Spatially (& Equitably) Enabled Smart Cities

Stephane Roche Discusses in his 2014 report in Progress in Human Geography the concept of a “spatially enabled city” in the context of “smart” cities. While the terminology alone inspires ideas of Utopian (or dystopian) futures, the conversion that Roche presents in this piece is very much grounded in reality.

I found the discussion with regards to the conditions that cities must meet in order to be considered “spatially enabled” in Roche’s view – spatially literate citizens, open data, and unified data standards – very interesting. What makes a citizen spatially literate? Does it require digital literacy as well? And what of Open Data (as discussed in Sundberg & Melander’s and Worthy’s respective pieces): Do global citizens or only local citizens truly have access to all this data? What are the repercussions?

I wonder as well how we will use the remote sensing data gathering techniques discussed in Sagl and colleagues’ 2015 article in Sensor to “spatially enable” cities. The first thought that came to mind when reading these two articles on smart cities is who do you consider to be citizens? Will smart cities devolve into having border control to stop digitally illiterate folk from obtaining residence status? Will smart cities be used as a tool to further stratify society?

My hope, of course, is that geospatial information & GIScience can improve society and reduce as much harm as possible. With that in mind, I look forward to see how scientists developing these remote sensing tools and “spatially enabled” cities use their knowledge and expertise to increase livelihoods at all levels, i.e., notions of equity and equality are not left behind in the dust, but rather woven into the fabric (or circuit board) of our evolving urban centers.

-ClaireM

 

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