Measuring smart cities in Indonesia

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

The Suroboyo Bus service of the Surabaya municipal administration stops on April 9, 2018 at a bus shelter on Jl. Darmo in the East Java capital. The city-owned bus, which serves the Purabaya-Jalan Rajawali Terminal route, charges its passengers a “fare” of recyclable materials such as plastic, paper and glass.

Along with an increase in population and economic centers, cities are now becoming more strategic. However, their problems have become increasingly more complex.

The application of smart city principles is needed to overcome this problem, and the level of city intelligence can be measured periodically through the Smart City Index.

It is estimated that in 2050, about 70 percent of the world\'s population — including in Indonesia — will live in cities. According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, 49.8 percent of Indonesia’s population in 2010 lived in urban areas. By 2030, the figure will increase to 63.4 percent.

As the population in the city climbs, impacts and problems also increase. Community demands for the improvement of public facilities and services have also increased. The economy is also expected to run smoothly, so that the people can live in prosperity without a significant social gap among them. Preserving the environment is also a major issue.

Solutions and problem solving can be seen in every city. These initiatives and solutions were recorded by Kompas by through the 2018 Indonesian Smart City Index (IKCI), which shows the degrees of implementation of smart cities concept in each city.

93 cities

In the 2018 IKCI, only 93 of the 98 cities were included in the index. Five cities in the special capital region of Jakarta are not included because the status of the five cities is different. They are categorized as administrative cities.

The measurements of these 93 cities are based on the size of their population. There are four categories: metropolitan cities or cities with a population of at least 1 million, big cities with a population of more than 500,000 but less than 1 million, medium cities inhabited by between 100,000 people and 500,000 people. Finally, there is a group of small cities with a population of 100,000 people at most.

Six pillars

In the 2018 IKCI, the concept of smart cities is associated with all efforts to solve the problems of urban citizens and the efficiency of resources, including energy. Services should be further improved to fulfill the needs of citizens. This concept also focuses on efforts toward sustainable development. At the end, the main achievement of smart cities should be the improvement of residents’ quality of the life.

Given the complexity of the concept of smart cities, the issuance of this index is based on Boyd Cohen\'s Smart City Circle. In this circle, the smart city is built from many aspects that can be grouped into six pillars, namely environment, mobility, government, economy, society and quality of life.

The indicators of the six pillars are measured. Secondary data related to 93 cities were collected from the BPS and other institutions. The figures and information collected were processed and weighed with

the opinions of 12 experts. Giving weight is important so that the methodology adopted can be more in line with Indonesia\'s condition.

Smart society

The biggest weight of the six smart city elements is in the aspect of society, especially in terms of education, creativity and inclusiveness.

Cities that excel in the 2018 IKCI generally have initiatives to improve the quality of life of the community. Surabaya in East Java, for example, won the first position in the metropolitan city category. The city has successfully developed the center of the digital startup industry and the opening of the Coworking Space Corridor to encourage the creative industry. In addition, there is a language center that can help residents learn foreign languages for free. Technology has also helped facilitate education in Surabaya.

According to Ridwan Sutriadi, author of the smart city book series from the perspective of urban planning who is also a lecturer of the regional and city planning study program in the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Indonesia — both at the national and regional levels — already has development planning.

These sectoral and spatial plans must be further strengthened by the idea of smart cities, namely sustainable development based on knowledge or technology. (RATNA SRI WIDYASTUTI DAN IGNATIUS KRISTANTO H/ LITBANG KOMPAS)