The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is promoting the development of digital twins for cities across the country. With a dedicated initiative for urban development policy named PLATEAU, the ministry brings together cities, science and industry to develop new ideas on how to harness the power of city twins with impressive virtual environments – from park management to improving emergency responses.

Hubert Beroche is the founder of Urban AI, a think tank specializing in the field of AI in the urban context. In this podcast episode, we’re discussing with Hubert Beroche, what role AI currently plays in cities in Europe and beyond, what use cases are emerging and what challenges are still to be addressed.

Brian Bidolli heads the Redevelopment Agency of Norwalk, Connecticut. In a move towards more sustainability and resilience, the city released a sustainability and resilience plan (SRP) with the ambition to become Connecticut’s greenest city. Among the biggest resilience challenges that the city is facing are extreme heat events and storms, as well as rising sea levels. As priorities Norwalk has set out to improve access for citizens to the waterfront and to open spaces and parcs, but also the redevelopment and transit-oriented developments. The use of data and digital infrastructure is the bracket binding together all these efforts.

Tiffany Davis is a seasoned expert in data and data governance for urban development. She worked as an Open Data Specialist in the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, advised the City of Baltimore and currently, she leads the AMALI Data Programme – an initiative to support cities in Africa in managing data for better urban planning and development. In this interview, we’re discussing the role of data governance as a basis for every city and region to work with data.

Masaka is a booming city in Uganda. The city recently embarked on the journey towards becoming a more liveable and more resilient city. In this episode, we’re talking to Mayor Namayanja to hear how the city is achieving its goals – by planting trees, analyzing data and connecting with other African cities for better data governance.

Buenos Aires is a bustling and densely populated megacity. Nearly 14 million people live in the Gran Buenos Aires metropolitan area - and the city continues to grow. The city started working with data and publishing open data early on. Recently, Buenos Aires developed the open-source tool Ciudad 3D to speed up urban planning and provide a more efficient and digital way for citizens to obtain building permits. And there is much more to come. We'll talk to Axel McCallum, Undersecretary for Administrative Innovation, about current and future projects and how to drive innovation in a city government.

In this episode of the ISCN Smart City Dialogues, Anita Klingel (PD) and Marlene Damerau (City of Gelsenkirchen) discuss the transformative potential of AI in cities. The podcast explores the role of cites in the development of AI, the impact of regulations such as the EU AI act, and the German communal competence centre for urban AI (URBAN.KI).

In this podcast episode we will look at how Helsinki, the Finnish capital, became what it is today: a leader in public sector innovation. Particularly, we will look at the Helsinki Innovation Districts run by Forum Virium Helsinki supporting the City of Helsinki’s strategy.

Urban Digital Twins are changing the game for cities and regions at the intersection of city development, data and digitalisation, and citizen engagement. We’re talking with experts about their experience with digital twins, opportunities and the work ahead, in this episode with Prof. Dr. Ursula Eicker from Concordia University Montreal with a focus on net-zero city planning with digital twins.

Utrecht is a city in the real world. But it also exists in the digital realm. The digital copy is called a digital urban twin. In this podcast, we will dive deep into the Utrecht 3D twin and how it came to be with Marcel Duffhuis, Programme Manager Digital Twin at the city of Utrecht. We will put a particular emphasis on how the twin came alive, how the cooperation with Amsterdam worked and what comes next for the Utrecht Twin. The podcast provides a wealth of information for city representatives, who are currently playing with the idea of implementing a digital twin themselves and supports them with new ideas, do’s and don’t’s.

In this episode we talk with Milou Jansen from the City of Amsterdam about how AI enhances and challenges urban governance and administrative processes in the smart city. We look at how you can embrace AI's potential for the city without overlooking important needs for defining rules of engagement with this emergent technology - a balance struck by the "Cities Coalition for Digital Rights" of which Milou is a coordinator and which comprises among others Amsterdam, Barcelona, Helsinki

Inthis episode of the ISCN Smart City Dialogue Podcast we talk with Federica Bordelot from Eurocities about the implications the EU Data Act has for the development of common good-oriented smart cities in Europe and the world over.

In this episode we talk with Marcos Souza, coordinator of the Open Data Programme at Citinova, the Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation of Fortaleza, Brazil (Fundação de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação de Fortaleza), about their implementation process and challenges in the setup of an open data platform. Marcos tells us about the many things they have learnt from the diverse interaction with various players and how automation can become a big part of making embedded and streamlined open data platforms a reality, as a cornerstone to common good-oriented smart cities! Thanks for listening and being part of our international exchange towards better smart cities. Here is the link to Fortaleza's open data platform: https://dados.fortaleza.ce.gov.br/ Visit us for more info about the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN): https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/en/about-us/international-smart-cities-network

In this episode we talk with Simon Höher from the Hybrid City Lab about Social Innovation in Smart Cities and with regards to Public Service. What is really enabling social innovation in the public sector of Smart Cities and what are characteristics and conditions different from other societal realms? Simon also developed a "Pathfinder for Social Innovation in Digital Urban Development" on behalf of the ISCN and gives first glimpses into the content of this work. The full publication can be accessed here: https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/system/files/media/205/1689679101/Publication-Pathfinder-Social-Innovation-in-Urban-Development.pdf For information on the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN) visit https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/en/about-us/international-smart-cities-network

In this episode of the ISCN Smart City Dialogue podcast we talk with Laura Dieguez from DKSR about their scoping of exemplary data strategies and good data interventions around the world, from Peru and Sao Paulo to Montreal and Jakarta, among others. Tune in as Laura gives some hints and previews on the full study that can now be accessed and downloaded here: https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/system/files/media/203/1689678242/Publication-Data-Strategies-for-Common-Good-oriented-Urban-Development-Int.pdf For more information about the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN) visit us at: https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/en/about-us/international-smart-cities-network

In this episode we talk with Dr. Nadja Berseck, Business Design Lead at zero360 and author of the ISCN-study "Pathfinder for Social Innovation in Digital Urban Development", on human-centred Design in Smart Cities. The full publication can be accessed here: https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/system/files/media/205/1689679101/Publication-Pathfinder-Social-Innovation-in-Urban-Development.pdf For information on the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN) visit https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/en/about-us/international-smart-cities-network

In this episode of the ISCN Smart City Dialogue Podcast we spoke with Claudius Lieven from Hamburg's Ministry of Urban Development and Housing about their various efforts and approaches on Digital Citizen Participation. We covered Hamburg's knowledge exchange on virtual participation tools with Guadalajara in Mexico, processes to determine collectively determine the location of music clubs and many more aspects of future-prone digital citizen participation induced by the challenging environment of the covid19-pandemic. For more information on the International Smart Cities Network visit us at https://www.smart-city-dialog.de/en/about-us/international-smart-cities-network