How to use this guidebook?

Integrated planning and implementation of smart city and low energy district projects often require a different approach and philosophy, and different methods and different instruments, to realise their aims. For instance, by far more inclusive participatory and consultation processes, and greater collaboration within and across traditional policy and administrative boundaries within and between cities and communities. As smart city plans and projects have other needs, standard practices from traditional project management are often not entirely satisfactory. This guidebook supports local governments and other urban stakeholders during different stages of preparation, implementation and replication of any smart city strategy and plan. This is done by pointing out what should be done in each stage, which issues might turn up and which solutions have worked well in other cases.

The EIP-SCC Action Cluster Integrated Planning and Management has investigated how smart city and low energy district strategies are developed and projects planned, and compiled the outcomes with the aim of guiding a city through this process. This guidance material focuses not on information about specific technologies, but on how to organise the „soft shell” around implementation of these smart city and low energy district technologies. It is meant to serve as a self-help guide, getting city administrations started, and preceding the bigger work.

City administrations and urban stakeholders learn more about the main stages in the process of integrated planning and management, find best practices and examples, and are advised how to avoid common barriers. After a brief sketch of the smart city and low energy districts landscape, the various stages in the preparation and realisation of smart city and low energy district projects are discussed in more detail using checklists of to do’s. As a sound financial basis and co-design and co-creation are critical for successful preparation, planning and implementation of any smart city or low energy district project, various financial instruments and methods for engagement of citizens and local businesses are presented. Urban data and ICT help to gain insight into the impact of different options beforehand, and to track the progress of the actions defined in a smart city plan during its implementation. The guide discusses various frameworks for defining the needed KPI’s, and the ICT tools supporting impact assessment and track of progress. Finally, the guide explores various accelerating actions that can help to achieve more impact locally through replication and upscaling in cities.

Its added value for city administrations consists of:

• Aligning city administration and its key stakeholders;
• Help to make the first steps, for instance by serving as a basis for technical assistance and supporting the
  development of more detailed plans and projects;
• Providing support for the project manager responsible for setting up integrated projects;
• Improve the knowledge level of staff by educating on long-term perspectives and cross-domain collaboration with
  citizens, businesses, research and NGOs.

To provide direct references per stage about good practices and examples, the references are grouped per chapter and can be found at the end of this document.