Urban Digital Strategies: Planning in the Face of Information Technology?

Abstract

A growing number of cities around the world have now developed urban digital strategies to speed up the pace of change, and more importantly to move their digital planning and policymaking from ad-hoc to an integrated and strategic approach. The paper provides a cross-national comparative study, based on recently developed urban digital strategies in Brisbane, Australia and Vancouver, Canada. The aim is to understand if and how urban digital strategies align with broader strategic planning in the two cities. To do so, the paper combines policy analysis with interviews of a selection of stakeholders in both cities. The lessons learned can be transferred to all cities interested in integrated digital planning for successful strategic urban outcomes.