615
1 INTRODUCTION
Global cities have a common ambition to become
modern and attractive urban environments for their
citizensandfuturegenerations.Constantlyevolving,
citiesarefacingchallengesofpopulationgrowthand
climate change. Finding sustainable solutions,
without compromising economic, social and
environmental impact, has become one of their top
priorities.
While transport behaviours change, the
number of vehicles on streets grows resulting in
congestion,anincreasednumberofaccidents,exhaust
andnoiseemissionsand, consequently,aloweredlife
quality.
The 2020s are predicted to be a decade of
transformationforurbanmobility.Innovationsinthe
transport sector continue to introduce
new
opportunities to enhance travel experiences in the
cities.Thisisfacilitatedbybusinessmodelsthatoffer
arangeofnewmobilityservices,suchasridehailing,
car sharing, bike sharing and Netflix‐like vehicle‐
subscription models,that provideflexible options to
meettravelneeds.
The purpose of the paper is
to explore global
trendsshaping lifequalityincoastal agglomerations
with a special regard to sustainable mobilityand to
presenttheISO37120‐atoolallowing measurement,
based on the indicators, of the cities resilience and
performance. First, the current megatrends and life
qualitychallengeswithaspecial regardto
sustainable
mobility issue have been presented. In the second
part,theISO37120–atoolformeasurementthecity
services and quality of life using standardized
indicators, adopted recently by Polish costal
agglomerations,hasbeenanalyzed.
Global Trends Shaping Life Quality in Agglomerations
with Particular Emphasis on Mobility in Seaport
Agglomerations
A.Przybyłowski
GdyniaMaritimeUniversity,Gdynia,Poland
ABSTRACT:Themodernagglomerationsdevelopmentremainsunder theinfluenceofcurrentglobaltrends:
economic, environmental/climate, social, technological, geopolitical ones. At least six forces are expected to
furtherdisrupttheurbanmobilitylandscape,especiallycoastalone.Fromself‐drivingvehiclesandthesharing
economy,tovehicleelectrification,
mobilecomputing,theInternetofThingsandBlock‐chaintechnologies,each
of these trends is quite significant on its own. The actions undertaken by city authorities aim at focusing
citizensʹattentionontheneedtoimproveairquality,decreasecongestionincity’smainstreets,investinone’s
healthandphysicalcondition,
whichincreasesthelevelofqualityoflife,andinturnprovidesthecitywith
considerableeconomic benefits.The purposeof thepaper isto explore globaltrends shapinglife qualityin
coastal agglomerations with a special regard to sustainable mobility and to present the ISO 37120‐a tool
allowing
measurement,basedontheindicators,ofthecitiesresilienceandperformance.
http://www.transnav.eu
the International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 13
Number 3
September 2019
DOI:10.12716/1001.13.03.18
616
2 CURRENTMEGATRENDSANDLIFEQUALITY
CHALLENGESWITHASPECIALREGARDTO
SUSTAINABLEMOBILITY
In 2050 people living in cities are to constitute 2/3
(66%)oftheglobalpopulation.Thedataconfirmsthe
assumptions that contemporary cities are facing a
challengerelatedtokeepingthebalanceofresources
and strengthening
development which would
improvesecurityandthequalityoflifefornumerous
citizens (UNITED NATIONS, 2014). Unfortunately,
urbantransportisresponsible for aboutaquarterof
CO
2 emissions from transport. The gradual phasing
out of ‘conventionally‐fuelled’ vehicles from the
urban environment is a major contribution to
significant reduction of oil dependence, greenhouse
gasemissions andlocalairandnoisepollution(Burns
2013). Fully Electric Vehicles (FEV), for public and
private transport, can contribute significantly to the
loweringofthecurrentpollutionlevels.
Thelocaldevelopmentremainundertheinfluence
ofseveralcurrentmegatrends(tab.1).
Thesemegatrendsshapetodaythelargestchanges
ofdevelopmentfactorsandvehicles,determiningthe
most important directions of their impact, changing
the course of the development trajectory, including
thelocalone,also
inrelationtotheissueofmobility.
