Urban Planning
Nikoo Medghalchi; Hossein Bahrainy; Mojtaba Rafieian
Abstract
Highlights
- The development of information and communication technology is an important change that causes paradigm shift in urbanism.
- The COVID pandemic emphasizes the importance of information and communication technology.
- This study seeks to trace urban studies on information and communication ...
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Highlights
- The development of information and communication technology is an important change that causes paradigm shift in urbanism.
- The COVID pandemic emphasizes the importance of information and communication technology.
- This study seeks to trace urban studies on information and communication technology and the COVID pandemic and provide appropriate data and knowledge for urban policy-making and future studies.
Introduction
The advent of the information age in the 20th century due to the great changes in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to the prevailing approach to maximizing the solution of urban problems for advancing urban planners, designers, and policy-makers. The rate of growth and extensive development of urban studies has provided a wide range of interactions between its different sections. Coinciding with its growing trend, the corona virus has been spreading around the world since December 2019, re-examining the role of ICT.
Theoretical Framework
There is a lack of domestic research on ICT and the city. Given the existence of the gap and the importance of considering the area in urban studies, the purpose of this article is to identify, extract, and provide an interactive research space between the development of ICT and the subfields of urban studies in order to introduce and classify topics, approaches, methods, and results.
Methodology
Using the method of systematic review, the content of published foreign scientific research was reviewed and analyzed. This was carried out with a search for valid articles, a study of the abstracts and research results of more than 150 articles and their review, and a final selection of 93 articles after entering them into the Excel software environment.
Results and Discussion
The selected articles have been published in English in the period of 30 years between 1990 and 2020. Monitoring, examining, and extracting the key themes of the articles led us to 8 categories, including 1) urban policy, 2) electronic participation, 3) smart city, 4) city structure and spatial organization, 5) travel behavior, 6) digital gap, 7) public space, 8) and competitiveness, and 30 sub-themes. About 90% of the articles have been published in reputable scientific journals, and the rest appear in books and conference proceedings. An examination of the frequency of articles shows the growing worldwide trend in concern for this field in urban studies in recent years. According to the analysis made in the research, the use of ICT is applicable to planning theories at all levels, including the two levels of access and data processing and communication independent of time and place. These technologies enhance and promote the development of networks, social cohesion, and smart development of the city. The digital gap is intrinsically related to digital and urban inequalities. In network-oriented cities and societies, the issue of communication poverty is as important as traditional poverty. Many discussions have been raised by researchers on the impact of ICT on the structure and spatial organization of the city. Despite the initial premise of using the technology, which was to reduce concentration and increase urban dispersion, two more approaches, the centralization approach and the dual approach, have also been proposed in the field. The development of ICT has profound consequences on urban economic competitiveness. ICT is the basic driver for smartness in cities. A provider of access to the transfer of information and planning tools, granting the opportunity to share modes of transportation and work from a distance, the technology is of considerable importance for transportation systems. The relationship between the urban public space and technological developments and the development of ICT with the spread of the corona virus has been taken into consideration. Recent studies show that the spread of the corona virus has multiplied the use of ICT, which will definitely change the severity of its impact on the city and urban planning and design more rapidly. Therefore, this article is presented in order to explain the various dimensions of this issue.
Conclusion
Given the application of ICT in the field of urban planning, it is comprehensible that the creation of links with urban planning and design has proceeded slowly despite the increasing development of telecommunication technologies. It is necessary to consider the complex relationship between the city and ICT. On the one hand, the relationship has raised the challenge of polarization, inaccessibility, and urban injustice, and on the other hand, it has involved benefits such as increased participation and social networking, urban innovation and creativity, and urban sustainability and intelligence. In fact, it is necessary to fill the gap between ICT and urban planning. The central solution framework of the smart city is based on the city rather than intelligence. One of the most important challenges discussed in the previous studies is the issue of accessibility among different social classes. In spite of the initial hypothesis that the importance of place is reduced as that of distance decreases due to the development of ICT, place still matters. The point to be considered in regard to the relationship between the density and spread of the corona virus is the absence of a direct relationship between its population density and death. In fact, the ever-increasing development of ICT and the persistence of policies of closure and maintenance of social distancing during the pandemic are themselves factors effective in the development of digital facilities and technologies in the city. Urban spaces are changing and transforming due to the development of new technologies. In fact, the urban space paradigm established in 2020 promises the emergence of virtual open spaces. Future studies will be focused especially on an understanding of the shift towards the digital space and the emergence of a combination of the real space and the virtual space in developed countries. Moreover, it is necessary to know the social dimensions of urban spaces according to the conditions imposed by the corona virus in order to understand the type and method of changing the shape of the public space of the city and social interactions. Finally, the study and review of the valuable articles published in the area of the interface between the city and ICT has raised wide, diverse issues that require familiarity, mastery, and theoretical specialization besides their practical applications for policy-makers, planners, and urban designers and managers.
