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n the last decade, the words '€œsmart city'€ have become a trend, despite the fact that they actually cannot be easily defined because people have different understandings of the phrase. The smart city fever, however, has gone viral across the globe, including in Indonesia, where many local governments are keeping up by advancing their ICT and digital technology facilities.

It is true that the term smart city is closely related with ICT and digital technology, but not all cities that are equipped with digitalized facilities automatically deserve the label. Why?

Let us start with challenges facing cities in Indonesia. First is population growth. In 2005 we witnessed global urban population surpass rural population and in Indonesia it was in 2012 that urban population exceeded rural population.

This ever-increasing population has to be facilitated by cities. The most significant impact of such gigantic city population is the enormous need for housing and infrastructure such as roads, clean water and energy.

Some studies have revealed that only approximately 40 percent of the urban population of 85 million people in Indonesia has access to piped water, while transportation development in cities is unable to catch up with the ever-increasing population, causing regular traffic jams in almost all cities. So too with the drainage and sewerage networks; the un-integrated systems among cities and regions result in severe flooding in many cities almost every year.

The second challenge is food security. Indonesia ranked 72nd of 109 countries in the Global Food Security Index of 2014, behind Thailand (49th), Malaysia (34th) and even the Philippines (64th ). How city governments will satisfy the increasing need for food in the future remains to be solved.

The third challenge is climate change. Cities and their residents, especially the poor, are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Indonesian cities have to be able to mitigate and adapt whenever needed, for example when sea levels increase. On Feb. 25, 2014, the BBC reported that by 2050 around 1,500 Indonesian islands could be submerged. The same report said that persistent land subsidence would push Soekarno-Hatta International Airport below sea level in 2030.

Those three challenges will be harder to deal with when the problem of city governance arises. In fact, transparency and accountability remain a cause for concern in most cities in Indonesia. Budget watchdog Fitra found in its report in 2011 report that 58 percent of regencies and 69 percent of municipalities in the country failed to meet the principles of accountability, participation and equality.

So, how can smart city fever help overcome those challenges?

In a bid to fulfill the qualifications to become a smart city, most Indonesian cities develop and expand Internet connections. State telecommunications company PT Telkom, for example, disclosed that 40 percent of Makassar'€™s population of 1.8 million people is connected to the Internet and an expansion plan is already in place.

With 45 million Internet users as of June 2011, Indonesia is undoubtedly among the countries with the highest Internet penetration in the world. Indonesia is also home to the second largest number of Facebook users and third largest amount of Twitter users. Although in Indonesia, the Internet has so far been utilized mostly for leisure, the country remains a huge potential market now that online transactions are thriving.

Arguably, this is also the case with the smart city fever in Indonesia. Whether those cities really make full use of their smart facilities to cope with their problems and challenges remains a big question. Most of them seem to understand the importance of digital connections.

Hence their measurement of quality is how fast the Internet connection is that is available, while in fact it should be the speedy response with the help of the Internet of the city administration in solving problems faced by its citizens. Among other common urban issues are insufficient housing and infrastructure, poor piped-water connections, inadequate sewerage and drainage systems, congested transportation systems and flawed flood management, energy scarcity, food insecurity and a lack of climate change mitigation.

 A smart city will operate a digitally based command center to anticipate problems and take responsorial measures when needed. The smarter a city, the faster it acts to meet its citizens'€™ needs in an efficient and effective way.

The ultimate goal of urban development is providing services to its citizens toward a '€œjust and humane city'€.
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The writer is senior lecturer at the School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, Bandung Institute of Technology.