Figures1and2 showsworldmegatrendsandtheir
impact on the future products, services and global
economytill2025.Atleastsixforcesareexpectedto
further disrupt the urban mobility landscape. From
self‐driving vehicles and the sharing economy, to
vehicle
electrification,mobilecomputing,theInternet
ofThingsandBlockchaintechnologies,eachofthese
trendsisquitesignificantonitsown(Digital…2018).
Whileallmegatrendsareimportant,theirselection
and raking indicate which seismic shifts will have
particular relevance in shaping the landscape in
whichevolvethisdecade[Frost&
Sullivan,2018].
The mass adoption of motor vehicles (the
‘automobilitytransition’)wasoneofthemajorsocio‐
economic transformations of the20th century (Geels
2012).Overthe80yearsinwhichthecarhas“wound
itself inextricably into a large part of our affairs”,
much research has been undertaken about the
evolution of the socio‐technical systems that have
facilitatedmasscarownership,andhowtheeconomy
and society have beentransformed by automobility,
from the sheer distances travelled in everyday
activities to the location of economic activity, the
operation of the housing market, the structure of
retailing and differential access
to educational and
health opportunities. Alongside these huge gains in
prosperityandqualityoflife,however,camethewell‐
knownnegativeexternalitiesofmasscaruse,suchas
congestion, crashes, poor air quality, physical
severance, social exclusion and inactivity/obesity,
which the state has often struggled to manage
effectively(Docherty&all
2018).
Figure1. Megatrends impact on future products and
services
Source:[Frost&Sullivan,2018].
Figure2.Worldmegatrendstill2025andtheirimpactonthe
globaleconomy.
Source:[Singh,2019].
Table1.Megatrendsshapinglifequalityandexamplesoftheiremanations
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
EconomicEcological/Climate SocialTechnologicalGeopolitical
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
sharing&digitalclimatechangesmigrationscybersecurityglobalisation
economyandcatastrophies
e‐trade,consument decarbonisation demographicchangesartificialintelligence poverty
needsredefinitionunequality
newbusinessmodels energystoringagingpopulationcloudcomputingnationalism
crowdsourcingrenewableenergy exclusion(including hydrogeneconomyterrorism
digitalone)
uberisationgamificationGPS
virtualmarketITS,platooning,connected/
automatedvehicle,
tracking&tracing,drones
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source:ownelaboration
617
In the early 1990s the phraseʺsmart cityʺ was
coined to signify how urban development was
turning towards technology, innovation and
globalisation (Schaffers and all 2018). The World
FoundationforSmartCommunitiesadvocatedtheuse
of information technology to meet the challenges of
citieswithinaglobalknowledgeeconomy.However,
the more recent interest in smart cities can be
attributedtothestrongconcernforsustainability,and
to the rise of new Internet technologies, such as
mobiledevices(e.g.smartphones),thesemanticweb,
cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT)
promotingrealworlduserinterfaces.Theconceptof
smartcitiesseenfromtheperspectiveoftechnologies
andcomponentshas somespecificproperties within
the wider cyber, digital, smart, intelligent cities
literatures. It focuses on the latest advancements in
mobileandpervasivecomputing,wirelessnetworks,
middleware and agent technologies as they become
embedded into the physical spaces of cities. The
emphasis on smart embedded devices represents a
distinctive characteristic of smart cities compared to
intelligent cities, which create territorial innovation
systems combining knowledge‐intensive activities,
institutions for cooperation and learning, and web‐
based applications of collective intelligence
(Komninos2002and2008).
Contemporary imaginings of ‘Smart Mobility’
describe a transition of
equivalent reach and
significance to that of ‘automobility’, focusing on a
range of positive changes to how we travel around.
Proponentsofthe‘SmartTransition’outlineavision
of the future in which mobility will be framed as a
personalized ‘service’ available ‘on demand’, with
individualshavinginstantaccesstoa
seamlesssystem
ofclean,green,efficientandflexibletransporttomeet
alloftheirneeds(WockatzandSchartau2015).
