Smart Eco-Cities Are Managing Information Flows in an Integrated Way: The Example of Water, Electricity and Solid Waste

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• Meine Pieter van Dijk

• Meine Pieter van Dijk
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1. 1.Maastricht School of Management (MSM)MaastrichtNetherlands
2. 2.International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University RotterdamThe HagueNetherlands
3. 3.Beijing University of Civil engineering and Architecture (BUCEA)BeijingChina

Chapter

First Online: 11 April 2018

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Abstract

Smart eco-cities are about managing flows of information in an integrated way. The information may concern the traffic, the people, pollution or the number of enterprises moving in and out of the city. We focus on a classification of cities. Resilient cities is a more defensive concept, while the eco-city concept translates an ambition on what a city should be. We will argue that the smart eco-city concept integrates the two approaches.

In this chapter, the examples of water, electricity and solid waste management will be used to show how cities can be smarter by using the available information differently. It is concluded that different stakeholders and several policy instruments are needed to achieve smart eco-cities and that the large-scale processing of data concerning the metabolism of the city also implies ethical issues of how to deal with privacy and possible misuse of all this information.

Keywords

Smart cities Eco-cities Managing information flows Water Electricity Solid waste Information technology