the 4th industrial revolution, smart cities, and

연구논문 ｢환경정책｣ 제25권 특별호 2017. 10: 61-91

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.15301/jepa.2017.25.S.61ISSN 1598-835X

The 4th Industrial Revolution, Smart Cities, and Sustainable Urban Regeneration:

A Perspective Study1)

Choongik Choi*ㆍChun-Il Kim**

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

I. Introduction

The next-generation cities are smart and sustainable cities. In the

advent of new digital age, called the 4th industrial revolution, the

core technologies include big data and cloud computing, internet of

things (IoT), societal computing, and tools that enhance incentives

** First Author, Professor, Kangwon National University

** Corresponding Author, Associate Research Fellow, Construction & Economy

Research Institute of Korea

62 ▪ Journal of Environmental Policy and Administration Vol. 25 Special Issue

and participation. The cohesive governance and provisioning system

with incentive management can interact with activity coordination

and social harmonization. The monitoring infrastructure and data

analytics support those activities. In the smart cities in tandem with

the 4th industrial revolution, new business models and services

appear via the optimized infrastructure. Citizens’ involvement in

(re)shaping the surrounding environment is increasing in the form of

complex collaboration without paying a large amount of initial costs.

Resources are shared, through which people empower themselves.

Ultimately, we enjoy a better quality of life in the sustainable and

developed urban fabric.

In accordance with the huge innovation in the carrying capacity in

the digital manufacturing, information gathering, and sharing, the

mode of spatial development changes its form from reconstruction in

the 1950s and 1960s, renewal in the 1970s, and redevelopment in the

1980s to regeneration in the 1990s. Until the 1980s, the main actors

in the spatial reformulation were the governments and large real

estate enterprises. The public-private partnership then enabled the

renewal projects finished faster, covering vast areas all together in

cities. However, there were side effects. Many projects were

developed without being linked to the existing spatial context, which

created a disharmonious urban landscape. The opposition against the

fast, one-size-fits-all approach was obvious. The new movement in

the urban redevelopment appeared to advocate the social

empowerment of citizens and to promote the people’s participation.

As the role of community evolves in the process of the development,

the governments should provide the arena to communicate each

other. Now, the concept of public-private partnership is transformed

The 4th Industrial Revolution, Smart Cities, and Sustainable Urban Regeneration ▪ 63

to the notion of public-private-people partnership (Bolici and Mora,

2015).

The urban regeneration projects should benefit from the digital

revolution. The aging-in-place urban regeneration needs specific and

tailored technologies in order to provide support and care to the aged

population, covering communication, engagement, safety, security,

health, wellness, learning, and contribution. Smart phone

applications, wearable equipment, and tablet-based appliances will

help the project well targeted to the elderly. The fragile population

may also need digital transportation network and autonomous

transportation vehicles. The combination of the traffic calming

solution from the physical planning perspective and the smart

equipment could be a recipe for efficient and effective urban

regeneration to the aged residents.

What is the meaning of urban regeneration to the current urban

planning practices in the 4th industrial revolution? What are the

opportunities and threats of the advent of smart cities to urban

regeneration? How will the new digital revolution shape smart cities

and help urban regeneration carried out efficiently? This perspective

study raises questions and provides answers to the relationships

among the new industrial revolutions, the emergence of smart cities,

and urban regeneration. The remainder of the paper is as follows:

The second chapter explores what the 4th Industrial revolution have

a meaning to our cities. The third chapter investigates the linkage of

the 4th Industrial Revolution to urban regeneration. Lastly, the final

chapter concludes the paper with suggestions on how we should

develop our urban environment to make it smart.


Ⅱ. The 4th Industrial Revolution and Cities

1. Making Our Cities “Smart”

Nowadays, the 4th industrial revolution is a ubiquitous

phenomenon around the globe. Our way of life is already deeply

linked to this digital revolution, and it seems that we cannot get out

of it. While it is in our daily life, the use of smart phones in many

occasions is one form of the revolution, like breathing in the air. As

we already step into the era of the 4th industrial revolution, there has

been a continuous debate on how we should prepare for the change

– not only in a variety of industrial sectors, but also in every corner

of our normal life all over the world. The most important element of

the revolution has been the use and development of IT technology,

which makes the world wired and connected within a second beyond

the boundaries.

What makes a city “smart”? There were many previous forms in

tandem with the current one: ‘virtual city’, ‘wired city’, ‘informational

city’, ‘telecity’, ‘intelligent city’, ‘urban cybernetics’, ‘digital city’ and

others (Thompson, 2016). Making cities smarter is usually achieved

via Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-intensive

solutions (Cavalcante et al., 2016).