Accompanied by the widespread adoption of
connected and automated vehicles (AVs) (Fagnant
and Kockelman 2015), it is argued that the ‘Smart
Transition’ will bring huge gains in safety, and the
costs
oftransporttotheuserwillbelowerbecausethe
capital stock of the mobility system, primarily
infrastructure andvehicles, willbeused muchmore
efficiently. There will be much greater consumer
choice as new models of shared ownership of
mobility assets, real‐time aggregation of data and
peer‐to‐peer
mobility matching reduces the grip of
largemonolithicprovidersonthesupplyoftransport
(Docherty&all2018).
Therewillundoubtedlybeatransitiontosmarter
mobilityfutureswhichwillhaveasignificantimpact
on the role of mobility in society. New actors,
networksandtechnologiesarealreadyfundamentally
challenging
the extant regime and how transport is
governed.Thisisnotadebateaboutstateversusnon‐
stateactorsbutinsteadabouttherolethestatetakes
withinthesenewnetworkstosteer,facilitateandalso
reject different elements of the mobility system
(Docherty & all 2017). State power in the
transport
domainisweakinmanyplaces,especiallythosesuch
asmanyNorthAmericanandEuropeancitieswhere
the private car is already the overwhelmingly
dominantformofmobilityandinwhichthestatehas
little or no existing role in the ‘belief system’ about
howmobilityshouldbedistributed
beyondbuilding
as many roads as possible (Fagnant, Kockelman,
2015).
Thequalityoflifeisrelated,amongothers,tothe
quality of the space in which people live, rest and
socialize. It is particularly important to properly
shapeanddevelopthespacelocatedinthecitycenter,
whichcanbeachievedthroughtheimplementationof
restrictionsoncarparkingandcartraffic.
In order to increase participation, modernisation
andbuildinginfrastructureincitiesareimportant,as
well as increasing gradually the integration of all
transport means and forms. At the same time
campaigns and active promotions affecting the
transport habits of
urban traffic users are becoming
increasinglyimportant.Todaymuchattentionispaid
toinformationpolicyandtheimprovementofactive
mobility image as an important means of urban
transport. Therearegood reasonsto putmobility at
theheartof SmartCitiespolicies (Sustainable Urban
Mobility2018):
With Sustainable Urban Mobility
Plans, Urban
Mobilityhasthe frameworkforintegrated planning.
New approaches to urban mobility planning are
emergingaslocalauthoritiesseektobreak outofpast
silo approaches and develop strategies that can
stimulate a shift towards cleaner and more
sustainabletransportmodes.
Inallmodesoftransport,andfor
bothtransportof
goods and passengers, electrification is happening.
Thisbrings –with theadvantages such as clean air,
energy independency etc. – also a set of challenges
(deployment of charging infra s tructures, links with
sharedmobility).
Urban transport is a key area for the transition
towards the sharing economy. Both public
initiative
(public bicycles, shared cargo‐bikes, etc.) as private
initiative (ridesharing applications, car sharing, peer
topeerparkingapps)seethebenefitofmakingbetter
useofurbantransportassets.
Also,transportisanendlesssourceofinteresting
data. The traveler is becoming more and more
connected. Vehicles are connected,
public transport
userscheckinandcheckoutwithsmartcards,cyclists
andpedestria ns useappstomonitortheirmovement.
These data are becoming increasingly available
through open data portals of cities (Przybyłowski,
2018).
3 ISO37120‐CITYSERVICESANDQUALITYOF
LIFEINDICATORSINTHECOASTAL
AGGLOMERATIONS
The sustainable
development of the biggest cities of
theworldrepresentsamajorchallengeforthefuture
of the planet in the 21st century, relatively to the
contribution and adaptation to climate change,
natural resources consumption, energetic transition
(the “after oil” transition), population mobility,
welfare and security, pollution, the global economic
growth
(Ducruet, C., 2011). For historical reasons, a
great part of these cities, and especially those of
emerging countries like Brazil or China, are located
on a coast or on a river, thus including a port and
618
playinga specialandmajorrole inthe nationaland
the global economy (nodes of logistic chain,
concentrationofpopulation,touristicattractiveness).
