Smart City IndexDNA
Smart City IndexDNA
citiesabc
openbusinesscouncil
cities and business
indexdna
Indexdna Report
2021
www.citiesabc.com
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 2
Indexdna Report
2021
indexdna
Acknowledgment
This white paper is the result of a joint pilot project under the co-
lead of citiesabc and openbusinesscouncil, with the participation
of the Durham University Business School. citiesabc and
openbusinesscouncil funded the research of this project.
Indexdna Report
Index
Summary 4
Acknowledgement 30
Contributions 31
Bibliography 33
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 4
Summary
The rate and pace of change in global economic to bring about social, economic, political and
activity and its societies are likely to accelerate environmental changes. This definition chimes
further, and this will have profound implications with the concept of Society 5.0, which aims to
for life, work, travel, and the growth of our integrate cyberspace and physical space using
communities. Most importantly, these changes smart technologies. We view cities as complex
will have a significant impact on the urban adaptive systems that are evolving and adaptive
population, which is expected to be around 7 to changes from different stakeholders and
Billion by 2050. Living in such highly dense cities the environment. However, to fully integrate
is a new phenomenon for humankind and brings citizens and their generated data into effective
about several opportunities, but also some smart systems, it is critical to develop a dynamic
tensions: the individual against the collective; index that fully represents the holistic nature of
the regional against the global; privacy against these smart cities.
open systems; economic growth against zero
carbon emissions. This white paper presents a dynamic smart
cities index – called IndexDNA – which captures
Governments and organizations are placing a the complex relationship between citizens,
much greater emphasis on resource use and industry, policymaking and society. This
social responsibility. This trend in urbanisation IndexDNA quadruple model framework is data-
is still growing and will increase pressure on driven and gives a holistic view of a smart city on
the world’s resources, necessitating major several dimensions like the economy, mobility,
configurational changes in how we live, work, education, living, environment and governance.
travel and build our communities. IndexDNA serves several purposes, from
benchmarking cities to developing effective
Smart emerging technologies can help cities policies for the transition to Society 5.0.
meet some of these challenges. At the heart
of such ‘smart cities’ is the notion that ‘data’ There are several unique aspects of the
generated by citizens and systems can be IndexDNA: as an open system, this dynamic
used to develop a citizen-centred society that index collects data on each city continuously
is sustainable, inclusive and fit for the future. and updates rankings and performance ratings
We take a holistic citizen centric approach to accordingly. The developed citiesabc platform
smart cities, where we define a smart city as will also track the evolution of the worldwide
an human-centric ecosystem where physical urban landscape in real-time and thus be a
and cyberspace systems are interconnected more reliable source of evaluation.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 5
01.
Background
Globally Connected
Cities - The Need
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 6
The term ‘smart city’ has several predecessors like intelligent city
(N. Komninos, 2007), digital city (N. Leach, 2009) or ubiquitous city (L.
Anthopoulos and P. Fitsilis, 2010). While there are differences in these
terms the fundamental proposition in all these definitions is the use of
information and communications technology (ICT) to provide services
and support to citizens. The three positions adopted in the literature
range in focus from technology to citizens to governance. This focus has
resulted in terms like ‘smart’ being used synonymously with terms like
‘intelligent’, ‘sustainable’, ‘digital’ and ‘ubiquitous’ - even the concept of
‘Artificial Intelligence Cities’ has been raised (Ullah, Al-Turjman, Mostarda
and Gagliardi, 2020). There is no universally accepted definition for a
smart city. We represent some of the key definitions and terminologies
used to describe the concept of ‘smart cities’ and give our position on
the definition of ‘smart cities’.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 7
We take a holistic citizen centric approach to smart cities, where we define a smart city as an “human-
centric ecosystem where physical and cyberspace systems are interconnected to bring about
social, economic, political and environmental changes”. We take the view that smart city services
(e.g. interaction between citizens and service systems) is an outcome - rather than the core proposition
of a smart city. For example, a citizen using a e-learning system is an outcome of a smart city to
bring about social change - rather than the e-learning system being one of the core propositions of a
smart city. Therefore the focus of our paper is on the relation between the citizen and sub-systems,
with the assumption that sub-systems are expandable and emerge to deliver social, economic and
environmental changes. There is a plethora of literature on both the typology and nature of these sub-
systems (O. Pribyl and M. Svitek, 2015; R. Fistola and R.A. La Rocca, 2013; M. Lom and O. Pribyl, 2021).
