Today, Smart City is becoming an urban development trend that has received the attention of many countries and cities as a way of international integration, catching up with the era of technology development 4.0. storm, and especially is expected as an inevitable trend that can help cities combat today's urban development problems such as rapid population growth, pollution, environmental degradation, Global risks including crime, traffic congestion, inefficient services and economic stagnation...

When it comes to "Smart Cities", most of us easily think of a city that uses and relies on information and communication technology (ICT) to create a quality life. than. In other words, a smart city is associated with the concept of achieving sustainability through the large-scale application and use of advanced information technology. Even the main goal of Smart Cities is said to be to increase sustainability through the use of modern technology, hence many scientists think that smart sustainable city is the right and correct term. more precise than the smart city term. Variants of “smart cities” are cities that are used with similar terms such as: virtual city; digital city (digital city); knowledge city (knowledge city); wired city; IT smart cities are everywhere in urban spaces (U-city), cyber cities, or urban informatics. These terms all emphasize the importance of technology and the use of technology as a way to compete and create an advantage for urban development.

Thus, with a common understanding, it is possible to imagine a smart city as: An urban area fully equipped with technological equipment such as sensor systems, surveillance cameras, satellite receivers... everywhere to get information about urban activities such as traffic situation, number of people, demand for urban services... to turn them into big data for analysis to receive accurately represent urban problems or urban development needs and urban service needs (increasing knowledge), thereby supporting better decision-making. Even the decision-making process is carried out not only by the government, but any citizen can contribute thanks to the network of connections and information sharing. People become "smarter" thanks to this system, they can make the right decisions for themselves or participate in the decision to build the city.

The trend of "smart city" development is increasingly popular and implemented in many parts of the world such as the smart country program (Singapore), the digital government program (Malaysia), and Fujisawa smart city. (Japan), the project of 100 smart cities (India),... The labeling of building a "smart city" is considered a "way" to add value to a city, increasing its importance. interest of the community and thereby attract more investment. In other words “Smart” is being used as an attractive brand. However, much of the development of the concept of “smart cities” is still in the testing and development stage. In fact, most of the current smart city projects in Vietnam and even the world have a lot of ambiguity about the concept, as well as the way of operation. The debate surrounding the term "smarter" or "smarter" raises a series of questions about what it means to be intelligent; Smart has the need to rely on technology; Is this development really smart when besides being smart in one aspect, it's a decline in another? [Deputy Duc Tung, 2017]; or intelligence in what aspect is the most important; whether we are stuck in this cleverness when our lives are so dependent on technology; Will people really be happy and develop in a smart city or become weaker and weaker mentally and depend on machines and technology? Is a smart city really for the poor, who do not have high knowledge and limited ability to pay for expensive technology equipment… What are the criteria for a smart city in terms of size, growth,…?; Doubts about "smart" or "unintelligent", as well as the lack of assessment of intelligence in the relationship between infrastructure and utilities for people... The article will review the concept of intelligence, then discuss smart vision as an important foundation when considering the smart or unintelligent of the city, thereby contributing an important foundation for achieving sustainable intelligence.

The development process and awareness of the smart city concept
The idea of smart city development has been around for a long time; However, by the year 2005, this topic was raised more strongly thanks to the birth and rapid development of technology companies, the promotion of information technology products and applications in various fields. more urban [Nguyen Ngoc Hieu, 2016]. Up to now, two prominent schools can be seen when talking about smart cities. The first school focuses on the application of technology to achieve smart utilities. The second school emphasizes the importance of smart people, smart thinking together with the support of information technology as the foundation to orient the application of modern technologies in urban areas.

The first school asserts: A smart city is a city that meets development challenges through the implementation of strategies for developing IT resources, networks and services in providing services. essential services for urban dwellers and effective infrastructure management [Hall, 2000; IBM, 2015; Angelidou, 2014].

In 2011, Caragliu et al. stated that a city is considered smart when it has the investment of human capital, social capital, transportation and modern IT. It is also capable of generating sustainable economic growth and quality of life with good management of natural resources through governance. Goldsmith and Crawford (2014), also discuss the importance of community participation and good leadership, meaning that community empowerment and related factors are also needed for smart city implementation. With the same point of view, corresponding to smart cities must be smart residents, so that people are not dominated and dependent, but must be the masters of this intelligence. Thus, confirming whether urban dwellers are intelligent or whether there is equality and equity among all levels of society in accessing and using IT, as well as in modern technology, provides urban level – It is one of the special challenges in developing and implementing the smart city concept(1). Thus, a smart city is not simply the application of pure information technology (ICT), but the key point is to use initiatives to serve the problem of people, technology must be for the purpose of social goals [Cocchia, 2014, Dameri, 2013, Caragliu et al., 2009].

The practice of developing and perfecting the idea of smart cities has gone through 3 stages of awareness: Until the 2000s, smart cities focused on "hardware", also known as smart cities or digital cities. (digital city) – Focusing on the use of information technology, the importance of urban infrastructure, utilities and urban systems (city's integrated infrastructure, utilities and urban system). In the 2005s, this idea was more concerned with the development of "software" of the city, focusing on people (including intelligence, awareness, health, happiness, participation, etc.) human capacity, competitiveness and efficiency) to prepare for a social inclusive city. Recently, around 2010, many cities have focused on improving both hardware and software, forming an efficient smart city with a good quality of life.

