City as a service and city on-demand - New concepts for intelligent urban development

Abstract

Urban growth in developing and developed countries is changing our lives, and causing explosive growth of data generation in an interconnected world. Moreover, billions of new relationships between all parts of our environment will be created. Policy makers will face high complexity and will have to handle these challenges under fast changing and highly dynamic circumstances. Nowadays, a city can be represented as a "living body" with networks as the nervous system, administrative authorities as the brain, transportation systems as the circulatory system, and further stakeholders as organs. Socio-technical aspects of a Smart City should be cultivated and treated in the most efficient way for a better city development. Rationalization in all areas of urban life is a main driver of smartness. Investigation of the quality of life in cities is a kind of rational consideration of prevalent living conditions. Relationships between quality of life, residents' needs and available services are important for resident-centered design of a Smart City. City On-Demand is a new approach that is characterized by reliable and user friendly Smart Services that probably do not exist before request and occur in real-time upon receipt of the request. Citizens' lives will be improved through an efficient use of customized services. For deeper understanding, the authors describe the status quo of leading Smart Cities - Barcelona, Amsterdam Hamburg and New York. This article introduces the most important definitions related to a Smart City, explains a new approach of 'City as a Service' and 'City On-Demand' concepts and provides an outlook 2025 for autonomously driving cars, e-health and citizen services.