These subsystems range from transportation to public health, to work and employment.
IBM defines a smart city as “one Cosgrove M & al, (2011), Smart Cities
that makes optimal use of all the series: introducing the IBM city
interconnected information available operations and management solutions.
-
today to better understand and control IBM.
its operations and optimize the use of
limited resources”
Cisco defines smart cities as those Falconer G & Mitchell S. (2012), Smart
who adopt “scalable solutions that City Framework: A Systematic Process
take advantage of information and for Enabling Smart+Connected
-
communications technology (ICT) to Communities
increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and
enhance quality of life”.
Being a smart city means using all J.M. Barrionuevo, P. Berrone, and
available technology and resources J.E. Ricart, “Smart Cities, Sustainable
in an intelligent and coordinated Progress,”IESE Insight14 (2012)50 – 57
-
manner to develop urban centers that
are at once integrated, habitable, and
sustainable.
Smart cities will take advantage of T.M. Chen, “Smart Grids, Smart Cities
communications and sensor capabilities Need Better Networks [Editor’s
sewn into the cities’ infrastructures to Note],”IEEE Network24: 2(2010) 2 – 3.
- optimize electrical, transportation,and
other logistical operations supporting
daily life, thereby improving the quality
of life for everyone
The British Standards Institute (BSI) M.N. Baqir, and Y. Kathawala, “Ba
defines the term as “the effective for Knowledge Cities: A Futuristic
integration of physical, digital and Technology Model,”Journal
-
human systems in the built environment ofKnowledge Management8: 5 (2004)
to deliver sustainable, prosperous and 83 – 95.
inclusive future for its citizens”
[A] smart city [refers to] a local entity - IDA Singapore, “iN2015 Masterplan”
a district, city, region or small country ( 2 0 1 2 ) , h t t p : //w w w. i d a . g ov. s g / ~ /
- which takes a holistic approach to media/Files/Infocomm%20
-
employ[ing] information technologies Landscape/iN2015/Reports/
with real-time analysis that encourages realisingthevisionin2015.pdf.
sustainable economic development.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 11
02.
Background
IndexDNA
Framework
- The Need
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 12
Example The metrics adopted by the China Urban Sustainability Index (2016)
exemplify a typical lack of capaciousness: “Society” and “Environment”
each account for 33% of the overall weighting, while “Economy” and
“Resources” each account for 17%. Streamlining individual criteria under
such broad headings runs the risk of being reductive; a high GDP cancels
out the shortcomings of significant income inequalities when these are
replaced within the same category (Economy). More troubling still, the
subsections within these metrics are incomplete: it is conspicuous that
the “Society” metric is so heavily weighted when the only subsection
within it is “social welfare”; a highly important rubric, but by no means
the only criterion to assess the performance of “Society” in Chinese
cities. Moreover, the distinct absence of a Governance metric (one that
is otherwise fairly common) is symptomatic of the country’s politics,
where corruption runs high and the government controls censuses so
they do not reflect this.
More complete and reliable indexes exist, of course, such as the IMD
Smart City Index. The latter evaluates cities according to five metrics
(Health & Safety; Mobility; Activities; Opportunities (Work/School);
Governance) in two separate categories: Structures and Technologies.
Yet the report remains static and rooted in metrics which are inflexible
and leave no room for relativism. Mexico City, for instance, ranks in
88th place worldwide according to IMD. The city performs badly
in the Structure rubric, and though it may fare slightly better on the
technologies front, Mexico City’s score remains low overall. There is little
data that seems to predict any upward trend in the city’s smartening.