Seaport agglomerations are key places where
economic strength, competitiveness, human capital
and global appeal, population and migration
processes are increasingly concentrated. Since ports
throughout history handled an important
kind of
transportation,theymaydominatethelocaleconomy
of a coastal city. The present day challenge, is the
inability of most coastal cities, to absorb rapidly
expanding port developments and population
growth. However, port cities and areas have a
particulardevelopmentpotential(GirardL.F.,2013).
Portcity,which
servesasalinkbetweenthelocal
economyandtheglobaleconomy,isaninteractionof
both urban and port systems, giving rise to its
complexanddynamicnature(Hein,C.,2011)..While
the development of a port city is an aspect that
requires continual research and monitoring, the
currentliterature
addressing theissueof sustainable
development in port cities is rather limited. In
addition, empirical studies often analyse the port
system and the urban system separately, with little
researchattemptingtointegratethetwosystems.
Harbor areas become vita l, when they act as
dynamic, complex systems, capable of transforming
and
adapting to the continuous pressure of change
from the outside and when they are able to modify
theirphysicalstructureregardingspace,organization
andfunctions,bycombininginfrastructures,facilities,
installations, etc., while maintaining their own
identity (Schubert, D., 2011). Here, green industrial
activities, able to decouple economic wealth
production from ecological
losses, should be
grounded while considering the model of living
systems(BoulosJ.,2016).
Aportareas’smartdevelopmentshouldbebased
on circular processesat three mainlevels (Girard L.
F.,2013):
(1) Economic: symbiosis between companies for
value creation, allowing synergies and also
stimulating circuits between company and
community prosperity; between companies and the
city;betweenallactorsandtheoutsideterritory;
(2) Social: able to regenerate interpersonal
relationships—often weakened in cities—through
relationshipswith“places”;
(3)Ecological:alllivingsystemsarecharacterized
by circular processes and are able to conserve and
reproduce themselves. Circular processes emerge
through re‐use,
recycling and regeneration of
materials and energy, with a reduction of negative
externalities.Theresilienceofsystemsand creativity
are stimulated by circular processes, which break
downlinearmetabolism.
Existingindicatorsatthe locallevelareoften not
standardized,consistent,orcomparableovertimeor
acrosscities.Aspartof
anewseriesofInternational
Standards being developed for a holistic and
integratedapproachtosustainabledevelopment,that
includesindicatorsforcityservicesandqualityoflife,
indicatorsforsmartcitiesandindicatorsforresilient
cities, this set of standardized indicators provides a
uniformapproachtowhatismeasured,andhow
that
measurementistobeundertaken.Asalist,itdoesnot
provide a value judgement, threshold or target
numericalvaluefortheindicators.
Theseindicatorscanbeusedtotrackandmonitor
progress on city performance. In order to achieve
sustainabledevelopment,thewholecitysystemneeds
tobe
takenintoconsideration(McCarney,2015).For
developing countries, especially, consequent
monitoringandevaluationofurbanchangeisamajor
issue in urban planning and management. In this
context, the ISO (the International Organization for
Standardization) and the responsible committee
ISO/TC268:Sustainabledevelopmentincommunities
developedadocumentthatoutlinesindicators
forcity
services and quality of life, and provides a uniform
approach to what is measured and how that
measurement is to be undertaken. The mentioned
standarddefinesandestablishesmethodologiesfora
setofindicatorstosteerandmeasuretheperformance
of city services and quality of life. The
indicators
provided throughthe ISO documentcan be used to
trackandmonitortheprogressofcities’performance.
Intotal,163countriesaremembersoftheISOthrough
their national standards bodies, and the standards
providedbytheISOcommitteegenerallyhaveahigh
degree of popularity throughout different areas.
These
facts increase the likelihood of the ISO
37120:2014 actually being applied and put to
operationaluseinthefuture(LehnerA.&all,2018).
Theindicatorsandassociatedtestmethodsinthis
documenthavebeendevelopedinordertohelpcities
(Sustainablecitiesandcommunities…,2019‐01‐30):
measureperformancemanagementofcityservices
andqualityoflifeovertime;
learn from one another by allowing comparison
across a wide range of performance measures;
and,
supportpolicydevelopmentandprioritysetting.
