of carbon (with effects already felt in cities through the greenhouse effect), and generates tons of solid waste daily. If we think about reducing carbon emissions and reducing waste, it is impossible to ignore the construction industry. Our current economy continues to follow a linear 'extract-transform-discard' logic. A circular economy can offer opportunities to rethink the way we produce and use the things we need, and allows us to explore new ways to ensure long-term prosperity. But the circular philosophy must go far beyond construction.
Returning to cities, we can go on and talk about a multitude of issues: food production and distribution, water management, electricity consumption and generation, mobility, and the list goes on. Cities are voracious organisms, which demand huge amounts of resources, food, and energy, but which produce wealth and knowledge while generating waste and pollution. This equation is cruel to the earth's ecosystems and we are already beginning to feel the effects of climate change.


Image © Del Rio Bani

近年来，关于优化基础设施和治理以使市民更好地参与服务管理的智慧城市，人们已经说了很多。这意味着收集各种数据的传感器、系统和应用程序，可以对这些数据进行分析，并影响出行、健康、水和能源管理、住房、固体废物和污水的排放等。基于云的物联网（IoT）应用程序接收、分析和管理数据，帮助当地政府、企业和公民做出更好的决策，从而改善他们的生活质量。它们唤起了网络化城市主义的想法，无处不在的监测和反馈的结合将使城市的管理更加可持续和富有成效。

“广泛使用数字技术的智慧城市已被确定为解决发展中国家许多城市所面临的人口压力的可能方案，并有助于满足对服务和基础设施不断增长的需求。然而，维护基础设施所涉及的高额财务成本、巨大规模的非正规经济和各种治理挑战正在降低政府对智慧城市的理想主义”。[3]但是，虽然可以想象那些稳固的繁荣城市在日常生活中加入技术因素的可行性，但当我们还有很多人口无法获得体面的生活条件时，这个概念似乎听起来有些幼稚，这里提出了一个问题：技术是否可以成为盟友，以某种方式促进减少这种不平等并改善所有人口的生活质量？

In recent years, much has been said about smart cities that optimize infrastructure and governance to better involve citizens in the management of services. This means sensors, systems, and applications that collect various data, which can be analyzed and influence decision-making in matters such as mobility, health, water and energy management, housing, solid waste, and sewage, among many others. Cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) applications receive, analyze, and manage data to help local governments, businesses, and citizens make better decisions that will improve their quality of life. They invoke the idea of a networked urbanism, where the combination of ubiquitous monitoring and feedback would enable more sustainable and productive cities.
“Smart cities that make extensive use of digital technologies have been identified as possible solutions to the population pressures faced by many cities in developing countries and can help to meet the growing demand for services and infrastructure. However, the high financial cost involved in maintaining infrastructure, the substantial size of informal economies and various governance challenges are reducing the government's idealism towards smart cities." [3] But while we can imagine well-consolidated and wealthy cities deploying technology in our daily lives, this concept almost sounds naïve when we have so many without access to decent living conditions, which raises the question: could technology be an ally to contribute in some way to reduce such inequalities and improve the quality of life of all populations?


Image © FangFang Tian

一些研究人员指出，智慧城市的举措有助于克服传统城市发展的局限性，因为传统城市发展倾向于单独管理城市基础设施系统，而且负责任的行为者之间没有真正的被整合。“利用云计算、物联网或开放数据等数字技术所提供的数据和服务的分散性，可以把城市中不同的利益相关者联系起来，提高公民参与度，提供新的思路并改进现有的服务，同时提供支持。然而，智慧城市的发展是非常复杂的，具有挑战性和特定的背景，这些挑战包括技术专家和政策制定者的沟通障碍，缺乏将城市可持续性挑战与可行的方法联系起来的能力，以及面对独特治理方案的社会及领土凝聚力的压力”。[4]关于这个主题的研究人员一致认为，事实上，当整个人口参与其中并理解其重要性时，这种技术是有效的，但这在贫穷的地方是一个更大的挑战。

Some researchers point out that Smart City initiatives could contribute to overcome the limitations of traditional urban development, which tends to manage urban infrastructure systems separately and without real integration between the responsible actors. “Taking advantage of the diffuse character of data and services offered by digital technologies, such as cloud computing, Internet of Things or open data, allows different stakeholders in the city to be connected, improve citizen involvement, offer new and improve existing services and provide context. The development of Smart City is, however, highly complex, challenging and context specific. The challenges include different discourses used by technologists and policy makers, a lack of capacity to connect urban sustainability challenges to viable approaches and pressures on social and territorial cohesion that require unique governance solutions.” [4] Researchers on the topic agree that such technologies are, in fact, efficient when the population as a whole gets involved and understands their importance. This is an even greater challenge in poorer places.


