Informational Modeling of Cities: Method and Challenges for Institutional Implementation

ABSTRACT

Although cities are increasingly permeated by information and communication technologies (ICTs), these urban centers still face theoretical and practical obstacles regarding the application of 3D technologies as a tool for urban planning and management. This study aims to ontologically structure an informational model as an urban management tool and assess the perceived challenges for implementing this model in the municipal public management of Curitiba, Brazil. The study was carried out through the collective subject discourse, the interviews’ thematic saturation, and Delphi techniques. The results indicate that the technical capacity, technological infrastructure, and financial resources for the development of a city information modeling (CIM) exist, although its activation for such development depends on a more significant political and managerial entrepreneurship in the decision-making in arrangements of multilevel governance, and, consequently, there is a need to develop public policies for staff training to stimulate and promote advanced technological innovations for urban management and planning. Implementing a CIM in large cities seems to face more management and planning problems due to the lack of institutional ontologies than technological, infrastructural, or knowledge limitations.

KEYWORDS:

• city information modeling (CIM)
• urban management
• institutional ontology
• 3D technologies
• public policies

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Augusto Pimentel Pereira

Augusto Pimentel Pereira is a professor at FAE Centro Universitário and FAE Business School. His research spans urban management, public policies, public policy analysis, technological diffusion, and urban management and planning implementation.

Mario Prokopiuk

Mario Prokopiuk is a professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, leads the Public Policy Research Line in the Graduate Program in Urban Management (PPGTU), and co-leads the Center for Studies in Urban Policies (CE.URB).