Sustainable Cities
The most livable cities in the world 2011
1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Helsinki, Finland
8-- Perth, Australia
8-- Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
21. Brisbane, Australia
The survey ranks 140 locations as having the best or the worst living conditions, with cities scored on political and social stability, crime rates, access to quality health care, cultural events, the environment, education and the standard of infrastructure.
Melbourne has knocked Vancouver off its perch as the best city in the world to live in.
Melbourne claimed the title of the world's most liveable city in the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest survey, with Sydney, Perth and Adelaide also making it into the top 10. It is the first time in almost a decade of the global liveability survey that Vancouver has not ranked as the best place to live. Melbourne had shared first position with Vancouver in 2002 but finally nabbed the top spot in its own right in the August survey, released by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Economist Intelligence Unit survey editor Jon Copestake said Melbourne managed to move up one spot to claim the top ranking, thanks to a slight fall in Vancouver's infrastructure score, which is one of the measures of liveability.
Sydney made it to sixth position in the London-based research company's latest ranking of 140 cities, from seventh in the February survey, while Perth and Adelaide again shared eighth place. "Australia, with a low population density and relatively low crime rates, continues to supply some of the world's most liveable cities," Mr Copeland said in a statement.
Melbourne scored 97.5 per cent, just beating Vienna on 97.4 per cent and Vancouver on 97.3. A ranking of 100 per cent is considered ideal. Brisbane was number 21 on the survey, two spots ahead of Wellington but behind Auckland which was number 10.
What does a smarter city look like?
IBM Smarter Cities Executive, Catherine Caruana-McManus, discusses the key characteristics of a smarter city.
Hear Gerry Brownlee, NZ Minister for Earthquake Recovery, envision what the cities of the future will look like.
Water: A Finite Resource
IBM Smarter Cities Business Development Executive Shalome Doran examines how we can best utilise existing networks and minimise loss and leakage moving forward.
Hear from Anna Rose Founder & Chairwoman of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, with her views on how to move the environment debate forward and establish a consensus on positive action.
Our planet is getting smarter by the city: Dubuque, Bordeaux, Taipei and more
Cities are getting smarter about education, safety, water and transportation.
Find out how cities are using smarter urban planning at our Smarter Cities hub.
Making cities more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent isn't only about overcoming the challenges cities face. It is about recognising that many of the challenges we face in making a smarter planet are centered on creating sustainable cities.
Cities symbolise and centralise so many aspects of what will make for a smarter planet: smarter education, smarter healthcare, smarter water and energy use, smarter public safety, smarter transportation, and smarter government ... to name but a few.
A new report from the IBM Institute for Business Value, "A Vision of Smarter Cities," makes the case that cities must use new technologies to transform their systems to optimise the use of finite resources. As sustainability for cities and the planet becomes ever more important, the question isn't whether cities will do this; the question is: Which ones are doing it first? And who will do it best?
Innovative cities
Smarter transportation
Some cities start by transforming their transportation systems. Stockholm, Dublin (US), Singapore (US) and Brisbane (US) are working with IBM to develop smart systems ranging from predictive tools to smart cards to congestion charging in order to reduce traffic and pollution.
We have an opportunity to transform Australia's education system to: engage more with students; empower teachers and administrators; and develop a workforce with high value, global skills. In Australia, the IBM KidSmart Early Learning Programme is giving disadvantaged preschoolers the opportunity to experiment with information technology while improving literacy and numeracy.
Smarter policing and emergency response
New York, Syracuse (PDF,181KB), Santa Barbara (US) and St. Louis (US) are using data analytics, wireless and video surveillance capabilities to strengthen crime fighting and the coordination of emergency response units.
Smarter power and water management
IBM is working with local government agencies, farmers and ranchers in the Paraguay-Paraná River basin, where São Paulo (link resides outside of ibm.com) is located, to understand the factors that can help to safeguard the quality and availability of the water system.
Malta is building a smart grid that links the power and water systems, and will detect leakages, allow for variable pricing and provide more control to consumers. Ultimately, it will enable this island country to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources.
Smarter governance
In New Mexico, Albuquerque (PDF, 142KB), is using a business intelligence solution to automate data sharing among its 7,000 employees in more than 20 departments, so every employee gets a single version of the truth. It has realised cost savings of almost 2,000%.
Three local UK councils have adopted a new IBM business model that could change the way local government is managed. Through Southwest One (PDF,200KB), IBM will manage the IT infrastructure, procurement, customer service and workforce development functions, allowing agencies to focus on delivering critical services to citizens. The model can expand to include up to 30 public sector agencies.
