Creating a Roadmap for Smart City Development based on Regional

Strategy Work

Mikko Mantyneva and Heikki Ruohomaa

Smart Service Research Unit, Häme University of Applied Sciences, PO Box 230, 13101 Hämeenlinna, Finland

Keywords: Roadmap, Strategy, Smart City.

Abstract: This paper focuses on introducing a strategy linked roadmap supporting coordinated and collaborative smart

city development between various stakeholders. The primary focus on the roadmapping work is to identify

those actions required to make smart city ambitions a reality in a region. In a case study, a roadmapping

approach is linked to regional strategy work in Southern Finland. The introduced roadmap is generic by nature

and it could be applied also to other cities and regions willing to steer their smart city initiatives further.

1 INTRODUCTION

Urban areas and cities are complex social ecosystems

and the coordinated development of them is a

challenging endeavor. This article is about how to

steer a coordinated co-development between various

stakeholders to make a smart city to become a reality.

On broad sense, smart cities can be categorized into

two major groups: 1) high technology and

infrastructure intensive approach (e.g. Seoul,

Santander, Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona), and 2) citizen-

centric approach (e.g. Montreal, Amsterdam,

Copenhagen, Helsinki, Manchester) (d. Bergh &

Viaene, 2015).

Anthopoulos & Fitsilis (2014) define a smart city

as an ICT-based infrastructure and services

environment that enhance a city’s intelligence,

quality of life and other attributes (i.e. environment,

entrepreneurship, education, culture, transportation

etc.) One interesting addition to the concept of the

smart city is the concept of smart community.

Giffinger & Gudrun (2010) define smart community

in a following way: “A smart community is a

community that has made a conscious effort to use

information technology to transform life and work

within its region in significant and fundamental rather

than incremental ways.” The concept of the smart

community could better serve the actual focus of this

particular paper while the main focus is on regional

development expanding the formal city limits.

Den Bergh & Viaene (2015) argue that smart

cities are typical phenomenon to talk about within

local governmental institutions and associations of

cities. However, the challenge remains on what it

actually requires to become a smart city. Chourabi et

al. (2012) state that the success of smart city

initiatives relies heavily on managerial factors.

According to them, there is a lack of academic studies

focusing on the managerial aspects of a smart city

ambition. More and more cities are taking a strategic

approach to become smart. However, most of them

have the challenge to figure out the entity of becom-

ing smart. How to connect smaller projects with each

other and steer the progress from end-to-end.

The research problem of this paper is: How to

make smart city ambitions a reality in a region?

This paper intends to build on existing strategy

work of a region to support smart city development

by providing detailed contents of a roadmap. This

roadmap could then be applied to clarify the actual

steps it requires to become a smart city.

Innovation in a smart city environment requires an

ecosystem approach where local authorities do not act

in isolation but in collaboration with other

stakeholders in the ecosystem (Chourabi et al. 2012).

Komninos et al. (2012) argue that smart cities are part

of an open innovation ecosystem, which also supports

smart city’s development. In order to support the

innovation ecosystem for smart city development,

various public-private partnerships should be created

and fostered (Lee & Hancock 2012). Den Bergh &

Viaene (2015) emphasize the need for

experimentation in order to support the adaptation of

facilitating/permitting technology. According to

Hielkema & Hongisto (2013), living labs are one

Mantyneva, M. and Ruohomaa, H.

Creating a Roadmap for Smart City Development based on Regional Strategy Work.

DOI: 10.5220/0006665201510156

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2018), pages 151-156

ISBN: 978-989-758-292-9

151

relevant approach to incubate innovation and

knowledge. Typically living labs have diverse

functions and their activities are aligned with user-

driven innovation principles.

From management perspective a smart city is

more complex compared to traditional urban planning

while it implies interaction among various

stakeholders that are involved with different

subsystems (transportation, health, and environment

among others) (Komninos et al. 2012). Cities

intending to become smart cities should prepare

strategic plans and follow them (Nam & Pardo 2011).

