Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population

Despite increased interest in the development of smart cities and urban spaces that cater to the needs of their inhabitants, there is a significant lack of information and experience when it comes to working with older people. URBANAGE is a European H2020 project focused on supporting urban planners...

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Main Authors: Aaro Tupasela, Juanita Devis Clavijo, Marjut Salokannel, Christoph Fink
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society 2023-03-01
Series:Internet Policy Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://policyreview.info/node/1700
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author Aaro Tupasela
Juanita Devis Clavijo
Marjut Salokannel
Christoph Fink
author_facet Aaro Tupasela
Juanita Devis Clavijo
Marjut Salokannel
Christoph Fink
author_sort Aaro Tupasela
collection DOAJ
description Despite increased interest in the development of smart cities and urban spaces that cater to the needs of their inhabitants, there is a significant lack of information and experience when it comes to working with older people. URBANAGE is a European H2020 project focused on supporting urban planners and policymakers in the decision-making process for age-friendly cities by developing new technologies for evidence-based decision-making. Older adults over 60 years of age, public servants and other relevant stakeholders were invited to co-create and test the solution to ensure that their needs and challenges were being addressed by the project. Decision-makers are facing major challenges in terms of understanding and addressing the needs of vulnerable population groups, such as older people, because of the lack of large enough datasets of disaggregated anonymised data. In this article, we report on the main challenges encountered during the implementation of the URBANAGE project, and the development of the components for big data analytics, visualisations, predictive algorithms and simulation. Using examples from three European locations – Helsinki, Flanders and Santander – we describe and discuss how we can gather personal data related to the daily lives of older people in terms of the existing privacy and data protection laws in the EU. The use of new technologies, such as location-based information devices, can provide up-to-date and precise information regarding problems that older people face while moving around the city, but they pose privacy concerns at the same time.
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spelling doaj-art-882576c2bbac42d69f57dd9b1422f60d2025-08-20T02:02:50ZengAlexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and SocietyInternet Policy Review2197-67752023-03-0112110.14763/2023.1.1700Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable populationAaro Tupasela0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1512-7533Juanita Devis Clavijo1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3206-0457Marjut Salokannel2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0187-2092Christoph Fink3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1251-9726University of HelsinkiVrije Universiteit BrusselUniversity of HelsinkiUniversity of HelsinkiDespite increased interest in the development of smart cities and urban spaces that cater to the needs of their inhabitants, there is a significant lack of information and experience when it comes to working with older people. URBANAGE is a European H2020 project focused on supporting urban planners and policymakers in the decision-making process for age-friendly cities by developing new technologies for evidence-based decision-making. Older adults over 60 years of age, public servants and other relevant stakeholders were invited to co-create and test the solution to ensure that their needs and challenges were being addressed by the project. Decision-makers are facing major challenges in terms of understanding and addressing the needs of vulnerable population groups, such as older people, because of the lack of large enough datasets of disaggregated anonymised data. In this article, we report on the main challenges encountered during the implementation of the URBANAGE project, and the development of the components for big data analytics, visualisations, predictive algorithms and simulation. Using examples from three European locations – Helsinki, Flanders and Santander – we describe and discuss how we can gather personal data related to the daily lives of older people in terms of the existing privacy and data protection laws in the EU. The use of new technologies, such as location-based information devices, can provide up-to-date and precise information regarding problems that older people face while moving around the city, but they pose privacy concerns at the same time.https://policyreview.info/node/1700Smart citiesDigital twinsData protectionPrivacyAge-friendly cities
spellingShingle Aaro Tupasela
Juanita Devis Clavijo
Marjut Salokannel
Christoph Fink
Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
Internet Policy Review
Smart cities
Digital twins
Data protection
Privacy
Age-friendly cities
title Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
title_full Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
title_fullStr Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
title_full_unstemmed Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
title_short Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
title_sort older people and the smart city developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population
topic Smart cities
Digital twins
Data protection
Privacy
Age-friendly cities
url https://policyreview.info/node/1700
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AT marjutsalokannel olderpeopleandthesmartcitydevelopinginclusivepracticestoprotectandserveavulnerablepopulation
AT christophfink olderpeopleandthesmartcitydevelopinginclusivepracticestoprotectandserveavulnerablepopulation