Title: Collaborative Planning and Management Frameworks: Approaches to Effective Urban Governance by Adoption of Emerging Technologies
Abstract: The adoption of emerging technologies for information and communication in the arena of urban development has augured well for most governments and organizations around the world. Yet while this has been received with much enthusiasm and appeal, in most developed countries, there seems to be some resistance and confusion, if not outright resentment in developing countries. This last aspect results from a lack of insights as well as the know-how of implementation mechanisms and derived benefits. This paper outlines a comprehensive framework to identify issues of concerned. The key impetus is effective communication through the use of various multimedia systems to enhance decision at both policy and public levels. The first part provides a general background to emerging technologies for information and communication within the arena of urban development. Emphasisis given to their successes and failure. The second part proposes a comprehensive framework that provides various alternatives to addressing particular, or general planning and management concerns within an urban set up, for effective governance. The third and final part concludes with recommendations on the need and approaches to accommodate new developments for information and communication with respect to environment, socioeconomic and sociocultural dynamisms for sustainable urban systems. Habits are determinant characteristics of most humans, and often reinforced by fear of the unknown in the face of apparent or implied change. Nonetheless, Change on its own, may be instigated by necessity or simply the sake of variety. However, a problem arises, when the rate of change cannot be controlled or directed. Especially, when the motivations for such changes are forced or shrouded in both alien and mistrusting circumstances. Somehow, it seems new technologies of information and communications, by their very nature, reflect these circumstances. In most developed countries, they provide the bedrock of innovative solutions to the challenges facing urban centers. On the other hand, they pose substantial challenges to the developing counties. There are essentially two reasons for this. First, the environment and purpose for which they were designed, are not always conformai with those of developing countries. Secondly, the people who end up using them have varyingly different attitude to technical appliances, both at policy levels and the general public levels. Notwithstanding, the rapid evolution of these technologies, even within the developed countries has had fairly diverse challenges of implementation. The areas of scaleability, security, platform conformability and data models, are the most problematic in dealing with information infrastructures. Yet, within their own spheres, they provide an outstanding breakthrough in the shift of policies and transactions, in terms of government and public operations. How then can these breakthroughs be adopted for effective governance? This paper makes an attempt at providing one option to addressing the issues involved in trying to proffer a solution to the problem of adopting information technologies to urban governance, within an evolutionary perspective. We approach the problem through a general survey of the underlying background of information and communication technologies, giving them a premise for the generation of failures as well as successes. Secondly, within the array of technological devices and required operational skills, we highlight the need for various alternatives for handling particular or general planning problems. Finally, we emphasize the need for, and approaches to accommodate the rapid evolutionary trend of information technologies in the arena of urban governance. Emerging Technologies of Information & Communication The rapid evolution witnessed within the field of information technologies in the closing phase of the last century, has been so revolutionary that most governments have been caught unawares. …
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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