Michael Lake and Zoe Selman of Leading Cities say the key to resiliency is innovative thinking and technology and urge cities to engage and empower the changemakers, such as start-ups.
We are living in a time of extremes. From extreme weather and natural disasters, to urbanisation and technological advancement. The challenges humanity now faces are seemingly matched by the tools being developed to overcome them. The test before us is whether we can leverage these tools to create a more resilient, more sustainable, and more advanced society.
Resiliency is a combination of foresight, preparation, inclusion, and action. It requires commitment and setting aside the all-too-frequent need for instant gratification. Ultimately, our ability to achieve resiliency is found in the cracks, crevices and sometimes the chasms that separate these emerging challenges and solutions. As we shift our focus to the future, we ought to realise that the key to resiliency is innovative thinking and technology.
Resilience planning begins today
To plan for tomorrow, we should first open our awareness to the endless possibilities of the future – particularly a future driven by new policies, approaches, and technologies. Resilient cities are resilient because they start planning for tomorrow, today. It does not mean that a city is always the early adopter of every new technology. Rather, resiliency means that challenges are recognised, understood and solved long before they ever become problems.
Those at Resilient Cities Network perfectly articulated that, “the most important step for cities to leverage the full capabilities of technology to support urban resilience will be to build a culture that supports innovation and the adoption of new technologies and the change these technologies will drive”.
Furthermore, there is no better way to build a culture that supports innovation than through actively engaging with and encouraging start-ups.
Start-ups, and the entrepreneurs that lead them, are the real innovators. They are developing new solutions to the challenges they foresee or the problems they have experienced. Leveraging their perception of issues, their creativity to address them, their motivation to create meaningful impact, and their agility to ideate and innovate is a powerful opportunity ready and waiting for municipal leaders to seize and support.
Prioritising technologies
Understanding and prioritising the various technologies that are emerging is among the hardest parts of becoming truly resilient in the 21st century. Among the vast array of technological solutions being developed, there are key technologies that have tremendous impact potential in cities.
A prime example of this would be cybersecurity. A city’s ability to reach a state of being cybersecure is not a destination, but an ongoing journey that requires constant adaptation and implementation of the latest technologies to remain one step ahead of a would-be attacker.
Environmental resiliency is another area that has seen incredible advancements with the addition of new technologies. Renewable energy is especially needed to lower carbon dioxide emissions and combat the effects of climate change. Cities have a major role to play in achieving the promises and goals set forth by the upcoming Cop26 meeting. Therefore, investing in technology related to cleantech ranging from smart building systems to alternative energy fuelled vehicle fleets means that our local officials are promoting a more resilient city.
Additionally, we must consider our community’s economic resilience. Investments in infrastructure technology like innovative mass transit systems and 21st century power grids (including microgrids) will boost the economic strength and resiliency of cities throughout this century and beyond.
An efficient mass transit system is the backbone of a city economy. It provides the mobility of workers and goods. To stay at the forefront of resiliency, a city’s transit system must be at the forefront of innovation to avoid becoming outdated and unreliable. Innovation in the field of infrastructure means that the world around us will be built in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
Another key to digital resiliency is access to high-speed internet. Broadband access for all is critical to ensuring both cultural and societal resilience. As we have seen during this pandemic, the internet became the operational backbone for classrooms, marketplaces, and communications channels in a socially distanced world. But connectivity is also the means by which community members elevate their socio-economic status, creating greater resiliency at the familial level of society.
Estonia’s digital transformation
One case study of exactly this level of foresight, adaptation, and action is the nation of Estonia. Now famed for its digital transformation, this country did not achieve its success overnight, nor did it wait for mounting challenges to become existing problems. Twenty years ago, the Estonian government began its digitalisation journey – yes, two decades ago.
Today, 99 per cent of government services are available online, any time. As is often said in Estonia, “everything can be done online, except marriages, divorces, and selling your house”. But this transformation was not just about conveniently accessing public services – it spurred economic growth as well. In 2001, at the beginning of Estonia’s digital transformation, its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was roughly $4,500. Now, GDP per capita is more than $23,000.
So, how can municipalities better engage and empower these changemakers?
First, governments need to be transparent about the issues that they are facing. Furthermore, they must be more open and willing to problem-solve alongside start-ups and to address the issues that may exist in public procurement practices that inhibit innovation in government with overly burdensome, unreasonable and/or antiquated processes.
Resilient communities are resilient because they know what they are looking for and they are readily able to recover quickly from failures. As a result of being able to properly identify problems when or before they arise, a resilient community will be able to reach out to innovation ecosystems of start-ups that offer products and solutions that are tailored to their problems.
Second, government must be more understanding of the limitations of start-ups, this may be done by acknowledging the limited resources most start-ups have access to – particularly time and funding. According to CB Insights, 42 per cent of start-ups failed due to their “inability to secure financing and investor interest”.
Put more simply, many start-ups fail because they run out of cash. Time and money are the two major contributors to the failure and success of any start-up. For many, this means that they spend lots of time trying to convince potential investors and clients to take a chance on them. When adding exhaustingly long procurement processes and unpaid pilot projects, cities, more often than not, do more damage to start-ups than help.
Communication and accountability
In the spirit of creating a more innovation-driven environment, cities must be able to discuss the expectations of collaboration with start-ups. We hear time and time again, “communication is key”. Many cities fail to communicate effectively, and start-ups fear communicating too much at the risk of jeopardising their “big break.” This results in both sides losing when plans and projects fall through. Just as it is customary for employers to set expectations with newly hired employees, it should be the same with cities and start-ups. It is especially important to keep the same energy of accountability between both parties as time progresses and the project is developed.
A final recommendation that would encourage healthy partnerships between cities and start-ups would be to let start-ups know that they have something to gain from the collaboration. This may be done by clearly stating the benefits of collaboration. From the start, cities should recognise that although they’re the ones looking for a solution, the innovation comes from the expertise of their partnership with start-ups.
For start-ups, there is a lot to gain from working with cities, not the least of which is having the validation of a successful project. This is why many government initiatives are seen as an elevator to success for many start-ups. For example, the Procurement Technology Symposium in Los Angeles proudly featured several GovTech start-ups, bringing numerous organisations to the public sector and putting many of the small companies on the radar for exposure.
Governments have the unenviable responsibility to keep societies prosperous, healthy, educated, and safe. The daily tasks associated with such monumental responsibilities often clog the engines of innovation and fog the vision for possibility. Leveraging all that is good about technology for the public’s good will be the driving mandate for government officials in the 21st century. The resiliency of individuals, neighborhoods, municipalities and even humanity depends on it.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Michael Lake and Zoe Selman
Quelle/Source: Smart Cities World, 01.12.2021
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