The concept of smart city is the realization of the new wave of

industrial revolution down to the spatial scale and scope. Researchers,

experts, and policy practitioners seem to agree that increasing

mobility via efficient transportation system is one of the most

important elements in the modern urban planning discipline.

Moreover, the importance of transportation is more pronounced in

the era of 4th industrial revolution. Especially, the concept of good


transportation now focuses on “people”, relative to “space”. As the

history of development of the industrial revolutions, rapid

technological innovation should result in enormous changes in our

urban fabric. Among those technologies, autonomous vehicles and

connected cars will be the most important elements that lead to the

changes. These technologies can be easily linked to the technologies

of renewable energy, IT, IoT, and so forth. The digital infrastructure

will produce quality big data, and we can build and innovate artificial

intelligence technologies with the data. Then, we have a positive

feedback loop that yields big data with better quality and more useful

information in understanding the behavior of movements and

activities in our cities. We can benefit from this self-generating and

upgrading mechanism in the digital infrastructure (<Figure 1>).

<Figure 1> Self-generating and upgrading mechanism

Source: Authors

The recent innovation in automated transportation in Korea is the

investment by the Naver Corporation (KRX: 035420) to Innobiz

Solutions (http://theinnobiz.com/), which is an Israeli manufacturer of

LiDAR sensors (Hankyung, 2017). LiDAR sensors are considered the

‘eyes’ of autonomous cars. In June, the company acquired the Xerox


Research Center Europe, a global research institute focusing on

artificial intelligence (AI), and is expanding overseas investment

(ZDNet, 2017). Naver plans to push forward the development of

autonomous navigation technology through this investment. LiDAR is

a sensor that accurately measures the position of and distance to an

object. The three-dimensional (3D) data obtained through the eyes

analyzes the radius of tens of meters from the car on a real time

basis. It is considered a critical sensor in autonomous driving, which

captures the distance from the car to the approaching objects.

Smart city technology will definitely play an important role in

improving our quality of life in cities. The basic (and utterly critical)

role of a city is to raise social values by coordinating the relationships

between a variety of actors, players, and stakeholders in reshaping

urban networks. Here, the authors of this study emphasize that the

value of equity should be accomplished by providing the equal

amount of public services to all the people throughout the city. When

the mechanism depicted in Figure 1 works properly, we might be able

to provide urban services efficiently and effectively to the people who

are engaged in any activities in the city. The smart infrastructure can

make our economy smarter, and our activities more accessible. We

use smart ICT technology to enhance competitiveness of cities, to

deliver ever-growing information faster, and to lead to the

technological development with higher productivity. The development

of our cities as being smart via the 4th industrial revolution should

bring about innovations covering physical environment, sustainable

natural resources, cultural and creative activities, and economic

performance. The efficient and effective formulation and

transformation of our cities will ultimately yield smart governance,


which promotes citizens’ participation in the decision-making

process, related to the operation and management of every corner of

the city. Figure 2 illustrates the interplay among stakeholders involved

in shaping the smart city.

<Figure 2> Stakeholders in the smart city

Source: IEC (2014)

The 4th industrial revolution is also expected to lead to significant

changes in the residential environment. Skouby and Lynggaard (2014)

forecast that 5G connectivity will arrive in around 2020, and

innovations in connectivity will change many perspectives in our

residential spaces. Smart homes will enjoy better internet services and

always-connected mobile services. This increased connectivity

features ubiquitous and integrated communications and


machine-to-machine (M2M) processing for smart living. The

innovation in homes already happens in Singapore, which utilizes the

Home Energy Management System (HEMS). The system is a

collaboration between EMA, HDB, EDB, and Panasonic. According to

the paper by Bhati et al. (2017), ten households in Punggol were

selected to have HEMS installed in their homes. This system allowed

the homes to better manage and control their energy both

consumptions and costs. It would be a start for government agencies

and private companies to derive solutions using smart technologies to

achieve energy efficiency in the residential areas.

Flexible buildings would be one of the most advanced technological

innovations in the era of smart homes and smart cities. The

construction of a building involves a large amount of initial cost with

a significant of time. Moreover, working environment for constructing

buildings is not safe in general. In the advent of the new era, we

expect a new form of home: the whole structure can be easily

assembled and detached in just several days. It can also be equipped

with some parts that change their forms without complete interior

renovation (Wang, 2016). These prefabricated homes can easily

transform their shapes and be customized to the residents’ needs. We

can also relate this innovation to home building via 3D printing

technology, smart grid, and zero-energy technology.

