SMART CITY PERSPECTIVES OF BLOEMFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA
Main Article Content
Keywords
Environmental capital; Smart city; Socio-economic capital; Urban Development, Mobility; Governance
Abstract
To handle rapid urbanization, there is need to find new ways to manage complexity, increase efficiency, reduce expenses, and improve quality of life. The new ways are rooted in the concept of ‘smart city’. The concept theorize that emerging technologies would shape urban environments in varying ways that would include but not limited to the economy, mobility, governance, and living conditions of a city. While this concept is now a reality in major cities in developed economies, this is not the case in South Africa and the region. Against this background, an evaluation of socio-economic and environmental capital of Bloemfontein has been used as a case example to demonstrate the transformational requirements for a ‘smart city’ in South Africa. The evaluation utilised 74 indicators, and 30 factors of six smart characteristics, which include economy, environment, governance, living and mobility. Reviewed literature and semi-structure surveys were used for the evaluation, which suggests that Bloemfontein is lagging behind concerning key development indicators. In particular, the evaluation indicates that the city lag performance relative to mobility, economy, people and living sector, although environment and governance features appear to be promising. An overall evaluation of the indicators and factors points to a major scope for the city to transform to a smart city, if plausible actions are taken
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References
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Brown, C. and Czerniewicz, L. (2010). Debunking the “digital native”: beyond digital apartheid, towards digital democracy, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Vol. 26:357–369
Calthorpe, P., and Fulton, W. (2000). The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl Washington, DC: Island Press.
Coe, A., Paquet, G. and Roy, J. (2001). E-governance and smart communities: a social learning challenge, Social Science Computer Review, 19 (1), 80 - 93.
Caragliu, A., Del Bo, C., Nijkamp, P. (2009). 3rd Central European Conference in Regional Science - CERS, 2009.
De Swardt, C., Puoane, T., Chopra, M., and du Toit, A. (2005). Urban poverty in Cape Town, Environment and Urbanisation, Vol. 17(2): 101- 112.
Ezkowitz, H. (2008) The Triple Helix: University, industry and Government London: Routledge.
Etzkowitz, H. and Zhou, C. (2006). Triple Helix twins: innovation and sustainability, Science and Public Policy, Vol .33 (1): 77 - 83.
Farmer, P., Frojmovic, M., Hague, C., Harridge, C., Narang, S., and Shishido, D. (2006). Reinventing planning: a new governance paradigm for managing human settlements, In Position paper for the World Planners Congress, Vancouver.
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Giffinger, R. (2007). Middle-sized cities are a fascinating focus group, Technical University (TU), Vienna.
Giffinger, R., Fertne, C., Kramar, H., Kalasek, R., Pichler Milanovi?, N., and Evert, M. (2007). Smart cities – Ranking of European medium-sized cities, Final project report, pp. 1-25.
Holland, R.G. (2008). Will the real smart city please stand up? Intelligent, progressive or entrepreneurial? City, Vol. 12: 303-320.
Horn, A. C. (2002). New perspectives on urban segregation and desegregation in post-resolution South Africa, in: I. Schnell, & W. Ostendorf (Eds.) Studies in segregation and desegregation, pp. 247-284. Aldershot: Ashgate.
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Jailly, E. B. (2008). Vancouver: The Sustainable City, Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 30(4): 375 - 388.
Kotze, N. J. & Donaldson, S. E. (1998). Residential desegregation in two South African cities: a comparative study of Bloemfontein and Pietersburg, Urban Studies, Vol. 35: 467 - 477.
Lotter, J. C. (2002). Urban economic empowerment in the greater Pretoria area: the continuation of history?, South African Journal of Economics, Vol.70(2): 347 - 368.
Komninos, N. (2002). Intelligent cities: innovation, knowledge systems and digital spaces, London: Spon Press.
Kunstler, J. H. (2001). The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, New York: Simon and Schuster,
Lombardi, P. (2011a). Managing the green IT agenda, Intelligent Buildings International, Vol.(3): 41 - 45.
Lombardi, P. (2011b). New challenges in the evaluation of Smart Cities, Network Industries Quarterly, Vol. 13 (3): 8-10.
