Improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers

Main Article Content

Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke

Abstract

The embracement of smart city approach as a sustainable system for the management and delivery of infrastructural developments has been on the increase, especially in developed and some developing countries. For this to be successful, cities in these countries, particularly in developing ones like South Africa, needs to be resilient because even though resilience can be achieved by making cities smart, smartness does not bring resilience by default. Thus, this study examines various factors influencing the ability of cities to develop resilience through smart city drivers. A survey of construction professionals involved in the design, planning, development and general management of cities and their infrastructure was carried out with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. Factors influencing resilience were grouped into five divisions which are climate change, education, food security, public safety and threat to disease, in order of their importance. Findings revealed that the most important of these factors are the development of literacy and technical skills of citizens, regeneration of agricultural land and increased localised food production. The paper further examined the effects of these factors on six smart city drivers and found out that smart economy has the most influence on the resilience of a city. It was concluded that stakeholders concerned with the achievement of resilient smart city must give attention to the major needs of its citizens, and such needs are better produced locally.

Article Details

How to Cite
Oke, A. E., O. Aghimien, D., I. Akinradewo, O., & O. Aigbavboa, C. (2020). Improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers. Construction Economics and Building, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.5130/AJCEB.v20i2.6647
Section
Special Issue on Urban Regeneration for Sustainable Development
Author Biography

Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke, Federal University of Technology Akure

Oke, Ayodeji Emmanuel is a Quantity Surveyor by training and a PhD holder in the same discipline. He bagged his B.Tech degree in Quantity Surveying from Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria in 2006 with a first class (Hons.). He is a reviewer for various local and international reputable Journals. To his name and in collaboration with academia within and outside Nigeria, he has authored a good number of journal and conference papers both locally and internationally. He received 2016 Emerald Literati Award for the article on Structural Equation Modelling of Construction Bond Administration as a highly recommended paper in the Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction.He is one of the authors of the book titled sustainable value management for construction projects. He has supervised several students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He has also won several awards as well as training and fellowship grants. He is a corporate member of Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, a registered Quantity Surveyors and a member of Nigerian Institute of Management. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also a Lecturer in Department of Quantity Surveying, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. His areas of interest include sustainable construction, value management and quantity surveying practice.