Speaking during the ongoing World Economic Forum in Cape Town, Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau said technology is a tool designed to pull together smart systems to aid urban efficiency in cities.
The city will prioritise smart city initiatives this year, as it seeks to "bridge the digital divide", finance MMC Geoffrey Makhubo announced at the end of May during his R52.6 billion budget vote speech.
Tau, speaking during a discussion on building smart cities in Africa, noted: "Smart is much bigger than just technology. It is part of a bigger picture to align the public sector priorities with private sector incentives in a bid to optimise how space is used to grow a city's economy."
Instead, said Tau, "smart is about understanding cities as complex, interlinked systems that can be made to work better. A typical example would be moving from a city which is running out of landfill space with energy constraints, to one that redirects waste flow in order to extract energy, such as methane or biogas, from it."
Tau added smart cities are also about pricing and managing resources creatively in an inclusive manner. Johannesburg's smart city plan aims to bridge the digital divide by providing basic levels of access to the Internet across the city. "In today's world, universal access to communications is becoming as vital as access to water and electricity services. Access to technology and connectivity will assist entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive, thus increasing economic activity in the city," said Makhubo.
Tau noted there are "many variables that contribute to urban efficiency. The ones that are probably most topical for city dwellers relate to movement, which includes time and cost of moving goods, as well as people, across the urban system."
Another variable for city governments, Tau said, was the relationship between the cost of providing services and revenue generated from the consumption of those services. "In both these variables, the discipline and practice of urban planning and the physical environment have a direct contribution. This challenge can, of course, be breached by an effective public transport system and logistics infrastructure."
Tau pointed out a more effective intervention, however, was urban planning - in as far as this locates these users relative to each other to either reduce or minimise commuting time and distance.
While this may seem like a straightforward response, it was fraught with various difficulties such as apartheid spatial form in South African cities, the dominance of the car in North American cities, as well as Nimbyism in middle income societies, among others, said Tau.
"In the context of African cities, and South African cities in particular, mobility and spatial patterns have a direct impact on how efficient cities are as living spaces and sometimes more importantly - as livelihood generators for those at the bottom of the pyramid," said Tau.
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