This is because the IMD Index fails to consider context and feasibility.
Mexico City’s low mobility ratings, for instance, are in great part explained
by the difficulty to secure funds and financing for roadworks and public
transport, as well as the immense population and voracious demand
for (and use of) present road networks. A static index will not consider
the contextual differences between cities which leads to incongruous
results nearly always favouring developed cities. It seems flawed to
compare, like for like, the results of green initiatives undertaken in Paris
with those undertaken in Mexico City, as the demand, infrastructure and
financing options are simply not the same.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 14
03.
Background
IndexDNA
- Our Framework
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Background IndexDNA
- Our Framework
The indexDNA framework, as depicted in Figure 1, takes a complex
systems perspective of smart cities. Smart cities, as defined in section
1, are complex ecosystems, where citizens interact with interconnected
systems like transport, education, health, welfare, etc. These
interconnected systems are large and often non-linear dynamic entities.
Citizens generate large amounts of data during their interaction with
these systems and operate in conditions that are far from balanced. The
collective memory of such systems are not static and are part of direct
and indirect feedback loops. The interaction of citizens in smart cities
ecosystems is rich, dynamic, feb back and more importantly cannot be
predicted from inspection of any one individual sub-system. This form
of emergence allows smart cities to be adaptive in nature.
This framework builds on the concept that citizens are the heart of a
smart city ecosystem. Citizens interact with different smart city systems
via ICT technologies to access different services. The citizen data
generated via this process allows the system to be further refined. This
co-evolving interaction between the citizen and the ever-evolving smart
city systems forms the core of our framework. We view this relation as
synergistic in nature and constantly changing. This inner core of our
IndexDNA framework, called a co-evolving core, is important to any
smart city indexing activity, as it shows the importance of the citizen as
well as the citizens' relationship to the smart service systems. While the
importance of co-evolution and co-operation has been highlighted by
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 16
a number of researchers (T. Nam and T. A. Pardo, 2011), particularly in social systems, none of the
existing smart city indexes use this relationship in their indexes. In fact, our framework suggests that
the need to understand the complex relationship between citizens and the smart systems is central to
the human-centric ecosystem where physical and cyberspace systems are interconnected to bring
about social, economic, political and environmental changes.
The second layer in our framework is termed the open interaction zone and represents how the key
stakeholders interact with the inner core to create outcomes from the complex smart city ecosystem.
The index has been built on a matrix structure framework that applies the Quadruple Helix Innovation
model, which explores the interactions between university, industry, government and environment
sectors within a knowledge economy. In innovation helix frameworks, each sector is represented by a
circle (helix), with overlaps showing intersections (much like a venn diagram).
The Quadruple Helix model provides an inclusive and reliable framework as it incorporates the public
through the concept of a media-based democracy. Practically speaking, this means that when a
government develops innovation policy to improve the economy, it must adequately communicate
the innovation policy with the public and civil society via the media, in order to obtain public support
for new strategies.
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The Quadruple Helix framework can be described in terms of the models of knowledge that it extends
and by the four subsystems it incorporates; knowledge and know-how are created and transformed,
circulating as inputs and outputs in a way that affects the natural environment.
The Quadruple Helix model builds on the Triple Helix model assessing interactions between university,
industry and government sectors; the addition of a helix focused on the environmental sector is
particularly relevant for assessing smart cities with an emphasis on sustainability. Socio-ecological
interactions via the quadruple helices can serve to highlight opportunities for the knowledge economy;
namely, innovation in the field of sustainable development.
