Page 33 - Reference framework for integrated management of an SSC - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

of adequate strategic planning, of the costs and benefits, of the objectives to be achieved and of
the actions to be implemented for it. This prior strategic planning should be coordinated with the
rest of the planning instruments that impact the territory and adopt global and holistic approaches
to achieve an intelligent urban environment. It is not enough to achieve optimal values in some
indicators independently; starting from the systemic and reticular vision of the city, it is necessary
to programme and execute, in a transversal and general way, the objectives to be achieved so that
global and tendentially compensable results are obtained.

There is a double participation: users (holders of the ultimate public authority and recipients in the
capacity of the services); and external providers, where appropriate. The adequacy and efficiency
of the model – in organizational and operational headquarters later – would require the municipal
administration to assess the different forms, ways properly, and times of public participation in
planning procedures, as well as in contracting procedures (in the case of indirect or concessional
management). If the companies in charge of urban services incorporate technological actions in
the city, this would allow citizens to interact, in a simple and accessible way, through their mobile
terminals with the system, thus participating in public affairs.

The management and/or provision of public services in this context – and from these parameters
of innovation, excellence, and continuous improvement – clearly require new forms of organization
of the responsible public administrations (participatory relational governance). It is, therefore, a
question of planning, innovating in management, and through it, achieving better public services
and the best possible quality of life for the benefit of all citizens.

One of the significant challenges in this regard is the correct legal-public organization of the
“Internet of Things,” whose systems allow the continuous acquisition of data by sensors installed in
the city, their local storage or the cloud and the delivery (sometimes automated and in real-time)
of orders to devices that interact with reality itself.

The Internet ceases to be just a virtual network of networks for information and communication and
the exchange and creation of knowledge, to become an actual “vital area”. Pairing (or interaction)
of devices and data with a set of physical infrastructures of the city and its services can logically
reduce costs of these and, at the same time, improve the overall sustainability of the system.

The use of these systems also requires adequate infrastructures for the storage and analysis of
a growing volume of contextual information produced, sometimes in real time. In this dynamic
environment, different solutions have been proposed such as WEB 3.0, or Blockchain, a technology
capable of supporting decentralized and distributed databases with encrypted documentation
and secure collaborative management.

It is also necessary to rethink the legal framework and the organization/administrative activity
of using Artificial Intelligence systems in the provision of certain services or utilities to citizens.
Likewise, there should be a rethink of the set of predictive analytics systems that can be applied to
administrative activity, still very weakly intuited in the basic regulations on the legal regime of the
public sector through the so-called automated administrative action.

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