The Next Wave of Innovation Districts

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Bruce Katz and Julie Wagner: “A next wave of innovation districts is gaining momentum given the structural changes underway in the global economy. The examples cited above telegraph where existing innovation districts are headed and explain why new districts are forming. The districts highlighted and many others are responding to fast-changing and highly volatile macro forces and the need to de-risk, decarbonize, and diversify talent.

The next wave of innovation districts is distinctive for multiple reasons.

  • The sectors leveraging this innovation geography expand way beyond the traditional focus on life sciences to include advanced manufacturing for military and civilian purposes.
  • The deeper emphasis on decarbonization is driving the use of basic and applied R&D to invent new clean technology products and solutions as well as organizing energy generation and distribution within the districts themselves to meet crucial carbon targets.
  • The stronger emphasis on the diversification of talent includes the upskilling of workers for new production activities and a broader set of systems to drive inclusive innovation to address long-standing inequities.
  • The districts are attracting a broader group of stakeholders, including manufacturing companies, utilities, university industrial design and engineering departments and hard tech startups.
  • The districts ultimately are looking to engage a wider base of investors given the disparate resources and traditions of capitalization that support defense tech, clean tech, med tech and other favored forms of innovation.

Some regions or states are also seeking ways to connect a constellation of districts and other economic hubs to harness the imperative to innovate accentuated by these and other macro forces. The state of South Australia is one such example. It has prioritized several innovation hubs across this region to foster South Australia’s knowledge and innovation ecosystem, as well as identify emerging economic clusters in industry sectors of global competitiveness to advance the broader economy…(More)”.

Urban Development Needs Systems Thinking

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Yaera Chung: “More than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, cities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) continue to grapple with economic stagnation, aging infrastructure, and environmental degradation while also facing new pressures from climate change and regional conflicts. In this context, traditional city planning, which tackles problems in isolation, is struggling to keep up. Urban strategies often rely on siloed, one-off interventions that fail to reflect the complexity of social challenges or adapt to shifting conditions. As a result, efforts are frequently fragmented, overlook root causes, and miss opportunities for long-term, cross-sector collaboration.

Instead of addressing one issue at a time, cities need to develop a set of coordinated, interlinked solutions that tackle multiple urban challenges simultaneously and align efforts across sectors. As part of a broader strategy to address environmental, economic, and social goals at once, for example, cities might advance a range of initiatives, such as transforming biowaste into resources, redesigning streets to reduce air pollution, and creating local green jobs. These kinds of “portfolio” approaches are leading to lasting and systems-level change.

Since 2021, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been collaborating with 15 cities across EECA to solve problems in ways that embrace complexity and interconnectedness. Selected through open calls under two UNDP initiatives, Mayors for Economic Growth and the City Experiment Fund, these cities demonstrated a strong interest in tackling systemic issues. Their proposals highlighted the problems they face, their capacity for innovation, and local initiatives and partnerships.

Their ongoing journeys have surfaced four lessons that can help other cities move beyond conventional planning pitfalls, and adopt a more responsive, inclusive, and sustainable approach to urban development…(More)”.

Governing in the Age of AI: Reimagining Local Government

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change: “…The limits of the existing operating model have been reached. Starved of resources by cuts inflicted by previous governments over the past 15 years, many councils are on the verge of bankruptcy even though local taxes are at their highest level. Residents wait too long for care, too long for planning applications and too long for benefits; many people never receive what they are entitled to. Public satisfaction with local services is sliding.

Today, however, there are new tools – enabled by artificial intelligence – that would allow councils to tackle these challenges. The day-to-day tasks of local government, whether related to the delivery of public services or planning for the local area, can all be performed faster, better and cheaper with the use of AI – a true transformation not unlike the one seen a century ago.

These tools would allow councils to overturn an operating model that is bureaucratic, labour-intensive and unresponsive to need. AI could release staff from repetitive tasks and relieve an overburdened and demotivated workforce. It could help citizens navigate the labyrinth of institutions, webpages and forms with greater ease and convenience. It could support councils to make better long-term decisions to drive economic growth, without which the resource pressure will only continue to build…(More)”.

Smart Cities:Technologies and Policy Options to Enhance Services and Transparency

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

GAO Report: “Cities across the nation are using “smart city” technologies like traffic cameras and gunshot detectors to improve public services. In this technology assessment, we looked at their use in transportation and law enforcement.

Experts and city officials reported multiple benefits. For example, Houston uses cameras and Bluetooth sensors to measure traffic flow and adjust signal timing. Other cities use license plate readers to find stolen vehicles.

But the technologies can be costly and the benefits unclear. The data they collect may be sold, raising privacy and civil liberties concerns. We offer three policy options to address such challenges…(More)”.

Exploring Human Mobility in Urban Nightlife: Insights from Foursquare Data

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Ehsan Dorostkar: “In today’s digital age, social media platforms like Foursquare provide a wealth of data that can reveal fascinating insights into human behavior, especially in urban environments. Our recent study, published in Cities, delves into how virtual mobility on Foursquare translates into actual human mobility in Tehran’s nightlife scenes. By analyzing user-generated data, we uncovered patterns that can help urban planners create more vibrant and functional nightlife spaces…

Our study aimed to answer two key questions:

  1. How does virtual mobility on Foursquare influence real-world human mobility in urban nightlife?
  2. What spatial patterns emerge from these movements, and how can they inform urban planning?

To explore these questions, we focused on two bustling nightlife spots in Tehran—Region 1 (Darband Square) and Region 6 (Valiasr crossroads)—where Foursquare data indicated high user activity.

