Information and Communication Technology Spine for Knowledge-Based Development of Cities

1. Introduction

Cities are considered the principal manifestations of civilizations and are conceptualized in terms of population size and physical attributes such as geographic location, land area, morphology, equipment, etc. Development of cities is viewed from the perspective of city planning with a focus on physical form and the built environment including infrastructure, land use, zoning, buildings, recreation and parks, safety codes, health, aesthetics, etc. Urbanization and globalization have rapidly change the development rate and nature of cities. However, the knowledge resources of cities and the role of cities in knowledge production are essential pillars for cities in order to be transformed to knowledge-based cities. Due to the evolving nature of knowledge there is always a challenge for cities to enhance and build on the strengths of knowledge resources.

Cities have been witnessing during the recent decades immense pressure to cope with the rapid growth of production and unprecedented levels of development in information communication and technologies (ICT). Cities had to adapt with these ever changing developments but in parallel a various problems environmentally and socially have emerged along with urban sprawling and increase of metropolitan cities. With the rise of ICT-based development and decline of industrial-based development, it becomes a necessity and challenge to create opportunities for cities to continue developing technologically, economically, socially, environmentally and culturally in a sustainable manner. In order pave the roads for sustainable development of cities, knowledge resources should be transformed within the local context but a universal perspective. Accordingly, realizing the potential of knowledge resources in cities requires increasing the recognition and comprehension of both nature of knowledge cultures and knowledge development within these cities. Reinforcing and supporting the culture base of a city with a distinctive quality of life will certainly strengthen the knowledge-base of this city (Knight, 1995, Kothin et al, 2001). The quality of life in cities is determined by various factors including safety, security and provision of basic services. However, the appropriate utilization of technologies allows achieving optimization of urban infrastructure through compiling and analyzing huge amount of real-time data. Accordingly, the ability of city inhabitants to effectively and efficiently navigate city resources will be improved (Monreal, 2016). Therefore, there is an apparent need for developing approaches to effectively prosper and manage cities' knowledge.

The evolution of knowledge management supported by ICT is manifested in advanced business applications, online and virtual education, e-government, etc. and implemented in international organizations. For example, knowledge frameworks are adopted in the strategic directions for global development at the European Commission (2000) and the United Nations Organization (2001). Accordingly, a new link is created between knowledge management and knowledge-based development (Carrillo, 2002; Metaxiotis et al., 2004) which has also been articulated by Ergazakis et al (2004). Consequently, the concept of knowledge-based city is emerged.

This Chapter introduces the approach of information and communication technologies (ICT) as the driver and motivator for the knowledge-based cities. The characteristics of information including its conditions, tradability and appropriation are affected by ICT wherein the role of business services is favored and considered as forces of interaction for the new technology generation especially between knowledge components. The results obtained from empirical analysis (Lever, 2002) assert that the communication services and usage of business are correlated with high output elasticity.