Image © Chao Zhang

但是，技术是否会成为我们城市的救星，使其可持续发展，公平，并宜于居住？当然，这些绝不是孤立的。正如研究人员Si Ying Tan和Araz Taeihag[3]所指出的，在发展中国家，维护基础设施所涉及的高财务成本和巨大规模的非正规经济是对智慧城市理想的挑战，需要加以解决。此外，将技术作为智慧城市发展的核心，而不将其与公共价值相协调，也不了解公民基本需求的程度，这将使智慧城市变成单纯的“摆设”。该研究的结论是，发展中国家的智慧城市只有在社会经济、人力、法律和监管改革同时被纳入长期发展轨道时才能进行。背景条件包括国家的社会发展、经济政策和财政禀赋；公民的技术素养和参与智慧城市发展的意愿；以及独特的文化因素，这些对于发展中国家智慧城市的发展非常重要。

全球变暖，对地球资源征收越来越多的税，以及废物的积累，使人们认识到必须改变我们设计、生产和分配产品和服务的方式。它们也揭示了我们的城市是如何运作的，其中许多是低效率的。城市中心可以被视为问题的一部分，也可以被视为解决气候变化方案的一部分。也许这是一个整个世界都开始聚集在一起的问题。历史告诉我们，城市中心可以重塑自己，可以改善或恶化，甚至是崩溃。人们应当更加认真地对待能源和资源的使用，而提供良好的生活质量和进入城市的机会是至关重要的，技术可以发挥其至关重要的作用，只要它能服务于公共利益。

But would technology be the savior of our cities, making them sustainable, equitable, and, most importantly, pleasant to live in? Of course, never alone. As researchers Si Ying Tan and Araz Taeihag [3] point out, the high financial cost involved in maintaining infrastructure and the substantial size of informal economies in developing countries represent unique challenges to the ideals of smart cities that need to be resolved. In addition, privileging technology as the core of smart city development without aligning it with public values ​​or understanding the extent of basic citizens' needs would transform smart cities into mere 'white elephants'. The study concludes that smart cities in developing countries can only be carried out when simultaneous socioeconomic, human, legal and regulatory reforms are incorporated into long-term development trajectories. Contextual conditions—including the state's social development, economic policy and financial endowment; technological literacy and the willingness of citizens to participate in the development of smart cities; and unique cultural factors—are important for the development of smart cities in developing countries.
Global warming, an increasing tax on the earth's resources, and the accumulation of waste have brought to the fore the realization that it is essential to change the way we design, produce, and distribute products and services. They have also revealed how our cities work, many of them inefficiently. Urban centers can be seen as part of the problem or part of the solution for climate change. Perhaps this is an issue around which the whole world is starting to come together. History shows us that urban centers can reinvent themselves, redo themselves, improve or worsen, and even collapse. Taking the use of energy and resources more seriously and, above all, providing a good quality of life and opportunities for access to the city is vital. Technology can play a crucial role, as long as it is used for the common good.



注释
[1] Estevez, Elsa, Lopes, Nuno and Janowski, Tomasz (2016). 《智能可持续城市：调查研究》United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance.
[2] Saint-Gobain Explore 2050.《家：持久的住房设计》
[3] Si Ying Tan, Araz Taeihagh. 《发展中国家的智能城市治理：一次系统的文献回顾》
[4] Francesco Appio, Marcos Lima e Sotirios Paroutis. 《了解智能城市：创新生态系统、技术进步和社会挑战》

Notes
[1] Estevez, Elsa, Lopes, Nuno and Janowski, Tomasz (2016). Smart Sustainable Cities: Reconnaissance Study. United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance.
[2] Saint-Gobain Explore 2050. Home: In housing designed to last.
[3] Si Ying Tan, Araz Taeihagh. Smart City Governance in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review.
[4] Francesco Appio, Marcos Lima e Sotirios Paroutis. Understanding Smart Cities: Innovation Ecosystems, Technological Advancements, and Societal Challenges.