Global Mobility Call 2024 launched this week with a series of sessions and panel discussions on the future of sustainable mobility.
Louis Zacharilla, founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, led a session titled ‘Urban Regeneration: The Soul of the City and New Urban Paradigms’. The session focused on urban spaces, the ‘soul’ of the city and how cities can improve quality of life for their inhabitants whilst integrating sustainable infrastructure and mobility practices.
Although technology plays an important part in the transformation of cities into dynamic, inclusive ‘smart cities’ through factors such as traffic management, surveillance, street lighting, parking and carbon emissions monitoring, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) stresses that joy also has a significant role in bringing out the soul of a city.
Louis Zacharilla:A smart city has at its heart a device, or a technological invention. Call it broadband or IT. An Intelligent Community has at its heart a soul. And that soul is designed for human joy.
When associated with a smart city or an intelligent community, the soul refers not only to the economy, but also to emotional connection. In a time of political, social and economic uncertainty for much of the world, Zacharilla noted that creating a city of joy can positively benefit the wider society – the happier people are, the more they produce, in economic terms.
The ICF has worked with more than 200 cities in multiple countries, such as Coral Gables, USA, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, New Taipei City, Taiwan and Curitiba, Brazil, which was recently named the 2024 Intelligent Community of the Year. The Forum’s Community Accelerator Strategy establishes 6 critical factors for cities to consider:
- Broadband Connectivity – digital foundations for economic growth
- Knowledge Work – workforce development and meeting local demand for skilled personnel
- Innovation – partnerships and investments
- Sustainability – improving quality of life for the present and future
- Digital Inclusion – bridging the digital divide with access, training and motivation
- Community Engagement – digital tools to create learning partnerships with citizens
These strategies have been developed over almost 25 years of experience with intelligent communities around the globe, and they can act as guidelines for urban planning to create strong and inclusive societies.
As a recurrent theme for each Accelerator Strategy, Zacharilla also emphasised the importance of people, as a city’s inhabitants are a large part of what makes a community vibrant. Cities must therefore focus on transforming mobility and infrastructure at a local, personal level to ensure they are livable and joyful for the people.