2. Building Smart Cities and Heading to the New Civilization

Joichi Ito, the director of M.I.T. Media Lab, predicted that future

cities will have a higher population density with a healthier

ecosystem. At the Innovative City Forum in Tokyo, Japan in 2013, he

noted that technology is transforming where we live, as


highly-advanced technologies are common in our normal life and in

building new infrastructures (Ito, 2015). The most noticeable form is

of course information technology. Urban planning and urban design

are reflecting these technological changes into our cities. What we

need to do is to look at the city in a completely different way from

the perspective of information technology. We cannot depend upon

automakers only when we want to make a success in inventing and

manufacturing electric cars and autonomous vehicles – in order to

step forward to the 4th industrial revolution. Many relevant sectors

should be jointly involved to build lightweight and shareable electric

vehicles, and networks.

In the recent conversation (hosted by the Maeil Business News

Korea) with the three mayors from Spain, Korea, and India, Professor

Anthony Giddens of the London School of Economics (LSE) insisted

that the “digital revolution” does not happen only in the developed

cities; but it is stepping up to the plate in the poorest regions around

the world. Africa has very high percentage of mobile phones per

capita, and smartphones are penetrating into the region at a rapid

pace. Areas of innovation are growing not only in a city, but also in

the conjunction of regions, some of which are green areas. He also

stressed that the digital revolution is too fast to figure out what it will

bring to us. As the previous industrial revolution eliminated the home

manufacturing and changed the structure of manufacturing industries,

the new wave of digital revolution will bring about significant changes

in white-collar jobs. When it comes to the change in our normal lives,

he observed that city has already emerged as the main player of the

digital revolution. In the newly-developed cities, citizens demand

their mayors to show active leadership in dealing with various urban


problems. It is also clear that they ask the city mayor to show how

we maximize the benefit from the revolution and what policy

framework should be formed in order to minimize the negative effects

that resulted from the digital innovation.

In the white paper titled “Orchestrating infrastructure for

sustainable Smart Cities”, International Electrotechnical Commission

(IEC) considers the key pillars for smart cities as the following:

economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental

sustainability (IEC, 2014). Cities should increase the capacity to

develop citizen’s economic potential, and to attract business and

capital. We experienced the global financial crisis, triggered by the

housing market collapse in the United States. We learned that the

economic sustainability of cities plays an important role in making

our daily life work normally. The crisis has revealed the fact that the

traditional financial framework has considerable weakness. More

efficient and integrated digital infrastructures should be able to repair

the previous financial models. Moreover, the new infrastructure can

make economic activities linked together while the transaction costs

shrink to the minimal level through coordinated planning strategies in

the infrastructure investment. Not only the physical improvement but

also the social inclusiveness enables our cities to move to the new

level of civilization. In the new civilization via the smart technologies

in the smart cities, we raise the quality of life by encouraging a city’s

attractiveness for people, business, and capital.

The world is suffering from the environmental vulnerability to

natural hazards, and many cities adopt the strategies to increase the

carrying capacity of resilience to natural and man-made hazards.

Thinking the resilience concept as being a part of community


planning is the starting point to be better prepared for the potential

environmental damage. The hazardousness of places consists of

spatial and social context (Cutter, 1996; Cutter et al., 2003). Norris et

al. (2008) viewed the concept of resilience as a set of capacities. The

elements are economic development; social capital; network

structures and linkages; social support; community bonds, roots, and

commitments; information and communication; and community

competence. The concept of information and communication is

closely linked to the system and infrastructure for informing the

public. Putting it simply, space matters in enhancing environmental

sustainability. The new technologies and innovations will help reduce

the impact of natural hazards on our cities, and the effect of our

cities on the environmental resources.

Ⅲ. Regenerating Our Cities as Smart

1. Urban Regeneration: A New Paradigm for Urban Development

Urban regeneration is the attempt to reverse that decline by both

improving the physical structure, and, more importantly, the economy

of those areas (The Guardian, 2001). In some developed countries

such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the rapid

suburbanization of large cities began in the 1950s. It resulted in many

urban problems, including the waste of energy resources, decline in

the commercial activities, traffic congestion, and pollution. In

addition, the decrease in investment in the city center deteriorated

the existing facilities and infrastructure, making the economic

condition in the inner area free fall. This phenomenon further


exacerbated the problems in the environment, economic, and social

aspects. The previous urban renewal projects in the 1950s and urban

renewal in the 1970s had been conducted to revitalize the depressed

economy in the old city areas. However, those modes of urban

development did not solve the problems effectively. The areas still

suffered from the severe economic downturn and physical

deterioration of urban infrastructure.

