Introduction to smart cities

1. Introduction to smart cities
Dr. Mennatullah Hendawy
2022 | MENA Digital School @ CAIS

2. Broad definition: cities = smart when…
using digital technology (cameras, sensors, lights, meters etc.),
collecting different sorts of data, and
data is being used for urban policy making.
Software studies scholar Rob Kitchin: two interpretations („Making sense of smart cities“,
2013, still true today):
What is a smart city?

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What is a smart city?
Source : https://ec.europa.eu/info/eu-regional-and-urban-development/topics/cities-and-urban-development/city-initiatives/smart-cities_en

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Image Source: https://www.climateaction.org/images/uploads/documents/Schnieder_smart-city-cornerstone-urban-efficiency.pdf
What is a smart city?

5. Smart City Narratives
society, organizations, politics
analogue perspective
data, algorithms, devices
digital perspective
A Smart City is one whose economy is
increasingly driven by technically inspired
innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship,
enacted by smart people.
A Smart City (is) one that can be
monitored, managed and regulated in
real-time using ICT infrastructure and
ubiquitous computing.
Typical focus points for data-based
policy-making:traffic-smart cities,
energy- or climate-smart cities, and
sometimes even participation-smart
cities - depending on the respective
emphasis of the Smart City strategy in
place.

6. Some facts about smartening cities
Source: https://www.whitecase.com/insight-our-thinking/accelerating-change-smart-city-smart-society

7. Some facts about smartening cities
Source: link and Link

8. Masdar City (Abu Dhabi) as a smart city
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llzq9YMsPP8 and https://www.whitecase.com/insight-our-thinking/sustainable-future-smart-cities-middle-east
● Partly constructed
● Relies on renewable
energy sources and
utilizes sustainable
building materials such
as low-carbon cement
and recycled aluminum.
● The development
incorporates a number
of smart solutions that
reduce energy and
water consumption, and
offers an integrated
smart network of
electric or zero-carbon
transportation options.

9. Smart City Strategies
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llzq9YMsPP8
>>> Just search “Smart City Strategy” “City Name” pdf

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Country City Official city website
Bahrain national strategy https://www.bahrain.bh/new/en/techtelespace-ai_en.html
Kuwait South Saad Al-Abdullah http://okosvaros.lechnerkozpont.hu/en/node/723#:~:text=The%20name%20of%20the%20city,Concept%20i
nto%20the%20Middle%20East.
Oman national strategy https://www.ita.gov.om/itaportal/Data/English/DocLibrary/202172911511454/Oman%E2%80%99s%20First
%20National%20Smart%20Cities%20Stack.pdf
https://www.oerlive.com/oman/smart-city-planning-underway-in-suhar-nizwa-and-salalah/
Qatar national strategy http://smart.gov.qa/ar
Saudi Arabia national strategy https://www.my.gov.sa/wps/portal/snp/aboutksa/smartstrategy/?lang=en
neom https://www.neom.com/en-us
the United Arab
Emirates –
national strategy https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/digital-uae/smart-sustainable-
cities#:~:text=For%20the%20second%20year%20in,climbed%20up%2014%20places%20globally.
Abu Dhabi https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/digital-uae/smart-abu-dhabi
Masdar City https://masdar.ae/en/masdar-city
Zayed Smart City
Dubai https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/digital-uae/digital-dubai
Smart City Strategies on different scales (Gulf)
Source: Hendawy et al at Impact Circles Berlin

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Every city develops the concept on its own terms and timetable
Public discussion about “the” Smart City in the area not coherent
Not much common ground on what digital smartness really means
We find examples for almost any stage within this conceptualization
So far only few groups/initiatives for fostering smart city development
in a regional perspective
→ Very slow process of dialogue, exchange, and cooperation across
city limits, even in an area that at least sometimes claims its regional
cohesiveness.
Smart City Strategies on different scales (Ruhr region)

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Recently,
The concepts of smart regions, smart countries, and smart society started to emerge.

13. Smart City Ranking systems (different scales and scope)
2021 TOP 50 SMART CITY
GOVERNMENTS
MD and Singapore
University of Technology
and Design (annually
starting 2017)
https://www.imd.org/smart
-city-observatory/home/
https://www.bitkom.org/S
mart-City-Index

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Which MENA City do you think is the top ranked
smart city?

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Abu Dahbi (ranked 42)
Dubai (ranked 43)
Riyadh (ranked 53)
Cairo (ranked 106).
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llzq9YMsPP8
Source: IMD Smart city index 2021

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Abu Dahbi (ranked 42)
Dubai (ranked 43)
Riyadh (ranked 53)
Cairo (ranked 106).
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llzq9YMsPP8
Source: IMD Smart city index 2021

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Source: IMD Smart city index 2021
Insights from Abu Dahbi’s smart city & Cairo’s Smart City

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Insights from Abu Dahbi’s smart city & Cairo’s Smart City
Source: IMD Smart city index 2021

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Who do you think (shall) create smart cities?

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Source: Julien Carbonnell “SMART-CITY: Stakeholders roles and needs.” 2019, medium.com. link
Who creates smart cities?
● Let’s think about it as a co-
creation process

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Source: Link
Who creates smart cities? (ex. Dubai)
Structure of the smart Dubai higher committee (2013)

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Source: Based on the Cairo Urban AI Charter (still not published)
Types of smart cities
1. Smartening up existing cities
2. Creating a not previously existing
city

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Types of smart cities
1. Smartening up existing cities
2. Creating a not previously existing
city What about
the MENA
Region?
What about
Europe?

