Programmable Cities: A New ICT Approach

This paper introduces a new approach for the design, deployment and operation of information and communication technology infrastructure for what we conceived as “Programmable Cities”. We address how urban environments can be retrofitted and complemented with technology considering the core nature of cities being systems of systems and complex adaptive systems. We believe that this novel approach will allow city stakeholders to set the ground to transit from a passive to an active ICT infrastructure. Based on this, the emergent and aggregated complex behavior of a city, which is driven by its different layers and elements, is better matched by their digital counterparts as it evolves and adapts. The aim is to address the implications of systems of systems and complexity theory in City Science for the development of the ICT infrastruc-