The concept of urban regeneration emerged as a policy alternative

to these problems. In the 1980s, urban regeneration projects focused

on the physical and economic revitalization of dilapidated city center.

However, since the 1990s across the Europe, the new approach to

urban regeneration appeared. It emphasized the environmental and

economic perspectives, and more integrated approaches to urban

redevelopment. It related the stimulation of economic activities and

environmental improvements to wider social and cultural elements

(Colantonio and Dixon, 2011). Moreover, in the 1990s when

environmental problems were recognized at a global scale, the

necessity of urban regeneration was emphasized in accordance with

the need for comprehensive prescriptions for solving urban problems.

England has conceptualized urban regeneration as an alternative to

urban renewal in improving social, education, welfare and cultural

services and in securing competitiveness through urban economic

recovery. In other words, urban regeneration is a concept that

emphasizes the comprehensive treatment to reviving the city's

physical, environmental, industrial, economic, social, and cultural

sectors.

England is the country that pioneered the concept of urban

regeneration. The philosophy of urban regeneration in England is


linked to the creation of “sustainable places where people want to

live, work, and raise a family” (CLG, 2009). The key recipe for

successful urban regeneration is the combination of (1) the

enhancement of social and economic mobility, and (2) the promotion

of local values, and (3) the participation of the third sectors. Roberts

(2000) provided a broader definition as follows:

“…a comprehensive and integrated vision and action which leads

to the resolution of urban problems and which seeks to bring

about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social

and environmental conditions of an area that has been subject to

change.”

In his terminology, urban places are centers of political power with

complex and dynamic systems. Cities are in the middle of physical,

social, environmental and economic transition. They change by

external forces or by internal pressures. In this regard, urban

regeneration can be considered as the outcome of the interaction

between many activities and opportunities.

2. The Linkage between the 4th Industrial Revolution and Urban Regeneration

On 25 August 2017, Kim Hyun-Mi, the Minister of Land,

Infrastructure, and Transport of Korea, emphasized that Korea should

take advantage of the 4th industrial revolution through the

construction of smart cities and through the adaptation of the new

wave into urban regeneration. During her visit to the Smart City

promotion center (“The Smartium”) near Suseo Station in Seoul, she

noted that we should build cities that operate in favor of


human-begins via better technologies and services. She also said that

the 4th Industry Committee will be formed as a government

organization, and smart city will become an important part of the

work in the Committee, hoping that Korea plays a pioneering role in

the new industrial revolution. Her interest in smart city continues. She

scheduled visits to the Smart City Center in Incheon and the POSCO

Green Building. There, she is planning to check the integrated

management platform that links individual city information systems

such as disaster prevention and crime prevention in Incheon. As the

POSCO Green Building, she will look at some eco-friendly

technologies.

As mentioned above, the Korean government is recognizing the

smart city movement as one of the most important sources of

economic development. Then, what will the linkage between smart

city and urban regeneration bring to us? OVUM, an independent

analyst and consultancy firm headquartered in London, published a

paper in 2011 that illustrates how to renew our cities in the era of

digital revolution. The firm observes that city authorities in both

developed and developing countries are facing significant challenges

in natural resource management, transportation infrastructure

management, and environmental protection (OVUM, 2011). While

completely new development of green cities is ideal, it would be

simply very expensive, and most people will never live in that kind

of development. Instead, regenerating our places with “smart”

technologies might be a second best solution. However, we already

know that making existing cities smart is not an easy task.

Table 1 exhibits what sectors can benefit from smart technologies

in regenerating our cities. Civil services to urban residents can be


efficiently provided via information technology. Municipal authorities

and citizens can actively involve in deriving solutions to current urban

problems. The advanced technologies should reduce the transaction

costs in economic activities. Industries and residents will enjoy the

complete information on real estate decisions. Smart infrastructure

leads to more cohesive community, reduces crimes, and creates more

efficient energy management system. Elderly can be easier to get

access to health care services.

<Table 1> Digital urban renewal initiative categories

Category Description

Citizen services Using ICT to make existing processes involving interaction between the municipality and citizens better, cheaper, or both.

Regional/economic development

ICT-oriented economic development or regeneration. Aimed at attracting digital industries or residents that make real estate decisions based on the availability of broadband.

Community Using ICT and crowd-sourcing to increase community cohesion, or influence and improve the political system. Typically started by civil sector organizations or social enterprises.

Law enforcement Using ICT to improve law enforcement and/or crime prevention through surveillance or improved communications for operatives.