Acknowledgment
The Article has been derived from the Ph.D thesis entitled “The Impact of Information and Communication Technology and the covid Pandemic on Urban Studies: A Systematic Review”, which has been defended by first author under the second author`s supervision and the third author`s advisory at the Qazvin Branch Islamic Azad University.
Urban Planning
rasoul Babanasab; asghar zarrabi
Volume 4, Issue 13 , February 2015, , Pages 57-70
Abstract
Objectives In recent decades, a concept that has been comprehensively investigated is the concept of E-city. In a lot of developed countries and societies, E-city has been successfully implemented and recently the global approach is towards constructing E-societies. Nowadays, societies that have rapid ...
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Objectives In recent decades, a concept that has been comprehensively investigated is the concept of E-city. In a lot of developed countries and societies, E-city has been successfully implemented and recently the global approach is towards constructing E-societies. Nowadays, societies that have rapid access to information and have expertise in exchanging information are more developed. E-city is a new form of urban life which can be formed along with a real world and in complete adaptability with it. It can solve many challenges including traffic, air pollution, administrative corruption, and social inequalities faced by real cities. Furthermore, in addition to presenting a new model in cities, it can provide citizens’ and managers’ access to the wants of a developed, creative, and knowledge-based urban society. Findings The present study aims at analyzing the indices of e-citizen from the perspective of citizens in Tabriz City. This study is an applied-developmental one in terms of objective, and a descriptive, analytical, and survey research in terms of nature and method. To collect the data, documentary and field (questionnaire) methods were employed. The sample population included citizens living in 10 areas in Tabriz City. Using Cochrane’s formula, the sample size was determined as 322 individuals and for a higher confidence rate, the number of participants was increased by 10 percent bringing the final sample size to 354 participants. To determine the required questionnaire of each region, weighting method based on the proportion of the population of each area was used. To analyze the data SPSS, Pearson correlation coefficient and one sample t-test were used. The findings indicate that in terms of the quality of citizens’ access to ICT facilities and centers of E-servicing, after administering one sample t-test, the mean scores and t-value were 3.19 and 5.13, respectively. These figures indicate relatively acceptable levels of access to these facilities. The current mean scores of the indices of e-citizen (2.79) by considering infrastructure are at an acceptable level. In addition, from citizens’ points of views, the optimized use of ICT and electronic services, in the case of Tabriz City, will have a positive effect on the different social, economic, environmental, and physical dimensions of sustainable urban development. After conducting one sample t-test, the mean scores and t-value were 3.71 and 19.03, respectively. In regards to the degree of citizens’ experiences in using ICT, the results reveal that more than 79% agreed with the necessity of expanding the use of ICT and creating an E-city. There is a significant correlation between citizens’ electronic preparedness and acceptance of the effects of using ICT and the expansion of e-city. The magnitude of the correlation as r=0.433 indicates a positive and increasing correlation between these two variables. Results Based on the results, information and communication technology and electronic city can have an impact on different economic, social, environmental and physical dimensions. This means that optimal use of ICT results in urban sustainable development. Since Tabriz is the capital city of East Azerbaijan Province, the largest city in the north western region and the fifth most populated city of Iran, it has many problems such as air pollution, sound pollution, traffic, energy wastage, low citizen cooperation, and providing services to citizens. Despite such problems, novel instruction methods, contents and experiences in use of IT are required to be offered to citizens; role of ICT and creation of an electronic city is considered as a valuable movement toward experiencing a better life. Therefore, in addition to paying attention to the necessity of training with modern methods and contents, citizens consider the function of ICT as a valuable application for experiencing a better life.