Maintaining,enhancingandacceleratingprogress
towardsimprovedcityservices andqualityof lifeis
also fundamental to the definitions of both smart
citiesandresilientcities.Thisdocumentisintendedto
be implemented in conjunction with ISO37122 and
ISO37123 to measure progress
towards smart cities
andresilientcities,respectively(Fig.3).
Figure3. Sustainable development of communities —
Relationshipbetweenthefamilyofcityindicatorsstandards
Source:Sustainablecitiesandcommunities—Indicatorsforcity
services and quality of life,
https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:68498:en,2019‐01‐30.
619
The indicators are structured around themes.
Recognizing the differences in resources and
capabilities of cities worldwide, the overall set of
indicatorsforcityperformancehas beendividedinto
“core”indicators(thoseimplementingthisdocument
shall follow) and “supporting” indicators (those
implementingthisdocumentshouldfollow).TheISO
37120 defines 21
city themes of City Services and
Quality of Life including as follows: Economy,
Education,Energy,Environmentandclimatechange,
Finance,FireandEmergencyResponse,Governance,
Health, Housin, Population and social conditions,
Recreation, Safety, Solid Waste, Sport and culture,
Telecommunications, Urban Planning,
Transportation, Urban/local agriculture and food
security, Urban planning, Wastewater,
Water (ISO,
2014).
For example, as far as the Transportation is
concerned, among the indicators one may find such
as: Kilometers of high capacity public transport
system per 100,000 population and Number of
personal automobiles per capita (Lehner A. & all,
2018).
Manycities,includingcoastalones,havealready
implemented
this standard. Worldwide, one may
find: Boston, Dubai, Los Angeles, Shanghai. Among
European agglomerations, there are: Amsterdam,
Barcelona, Helsinki, London, Rotterdam. Gdynia‐a
seaportcityattheBalticSea,in2017,wasthefirstone
in Poland to receive the international certificate of
intelligent city according to ISO 37120. Gdańsk
–
anothercityofthecoastalTricityagglomeration‐was
the second one. The certificate confirms that these
Polishcoastalcitiesdevelopinasustainablemanner
bymonitoringthequalityoflifeofitsresidentsonan
ongoing basis, and also reacts in a situations of
deterioration of these conditions. Representatives
of
these cities, among the reasons for which the ISO
37120standardwasimplementedinthecity,mention
issuesrelatedto:
rankings‐justificationof highplaces inrankings
andgoodpositionofthecityinnewrankings,
acquiring knowledge (as a reliable basis for city
management) about areas for improvement and
areasinwhichthecityconductsgoodactions,
marketingvalues,
identificationofthecityasasmartone,
possibilitiesofcomparingcities.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The contribution of this paper consists on the
investigation of the importance of the global trends
shaping life quality in the agglomerations with a
specialregardtosustainablemobility.Anotheroneis
thepresentationofatool‐ISO37120–allowingthe
measurement, thanks
to concrete indicators, of the
city perfomance. City authorities, including coastal
agglomerations being particularly exposed to heavy
congestion,areincreasinglypromotingvarioustypes
of actions to increase thelevel ofquality oflife, but
despitethegrowingawarenessofresidentsregarding,
amongothers,travellingbyothermeansoftransport
than a
car, the share of the latter is unfortunately
constantlyincreasing.
Initiatives taken in favour of sustainable urban
mobility,likeonthePolish coastatthe BalticSeain
GdyniaandGdańsk,mayhelpinshapingthefuture
of the contemporary society, putting the main focus
on the citizensʹ needs
and enhancing life quality.
Theseactionsaimatfocusingcitizens ʹattentiononthe
need to improve air quality, decrease congestion in
city’smainstreets,investinone’shealthandphysical
condition in order, in turn, to provide the city with
considerable economic benefits and to face global
challenges. In the context
of the United Nations
Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the
presentedSustainableDevelopmentGoals(SDGs),the
process ofdeveloping and agreeing on indicators to
monitor the SDGs implementation becomes
fundamental.
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