Resource management

The use of ICT to improve the functioning of citywide systems to use energy and other resources more efficiently.

Behavioral change Using ICT to facilitate behavioral change by providing information or tools that make the desired behavior easier or more attractive.

Health The use of ICT to promote or deliver healthcare, and control illness or disease.

Source: OVUM (2011)

The smart technologies can regenerate our cities as green,

decentralized but connected places with sustainable residential and

commercial environment. The term “garden cities” is still abstract,

derived from the Victorian era. The central government’s planning for

garden cities mainly focuses on homes, with jobs being specifically

identified as an element to “make places great to live in” (The


Guardian, 2014). The garden city must be operated with strong local

jobs. We should manage to renovate the transportation with capital

costs being minimized in urban regeneration. Electronic

communication will make workers be able to work in a flexible

environment, which means homes are also workplaces. To make these

innovations down to earth, we should devise tools for comprehensive

and adaptive master plan with a reasonable evaluation procedure.

The system should not be locked in the fragmentation of each

element. It should be balanced between integration and flexibility. In

order to make urban regeneration successful, stakeholders must work

together to ensure the quality of life and well-being.

The positive results are shown in Table 2. The sustainable urban

mobility enables people to take informed decisions about their

mobility, saving time and energy. ITS can reduce waiting time as well

as emissions, and facilitate intermodal commuting. The traffic

monitoring system optimizes fleet management and route scheduling.

Sustainable built-environment reduces emissions and resource

consumption by embedding integrated energy efficiency technologies.

Smart city platforms allow real time monitoring and preventive

steering of cities. Intelligent city services promote involvement and

participation at the local level. Smart grids collect information and

insights. The collected information mainly belongs to planners and

managers, but is often shared with users. Here, users can take more

informed decisions and can also become prosumers. Prosumers can

switch from being energy consumers to becoming producers based on

the circumstances.


<Table 2> Type of smart infrastructure and the relevant value created

Type of smart infrastructure Value

SustainableUrbanMobility

Real-time road userinformation

Enable people to take informed decisions about their mobility, saving time and energy.

ITS-basedenhancements ofpublic transport

Reduce waiting time as well as emissions, and facilitate intermodal commuting.

ITS for trafficmonitoring,management andenforcement

Optimize fleet management and route scheduling.

SustainableDistricts &BuiltEnvironment

Smart technologiesfor the builtenvironment

Pursue better living, resource efficiency and waste reduction.

Sustainable districts Reduce emissions and resource consumption by embedding integrated energy efficiency technologies.

lace making Create communities of interest that can be key to support integrated SCC solutions.

IntegratedInfrastructure& Processes

Smart City Platforms Allows real time monitoring and preventive steering of cities.

Intelligent CityServices

Co-ownership of local matters and outcomes. Efficiency savings for city administrations. Stimulate involvement at local level.

Smart grids Collected information and insights may serve planners and managers. However, they are often shared with users, who can take more informed decisions and can also become prosumers. Prosumers can switch from being energy consumers to becoming producers based on the circumstances.

Source: European Commission (2016)

We should take a close look at the recent innovation in linking

smart city technologies to urban regeneration in Europe. The

REMOURBAN (REgeneration MOdel for accelerating the smart URBAN

transformation) project is the five-year E.U.-funded urban

development initiative, officially launched in April 2015. The

REMOURBAN project is an urban regeneration model to accelerate

intelligent urban transformation. In detail, REMOURBAN is a

large-scale demonstration project, whose aim is to accelerate urban


transformation of European cities into smart cities, taking into

account all aspects of sustainability. It pursues several objectives, the

most important of which is the development of an integrated and

replicable model for sustainable urban regeneration, with a joint

approach to the energy, mobility and ICT sectors. The spirit of the

project is based upon the notion that the sustainable development of

urban areas is a key challenge for Europe. Addressing this requires

the use of innovative, efficient and accessible technologies and

services, and their application to the energy, transportation and

information, and communication technologies (ICTs) sectors. These

sectors are of critical importance to achieve social improvements and

economic benefits.

<Figure 3> REMOURBAN main concept

Source: REMOURBAN (www.remourban.eu)


The concept of the REMOURBAN model is based on the virtuous

cycle and self-generating process. Energy, transport and information,

and communication technologies (ICT) are of importance in order to

achieve economic and societal benefits and to improve citizens’

quality of life (García-Fuentes et al., 2017). Starting to put more

emphasis on citizen, rather than physical infrastructure, this urban

regeneration model makes stakeholders interplay and interact in

technological and business sectors. The result is the improvement of

sustainability and smartness in cities. One important feature of the

model is its capacity to replicate at the European level with the model

being a standardized product. The project sets up its goals as follows:

● to develop, validate and guarantee the replicability of a

sustainable urban regeneration model.

