Live Cities and Urban Services - A Multi-dimensional Stress Field between Technology, Innovation and Society

Contrary to projections, which stated that the wide- spread distribution of high-speed Internet connections would render geographical distance irrelevant, cities have recently become the centre of interest in academic research. However, especially real-time monitoring of urban processes is widely unexplored. We present the concept of a Live City, in which the city is regarded as an actuated near real-time control system creating a feedback loop between the citizens, environmental monitoring systems, the city management and ubiquitous information services. Basically, there are four main barriers towards the implementation of the Live City: methodological issues, technical/technological problems, privacy and legislative questions, and quantification of economic opportunities. In this paper, we discuss those challenges and point out potential future research pathways towards the realisation of a Live City.

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