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Source: https://www.worldfutureenergysummit.com/en-gb/future-insights-blog/the-middle-east-is-getting-seriously-smart-about-its-smart-cities.html

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Source: Link1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4
MENA Smart Cities
Saudi Arabia:
● Saudi Arabia was the first country to grant citizenship to a robot.
● developing four significant smart cities—NEOM, Amaala, Qiddiya and the Red Sea Project—
each involving multibillion-dollar construction contracts.
● NEOM considers 100% renewable energy operations
Egypt
● Most AI ready in Africa. The leading African country was Mauritius in 45th position out of
172 countries across the world, followed by Egypt (56th), South Africa (59th), Seychelles
(68th), Tunisia (69th), Kenya (71st) and Rwanda (87th).
Jordon
● Puts up draft national AI strategy for public debate

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Source: link and link
MENA Smart Cities
Tunisia
● Apr 2018 - National AI Strategy Task Force - Tunisia has created an AI Task Force and
Steering Committee to develop a national AI strategy. The strategy is currently scheduled
to be published in the first quarter of 2019. The primary goal will be to facilitate the
emergence of an AI ecosystem that acts as a strong lever for equitable and sustainable
development and job creation.
Qatar
● Qatar’s National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy October 2019 - The strategy aims to
adopt the artificial intelligence and harness it to secure the economic and strategic future
of Qatar as is envisaged by Qatar National Strategy 2030′

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Source: Link1 Link 2 Link 3
MENA Smart Cities
UAE
● Oct 2017 / UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence
● UAE National Cybersecurity Strategy launched to secure smart cities
● According to the Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index (2019), the UAE has been
ranked top in the Middle East in terms of readiness to adopt AI technologies”
➔ Dubai:
● 3D-Printing moves from the office into the home
● Introducing Light Fidelity (LiFi) technology proof of concept - which has a phenomenal data
transmitting potential of up to 224GB per second
● By 2021, Dubai aims to be completely paperless city, ensuring all government transactions are
100% digitized, saving 1,000,000 trees.
● Silicon Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis A complete smart city project incorporating smart energy,
mobility and lifestyle solutions
➔ Abu Dhabi:
● the Zayed Smart City project utilizes IT & the IoTs to upgrade the city’s existing infrastructure.

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Source: https://www.my.gov.sa/wps/portal/snp/aboutksa/smartstrategy/?lang=en and Link
KSA

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Dubai
Source: https://www.digitaldubai.ae/ and link

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Egypt’s conference 2023

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MENA Vs. Germany
Source: Ringel (2021)

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MENA Vs. Germany
Source: Ringel (2021)
● “surveying decision-makers in
German and MENA smart city
projects”
● “Analyzed the development and
deployment strategies behind five
German and seven MENA smart
city projects
● seeking to identify how decision-
makers evaluate projects, go
about selecting technology
deployments, and balance factors
that work both for and against
smart city development.
● Our research aims to identify
mutual growth and learning
opportunities.”
➔ comparing German ones
(smaller, local projects)
to projects implemented
in the MENA region
(bigger, national designs)

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MENA Vs. Germany
red line = average German cities;
blue line = average MENA cities.
Motivation and Stakeholders
● Decision-makers in MENA and German smart cities
depart from the same motivations, rating resources,
and energy concerns, as well as climate and
environmental concerns, which are rated “high” to
“very high”.
● The striking difference between the relevance of
actors: universities and business stakeholders are
seen as very relevant in the German projects, but
strongly less so in the MENA projects. In contrast, the
role of the national government in MENA projects is
considerably higher than in German ones.
Source: Ringel (2021)

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MENA Vs. Germany
red line = average German cities;
blue line = average MENA cities.
Source: Ringel (2021)
Technology Assessment
● MENA and German decision-makers
seem to align around the interest in deploying
energy efficiency solutions.
● Interestingly, this alignment seems to be less
pronounced regarding renewable energy
technologies.
● A stark contrast can be seen regarding mobility:
whereas mobility solutions are of high interest to
German decision-makers, this does not seem to be
the case with their MENA counterparts. often
diverge

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MENA Vs. Germany
red line = average German cities;
blue line = average MENA cities.
Source: Ringel (2021)
Drivers and Barriers (Summary Categories)
● Turning to project implementation, the key drivers for
implementing a smart city project identified in the
literature (population pressure, improving living
conditions and economic benefits, environmental and
energy concerns) are mirrored in [their] survey.
● The descriptive statistics applied help track focal
points of city projects as perceived by the actors.
However, they do not allow tracking the coordination
and alignment of stakeholders. As Allam & Newman
[54] point out, smart cities take shape through myriad
stakeholders whose views on the project often
diverge

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So which disciplines actually construct the smart
city discource?

37. Approaches to Smartening Cities
Source: Hendawy (in progress)
Artificial city 1965
Informational city 1989
Smart city 1990s
Digital city 1993
Virtual city 1995 ?
Against the smart city 2013
People-centered smart city 2013
Citizen centric smart city 2014
Socio technical smart city 2014
Inclusive smart city 2016
Smartness from below 2017
People-centric smart city 2018
More than human smart city 2018
Smart enough city 2019
starting 2013

38. Starting 2013

39. Approaches to Smartening Cities
Source: link
Artificial city 1965
Informational city 1989
Smart city 1990s
Digital city 1993
Virtual city 1995 ?
Against the smart city 2013
People-centered smart city 2013
Citizen centric smart city 2014
Socio technical smart city 2014
Inclusive smart city 2016
Smartness from below 2017
People-centric smart city 2018
More than human smart city 2018
Smart enough city 2019
Smartening from
above
Smartening from
below
Towards equitable
smart cities?
starting 2013

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As we move towards more smartness from
below,
From your perspective, what can be an equitable
smart city?

41. Thank you!
Dr. Mennatullah Hendawy
Sep 2022 | MENA Digital School @ CAIS