Where do Energy Cities members stand? Two French members have shared with us their definition of a “smart city” with, hovering in the background, a few question marks.
By Laurent Tonnerre, Deputy Mayor of the City of Lorient
New digital tools and uses offer a wealth of opportunities, provided, of course, they are not imposed on cities and are implemented with their active participation. The City of Lorient has conducted foresight research on smart cities with three different consultancies.
Three visions of smart cities have emerged from these seminars:
Conditions must be created to allow ownership of these new tools, creating more solidarity in a more energy-efficient city. For Lorient, this means implementing tools and support programmes aimed at improving ownership of energy use monitoring (Interreg EMPOWER) and using new technologies to improve the acoustic environment (ANR CENSE project).
By Bruno Charles, 15th Vice-president of Greater Lyon
Processing data generated by urban activities is being assigned the almost miraculous task of optimising public services, offering new services to citizens, generating new growth and ensuring the energy transition of cities. Nothing short of that!
Will Smart Cities be low-energy cities with energy-saving and climate-protection objectives?
Not necessarily:
More importantly, although digital technology may one day be able to “optimise” the urban system, such optimisation will not be sufficient to achieve factor 4: for this, we need a complete change of paradigm.
Inventing “short distance” cities, reclaiming urban space monopolised by cars and returning it to pedestrians and cyclists, relocating a significant share of the production – including food production – to the city are just a few examples of urban policies that are more important than the smart city for achieving the energy transition.
Ultimately, smart cities are first and foremost cities of which the design makes it possible to lead a free, low-energy life, without being trapped in a technical system.
Lyon is a leading cities, with Munich and Vienna, in the Smarter Together project which aims at developing ICT solutions for the energy transition in urban areas.See what a “smart city” looks like by browsing the profile of other Energy Cities’ members: http://smarter-together.eu |
© photos: ville de Lorient – Grand Lyon – Shutterstock