Smart Cities Initiatives
The European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) is an initiative supported by the European Commission bringing together cities, industry, SMEs, banks, research and other smart city actors. The EIP-SCC consists of the High Level Group (supported by its Sherpa Group) and the Market Place. The EIP-SCC Market Place has been designed for those who are active in the area of Smart Cities and are willing to know more about ongoing and foreseen activities throughout Europe.
Invitation for Commitments
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) [PDF]
Search the Commitments database
The CITYkeys project addresses challenges such as the transition to low carbon, resource-efficient cities and the uptake of innovative and smart solutions. It aims to speed up the transition by facilitating and enabling stakeholders in projects or cities to learn from each other, create trust in solutions, and monitor progress, by means of a common performance measurement framework, that will also increase confidence that the existing solutions can also be applied in other contexts and cities.
Smart city KPIs and related methodology [PDF]
The CIVITAS initiative was launched in 2002 to redefine transport measures and policies in order to create cleaner, better transport in cities. Over the past decade CIVITAS has managed to test over 800 measures and urban transport solutions, supported by the intensive exchange of good practices in the field. There are many ways to be involved in CIVITAS. Your city can be part of a demonstration project and develop a set of activities. You can also become a member of the CIVITAS Forum Network and participate in the exchange of experience, or join one of the National Networks.
Demonstration cities
Forum Network cities
The Green Digital Charter commits cities to reducing emissions through ICT and promoting progress in tackling climate change through the innovative use of digital technologies. The commitments are: A. work with other signatory cities on ICT & energy efficiency, B.deploy 5 large-scale "ICT for energy efficiency" projects within 5 years, C. decrease ICT’s direct carbon footprint by 30% within 10 years.
Signatory cities
Green Digital Charter Governance document [PDF]
The European Energy Award supports municipalities willing to contribute to sustainable energy policy and urban development through the rational use of energy and increased use of renewable energies. There are more than 1,300 municipalities participating today.
Join award
SETIS plays a central role in the successful implementation of the SET-Plan by helping to identify energy technology and RD&D objectives, striving to build consensus around the SET-Plan programme, identifying new opportunities, and assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the SET-Plan in delivering energy and climate change policy goals.
SET-Plan
Energy Cities is the European Association of local authorities in energy transition. The association created in 1990 represents now more than 1,000 towns and cities in 30 countries. Its main objectives include strengthening cities’ role and skills in the field of sustainable energy, representing their interests and influencing EU policies, and exchange of experiences, transfer of know-how and the implementation of joint projects.
Member cities
The Joint Programme on Smart Cities aims to develop new scientific methods, concepts and tools designed to support European cities in their transformation into smart cities. The key focus is on large-scale integration of renewable energies and enhanced energy efficiency, enabled through smart energy management at city level.
Sub-Programme 1: Energy in Cities
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Goodbye Gandhi Bazaar: what do we destroy when we demolish illegal structures?
A hundred-year-old street market in Bangalore was demolished in the dead of night last month. The colourful stalls of vendors spilling out onto the streets were illegal encroachments, but how much history and local colour is lost by enforcing the law now after so many years of peaceful coexistence?
Some of the fruit and vegetable stalls that occupied the footpath of the Gandhi Bazaar in Bangalore until last month, when the Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation ordered its demolition overnight. Photo: Charles Haynes (Flickr: haynes)
What are the memories that stay with you when you first visit a city? Sure, the restaurants, nightclubs, clean and pristine public spaces, malls, the highways, the celebrity sightings etc. are fantastic and they enhance a tourist's experience of a culture in innumerable and valuable ways.
But often the memories that we really cherish and share with our kin or on Facebook are much less glamourous but priceless nevertheless. An exquisitely flavoured kaati roll which cost less than a dollar, a runaway-price Fendi knock-off bought on the street, the colours of a bustling local farmer's market, the sights and smells of city trade on the eve of a festival.
These are moments which allow us to experience a city's quintessential indigenous character in a way that a mall, a club or a highway never could. For me, a city's historical local shopping markets are one such asset which creates an ecosystem of entertainment, commerce and convenience which not only serves residents well, but over time builds collective memory and local character.
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BEGINNING READINGS ON SPACE SYNTAX
Compiled by
Saif Haq, College of Architecture, Texas Tech University
- Hillier, Bill and Leaman, A. (1974) How is design possible? Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 3 (1). pp. 4-11, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00002321/01/hillier-leaman1973b-howisdesignpossible.pdf
- Bill Hillier, (1983),"Space Syntax: A Different Urban Perspective", Architects' Journal, vol. 178, no. 48, Nov. 30, pp. 47-63.
