Cities need to be smarter: expert

Cities that use technology to become "smarter" will be better placed to attract international investment, says an Australian researcher.

Ovum research director Steve Hodgkinson said the population of cities around the world would surge by 2.9 billion over the next 40 years.

As numbers grew, local government politicians must learn how to best foster technology and innovation if they were to cope, he said.

"From a global strategic perspective, you can't accommodate more people in cities if you continue to build and run them like they have in the past. It's just not going to work - there is not the resources."

He said local authorities needed to start taking advantage of the ideas and information circulating in "digital society" and social network platforms, which were offering a "new potential and new ways of doing things".

Hodgkinson gave the example of the information websites which sprung up after the Canterbury earthquake, aggregating information from internet users and from social networks such as Twitter.

These "digital society" websites could collect and distribute information far quicker than the local council or Civil Defence could, he said.

Authorities which could become "smarter" by incorporating these informal digital networks into their planning and policy would be better placed attract investment.

"There's huge competition [between cities] for the best businesses, for the best people, for money from big vendors. There won't be enough money so the [cities] that have really smart visions to use technology to grow the city will attract funding and smart people," he said.

"The faster [authorities] can get on to leveraging [emerging technology] the more they can co-produce value in the city, rather than investing and building it themselves with their own money."