Glasmeier & Christopherson (2015) argue that in the

vast majority of smart city related cases the actual

implementation is more about renovation rather than

about building completely new urban environments.

This is the reason why smart city development should

be managed as a transition rather than a project

focusing on developing something completely new.

As part of future strategy work, the cities ought to

focus on identifying their strengths and build on those

(Lazaroiu & Roscia, 2012). A roadmap approach

focuses on the transition, not on building up a new

smart city from the scratch.

Komninos et al. (2011) have studied how the

creation of a common roadmap for urban innovation

and economic development makes it easier to find

consensus between stakeholders on shared longer-

term objectives and their priorities. According to Lee

& Hancock (2012), roadmapping is a viable

methodology for seeking a shared understanding of

future development. Garcia & Bray (1997) imply that

according to the roadmapping literature the

roadmapping process consists of three subsequent

phases: these phases are 1) preliminary activity, 2)

actual development of the roadmap, and 3) follow-up

activity. In order to make a strategy implementation

really happen is to prepare a concrete roadmap

guiding future actions required.

2 CASE STUDY - SMART HÄME

The applied case study in this paper is linked to the

Growth Corridor Finland and especially one sub-

region on that geographical corridor. The Growth

Corridor is located in southern Finland between the

cities of Helsinki, Hämeenlinna, and Tampere, thus

binding three sub-regions together. On both ends of

the Growth Corridor, there are two smart cities that

are identified and documented as smart cities in

literature. Helsinki, the capital of Finland, is covered

among others by (Hielkema & Hongisto 2013). The

smart city development of Tampere is documented

among others by Caragliu et al. (2013) and

Anthopoulos & Fitsilis (2014). Almost 40 percent of

all jobs in the country are within the region and nearly

half of the turnover of Finnish companies is generated

in the growth corridor. This paper is focused on the

Hämeenlinna sub-region (Proper Häme region). The

case name Smart Häme is applied in this paper to

remind about the historical name of the region. The

vision of the corridor is to gain a recognized position

as a growth platform of Finnish competence, as

Finland's largest pool of skilled labor and as a basis

of national competitiveness. In the long run, the

corridor ensures sustainable growth, energy

efficiency and new export-led business.

The Growth Corridor itself has a roadmap

including among others following steps or activities:

National level steering of regional development,

becoming an experimentation platform as means of

combining people, organizations, and projects. The

development is intended to be implemented through

managing a portfolio consisting of several projects. In

order to meet the needs of both private businesses as

well as public sector organizations, active networking

is required. However, it seems that the roadmap is not

as detailed as the one proposed in this paper.

The strategic plan is based on foresight work

covering future trends. The regional strategic plan is

a long-term vision and strategy. Province plan

assigned to pursue the development of the province

and the general guidelines for the development until

the year 2040. Regional strategic plan objectives will

be specified in the annual provincial program, as well

as the regional strategic program implementation plan

and regional plan.

Regional strategic plan’s strategic priorities are:

1) growth corridors and accessibility, 2) diverse

housing and welfare, 3) bio-based economy and

sustainable use of natural resources, 4) the

possibilities for the manufacturing industry, 5)

internationalization and 6) attraction of the region.

The importance of regional development is to

create synergies and concentration of investment

cooperation between public and private actors.

Increasing the development of a critical mass of

resources facilitates the creation and development of

successful businesses through innovation successful

business. One challenge in Proper Häme is to improve

the awareness and visibility among international

investors and operators in the region, and the internal

and external connections. The implementation of the

smart city is supported by a smart specialization

strategy.

In a smart specialization is also important to be

able to react quickly to meet the needs of emerging

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industries. Also, promoting new entrepreneurship is

important. In addition potential new startups,

companies operating in traditional industries must

invest in active experimentation culture, rapid and

agile development projects, digitalization new

opportunities provided by digitization and co-

operation between stakeholders. Smart specialization it

is expected to strengthen the already strong and

emerging industries, enhance entrepreneurship and

promote international competitiveness. Proper Häme’s

smart specialization priorities for the period 2018-2021

has been prepared in cooperation with the province's

analysis of the strengths and utilizing statistical data.