● to accelerate the development of innovative technologies,

organizational and economic solutions.

● to significantly increase resource and energy efficiency, improve

the sustainability of urban transport and drastically reduce

greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas.

Currently, the project has been tested in three “lighthouse” cities

and two “follower” cities. The lighthouse and follower cities in

REMOURBAN reflect diverse levels of population growth, housing

needs, infrastructure and public awareness (Construction 21

International, 2015). Urban regeneration in the lighthouse cities

corresponds to the first phase of the project. The scale of the first

phase is relatively large, and its mission is to deploy integrated

actions by linking energy, mobility and ICT sectors. Nottingham for


example is the first city in the UK to have strict environmental

standards for all buses entering the city center. Transportation

infrastructure in this city requires innovative management. The

municipality of Tepebasi is a part of Greater Eskisehir. The third of

its population comprises students. One of the policies there is to

increase the use of bicycles. The current actions and interventions

regarding urban regeneration in Valladolid are as follows.

■ Building retrofitting • Monitoring: ICT platform for energy performance monitoring. • Retrofitting: 24,700 m2 district retrofitting | 398 dwellings | 1.000 residents | 50%

energy savings. • Renewable heating & cooling: Biomass district heating. • Electricity distributed generation: Combined Heat and Power generation (CHP) |

Photovoltaic panels on façade (64 kWp). • Advanced BEMS: Advanced Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) for

monitoring of district heating and building comfort controllers.■ Sustainable mobility • Full & hybrid electric vehicles: 20 FEV (Full Electric Vehicle) taxis | 3 electric Buses (1 FEV and 2 PHEV) | 2 electric cars (FEV) – car sharing fleet | 20 private electric cars

(FEV). • Charging infrastructure: 4 Charg. Points for electric taxis |1 Fast Charg. Point for taxis |

4 Fast Charg. Points for electric buses | Upgrade of 13 Electric Vehicle Charg. Stations | 20 recharging points in parking areas.

• Door-to-door multimodality transport: Ticketing system based on RFID cards, shared among users from buses, bicycles & car-sharing fleet.

• Clean logistics: 5 Full Electric Vehicles Last Mile of Delivery in Castilla and Leon Logistics regional network 5 TOTAL.

• Intelligent transport systems: Smart Phone App as an Aid to Mobility. • Incentives: Free parking for Electric Vehicles | Taxes reduction for Electric Vehicles |

Special lanes for Electric Vehicles.■ Integrated infrastructure actions • City information platform: City Information Platform to collect and store all the data

from the monitored devices. • Shared infrastructure: Access to smart metering infrastructure. • Road systems: Smart phone apps. • Peer-to-peer transport information: Car Sharing municipality fleet (Sustainable mobility

priority area).

Source: REMOURBAN (www.remourban.eu)

Embracing such diversity above will need a high level of

organizational participation and active governance among


stakeholders with each partner playing a decisive role. The effort is

necessary to engage with local residents to acquire consensus and to

enhance citizens’ awareness to the changes in their communities.

Localization of the project is one of the most critical elements in the

smart urban regeneration. Tailored solutions to localities overarching

a wide range of actors are the key to the success in the smart urban

reformulation from the physical, social, and economics perspectives.

The REMOURBAN platform is a channel for local correspondents to

stick together and to dialogue towards active engagement with

experts, citizens, and policy practitioners.

3. Opportunities and Threats: How to Process Urban Regeneration in a Better Way

1) Urban Regeneration in Korea

The “Urban Regeneration New Deal” policy is a spatial development

project that encourages the revitalization of declining areas through

public support. To promote urban regeneration, it is necessary to

establish “Urban Regeneration Strategic Plan” and “Urban

Regeneration Activation Plan”. Urban Regeneration Strategic Plan is

to investigate and discover various plans, projects, programs, types

and intangible regional assets. The Activation Plan is an action plan

for urban regeneration projects in accordance with the Urban

Regeneration Strategic Plan.

There are two types according to the main purpose and nature of

the urban regeneration: “urban economic base type” and

“neighborhood regeneration type”. Urban economic base type is to

provide new functions and to create jobs through the maintenance


and development of vacant facilities, such as industrial complexes,

ports, airports, railways, national highways and waterfront areas.

Neighborhood regeneration type is a relatively small residential and

commercial development. This type is set up to improve the living

environment of the residential units, to expand the basic living

infrastructure, and to revitalize the community’s economic

performance.

