Smart Cities
Peterborough: a City Shaping Its Own DNA
Peterborough is the winner of the 2015 World Smart City Award.
Solving for Pattern: What Urbanists Can Learn from Wendell Berry
Our typical images of the city often fail us. What we need is a new one that best captures the complexity and beauty of urban life.
An Online Portal for Making Sense of Toronto Traffic Data
With so many potential sources of data with which to analyze traffic behaviors and real-time conditions, University of Toronto engineers have created an online portal that could one day help drive a system populated with autonomous cars.
White House Smart Cities Initiative Uses Connected Vehicle Technology
Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx unveiled a $42 million transportation program in Manhattan that is part of President Obama's new $160 million Smart Cities Initiative. Funds will go to NYC, Tampa, and Wyoming to reduce congestion and crashes.
How the 'Internet of Things' Is Changing City Operations
The potential of "Smart Cities" is still very much under negotiation. Data-Smart City Solutions at Harvard University surveyed what cities are doing so far to take advantage of the Internet of things.
A Central Hub for Open Data
Designed by researchers at the University of Chicago, the Plenario platform gathers all available open data for a specific area. Then it presents the data in an easy-to-use format.
How Data Privatization Will Change Planning Practice
Planners will be presented with new challenges and opportunities in a new era of data-enhanced government.
Why Google's 'Sidewalk Labs' Is Such a Big Deal
Earlier in June, Google announced the creation of an "urban innovation company" called Sidewalk Labs. One writer explains the genesis of the company as well as its potential for the future of how cities operate.
The Early History of the 'Smart Cities' Movement—in 1974 Los Angeles
An article in Boom: A Journal of California extends the timeline of "smart cities" and "big data" efforts by a considerable amount—all the way back to the late 1960s.
Google Launches its First Smart Cities Company: Sidewalk Labs
Google, already one of the most pervasive technology providers of urban experiences everywhere, has increased its bet on the smart cities movement.
Full-Scale 'SimCity' Will Be Tech Testing Ground
Devoid of a human population, the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (CITE) is a planned, privately-operated trial lab for the smart city. The CITE design calls for a small, fully-functioning ghost town.
Urban Big Data: Where is the Signal in the Noise?
Amid growing skepticism, an international gathering examines the useful benefits for an age of critical urban challenges.
Who Is the Smart City For?
In India, smart cities are being built with much fanfare and government support. However, critics rightfully worry that such models could end up excluding the very people who need its benefits the most.
New App Shares Connected Car Data to Government, Businesses
This is what "smart cities" technology looks like: A new product called Inrix Insights offers planners and businesses a platform by which to access the data created by the use of connected cars.
Are Asia's Planned Cities a New Colonialism?
While they look clean and green on the drawing board, Asia's planned developments might be nothing more than cloned commercialism set in concrete. By undermining local culture, this 'smart city' approach may also prove unsustainable.
Fitness Apps Are the New Planning Tool
Many smartphone users have a fitness app that they use to track their routes and progress on fitness goals. The data in these apps is a gold mine for planners, helping lead to better infrastructure investments.
A History of 'Urban Dashboards' and their Impact on City Governance
Welcome to the age of "Dashboard Governance"—when a good user interface offers the potential for performance advantages to city management.
Tel Aviv Named World's Smartest City
The Smart City Expo and World Congress, held this year in Barcelona, announced its 2014 World Smart Cities Awards. This year the top award went to Tel Aviv, Israel.
A Dissenting Take on Smart Cities from Rem Koolhaas
A post on the European Commission website provides an edited transcript of a presentation by Rem Koolhaas in which the starchitect and author offers a scathing take on the ill effects of smart cities.
Mining Data from the World for Big Profits
The Wall Street Journal examines a pair of businesses as examples of how new sources of data can be collected and sold. Orbital Insight, Inc, for instance, interprets the shadows cast by buildings.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
Smith Gee Studio
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
