The ICity Rate 2018 research offers a comprehensive overview of Italian smart cities, examining 107 municipalities. On the podium: Milan, followed by Florence and Bologna.
For the fifth consecutive year Milan confirms its position as the smartest city in Italy, with a lead of almost twenty points over the runner-up. Completing the podium are Florence and Bologna, taking silver and bronze respectively. These are the results of the ranking drawn up by ICity Rate 2018, the annual report produced by Fpa, Forum pubblica amministrazione, a company within the digital innovation media network Digital360, to provide a picture of Italian cities on their journey towards becoming "smart" — that is, closer to citizens' needs, more inclusive, more liveable and better able to promote development by adapting to change.
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Fpa identified and analysed 15 urban dimensions that define targets for cities at national and international level — dimensions defined by 107 indicators which, aggregated into the final ICity index, make it possible to draw up the final ranking among an equal number of provincial capitals. In the national list, several medium-sized cities also performed well, including Trento, Bergamo, Parma, Pisa and Reggio Emilia. Results were negative for the south, however: the bottom twenty cities are all southern.
Milan continues to hold first place in the ranking of the 107 municipalities analysed in the ICity Rate report, confirming itself as a "category of its own" and a model that is difficult to replicate elsewhere. It performs particularly well in economic solidity, research and innovation, employment and tourist-cultural attractiveness, although it still lags behind in environmental dimensions (land consumption and territory, air quality and water quality). Florence and Bologna follow, pulling ever further ahead of the rest, having so far best risen to the challenges of sustainability and innovation.
Florence posts excellent results in tourist-cultural attractiveness and digital transformation (first position) and ranks among the leading cities for sustainable mobility, economic stability, education, employment, civic participation and energy. Among the driving factors are investments made in the tramway, bike sharing and digital services.
Bologna, for its part, confirms its leadership in employment, energy, governance and civic participation, earning an excellent position in digital transformation, education, research, innovation and social inclusion. "The ranking highlights how crucial the role of human capital is in determining cities' overall positioning," says Gianni Dominici, director general of Fpa. "The three cities leading the overall ranking also lead in digital transformation and employment, and sit at the top in education, tourist-cultural attractiveness and civic participation — results that partly reflect and partly drive their superior dynamism."
Completing the ranking of the top ten Italian smart cities are Trento, Bergamo, Turin, Venice, Parma, Pisa and Reggio Emilia — a group in which a strong bloc of medium-sized cities stands out for excellent performance: Trento earns its position thanks to good results in waste management; Bergamo moves from sixth to fifth place, distinguishing itself in particular for economic solidity and urban green space management; Parma confirms first place for social inclusion and land consumption and territory, while Pisa achieves excellence in education.
The areas where cities of this size are generally less impressive and show significant weaknesses are urban green space, land and territory, safety and legality, water and air. Rome recovers two positions compared with 2017 (rising from 17th to 15th place) thanks mainly to strong performance in digital transformation, tourism and culture, innovation and education, but still appears to lag behind in areas that should be hallmarks of large cities: it sits in 43rd place for energy and equally so for economic solidity.
On the path towards smart city development, the gap between the north and south of the country shows no sign of narrowing, manifesting not only in the most well-known areas of backwardness (employment, economic solidity) but also in the more innovative sectors such as research and innovation, digital transformation and energy. In 2018, the top 21 smartest cities in Italy are all located in central and northern Italy, while the bottom 21 in the ranking are in the south and on the islands. You have to go as far down as 43rd place to find the first city belonging to one of these geographical areas: Cagliari gains four positions compared with 2017, while the dynamism of Lecce — 62nd — is also noteworthy, gaining nine positions. The tail of the ranking remains occupied exclusively by southern cities, with Agrigento in last place, preceded by Vibo Valentia, Caltanissetta, Trapani, Crotone, Taranto, Enna, Brindisi, Caserta and Benevento.
If one considers the average score of the highest- and lowest-ranked cities, over the course of a year the gap has grown by 15 points — 17 if only the top and bottom ten cities are taken into account. This divergence does not concern only the dimensions weighed down by deep structural delays in the South (employment, economic solidity, research and innovation), but also those areas, such as energy and digital transformation, where opportunities exist to narrow the distances. The only areas in which southern cities manage to contain the gap — and in some cases feature among the top positions in national rankings — are environmental ones (urban green space, land and territory, and above all water and air). Vibo Valentia, Brindisi and Nuoro are among Italy's top ten cities for water and air protection; Messina and Matera for urban green space; L'Aquila, Ragusa, Lecce and Crotone for land and territory.
Beyond measurements and results, "the challenge of creating truly smart cities," says Dominici, "is to move from digital transformation combined with collaborative governance — that is, the capacity of administrations to develop and manage growth projects shared with the various territorial stakeholders, both public and private. In this sense, new innovative infrastructures and new technological paradigms must make it possible to create an enabling environment for increasingly efficient and inclusive governance models and services."
It also emerges that sustainability remains a distant goal for Italian cities, even for those furthest along in smart city development. Obstacles arise in particular on the path of managing and preserving air quality and water, waste and land. "Leading cities," says Dominici, "must therefore make greater efforts in these areas, where in the coming years it will be precisely the new technologies based on the processing and use of data produced by intelligent sensor systems that will offer new opportunities for responsible governance."