In order to seek self-sustained growth, improved competitiveness,

community recovery, and cooperative governance, the Korean

government has introduced the “gateway review” system, which

monitors the progress and performance of each project. It is

necessary for the project to go through the review by the central

government at the stage of establishing the regeneration plan and at

the stage of the project implementation. There are two steps in this

procedure:

● The review process at the strategic planning stage investigates

each local government’s regeneration plan and the governance

component. The latter includes the existence and soundness of

the project management committee and the regeneration

support center.

● The review process at the activation planning stage examines the

content of the urban regeneration activation plan. The

components monitored are the appropriateness of core

strategies and the feasibility of the project.

Only after passing the two procedures, the plan for activation can


be submitted to the Urban Regeneration Special Committee to acquire

the government support. After the approval of the activation plan, the

government conducts a series of screening process each year.

The government recently announced a collaboration system

between relevant ministries in order to provide the funds in an

efficient way. The relevant ministries are of urban & architecture,

culture & tourism, jobs & economy, and local & rural areas. In detail,

the integration includes the creation of cultural cities (Ministry of

Culture, Sports and Tourism), the support to young entrepreneurship

(Department of Small Venture Business) and an age-friendly

community regeneration (Ministry of Health and Welfare).

There are some problems in the urban regeneration process in

Korea. Excessive administrative duties cause the gateway review

process to be too complicated. In addition to the second stage

screening process, the annual review at the project implementation

stage may be considered as an excessive central intervention at the

local government level, which makes the process to be an old,

top-down planning system. Moreover, the strategic plan, which is set

up at the upper metropolitan level, does not accurately reflect the

status quo of localities. Therefore, if local government needs to

modify the activation plan, the upper strategic plan must be modified

accordingly, which makes the urban regeneration procedure

inefficient.

At the local level, the project is managed by the support center,

which also produces inefficiency. Urban regeneration might need

professional developers, who can establish and manage a business

model that meets with local needs. The business model must take into

account the cost effectiveness, considering the local conditions in


very specific detail. It is difficult to ask civil workers in the central

government and local governments to diagnose all the local

conditions and then to establish an efficient and sustainable business

model. Therefore, the competence of the professional developers,

who have expertise in discovering and establishing a proper business

model, should be put in place. The public developers such as Land

and Housing Corporation (LH), Housing Urban Guarantee Corporation

(HUG) and others are expected to participate in the urban

regeneration projects all over the country. We observe that the public

developers, who have been focusing on housing development

projects, are limited to offer integrated planning solutions covering

urban planning, urban design, technology and engineering, industrial

policy, management, and financing. Therefore, it is necessary to

utilize creativity and financial resources from the private sector.

Accordingly, the role of the central government might have to be

limited to give support to each regeneration project.

Finally and most importantly, the current urban regeneration

projects in Korea lack sophisticated and comprehensive “smart”

infrastructure provision plans. As the ultimate goal of the urban

regeneration project is to raise the quality of life via physical, social,

and economic upgrading, we should evaluate the current condition of

deteriorating old infrastructure and facilities, and make them “smart”.

We should adopt a new wave of information technologies into our

urban regeneration plans.

2) Balancing Integration and Decentralization in Smart Urban Regeneration

In the previous section, we criticized the top-down approach,


which is led by the central government in Korea. However, it is true

that there is tension among various players who are coming to the

project in the pursuit of their own causes. According to the report by

OVUM, there are two types of approaches when it comes to the

top-down and bottom-up perspectives (OVUM, 2011). The top-down

is of a tight approach, which involves monitoring and control by the

central government. The paradigm for a top-down approach is about

the centralized resource allocation for the entire city. On the

contrary, the bottom-up is of a loose approach, which focuses on

flexibility, community involvement, and behavior change at the local

level. The paradigm for a bottom-up approach is to establish an open

source platform that ensures applications and extensions by

non-governmental entities.

A large number of European projects are heading towards the

bottom-up approach. They emphasize the empowerment of citizens

and the co-production and coordination among residents, firms,

experts, and governmental bodies. The projects aim to collect ideas

and experience from open sources and innovation from the users.

The value here is to promote the digital democracy. The dynamic

cooperation will result in more inclusive and effective products.

Which is more efficient in making smart urban regeneration?

Singapore’s new town development projects covering Golden Shoe

financial district, Orchard Road, and Marina Bay had involved the

top-down process. The recent example of the top-down approach in

Singapore when it comes to smart infrastructure is to equip the

underwater management system with a large number of smart sensors.

