Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CoCi (Co-Evolving City Life)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-04-01 al 2023-09-30
The “Co-Evolving City Life” (CoCi) project explores a new paradigm in which smart technologies and smart citizens synergistically and seamlessly work together. Within networks of participatory cities, the project explores how citizens empowered by digital assistance can make significant contributions to a better future.
The main questions of the CoCi project are: How could more participatory smart cities work, and how can they simultaneously meet the requirements of being more efficient, sustainable, and resilient? How and when can decentralized approaches compete with or outperform centralized approaches? How could digital societies based on values such as freedom, equality, and solidarity look like, thereby fitting our culture, and what performance is expected from them?
The objective of the CoCi project is to develop, test, and demonstrate new concepts for more resilient, sustainable, and participatory cities, in which activities of various actors are digitally assisted and coordinated, using principles such as self-organization and co-evolution.
The main questions of the CoCi project are: How could more participatory smart cities work, and how can they simultaneously meet the requirements of being more efficient, sustainable, and resilient? How and when can decentralized approaches compete with or outperform centralized approaches? How could digital societies based on values such as freedom, equality, and solidarity look like, thereby fitting our culture, and what performance is expected from them?
The objective of the CoCi project is to develop, test, and demonstrate new concepts for more resilient, sustainable, and participatory cities, in which activities of various actors are digitally assisted and coordinated, using principles such as self-organization and co-evolution.
By the end of March 2023, the CoCi team made significant strides forward in research activities related to various Work Packages. It developed four innovative studies encompassing online, laboratory, and virtual reality methods, in addition to creating and applying a participatory air quality device, suited for crowd sensing. These projects gained ethics approval, and, related to this, short MOOCs-style courses were made available on YouTube, relating to self-organization in pedestrian, traffic, and logistic systems. The team also published a diverse array of peer-reviewed papers and book chapters exploring several key research themes:
1. Self-Organizing and Resilient Cities: Papers examine city resilience strategies, the significance of socio-diversity, and the management of complex dynamical systems. Specific studies focus on traffic signal control, with some pioneering research exploring advantages and limitations of machine learning methods and creating hybrid approaches that combine machine learning and analytic techniques for optimal results.
2. Sustainable Cities and Digitally Assisted Coordination: A series of publications discuss the development and validation of a large-scale digital twin of Barcelona's traffic system, the environmental and economic implications of street network pruning, the limitations of optimization in managing complex social systems, and the adaptability of machine learning for diverse traffic network structures.
3. City Innovation, Ethics, and Co-Creation: Research in this domain explores ethical considerations for smart city design, the adaptability and sustainability of machine learning in traffic control, and the development of tools for citizen-centric environmental monitoring. The team also presented solutions to address possible concerns regarding data sharing control and security, also making progress in promoting open-source frameworks for environmental monitoring.
4. Collective Intelligence: This theme focuses on exploring societal organization paradigms, examining the effects of free speech restrictions on societal polarization, and studying the use of citizen science data in policy-making. Publications also discuss the socio-economic implications of the digital revolution.
Simultaneously, a Special Issue of a well-established scientific journal was being prepared for, which will focus on the ethics of smart cities and societies, featuring more than 10 contributions from collaboration partners.
1. Self-Organizing and Resilient Cities: Papers examine city resilience strategies, the significance of socio-diversity, and the management of complex dynamical systems. Specific studies focus on traffic signal control, with some pioneering research exploring advantages and limitations of machine learning methods and creating hybrid approaches that combine machine learning and analytic techniques for optimal results.
2. Sustainable Cities and Digitally Assisted Coordination: A series of publications discuss the development and validation of a large-scale digital twin of Barcelona's traffic system, the environmental and economic implications of street network pruning, the limitations of optimization in managing complex social systems, and the adaptability of machine learning for diverse traffic network structures.
3. City Innovation, Ethics, and Co-Creation: Research in this domain explores ethical considerations for smart city design, the adaptability and sustainability of machine learning in traffic control, and the development of tools for citizen-centric environmental monitoring. The team also presented solutions to address possible concerns regarding data sharing control and security, also making progress in promoting open-source frameworks for environmental monitoring.
4. Collective Intelligence: This theme focuses on exploring societal organization paradigms, examining the effects of free speech restrictions on societal polarization, and studying the use of citizen science data in policy-making. Publications also discuss the socio-economic implications of the digital revolution.
Simultaneously, a Special Issue of a well-established scientific journal was being prepared for, which will focus on the ethics of smart cities and societies, featuring more than 10 contributions from collaboration partners.
Only very few teams combine natural science, engineering, and social science perspectives (including ethics) and can bring methods ranging from mathematical modeling to computer simulation, and experimental approaches to data science together. This combination enables inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary cross-fertilization, new knowledge, and scientific breakthroughs.
By the end of the CoCi project, we expect to have explored a new organizational paradigm based on the digitally assisted self-organization of agents in networks of participatory smart cities. More precisely, by month 36, we will have published two papers on digitally assisted cooperation (WP 1),
one paper on resilient cities through participation (WP 1), and three papers focusing on self-organizing
cities and co-learning (WP 2).
Decentralization, diversity, and combinatorial innovation can promote a co-created, co-evolving city life. By the end of month 48, we will have coupled a simulation program with a sensor-based environment that responds to measurements, flexibly adapts, and self-organizes (WP 3). Furthermore, we will have organized a co-creation workshop (WP 4) which is scheduled to take place at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna (Sep 11-13, 2023). Co-creation, co-learning, and co-evolution are success principles of this new paradigm. We will discuss the latter in a published book(let) or a Special Issue, focusing on opportunities and challenges of co-creation in cities and regions (WP 4).
By the end of the CoCi project, we expect to have explored a new organizational paradigm based on the digitally assisted self-organization of agents in networks of participatory smart cities. More precisely, by month 36, we will have published two papers on digitally assisted cooperation (WP 1),
one paper on resilient cities through participation (WP 1), and three papers focusing on self-organizing
cities and co-learning (WP 2).
Decentralization, diversity, and combinatorial innovation can promote a co-created, co-evolving city life. By the end of month 48, we will have coupled a simulation program with a sensor-based environment that responds to measurements, flexibly adapts, and self-organizes (WP 3). Furthermore, we will have organized a co-creation workshop (WP 4) which is scheduled to take place at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna (Sep 11-13, 2023). Co-creation, co-learning, and co-evolution are success principles of this new paradigm. We will discuss the latter in a published book(let) or a Special Issue, focusing on opportunities and challenges of co-creation in cities and regions (WP 4).