As can be seen in our framework, the four key stakeholders in the interaction zone (university,
business, government, environment) are connected together via multi-directional feedback systems.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 18
These stakeholders, while important, cannot be isolated from the core co-evolving zone. It is clear
that these four stakeholders are interconnected via smart systems, which also generates large
amounts of citizen-centric data, often without the involvement of the citizen. For example, secondary
data generated from a University research project might be used by Business and Government to
develop a new smart system in the inner core - without the knowledge or involvement of an individual
citizen. We advocate the use of open data to ensure both privacy as well as interaction between the
interacting stakeholders. We therefore define this layer as an open interaction zone.
The third layer in our framework is called the outcome zone, where the interactions of the interaction
zone and inner core can be observed. These interactions are outcomes from either the interaction
zone or the inner core or both.
For example, the outcome of accessibility is determined by the interaction between society, Universities
and Government. By studying this interaction, the IndexDNA can outline the improvements needed to
provide a high quality of life for all citizens, regardless of their physical or mental disability. In this example,
European Government initiatives like the Disability strategy 2020 (C. O'Mahony and S. Quinlivan, 2020)
and the European 2020 Horizon (M Granieri and A Renda, 2012) agendas have taken societal views
to conceive accessibility as an outcome in terms of space, facilities, services and products. While
we have listed an example of accessibility, it should be noted that outcomes are connected to one
another. For example, accessibility will have an impact on urban environmental issues as well as traffic
control systems, etc. Our framework appreciates that outcomes are manifestations of rich interactions
rather than standalone measures or key performance indices.
Essentially, the IndexDNA framework replicates the helices of the Quadruple Helix Model, identifying
Functional Requirements within them. This model allows us to tease out the micro within the macro;
the government helix, for example, is identified by both Policy and Society. The performance of
an individual city (or region) is thus calculated by examining the relationship between Metrics (e.g.
Governance, Economy, People) and Functional Requirements. A city may therefore obtain both high
and low scores within the same metric: a city’s Governance, for instance, might score highly on the
Policy front but badly on the Sustainability front, depending on its implementation of smart schemes in
either field. In other words, a city’s score depends on the correlation between macro or micro functional
requirements and performance evaluation metrics.
The fourth layer is the technology layer. It is clear that most if not all the outcomes can only be realised
using ICT. While technology is not the panacea to all the interactions in a smart city ecosystem, it
can offer significant leverage to connect all layers of the framework. It is clear that the data from
the different layers need to be stored and analysed to help the citizen and the stakeholders from
the interaction layer to achieve a human-centric ecosystem where physical and cyberspace systems
are interconnected to bring about social, economic, political and environmental changes. The role of
technology is critical to a human-centric smart city ecosystem but is not synonymous with a smart
city ecosystem. There is a plethora of literature (R. R. Harmon, E. G. Castro-Leon and S. Bhide, 2015;
S. Vicini, S. Bellini and A. Sanna, 2012; S. Gopikumar, S. Raja, Y. Harold Robinson, V. Shanmuganathan,
H. Chang and S. Rho, 2021) that shows the benefits of using different types of technologies, ranging
from Artificial Intelligence to Internet of Things, to deliver the outcomes and eventually the desired
impact. Our framework does not advocate any specific technology and is set within the context of
the Collingridge dilemma (A. Genus and A. Stirling, 2018). That is, we fully appreciate “there is always
a trade-off between knowing the impact of a given technology and the ease of influencing its social,
political, and innovation trajectories” (E. Morozov, 2012). Nevertheless, emerging technologies can
offer smart city ecosystems an opportunity to truly transform a human-centric ecosystem where
physical and cyberspace systems are interconnected to bring about social, economic, political and
environmental change. We realize that issues of ethics in how technology is used and implemented is
critical to this layer and hence we term this layer an ethical technology layer.
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The fifth layer of our framework is called the citizen impact layer. Impact is the long term effect of
an outcome. Impact is generally far reaching and broader in terms of its effect and can take time to
observe. We define 4 types of citizen-focused impact in our framework: social, political, environmental
and economic. We do not argue that any one impact is more important than the other. Rather, we
take a view that these impacts are interconnected and often any outcome can impact more than one
category.
