City Planning under the Spell of Data

Text: Levente Szczuka

The society of the 21st century is approaching a digital society based on data, as a descendant of the information society. Whilst the Y generation uses data based gadgets relatively well, members of the Z generation („digital natives”) know, use and apply the most modern high-techs at skills level. Meanwhile the population of the Earth is going to reach 10 billions within the 40s, as the latest calculations and analyses conclude, the proportion of people living in urban (or urbanized conditions) had already exceeded 50% a few years ago. All this shall significantly change the requirements concerning the development, operations and maintenance of cities, and as a result, urban planning is going to face new challenges. All these ideas brought about the concept of the Smart City, the essence of which is to assist the majority of fields with digital technologies, interventions by decision-making systems, or by following automated trends and rules. Settlements this have to get prepared for using omni-present data which shall be of great help in design, operation and management alike.