The counterpart is the plan for Amsterdam’s urban EcoMap. We know

both worked correctly.


In this study, we posit that when a large number of actors with

conflicting interests fail to connect and integrate, the whole system

could collapse. Without the integrated decision-making, cities can

create significant inefficiencies and risks. In a sense, the urban

regeneration arena is a battlefield for many small entities to gather

there in order to extract their portions. As Perrow (1963) put it, it is

the power structure that dictates the operative goals of the

organization. Multiple leadership arises when the interests of the

participants diverge, and each entity has the power to protect its own

interests. We believe that a specific urban regeneration project will

drift away from the appropriate and reasonable goal when the level

of fragmentation among participants exceeds its maximum tolerance.

In accordance with this observation, we might need some level of

federalism or centralization in the decision-making process. Either

the governmental or non-governmental entity (for example,

quasi-governmental developer or private business firm) can take the

task. In Korea, each local government should establish a “community

governance planning” in the activation planning stage. We believe this

effort is necessary for participants in the regeneration projects not to

go astray from the common goal and the common community value.

Ⅳ. Conclusion: Towards Next-Generation Cities

This study takes a perspective approach relating to the 4th

industrial revolution to smart spatial development and the recent

urban regeneration phenomenon. The new digital revolution enables

us to build smart cities via the highly-advanced technologies, such as


wireless connected appliances, interactive and predictive devices, and

more broadly innovative ideas themselves. There is no doubt that

these technological advances will bring about more efficient way of

life in our urban settings. In fact, the concept of smart city is beyond

technological tools. The new revolution will change the city

administration from the physical, societal, environmental, economic,

and psychological perspectives.

We should make our cities self-generating and sustainable via smart

urban regeneration. Smart technologies enable us to study our own

behavior on how we consume our spaces and interact among

ourselves. The way of our living can be accumulated into the cluster

of storage as the big data form, and the data in turn help predict the

pattern of the movements of economic activities in our cities. This

positive feedback will further help step forward to another round of

digital innovation.

The digital democracy and its individual efficacy match well with

the concept of urban regeneration. Urban regeneration has arisen as

an alternative to the massive deconstruction and the large-scale land

assembly with eminent domain, which sometimes invoked strong

disagreement and violent disruption during the deconstruction and

rebuilding process. Now, the urban development in the digital era is

processed with the agreement and consensus from all of the

participants, who are influenced by the regeneration projects. Urban

regeneration will be a good testbed for advancing our information

technologies with tailored physical and non-physical infrastructures.

The smart urban regeneration with advanced technologies may be

stagnant and be out of the right path when a large number of

participating entities have conflicting goals and interests at any stage


of the regeneration process. When fragmented, participants are

neither empowered nor sufficiently resourced to carry out the project

successfully (OVUM, 2011). Multiple contradicting objectives hinder

the projects from guaranteeing the integrity and accountability.

Suppose the case where the central government enacts regulations

that prevent people from sharing the data created from the smart

infrastructure. Then, the self-generation and positive feedback

mechanism will not work as intended. The displacement of existing

tenants through gentrification could be another example of

conflicting interests. Financial decision-making processes and the

degrees of discounting the future cash flows could be significantly

different between small, young smart appliance firms and large

companies that build major transportation networks. Small artists and

firms in creative industries emphasize a slow growth of cultural and

athletic values, while real estate developers might want the project to

be expedited at a faster pace.

Threats from the segmented activities in the era of digital

revolution could be eliminated through the digital innovation itself.

Active adjustment, coordination, communication, and cooperation

can be promoted via wired networks, internet of things, and other

information technologies. We hope urban regeneration carried out

smart, sound, and sustainable. Then, the next-generation cities can

further contribute to the advent of another round of technological

innovation and ultimately a vibrant urban life.


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1)

Choongik Choi : He holds a Ph. D. in environmental planning at Seoul National

University (2004). He has worked as a researcher of Hazard and Vulnerability

Research Institute, University of South Carolina (2007-2008) and also served as a

faculty affiliate of California State Polytechnic University at Pomona (2013-2015).

His research interests encompass risk management and environment impacts in

terms of spatial planning (choich@ kangwon.ac.kr).

Chun-Il Kim : He graduated from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at

M.I.T. in 2017 and earned a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning. As an associate

research fellow of the Construction & Economy Research Institute of Korea (CERIK),

he focuses on the linkage between technological advances and urban regeneration.

He is also a member of the research team for forecasting real estate markets at

CERIK ([email protected]).

Received:Revised:Accepted:

11 September 201723 September 201723 October 2017

http://www.zdnet.com/

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