Our 5-layer IndexDNA framework takes a complex systems perspective of a smart city ecosystem.
Our framework, while grounded in literature, defines a smart city as an “human-centric ecosystem
where physical and cyberspace systems are interconnected to bring about social, economic,
political and environmental changes”.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 21
04.
Background
Example of using
the IndexDNA
Framework for
Sustainable
Urban Mobility
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That being said, there are several legal and political frameworks that
provide guidance, like the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
the UN paper on the right to cities for all as well as other national
and regional initiatives. As can be seen in our Framework, the issues
associated with sustainable urban mobility stem directly from citizens
and their daily experience with access to different mobility services. The
relationship between citizens and the different mobility systems forms
the core of our framework. For example, easy access to affordable
and green transport services and the amount of bicycle infrastructure
are important issues in the core of our framework. These issues are
not static and co-evolve where physical and cyberspace systems are
interconnected. For example, the uptake of a new metro system might
be low due to issues like affordability.
Government
Society
Business
University
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 25
It is clear that Government and Society are the core stakeholders in this project (shown by dark brown
lines). However, for the city to be fully sustainable with a smart and modern urban mobility solution the
other stakeholders (Universities and Business) also have a critical role. While these 16 outcomes can
be measured – these are not standalone measures or key performance indices.
As can be seen in Figure 6, the technology ICT layer provides solutions to make the outcomes a
reality. These are represented by the white circle and arrows.
The resulting impact (fifth layer) in this case is that Social and Environmental change has been achieved
to make a smart city truly sustainable with an urban mobility system. As can be seen this is a long-term
effect of all the outcomes. The Social and Environmental impact is connected to the other outcomes
of policy and economics.
05.
Background
Practical Use
of the IndexDNA
Framework
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We view all our stakeholders as “partners” in this project. We list how our
key stakeholders can participate in this project, which is listed in Figure
3 below:
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 29
Acknowledgment
This white paper is the result of a joint pilot project under the co-lead of citiesabc and
openbusinesscouncil, with the participation of the Durham University Business School. citiesabc and
openbusinesscouncil funded the research of this project.
This white paper presents a dynamic smart cities index – called IndexDNA – which captures the
complex relationship between citizens, industry, policymaking and society.
Prof. Prof.
Kiran Fernandes Jamal Ouenniche
Professor and Associate Dean Professor in Business Analytics,
Durham University UK University of Edinburgh
Provided the conceptual framework Interpretation of the context and
for this whitepaper, analysis of the helped draft the report.
data and drafted the report.
Mr. Mr.
Dinis Guarda Hilton Supra
Chief Executive Officer Chief Business Development
of ztudium Officer and Vice Chairman
Supplied the context, interpretation of ztudium
of the context and helped draft the Research, guidance and
report. co-ordination
Mr.
William Hosie
Research Associate of ztudium
researching the conceptual
framework for this whitepaper,
analysis of the data and drafted the
report.
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 31
Contributions
This report would not have been possible without support from citiesabc and openbusinesscouncil,
as well as contributions and valuable insights provided by various members associated with the
development of this white paper.
Dr. Mr.
Atanu Chaudhuri Pedro Miguel
Associate Professor in Amaral
Technology Management, Associate Professor - Instituto
Durham University Superior Tecnico Lisbon
Mr. Mr.
Robert Bell Nick Rousseau
Global Gateways Federation CEO - Unconventional
Connections Ltd
Prof. Mr.
Yipeng Liu Ben Goertzel
Director of the Centre for CEO and founder of
China Management and SingularityNET
Global Business (CMGB)
- Reading University
Dr. Mr.
Yu Xiong Antonio de S.
Chair of Business Analytics; Limongi França
Associate Dean International Consultor e Gestor na LF1
- University of Surrey Inovação Tecnológica e
Estratégias Organizacionais
White paper citiesabc openbusinesscouncil cities and business indexdna 32
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Indexdna Report
2021
www.citiesabc.com