The 4th industrial revolution, smart cities, and sustainable urban regeneration : a perspective study

Abstract

The 4th Industrial Revolution is a new wave of digital innovation. Driverless cars, smart robotics, internet of things (IoT), and other technological changes are happening in our daily life. The notion of smart cities is closely related to the new industrial revolution. We might think of the emergence of smart cities as the realization of the 4th industrial revolution in the spatial context. Many cities around the world are preparing to be smart cities via urban regeneration. In recognizing these changes, this paper tries to understand what the new industrial revolution brings to us, how the new digital revolution acts in our cities, and how urban regeneration can utilize the advent of the new wave of the groundbreaking innovation. This study illustrates why smart technologies are necessary in the urban regeneration process, and what the opportunities and threats in the decentralized and self-generating framework in the new era. We observe that the top-down decision-making procedure might be inefficient. Equally, the fully decentralized and fragmented system will increase the level of risk in the urban regeneration projects. The key element of success is the capacity of the central and local government to build the communication infrastructure and to facilitate the interplay among the participation in the projects. [Key Words] 4th Industrial Revolution, Digital Innovation, Smart City, Urban Regeneration