Smart city and quality of life: Citizens’ perception in a Brazilian case study

Abstract Smart cities attract considerable attention from academics and urban planners mainly in the context of urban development policies. Based on technological innovations, smart cities are complex ecosystems that have the potential to improve urban livability, workability and sustainability through a network of people, processes and data. However, according to academics and urban planners the smart city concept favors technological products and solutions over end users and their quality of life. This perspective calls for an integrated analysis approach that considers the smart city as an organic whole, which encompasses objective and subjective quality of life domains (QOL). This paper aimed to evaluate the perception of quality of life in a smart city and to analyze the main elements of citizens’ satisfaction with their home city. The research analyzed the city of Curitiba, in Southern Brazil, claimed to be a livable, green, and inclusive city and one of the ten smartest cities in the world. Interviews with 400 residents identified four main QOL domains: socio-structural relationships, environmental well-being, material well-being and community integration. The respondents’ overall perception revealed their low satisfaction with the main elements that characterize Curitiba as a smart city. This finding calls for a better understanding of the planning and management of smart cities in conjunction with the QOL elements and their effects on citizens. The research provides some contributions to understand the interconnected facets of QOL domains in the Smart Cities context. From a smart city perspective, the research concludes that success within the domain of smart living can be achieved by providing the four factors revealed by the analysis. According to our results, meeting these criteria of success would improve citizen’s quality of life, creating a stronger community within the city. Finally, the study provides relevant information for social researchers and urban planners by identifying factors that influence QOL perceptions and providing elements for political and academic debate.

[1]  Robert A. Cummins,et al.  Objective and Subjective Auality of Life: an Interactive Model , 2000 .

[2]  R. Cummins.  Personal Income and Subjective Well-being: A Review , 2000 .

[3]  R. Camagni,et al.  Urban mobility and urban form: the social and environmental costs of different patterns of urban expansion , 2002 .

[4]  Tung-Kai Shyy,et al.  What is the Strength of the Link Between Objective and Subjective Indicators of Urban Quality of Life? , 2006 .

[5]  Simon Joss,et al.  Sustainable–Smart–Resilient–Low Carbon–Eco–Knowledge Cities; Making sense of a multitude of concepts promoting sustainable urbanization , 2015 .

[6]  Georgios K. Ouzounis,et al.  Smart cities of the future , 2012, The European Physical Journal Special Topics.

[7]  J. Sallis,et al.  The development of a walkability index: application to the Neighborhood Quality of Life Study , 2009, British Journal of Sports Medicine.

[8]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Wired Cities: Shaping the Future of Communications , 1987 .

[9]  K. Scott.  Measuring Wellbeing: Towards Sustainability? , 2012 .

[10]  Robert Chambers,et al.  Crying Out for Change: Voices of the Poor , 2000 .

[11]  Anna Kramers,et al.  Smart Cities and Climate Targets : Reducing cities' energy use with ICT and travel information , 2014 .

[12]  Robert A. Cummins,et al.  Quality of Life Indexes for National Policy: Review and Agenda for Research , 2001 .

[13]  John Elkington,et al.  Partnerships from cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st‐century business , 1998 .

[14]  John D. Nelson,et al.  Recent Developments in Bus Rapid Transit: A Review of the Literature , 2011 .

[15]  Hans Schaffers,et al.  Smart Cities and the Future Internet: Towards Cooperation Frameworks for Open Innovation , 2011, Future Internet Assembly.

[16]  R. Cervero,et al.  BRT TOD: Leveraging transit oriented development with bus rapid transit investments , 2014 .

[17]  S. Porta,et al.  Urban Design and Quality of Life , 2017 .

[18]  Irene van Kamp,et al.  Urban environmental quality and human well-being Towards a conceptual framework and demarcation of concepts; a literature study , 2003 .

[19]  Nancy Odendaal,et al.  Information and communication technology and local governance: understanding the difference between cities in developed and emerging economies , 2003, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[20]  M. Breheny,et al.  Planning the Sustainable City Region , 2013 .

[21]  D. Gasper.  Understanding the diversity of conceptions of well-being and quality of life , 2010 .

[22]  Jung Hoon Lee,et al.  Technological Forecasting & Social Change Towards an effective framework for building smart cities : Lessons from Seoul and San Francisco , 2014 .

[23]  A. Portes,et al.  Social Capital: Promise and Pitfalls of its Role in Development , 2000, Journal of Latin American Studies.

[24]  A. Pratt.  Creative cities: the cultural industries and the creative class , 2008 .

[25]  Rocco Papa,et al.  Smart and Resilient Cities. A Systemic Approach for Developing Cross-sectoral Strategies in the Face of Climate Change , 2015 .

[26]  Sang Ho Lee,et al.  Towards ubiquitous city: concept, planning, and experiences in the Republic of Korea , 2008 .

[27]  P. Hall.  Creative Cities and Economic Development , 2000 .

[28]  J. Jacobs.  The Death and Life of Great American Cities , 1962 .

[29]  Marc Wolfram,et al.  Cities shaping grassroots niches for sustainability transitions: Conceptual reflections and an exploratory case study , 2018 .

[30]  R. Florida.  Cities and the Creative Class , 2003 .

[31]  J. C. Flanagan.  Measurement of quality of life: current state of the art. , 1982, Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation.

[32]  Stéphane Pouffary,et al.  Climate finance for cities and buildings : a handbook for local governments , 2014 .

[33]  Anna Corinna Cagliano,et al.  Current trends in Smart City initiatives: some stylised facts , 2014 .

[34]  Gerald Mills,et al.  Progress toward sustainable settlements: a role for urban climatology , 2006 .

