New urban infrastructure investments in the context of smart city development have an impact on the lives of the city’s citizens. But while citizens provide a wealth of insights into how they live and interact with the city, their voices are often left out of the urban planning process, which leads to developments that lack vital social considerations. Ensuring a participatory, socially-inclusive, and data-driven city planning process can help local governments to prioritize investments that will not only improve the city’s livability and sustainability, but also its ability to respond to external shocks and stresses.

Digital technologies offer a broad range of engagement mechanisms that allow city governments to collect valuable feedback, insights, and data from an equally broad scope of community stakeholders. This interactive webinar explored how smart digital solutions can encourage meaningful civic participation that will enable cities to shift to a more user-centric urban planning methodology to create truly smart and livable cities. Panelists shared the benefits and experiences in implementing various digital civic participation platforms, along with best practices and specific use cases.

(Part 8 of the ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund Webinar Series)