Raumforschung und Raumordnung

, Volume 70, Issue 4, pp 323–336 | Cite as

Governance and Design of Urban Infostructures

Analysing Key Socio-Technical Systems for the Vulnerability and Resilience of Cities
Wissenschaftlicher Beitrag
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Abstract

Information, communication and knowledge creation are at the core of urban stakeholder interactions enabling the identification of vulnerabilities and the design of adequate responses to them. Urban infostructures play a crucial role within these processes, interfacing between a city’s ecological, social, technical, economic and political networks. Against this backdrop, this paper discusses the governance and design of urban infostructures from a socio-technical systems perspective. It, therefore, reviews pertinent technology components, as well as institutional and discursive frameworks and their respective influence on the identification and assessment of vulnerabilities and resilience building in cities. It concludes that approaches to developing urban infostructures should be a major concern when addressing urban resilience. There is a need to fully account for the hybrid character of urban infostructures as socio-technical systems, while also seizing opportunities for targeted transformation.

Keywords

Cities Vulnerability Resilience Socio-technical systems Local government Information infrastructures Spatial data infrastructures Knowledge Discourse 

Zur Governance und Gestaltung urbaner Infostrukturen

Eine Analyse sozio-technischer Schlüsselsysteme für die Vulnerabilität und Resilienz von Städten

Zusammenfassung

Information, Kommunikation und Wissensgenese stehen im Mittelpunkt von Interaktionen städtischer Akteure, die zur Identifikation von Vulnerabilitäten und zur Gestaltung passender Gegenmaßnahmen führen. Dabei spielen urbane Informationsinfrastrukturen eine maßgebliche Rolle, da sie zwischen den ökologischen, sozialen, technischen, ökonomischen und politischen Netzwerken einer Stadt vermitteln. Vor diesem Hintergrund behandelt der vorliegende Aufsatz die Steuerung und den Aufbau urbaner Informationsinfrastrukturen als sozio-technische Systeme. Daher werden wesentliche Technologiekomponenten sowie institutionelle und diskursive Rahmenbedingungen betrachtet und hinsichtlich ihres Einflusses auf die Identifikation und Bewertung urbaner Vulnerabilitäten und auf den Aufbau urbaner Resilienz hin untersucht. Daraus wird gefolgert, dass Ansätze zur Entwicklung urbaner Informationsinfrastrukturen ein zentrales Anliegen sein sollten, wenn es um die Resilienz von Städten geht. Dies erfordert dem hybriden Charakter urbaner Infrastrukturen als sozio-technische Systeme umfassend Rechnung zu tragen, und gleichzeitig Gelegenheiten für eine gezielte Transformation zu nutzen.

Schlüsselwörter

Stadt Vulnerabilität Resilienz Sozio-technisches System Kommunale Verwaltung Informationsinfrastruktur Geodateninfrastruktur Wissen Diskurs 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional DevelopmentDresdenGermany

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