Smart cities resource page

Introduction

South African cities and towns are increasingly pressured to become smarter. However, the lack of a common understanding of the concept makes it difficult for some to identify appropriate interventions. Uncertainties regarding the benefits and pitfalls related to smart cities also hamper progress in implementing smart city initiatives. Furthermore, there are many misunderstandings regarding the interpretation of smart cities that is appropriate to the South African context.

This web page provides links to various resources related to smart cities available on uKESA.

List of resources

Smart cities resources for African cities: Part 1 of the smart cities resources collection

The smart city concept is relatively new in Africa.  As various African countries join in the global move to brand their cities “smart”, there is undoubtedly value in learning from the range of current views on smart cities. This smart city collection is a collation of different resources on smart cities considered to be most relevant for guiding African cities and towns in their journey towards “smartness”.  This page links to journal articles, conference papers, newspaper articles, case studies and guidelines.

Smart cities initiatives in South Africa: Part 2 of the smart cities resources collection

The smart cities discourse has permeated both academic and popular media arenas in South Africa.  Similarly, numerous smart city initiatives have emerged in various cities and municipalities across the country.  These initiatives mostly seek to improve livelihoods, economic development, governance and city efficiency.  This resource collection on smart cities links to some of the initiatives in South Africa’s cities.  The initiatives are grouped into six categories: smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, smart living, and smart governance. This page builds upon Part 1 of the resource collection listed above.

SmartCity.ZA

The purpose of this repository is to create a resource base on the state of Smart City knowledge and practice in Africa and the Global South that is useful to city practitioners and urban scholars. The practice of smart cities is still quite new in Africa, with various stakeholders still trying to determine what models, frameworks, approaches, and tools are appropriate in the African public sector context. This will contribute to the knowledge management of the space, particularly to provide continuity and support a credible, knowledge-based, local-centric view of how cities and their partners could best engage in pursuing their smart city agendas.

CSIR publications on smart cities

For links to CSIR’s publications on smart cities, please see CSIR publications on smart cities.

More information about smart cities in the South African context is available in A South African Smart Cities Framework: A decision-making framework to guide the development of smart cities in South Africa developed by the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) and the CSIR (2021).