How Kazakhstanis, together with the UNECE, are making the capital “smart”
The capital of Kazakhstan, the city of Nur-Sultan, literally grew up in the steppe, the right bank remained unchanged, while the left bank was built from scratch. To make the city comfortable for its residents in all aspects – such an ambitious task is, perhaps, before everyone who is involved in urbanism and urban architecture.
But what are the criteria for assessing whether the city is convenient? What are the requirements for a city as a comfortable living environment? How to assess how the city meets, thereby, standards and sustainable development goals?
Urban planning is an important element of the political agenda in Nur-Sultan. And a number of smart projects have already been implemented. For example, an open data platform available to every resident, the Smart Astana mobile application, a geographic information system, projects in the field of improving security, and much more make it possible to increase the comfort of living in the capital.
In 2018, in order to determine the necessary needs of the city and attract foreign investors, “Astana Innovations” JSC (AIN), together with the Akimat of Nur-Sultan, began to develop an analytical profile of the capital. The foreign partner was the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), with a developed methodology for collecting data on key performance indicators (KPIs) for smart sustainable cities within the framework of the United Sustainable Cities project.
Reference: A city profile is a set of conclusions and recommendations, in the form of a report and further publication, which the UNECE produces based on an assessment of data (key performance indicators) provided by a city/state for three key indicators: 1) economy – 45 indicators, 2) environment – 17 indicators, 3) society and culture – 29 indicators.
In 2019, data collection and analysis were carried out, as well as a survey of city stakeholders. Based on the results, 92 key indicators were developed, of which the main points of growth of the city of Nur-Sultan were determined.
Based on this profile of a smart sustainable city, UNECE experts developed and presented recommendations for improving the infrastructure of the city of Nur-Sultan. In November 2020, Botagoz Kasabek, the head of the Nur-Sultan Department of Digitalization and Public Services, made an online presentation of the final version of the Nur-Sultan City Profile at the UN international platform in Geneva and invited all investors to work in the capital of Kazakhstan. The report can be found here.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recommends the following changes: improving the solid waste management system, improving the resource balance of public buildings using certification measures, and information and communication technologies. As well as improving urban and spatial planning, increasing access to quality and affordable housing and improving urban governance for sustainable development, and ensuring the availability and access to city-data.
But I must say that positive changes are already being observed in Nur-Sultan. Residents actively use separate bins for sorting solid waste, and strict control is carried out over city dumps and garbage disposal. In addition, more and more modern energy-efficient buildings appear in the capital, and elements of “street lighting” are being introduced with an efficiency of up to 35-40%.
Undoubtedly, the “City Profile” made it possible to analyze the current situation, find errors and start fixing them. There is still a lot of work, and the next step will be to include in the profile one more chapter in the direction of “Resilience of the city to emergencies”.