[35]  S. Skevington,et al.  The World Health Organization's WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment: Psychometric properties and results of the international field trial. A Report from the WHOQOL Group , 2004, Quality of Life Research.

[36]  Jennifer Gabrys.  Programming Environments: Environmentality and Citizen Sensing in the Smart City , 2014 .

[37]  E. Sharifi,et al.  A case study of sustainable urban planning principles in Curitiba (Brazil) and their applicability in Shiraz (Iran) , 2012 .

[38]  S. Al-Athel,et al.  Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: "Our Common Future" , 1987 .

[39]  Rebeka Lukman,et al.  Review of sustainability terms and their definitions , 2007 .

[40]  Michael Breheny,et al.  Urban compaction: feasible and acceptable? , 1997 .

[41]  E. Diener.  Guidelines for National Indicators of Subjective Well-Being and Ill-Being , 2006 .

[42]  X. Briggs.  Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe , 2008 .

[43]  L. Carvalho,et al.  Green Urban Transport Policies and Cleantech Innovations: Evidence from Curitiba, Göteborg and Hamburg , 2012 .

[44]  U. Berardi,et al.  Smart Cities: Definitions, Dimensions, Performance, and Initiatives , 2015 .

[45]  A. Scott.  Creative Cities: Conceptual Issues and Policy Questions , 2006 .

[46]  J. C. Flanagan.  A research approach to improving our quality of life. , 1978 .

[47]  R. Cummins,et al.  Developing a National Index of Subjective Wellbeing: The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index , 2003 .

[48]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[49]  Paul James,et al.  Measuring Social Sustainability: A Community-Centred Approach , 2012 .

[50]  R. Putnam,et al.  Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. , 1994 .

[51]  Marco Painho,et al.  Emotion & stress mapping: Assembling an ambient geographic information-based methodology in order to understand smart cities , 2015, 2015 10th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI).

[52]  D. Vuuren,et al.  The Emissions Gap Report 2012 , 2012 .

[53]  U. Berardi,et al.  How Can Cities Lead the Way Towards a Sustainable, Competitive and Smart Future? , 2014 .

[54]  M. Uysal,et al.  Quality of life (QOL) and well-being research in tourism , 2016 .

[55]  Amory B. Lovins,et al.  Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution , 1999 .

[56]  Caroline Colldahl,et al.  Smart Cities : Strategic Sustainable Development for an Urban World , 2013 .

[57]  Rolando Vargas Vallejos,et al.  Social capital in collaborative networks competitiveness: the case of the Brazilian Wine Industry Cluster , 2013, Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf..

[58]  G. Richards,et al.  Creativity and tourism: The State of the Art , 2011 .

[59]  K. Gardner,et al.  Examining Walkability and Social Capital as Indicators of Quality of Life at the Municipal and Neighborhood Scales , 2011 .

[60]  Aapo Huovila,et al.  What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities , 2017 .

[61]  P. Nijkamp,et al.  Smart Cities in Europe , 2011 .

[62]  Marco Painho,et al.  Development of an Agricultural Management Information System based on Open-source Solutions , 2014, CENTERIS 2014.

[63]  G. Dann.  Tourist Motivation and Quality-of-Life: In Search of the Missing Link , 2012 .

[64]  Luis Delfim Santos,et al.  O Conceito de Qualidade de Vida Urbana na Perspectiva dos Residentes na Cidade do Porto , 2005, RPER.

[65]  Tomasz Janowski,et al.  Designing Next Generation Smart City Initiatives - harnessing Findings and Lessons from a Study of Ten Smart City Programs , 2014, ECIS.

[66]  Abbott L. Ferriss,et al.  The Qualityity-of-Life (QOL) Research Movement: Past, Present, and Future , 2006 .

[67]  P. Nijkamp,et al.  Smart cities in the innovation age , 2012 .

[68]  Michael Pacione,et al.  Urban environmental quality and human wellbeing—a social geographical perspective , 2003 .

[69]  Nicos Komninos,et al.  Intelligent Cities: Innovation, Knowledge Systems and Digital Spaces , 2002 .

[70]  Rocco Papa,et al.  Towards an urban planners’ perspective on Smart City , 2013 .

[71]  Theresa A. Pardo,et al.  Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions , 2011, dg.o '11.

[72]  M. Castells.  The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[73]  Anna Ståhlbröst,et al.  Stakeholders in Smart City Living Lab Processes , 2015, AMCIS.

[74]  J. Coleman.  Foundations of Social Theory , 1990 .

[75]  G. Evans.  Creative Cities, Creative Spaces and Urban Policy , 2009 .

[76]  Francisco Javier Carrillo,et al.  Capital cities: a taxonomy of capital accounts for knowledge cities , 2004, J. Knowl. Manag..

[77]  F. Fukuyama.  Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity Penguin London , 1995 .

[78]  N. Dempsey.  Are good-quality environments socially cohesive?: Measuring quality and cohesion in urban neighbourhoods , 2009 .

[79]  Joseph F. Hair,et al.  Essentials of Business Research Methods , 2003 .

[80]  Simon Elias Bibri,et al.  Smart sustainable cities of the future: An extensive interdisciplinary literature review , 2017 .

[81]  Gregory S. Yovanof,et al.  An Architectural Framework and Enabling Wireless Technologies for Digital Cities & Intelligent Urban Environments , 2009, Wirel. Pers. Commun..

[82]  Silvia Giordano,et al.  Modelling the smart city performance , 2012 .

[83]  Ignasi Capdevila,et al.  Smart City or Smart Citizens? The Barcelona Case , 2015 .

[84]  M. T. Martínez-Fernández,et al.  Social Networks: Effects of Social Capital on Firm Innovation* , 2010 .