From sustainable to resilient and smart cities

Abstract

Cities are complex systems and nucleus of innovations; they require to respond to citizens needs in an environment which is becoming global and digitized. The rapid urbanization we are witnessing, likely will lead cities to embrace the greater percentage of the future population. Cities are growing as expected, but what are needed are cities that can promote the welfare of its citizens. Future Cities becoming more vulnerable, require to be prepared in an uncertain world, where emergency and resilience become a must. Future cities are already assumed to be sustainable, they need moreover to be resilient and smart, and thus the problem is becoming quite complex and challenging. Therefore a good management strategy needs to be anticipated in order to soften the threatening effects of the rapid urbanization that might be encountered by modern society, economy and environment. Since resilient and smart cities involve dealing with built structures, infrastructures, communities, institutions, and individuals among others, the envisioned solution needs to be the fruit of real multidisciplinary discussions in a multicultural environment promoting communication and thus optimizing the chances to succeed. A platform used to model all the mentioned requirements is investigated; it might help cities interact, exchange ideas and work on solving mutual problems, or replicating already tested solutions and models. Moreover limitations of such platform need to be noted and discussed.