- Hillier, B.; Hanson, J., (1984),The social logic of space, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (see Chapter 3)
- Bentley, A. Babcock, P. Murrain, S. McGlynn, & G. Smith, (1985), “Introduction” in Responsive Environments, Architectural Press, London, pp. 9-15
- Hillier, Bill and Hanson, Julienne and Peponis, John (1987) Syntactic Analysis of Settlements. Architecture et Comportement/Architecture and Behaviour, 3 (3). pp. 217-231, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00000086/
- Hillier, Bill and Burdett, Richard and Peponis, John and Penn, Alan (1987) Creating Life: Or, Does Architecture Determine Anything? Architecture & Comportement/ Architecture & Behaviour, 3 (3). pp. 233-250, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00000101/
- J. Peponis, (1989), "Space, Culture and Urban Design in Late Modernism and after, " Ekistics, vol. 56, no. 334-355, pp. 93-100
- Peponis, J., E. Hadjinikolaou, et al. (1989). "The Spatial Core of Urban Culture." Ekistics 334, 335 Jan-Feb, Mar-Apr: 43-55
- Hillier, B. (1993), "Specifically architectural theory: a partial account of the ascent from building as cultural transmission to architecture as theoretical concretion", in Harvard Architecture Review, 9, 8-27, available at http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001027/01/hillier_1993-specifically_architectural.pdf
- Hillier, B. and Penn, A. and Hanson, J. and Grajewski, T. and Xu, J., (1993), “Natural movement: or, configuration and attraction in urban pedestrian movement”, Environment and Planning B, 20 (1), pp. 29-66.
- Hillier, B. (1996), “Cities as movement economies”, Urban Design International, 1 (1), pp. 41-60.
- Jiang B., Claramunt C. and Klarqvist B. (2000), “An Integration of Space Syntax into GIS for Modelling Urban Spaces”, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Vol.2, pp.161-171.
- Jiang, B. and Claramunt, C., “Integration of Space Syntax into GIS: New Perspectives for Urban Morphology” in Transactions in GIS, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 6(3), 2002, 295-309 (See Section 2)
- Sonit Bafna, (2003), “Space Syntax: A Brief Introduction to Its Logic and Analytical Techniques” in Environment and Behavior 35, pp. 17-29 available at http://eab.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/1/17
- P. Murrain, "Urban Expansion: Look Back and Learn, (date?), " in Making Better Places: Urban Design Now, R. Hayward & S. McGlynn, eds. Butterworth, London, pp. 83-94
- "Space Syntax" in Wikipedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_syntax
- Hillier, B. (2005). "The Art of Place and the Science of Space." World Architecture 11(185: Special issue on Space Syntax): 24-34, Chineese, 96-102 Engllish.
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The term space syntax encompasses a set of theories and techniques for the analysis of spatial configurations. Originally it was conceived by Bill Hillier, Julienne Hanson and colleagues at The Bartlett, University College London in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a tool to help architects simulate the likely social effects of their designs.
Thesis
The general idea is that spaces can be broken down into components, analyzed as networks of choices, then represented as maps and graphs that describe the relative connectivity and integration of those spaces. It rests on three basic conceptions of space:
- an isovist (popularised by Michael Benedikt at University of Texas), or viewshed or visibility polygon, the field of view from any particular point
- axial space (idea popularized by Bill Hillier at UCL), a straight sight-line and possible path, and
- convex space (popularized by John Peponis and his collaborators at Georgia Tech), an occupiable void where, if imagined as a wireframe diagram, no line between two of its points goes outside its perimeter, in other words, all points within the polygon are visible to all other points within the polygon.
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Green pilgrim cities
The vision is of pilgrims on all continents and the pilgrim cities that receive them, leaving a positive footprint on the Earth.
Download the Green Pilgrim Cities leaflet HERE (File size 6.2 MB)
The Network will inspire Pilgrims to:
- prepare mindfully for their pilgrimage...
- walk lightly and travel responsibly in the spirit of their faith...
- choose sustainable tourist agencies...
- eat and drink sustainably and ethically...
- minimise their waste and water use...
- dispose of their rubbish... and pick up after others...
- support a fund to green the city they are visiting...
- help local people in ecologically sensitive activities...
- share the art of green pilgrimage with the people they meet on the way...
- bring greener ideas for living home with them...
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Human Settlements
