In this talk, we discuss smart cities in the context of a developing country like Nepal. We invite Dr. Ambika P Adhikari to help us understand the importance of smart cities. We use his recent article entitled “Towards Creating Smart Cities in Nepal” published on the Nepal Journal of Science and Technology as a reference to this discussion.

The theme of this program is “Smart Cities in Nepal: Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities”. The key elements comprise of:

• What is the concept of a smart city?

• What does it mean to be sustainable in a smart city?

• What are the opportunities and challenges in countries like Nepal?

Dr. Ambika P. Adhikari is an Urban Planner and International Development Professional based in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

Welcome everyone!
Thank you for finding time to the talk today.

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Theme 1: What is the concept of a smart city?

The word smart may be used to highlight elements of a city that is designed for a sustainable dwelling

Sustainability remains an on going challenge in the development of urban spaces

SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-related) acronym is often used to emphasise its constituents

Theme 2: What does it mean to be sustainable in a smart city?

United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) provides guidelines followed by many occasions

Smart Cities may be seen differently as viewed by professionals in different fields

Health, Habitat, Physical and Digital Infrastructure all form essential elements of a smart city

Theme 3: What are the opportunities and challenges in countries like Nepal?

Some opportunities are feasible while other ambitious endeavours may still be irrelevant

Passive sensor based systems may yield high rewards

Improvements in public transit system, public health and education are other major avenues

Small towns may be equally innovative as large cities on sustainability

01:30:07 The Reading Revellers Series: Welcome everyone!

01:30:26 The Reading Revellers Series: Please keep the chat active with your questions.

01:48:06 Ekanath Ghimire: Hello everyone! Thank you for organizing this program. Very useful and relevant.

02:01:04 Mira Adhikari: डाडा को काखमा नि स्मर्ट शहर बनाउन सकिन्छ र बाबू? र तेस्तो शहरमा मानिस कसरी स्मार्ट रहने?

02:02:11 The Reading Revellers Translation (Mira Adhikari) : Is it possible to create smart cities on the foothills of the Himalayas? How do dwellers of these cities stay smart?

02:02:51 Drona Rasali: Thank you much Dr. Adhikari for your comprehensive presentation supported by rich data and pictorial evidence on the subject of SMART cities. Kathmandu valley is already congested and your recommendation is to improve the transportation system by electric Bus Rapid Transit. Should we not plan for electric rapid rail to catch up with rapidly rising what is already an overpopulated city? What is the feasibility of planning for a rapid light rail along the corridors of Bagmati and Bishnumati river banks, while consideration your idea that we need to make gradual and incremental adoption of Smart city elements especially in the context of lower resource setting of Nepal?

02:14:17 Rajan Pandit: Q: What are the risks of rapid urbanization with an oversight on sustainability? Could you share some examples where smart cities initiatives have fallen short due to an oversight on key elements of sustainability?

02:16:44 Arjun Aryal: Thanks for this very informative talk. It’s a great idea but I am sure every city faces some challenges to make a city a smarter city. In your experience, what might be the challenges very unique or specific to Kathmandu or Nepal only?

02:17:49 The Reading Revellers Series: If you have questions that you would like to ask in person, please use the "Raise Hand" feature in your Zoom. The program host will let you take your turn to question.

02:18:50 Naresh Koirala: Thank you for an excellent presentation. I felt like I was in a class room listening to my favourite professor lecturing on my favourite city. What I find distressing is that despite so much talk about smart cities, there is no universally agreed definition of the word Smart- Biswa Sunder's smart is different from Chir Babu’s smart. The various elements of smartness sound like elements of a good urban planning. But in a city or country ever starved for resources, do you think there should be a priority list of what element should get a higher priority over the other element?

02:19:36 Naresh Koirala: of what element should get a higher priority over the other element

02:21:48 Naresh Koirala: Please read “ subject “ instead of City in the second sentence of my previous posting.

02:33:11 Prabeen Joshi - Layfield: Great presentation and knowledge sharing Ambika dai. Thank you very much for that. My question below.

What I understand from your presentation is any city can progressively transition towards a smarter one. I also understand that "smart city" is a moving target. But the reality that you showed is that 12/15 largest cities that are in the developing countries are, if I may, "dumb" if not otherwise. In the context of emerging economies, How do you rank the following issues for not being able to score smart city points? Feel free to use Nepal as an example. 1. Technical knowledge, 2. Policy, 3. Budget, 4. Education, 5. Politics, 6. issues related to Sustainability.

02:43:54 The Reading Revellers Series: Lets answer as many questions as possible.

For the audience who are restricted by their time, thank you very much for your participation. Feel free to disconnect

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02:57:49 Keshav Bhattarai: Great question, Ajaya jee. A Beta version of the app was developed by one of the students to display similar information as you mentioned, but it works only on Samsung phone.

03:01:54 Keshav Bhattarai: Great presentation! Thank you for educating about smart city in one sitting.