A tale of three cities: the concept of smart sustainable cities for the Arctic

Figures & data

Table 1. International standards organization smart city metrics.

People	Governance	Mobility	Environment	Living	Energy
Education	Governance	Transportation	Urban/local agriculture and food security	Housing	Energy
Health	Telecommunications	Finance	Environment and Climate Change	Population and social conditions	Finance
Economy	Finance	Environment and climate change	Solid Waste	Recreation	Telecommunications
Telecommunications		Energy	Wastewater	Safety	Urban/local agriculture and food security
Housing			Water	Sports & Culture
				Urban Planning

Source: Own compilation.

Table 2. Measures of smartness in Arctic cities.

Category	Measures
	Anchorage, Alaska	Bodø, Nordland	Oulu, Northern Ostrobothnia
Smart people	33.2% of borough residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor’s degree Anchorage residents earned on average $62,521 (about €54,373), more than $5000 (about €4348) above the national average	35.9% with university degree 0.93 patent applications per 10,000 capita (annual average 2016–2018) 2.7% of staff in business sector per 1000 people employed, works in the R&D sector (annual average 2016–2018)	33% with university degree 2 patent applications per 10,000 capita (annual average 2016–2018) 23.8% of staff in business sector per 1000 people employed, works in the R&D sector (annual average 2016–2018)
Smart energy	Energy Smart Lighting Initiative is retrofitting Anchorage streetlights with LED fixtures Municipal Maintenance and Operations converted 12,000 lights with annual cost savings of $780,000 1.3% wind power, 10.9% hydro, 1.4% landfill gas, and 86.3% natural gas Energy and Sustainability Coordinator	Zero emissions neighborhood in the new city district Goal of making all 50% of all building mass energy effective 99.6% of energy costs in Bodø municipality used on renewable energy (2018) 99% of the total use of energy in the county’s own buildings from renewable energy sources (2018)	E-lighthouse project, focusing specifically on Energy efficiency advice and energy saving for domestic retrofit and new buildings
Smart environment	City climate strategy (cutting CO2 by 80% by 2050 and reducing solid waste and capturing methane emissions, building resilience for climate-related emergencies, and improving forest management and wildfire prevention)	Environment one of three key focus areas in city community plan 87.1% of total household waste recycled (2018) Climate risk assessments in all new building and housing projects	City climate strategy (cutting CO2 by 20% by 2020) 7.8 tonnes CO2 emissions (below national average of 13–14.3 tonnes)
Smart mobility	Rider participation in Anchorage’s annual Bike to Work Day has increased by 260% since 2007 Over 500 Anchorage residents drive partial or fully electric vehicles ‘Complete Streets’ approach to planning and engineering stand for road that considers all road users Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Architecture adopted	€ 300 million to improving bike- and walk paths, public transport and roads € 5 million for reducing carbon emissions 75% of households have access to broadband of 100 mps or higher	600 km bike paths HTML5 site showing live locations of buses Traffic light priority solution for buses to stay on schedule
Smart governance	i-team, an internal consultancy for smart solutions Government Open Data Portal Code for America partnership to reduce barriers and connect job seekers	Citizen participation key in city plans and strategies Public requests and sources easily available online Bodø Bylab MoBo app for accessing all information about transportation options and carbon footprint	Citizen participation (PATIO, free public data sets) Increase R&D expenditures to €1.2 billion by 2020
Smart living	The Welcoming Anchorage Roadmap and the revitalization of the Design District in downtown Anchorage to enhance civic engagement; connected, safe, and healthy communities; education; economic development and entrepreneurship; and equitable access	New culture house and culture quarter ready in 2014 Public safety, personal growth and diversity is underlined as a key goal in the city plan strategy (2014–2026)	30% of public services and communication available as e-service by 2018

Source: Own compilation.