Direct and Indirect Information in Urban Space Planning

Abstract

The relationship between new technologies and urban space has become, especially with the introduction of the concept of smart city, the key in the definition of management options in the city itself.
The opportunities provided by the use of new technologies to manage the complexity of multiple aspects on the relationship between city and people can address strategies and innovation in order to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants. In smart cities different groups of people with different instances can be directly involved in the transformation process and the planners’ choices can be supported by information that once would have required costly research. This possibility is granted by the availability of great quantities of data that can be collected and analyzed. Direct information can be gathered by multiple sensors (accelerometer, a geomagnetic sensor, and proximity sensor, etc.) that offer an immediate evaluation of a specific phenomenon. At the same time other aspects can be evaluated by information obtained in social networks: these can contribute to the definition of urban design as the result of a multi criteria analyses. The way to achieve these strategies is a process of interaction between spatial reality and perceived reality made available by passive forms of participation that can help planners in understanding territorial actors’ / territorial users’ needs and requirements.
Through this approach, the design and decisions about urban space are not to be indifferent to the needs expressed by various categories of population.