Methodology

We combined data from two sources:

  1. Foursquare API: To track user check-ins and identify popular nightlife venues.
  2. Tehran Municipality API: To contextualize the data within the city’s urban framework.

Using triangulation and interpolation techniques, we mapped the “human mobility triangles” in these areas, calculating the density and spread of user activity…(More)”.

How governments can move beyond bureaucracy

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Interview with Jorrit de Jong: “..Bureaucracy is not so much a system of rules, it is a system of values. It is an organizational form that governs how work gets done in accordance with principles that the sociologist Max Weber first codified: standardization, formalization, expert officialdom, specialization, hierarchy, and accountability. Add those up and you arrive at a system that values the written word; that is siloed because that’s what specialization does; that can sometimes be slow because there is a chain of command and an approval process. Standardization supports the value that it doesn’t matter who you are, who you know, what you look like when you’re applying for a permit, or who is issuing the permit: the case will be evaluated based on its merits. That is a good thing. Bureaucracy is a way to do business in a rational, impersonal, responsible and efficient way, at least in theory…

It becomes a problem when organizations start to violate their own values and lose connection with their purpose. If standardization turns into rigidity, doing justice to extenuating individual circumstances becomes hard. If formalization becomes pointless paper pushing, it defeats the purpose. And if accountability structures favor risk aversion over taking initiative, organizations can’t innovate.

Bureaucratic dysfunction occurs when the system that we’ve created ceases to produce the value that we wanted out of it. But that does not mean we have to throw away the baby with the bathwater. Can we create organizations that have the benefits of accountability, standardization and specialization without the burdens of slowness, rigidity, and silos? My answer is yes. Research we did with the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative shows how organizations can improve performance by building capabilities that make them more nimble, responsive, and user-friendly. Cities that leverage data to better understand the communities they serve and measure performance learn and improve faster. Cities that use design thinking to reinvent resident services save time and money. And cities that collaborate across organizational and sector boundaries come up with more effective solutions to urban problems…(More)”

Cities in International Decision-Making

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book edited by Agnieszka Szpak et al: “…argues that cities are becoming more active participants in international law-making and challenging the previously dominant nation-state approach of recent history.

Chapters explore key literature and legal regulations surrounding cities, providing the latest information on their international normative activities. This book includes multiple interviews conducted with the official representatives of cities and various international institutions, such as UN-Habitat, the EU Committee of the Regions, and the Congress for Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. The authors investigate how, despite their strong role in international relations and international law implementation, the importance of cities has still not been adequately reflected in the structures of the Council of Europe, the EU and the UN. Ultimately, the book finds that cities have more impact on policy-making than on decision-making processes…(More)”.

International Guidelines on People Centred Smart Cities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

UN-Habitat: “…The guidelines aim to support national, regional and local governments, as well as relevant stakeholders, in leveraging digital technology for a better quality of life in cities and human settlements, while mitigating the associated risks to achieve global visions of sustainable urban development, in line with the New Urban Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other relevant global agendas.
The aim is to promote a people-centred smart cities approach that is consistent with the purpose and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including full respect for international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to ensure that innovation and digital technologies are used to help cities and human settlements in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.
The guidelines serve as a reference for Member States to implement people-centred smart city approaches in the preparation and implementation of smart city regulations, plans and strategies to promote equitable access to, and life-long education and training of all people in, the opportunities provided by data, digital infrastructure and digital services in cities and human settlements, and to favour transparency and accountability.
The guidelines recognize local and regional governments (LRGs) as pivotal actors in ensuring closing digital divides and localizing the objectives and principles of these guidelines as well as the Global Digital Compact for an open, safe, sustainable and secure digital future. The guidelines are intended to complement existing global principles on digital development through a specific additional focus on the key role of local and regional governments, and local action, in advancing people-centred smart city development also towards the vision of global digital compact…(More)”.

California Governor Launches New Digital Democracy Tool

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Phil Willon: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday announced a new digital democracy initiative that will attempt to connect residents directly with government officials in times of disaster and allow them to express their concerns about matters affecting their day-to-day lives.

The web-based initiative, called Engaged California, will go live with a focus on aiding victims of the deadly wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena who are struggling to recover. For example, comments shared via the online forum could potentially prompt government action regarding insurance coverage, building standards or efforts to require utilities to bury power lines underground.

In a written statement, Newsom described the pilot program as “a town hall for the modern era — where Californians share their perspectives, concerns, and ideas geared toward finding real solutions.”


“We’re starting this effort by more directly involving Californians in the LA firestorm response and recovery,” he added. “As we recover, reimagine, and rebuild Los Angeles, we will do it together.”

The Democrat’s administration has ambitious plans for the effort that go far beyond the wildfires. Engaged California is modeled after a program in Taiwan that became an essential bridge between the public and the government at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taiwanese government has relied on it to combat online political disinformation as well…(More)”.

Using human mobility data to quantify experienced urban inequalities

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Fengli Xu et al: “The lived experience of urban life is shaped by personal mobility through dynamic relationships and resources, marked not only by access and opportunity, but also inequality and segregation. The recent availability of fine-grained mobility data and context attributes ranging from venue type to demographic mixture offer researchers a deeper understanding of experienced inequalities at scale, and pose many new questions. Here we review emerging uses of urban mobility behaviour data, and propose an analytic framework to represent mobility patterns as a temporal bipartite network between people and places. As this network reconfigures over time, analysts can track experienced inequality along three critical dimensions: social mixing with others from specific demographic backgrounds, access to different types of facilities, and spontaneous adaptation to unexpected events, such as epidemics, conflicts or disasters. This framework traces the dynamic, lived experiences of urban inequality and complements prior work on static inequalities experience at home and work…(More)”.