Neirotti et al. (2014) classify different Smart City

initiatives to various domains and even sub-domains.

These domains are linked to the smart specializations

in the roadmap. Giffinger & Gudrun (2010) propose

that a smart city can be observed from six main

dimensions (a smart economy, smart mobility, a

smart environment, smart people, smart living, and

smart governance). This paper takes another

perspective and covers these smart city-related

domains from four areas of specialization: Smart

City, Smart Agriculture, Smart Factory, and Smart

Health. In the following, these four areas of smart

specialization are introduced.

Smart City

In future city structure will be more mixed with each

other, overlapping the housing, logistics, work and

other activities. Digital services enable features such

as location-independent work, which may occur, for

example, the automatic guided vehicle in connection

with work or leisure-related trips. This may involve

an assembly for automatic vehicles very close to each

other in a sequence of passing vehicles or for one

driver to control the car why many combinations.

The main objective of Proper Häme’s transport

system related development is to support sustainable

growth in the province, to improve the functionality

and safety of everyday life, as well as to ensure good

accessibility of the province. Transport automation is

evolving rapidly. In 2040, an autonomous robotic

vehicle is likely to be a fairly conventional mover on

our roads. These autonomous cars have become more

common in 25 to 30-year time span. This is done

while the vehicle fleet is renewed. However, the

prerequisite is the development of enabling

legislation supporting automatic door openers,

communicating with the vehicles and the use of the

infrastructure. Adapting Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

is about to be a combination of smart transport

systems with a door-to-door emphasis.

Smart Agriculture

Sustainable use, bio-economy and circular economy

of natural resources, play a very important role in the

EU and Finland's innovation strategies and

development programs. Proper Häme has strong

expertise in these areas. Energy efficiency and

effective use of resources are becoming increasingly

important targets. While resources are scarce and

recycling of resources becomes an important

competitive factor. The circular economy is related to

the use of resources and materials improved in such a

way that both the raw materials and their value will

remain in circulation. In practice, this may mean, for

example, that the product is designed so that the

materials are separated and recycled.

Low-carbon and green economy is driven by

international agreements, such as emissions trading

and a commitment to complying with international

climate agreement greenhouse gas emission

reduction targets are increasingly influenced by the

business community and individual consumers.

Resources

The food industry needs domestic agriculture.

Finnish conditions in the food industry largely depend

on access to domestic raw materials. Agriculture and

forestry production changes and changes in the

demand for a new kind of breeding solutions. Also,

the Finns ore and mineral resources are the subjects

of increasing international interest.

Smart Factory

The manufacturing industry is one of the traditional

strong industries in Proper Häme region. Digitization

is expected to change the manufacturing industry

significantly. Future challenges include increasing

industry’s competitiveness and productivity. Changes

in global demand for products and raw materials,

production pressures to move to lower-cost countries

and the change in the age structure of Finland’s

population greatly affect the future of Finland's

industrial structure. One objective is to increase

smartness to the industry by adapting the Industry 4.0

framework.

Smart Health

Health and well-being are areas that increased

utilization of technology (applications, data, genetic

engineering) provides lots of opportunities. People

have access to more and better ways to manage and

promote their own health advances in technology. On

the other hand, the growth related to the health and

well-being associated with prosperity that is, those

Creating a Roadmap for Smart City Development based on Regional Strategy Work

153

who can afford to invest in their health. Thus, the health

and well-being can also be formed more strongly in

different parts of the population as a distinctive factor.

From social equality and inclusion perspective, these

issues should be taken into account as well.

In Finland, as well as in most European countries,

the population is aging and the need for services is

growing. While the aging is also declining the share

of working-age people the current way of taking care

of healthcare as well as social care especially among

elderly people has to be changed. One route to

increase productivity and availability of health and

social care services is the adaptation of technology.

Table 1: A phased roadmap for linking regional strategy work towards smart city development (adapted from Lee et al. 2013).

