TITLE:
People’s Aspirations from Smart City Technologies: What Solutions They Have to Offer for the Crucial Challenges City of Jeddah Is Facing
AUTHORS:
Mohammed Aljoufie, Alok Tiwari
KEYWORDS:
Smart Cities, Urban Society, Pervasive Technologies, Collaborative Planning, Saudi Arabia
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.5 No.4,
December
12,
2017
ABSTRACT: Saudi Arabian urban society is faced with critical challenges such as environmental
degradation, unsustainable resource consumption, inadequate public
transportation, lack of walkable and bike friendly urban neighbourhoods that
are hampering general conditions of liveability and wellbeing. In response to
these challenges, legislators planned 6 economic cities that are metonym of
smart cities, intended to economic diversification and transformation towards
a knowledge based economy with the private sector partnership (PPP) and
foreign direct investment (FDI). These “smart” or “economic” cities are anticipated
to fascinate people to live and work in. This exploratory study was
intended to understand people’s aspirations on smart city technologies that
can solve urban challenges in Saudi Arabia. A total of 351 samples from the
online survey, were analysed. We conclude that people in Saudi Arabia are
optimistic about smart city benefits; they are also excitedly willing to contribute
in smart city planning and management. We also suggest policymakers to
adopt a collaborative planning mechanism based on people’s wisdom to tackle
more wicked urban problems and added benefits of ICT (Information &
communication technologies) and geospatial technologies.