Lombardi, P., Giordano, S., Farouh, H. & Wael. Y. (2011). An analytic network model for Smart cities in: F. de Felice and A. Petrillo (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on the AHP, Sorrento, Naples, IT, June 15 - 18.
McGillivray, M. (2005). Measuring non-economic well-being achievement, The Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 51(2): 337 - 364.
Moussiopoulos, N., Achillas, C., Vlachokostas, C., Spyridi, D., and Nikolaou, K. (2010). Environmental, social and economic information management for the evaluation of sustainability in urban areas: A system of indicators for Thessaloniki, Greece, Cities, Vol. (27: 377- 384.
Municipal Systems Act, No 32, (2000). South Africa
Nijkamp, P. (2008). E pluribus unum, Research Memorandum, Faculty of Economics, VU University, Amsterdam.
Nijkamp, P., & Kourtik, K. (2011). Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) on Urban Europe. Global challenges and local responses in the urban century. A scoping document, VU University Amsterdam.
Naude, Wim., Rossouw, Stephanie., and Krugell, Waldo. (2009). The non-monetary quality of city life in South Africa, Habitat International, Vol. 33: 319 - 326.
Nomdo, C., & Coetzee, E. (2002). Urban vulnerability: Perspectives from Southern Africa, Stylus: Sterling VA.
Odendaal, N. (2003). Information and communication technology and local governance: understanding the difference between cities in developed and emerging economies. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, Vol. 27: 585–607.
Odendaal, N. (2006). Towards the digital city in South Africa: Issues and constraints, Journal of Urban Technology, Vol. 13: 29-48.
Odendaal, N. (2011). Splintering Urbanism or Split Agendas? Examining the Spatial Distribution of Technology Access in Relation to ICT Policy in Durban, South Africa, Urban Studies, Vol. 48: 2375-2397.
Prinsloo, D. A. and Cloete, C. E. (2002). Post-apartheid residential mobility patterns in two South African cities, Property Management. Vol.20(4): 264 - 277.
Ramutsindela, M. (2002). Second time around: squatter removals in a democratic South Africa, GeoJournal, Vol. 57: 49 - 56.
Saavedra, C., & Budd, W. W. (2009). Climate change and environmental planning: Working to build community resilience and adaptive capacity in Washington State, USA, Habitat International,Vol. 33: 246 - 252.
Saff, G. R. (1995). Residential segregation in South Africa: what can be learned from the United States experience?, Urban Affairs Review, Vol. (30): 782 - 808.
Saff, G. R. (2001). Exclusionary discourse towards squatters in suburban Cape Town, Ecumene, Vol. 8. 87 - 107.
Saaty, T.L. (2005). Theory and Applications of the Analytic Network Process. Pittsburgh: RWS Publications.
Scott, J. W. (2007). Smart Growth as Urban Reform: A Pragmatic ‘Recoding’ of the New Regionalism, Urban Studies, Vol.44 (1): 15 - 35.
Shapiro, J. M. (2008). Smart cities: quality of life, productivity, and the growth effects of human capital, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 88 (2): 324-335.
SDF. (2011). Spatial Development Frameworks, Mangaung Municipality, South Africa.
Todes, A. (2011). Planning: Critical Reflections, Urban Forum, Vol. 22:115–133 DOI 10.1007/s12132-011-9109-x.
Todes, A., Oelfose, C., & Sim, V. (2009). The relationship between planning and environmental management in South Africa, Planning Practice and Research, 411–433.
Turner, M. A. (2007). A simple theory of smart growth and sprawl, Journal of Urban Economics, Vo. 61: 21- 44.
Turok, I. (2001). Persistent polarization post-apartheid? Progress towards urban integration in Cape Town, Urban Studies, Vol. 38, 2349 - 2377.
UN-Habitat. (2009). Sustainable urbanisation: Revisiting the role of urban planning, Global report on human settlements, Nairobi: UN-Habitat.
Van Soom, E. (2009). Measuring levels of supply and demand for e-services and e-government: a toolkit for cities. Smart Cities Research Brief, N. 3
Visser, V. (2001). Social justice, integrated development planning and post-apartheid South Africa, Urban Studies, Vol. 38(10): 1673 - 1699