Output details

Complex city systems

Information and communications technology (ICT) is exploited within cities to enable them to compete better in a global knowledge-based service-led economy. In the 19th and 20th centuries, cities exploited large technical systems (LTSs) such as the telegraph, telephony, electrical networks and other technologies to enhance their social and economic position. This paper, in a refereed journal, examines how the LTS model applies to ICT deployments, including broadband network, municipal wireless, and related services, and how cities and city planners in the 21st century are using or planning to use these technologies. Its findings are relevant to major policy decisions on investments at regional, national and international level on ICT infrastructure and related service transformation, as well as the governance of such projects, their planning and their deployment.

The paper also examines the planners’ motivations and expectations, the contribution to date, and the factors affecting outcomes. The research is based on case studies of eight city districts in the USA and Europe involving 110 interviews, as well as a quantitative study of 168 US cities. The findings extend the LTS model by proposing an increased role for organisations with respect to an individual agency.

The findings show how organisations form themselves into networks that interact and influence the outcome of the system at the level of the city. The extension to LTS, in the context of city infrastructure, is referred to as ‘the complex city system framework’. This proposed framework integrates the role of these stakeholder networks, as well as that of the socio-economic, technical, and spatial factors within a city, and shows how together they shape the technical system and its socio-economic contribution.

Leon presented the CCS framework at Digital Cities Conferences in the Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, UK and at IBM’s Global Smart Cities Conference in China between 2010 and 2012.