Collective Intelligence to Co-Create the Cities of the Future: Proposal of an Evaluation Tool for Citizen Initiatives

Abstract

Citizen initiatives (CIs), through their activities, have become a mechanism to promote empowerment, social inclusion, change of habits, and the transformation of neighbourhoods, influencing their sustainability, but how can this impact be measured? Currently, there are no tools that directly assess this impact, so our research seeks to describe and evaluate the contributions of CIs in a holistic and comprehensive way, respecting the versatility of their activities. This research proposes an evaluation system of 33 indicators distributed in 3 blocks: social cohesion, urban metabolism, and transformation potential, which can be applied through a questionnaire. This research applied different methods such as desk study, literature review, and case study analysis. The evaluation of case studies showed that the developed evaluation system well reflects the individual contribution of CIs to sensitive and important aspects of neighbourhoods, with a lesser or greater impact according to the activities they carry out and the holistic conception they have of sustainability. Further implementation and validation of the system in different contexts is needed, but it is a novel and interesting proposal that will favour decision making for the promotion of one or another type of initiative according to its benefits and the reality and needs of the neighbourhood.

Global Models of Smart Cities and Potential IoT Applications: A Review

“…Citizen engagement: Barcelona has implemented various initiatives to engage its citizens and encourage them to participate in the city's decision-making process. For example, the city has developed a digital platform called "DECIDIM" that allows citizens to propose and vote on ideas for improving the city [208,210].…”

“…Citizen engagement: Copenhagen actively engages citizens in decision-making processes and encourages citizen participation through digital platforms. The city utilizes digital tools for public consultations, feedback collection, and collaborative problem-solving, fostering a sense of ownership and promoting a participatory approach [210,222]. 7.…”