A community architecture framework for smart cities

Abstract

The design of smart cities, like urban planning, is a wicked problem. Cities have diverse stakeholders with complex interrelationships and conflicting interests which means that it can be difficult to gain a representative consensus on city design. Typically, few of a city’s stakeholders are involved in smart city design. This means that the needs of some stakeholders can be underrepresented. This non-participatory approach is in opposition to what urban planning suggests which leads to sustainable communities. This chapter identifies a participatory approach to the development of an information system to support smart city design. In businesses, enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks are used to link their needs to their information systems. EA frameworks link the operational goals of an enterprise to, among other things, its information systems. Current approaches to smart cities are framed by corporate narratives. This could mean that if the smart city design tools are developed in a standard EA approach, the needs of those that procure and provide the service will be considered above others, for example, the interests of citizens. Therefore, this research proposes a ‘community’ architecture framework (CAF) and development methodology that can support diverse stakeholder requirements and perspectives. Smart cities are not only wicked problems, but they also represent large spatial, temporal andpopulational scales. In the light of this, the CAF is tested on a smaller scale in a ‘real’ city planning context in Chelmsford, UK. This chapter then discusses how this could be used to support the participation of diverse stakeholders in smart city planning.