Preliminary

activity

Phase 1: Planning Step 1. Smart city mid- to long-term

vision and goals identified

Step 2. Definition of roadmap Activity 1. Individual objectives of the

roadmap

Activity 2. Setting roadmap boundaries and

scopes

Activity 3. Defining an individual timetable

Step 3. Critical success factors for the

roadmap considered

Step 4. Organization of the project team Activity 1. Identify the party responsible for

the development of the roadmap

Activity 2. Form a working group

Development

activity of

integrated

roadmap

Phase 2. Demand

identification

Step 1. Identify urban problems

Step 2. Infer demands and solutions

Phase 3. Service

identification

Step 1. Smart city services

classification

Step 2. Analysis of service trends

(Delphi)

Phase 4.

Technology

identification

Step 1. Smart city technologies

identification

Activity 1. Set classification standards for

technologies

Activity 2. List technologies

Activity 3. Establishment and verification of

classification system

Step 2. Analysis of technical trends

(Delphi)

Phase 5.

Roadmap drafting

Step 1. Develop roadmap formats

Step 2. Analyze interdependencies

between service/device/technology

Step 3. Develop integrated roadmap

Phase 6.

Roadmap

adjustment

Step 1. Roadmap adjustment

Step 2. Roadmap verification

Follow-up

activity

Phase 7. Follow-

up stage

Step 1. Development of execution plan

Step 2. Execution of plan

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Active retirement age is increasing consumption

of services. Demand for leisure and cultural services

is increasing, and this will benefit in particular those

regions that are able to provide these services and to

take into account the needs of older citizens.

3 GUIDANCE ON PREPARING A

MORE DETAILED ROADMAP

TO SUPPORT SMART

CITY-RELATED STRATEGY

IMPLEMENTATION

This paper drafts guidelines on how to support

transitioning towards a smart city by adapting a

modified roadmapping approach developed in South

Korea originally by Lee et al. (2013). They have

introduced an integrated service-device-technology

roadmap for smart city development. Our paper

adapts a modified approach of some parts of their

work to structure a roadmap for smart city

development. However, since the emphasis of this

paper is not directly linked to enabling technologies

we have cut of some phases or steps from their

framework.

The approach is such that a suggested

roadmapping approach is presented in Table 1. By

introducing this generic roadmap for strategy linked

smart city development the intention is to support also

other cities and communities with smart city

ambitions to be able to proceed more systematically.

The roadmap to be developed could serve as an

important strategic documentation supporting

communicating and directing various smart city-

related initiatives.

Adapting various timeframes could be applied to

provide a more detailed guidance on where to focus

on various moments of time. These timeframes could

be near future, mid-future and far future. It is

suggested that the far future timeframe would be set

in the case study’s example until the year 2040 and

thus link it to regional strategy work.

In order to create the contents of the roadmap, a

series of workshops, several surveys, and in-depth

interviews would be required. These activities belong

to the next action items if there is further interest to

apply smart city roadmap and link it to existing

regional strategy work.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER

RESEARCH

This paper has described a regional strategy linked

roadmap to support co-ordinated and collaborative

smart city development. A roadmap is expected to

support co-ordination between various interest

groups involved as well as between the projects

related to the smart city initiative. The intention is

such that the developed roadmap would serve as an

important strategic resource and communication tool

to support smart city development. Through the

introduced case study, the following lessons have

been identified, which may be relevant to similar

projects in the future.

To be better able to coordinate and allocate

resources for development work that is expected to

last over twenty years it is important to have a strategy

linked roadmap for smart city development. A

developed detailed roadmap would provide a

comprehensive and unified view of current and future

trends and actions required for smart city

development. A detailed roadmap is important while

it is expected that there is limited guidance on how to

proceed in phases to make smart city ambitions a

reality. A national, as well as regional, co-ordination

would be beneficial to align various smart city-related

initiatives and projects. Also, communication and real

collaboration between various stakeholders is

important. Too often, each city is individually

developing their own services and enabling

infrastructure supporting the smart city.

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