The process of building a smart city (stages of building a smart city)
From the awareness of smart city, many cities have planned smart city implementation roadmap, often emphasizing the following contents: i) Development planning focusing on hard infrastructure, for example ( Management of transportation, water, drainage, waste and energy...); ii) Focus on soft infrastructure, including community focus, community capacity building, human resources, knowledge improvement, community participation, social innovation, social justice, … Which content priority to focus on is determined based on the study of local characteristics, potentials, challenges and needs in the new context.

The smart city construction process is simplified through 3 levels: i) Building smart tools (technology solutions to intelligently solve situations in urban life) through data collection Real-time data collection and information analysis through hypothetical modeling, ii) Smart human development (solution to improve technology awareness and progress towards technology mastery) for the citizen); iii) Building a smart community towards a common goal that meets both hardware infrastructure and software capabilities [Pho Duc Tung, 2016]. In the context of Vietnam, the smart city development roadmap is also divided into 3 phases, in which the first phase usually focuses on hardware, the second phase focuses on software and finally the development. hardware and software synchronization.

Smart vision
Before defining a smart vision for a city, many experts have concretized smart city destinations into key areas. According to Mauritus, Giffinger, those are 6 areas including smart life, smart economy, smart people, smart government, smart mobility, smart environment. Some other scholars, Frost and Sullivan selected other smart fields including: Smart buildings, smart energy, smart mobility, smart technology, smart healthcare, smart infrastructure Smart, smart governance, smart citizens. While many experts mention more than smart domains for a smart city (Figure 1).

Besides smart fields, many experts try to implement smart ideas into different implementation themes, depending on the vision of each city. In other words, cities are trying to come up with smart criteria or visions to guide construction routes. Usually, it is thought that smart cities can be related to four main themes [Arafah & Winarso, 2017]: (1) Innovation, economy, competition and value added at the global level. Which focuses on local value-added in a global context, as well as on innovation to enhance people's capacity and development in the global network to increase competitiveness; (2) Focus on technology and IT development; (3) Attention to development stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of the private sector, the importance of community participation and leadership in the implementation of Smart Cities, (4) The process towards a smart city needs to be done in both top-down as well as bottom-up directions.

Cocchia, 2014 [6] suggests that there can be four important themes of smart cities to address, including: (1) The role of public services and the private sector in improving the quality of life; (2) The importance of attention to the damage caused by urban activities; (3) The importance of the concept of good natural resource management; (4) Sustainable economic growth.

Smart thinking towards establishing a smart development vision for TP
Thanks to a new approach with the support of technology and big data, it is possible to understand clearly and correctly the nature of cities, thereby supporting the right decision-making process, smart cities is expected to solve many current urban problems (such as the accumulation of urban growth, urban management...). This expectation is also tied to the forecast that the future of the city will not be the same as the way it is still operating today.

In a smart city (in the hope of solving the current problems of the city) there will be a different way of operating thanks to technological advances, changing many traditional concepts of distance, boundaries, time, space, urban concept, functional areas, connectivity... People in smart cities will carry out their lives in both the virtual world and the real world in parallel; smart cities can exploit and search for urban spaces different from the traditional ones, expanding urban construction areas without expanding boundaries or land resources; The way of traveling will not be the same as the present one to ensure fast speed and high automation… In that space, people can experience the services "in person" but also face a series of problems. accompanying challenges such as the possibility of more isolation instead of social connection, health problems, stress, information addiction or lost in information… At the same time, the risk of dependence on technology and processing data-driven, machines can impede creativity; Uncontrolled unauthorized information intrusion (hackers) can cause the whole city to stop production or operation…; The domination of information can help a business segment become an exclusive partner in providing products that threaten small production and business activities [Pho Duc Tung].

These challenges can be multiplied many times due to the rapid and unpredictable change of climate change development as well as issues such as current global climate change… Therefore, smart vision is Extremely important, each city needs to base on the capacity, potential and needs of its residents to shape its smart capacity and choose its development vision. On the basis of the planned vision, each municipality determines the assistive technology solution and service facilities that the city needs. Finally, the city needs to widely replicate these technologies and services to develop the whole city.

Vision of smart city – recovery
In the context that the effects of climate change are increasingly clear and strong, as well as data warning the risks of many cities to the effects of climate change, the concept of smart cities is being mentioned associated with the possibility of recovery capacity. With this view, the concept of smart cities is associated with the resilience and resilience of cities in dealing with unexpected situations, such as natural disasters, terrorism, energy crises, etc. Climate change and unpredictable phenomena… When a city is smartly planned, it must also be prepared to increase its ability to withstand, adapt and recover from the risks and impacts of climate change.

In some countries, some cities are located in geographical space with many risks from the impact of natural disasters and weather, they can choose a smart vision, aiming for a capable city. resilience to natural disasters and impacts of climate change. On the basis of cultural traditions, lifestyles, management capacity, financial capacity and people's desires..., they "position" their urban future in association with the need for a city with a Smart planning, urban space in high locations, and ensuring environmental friendliness as well as the ability to adapt to changes from the weather (eco-friendly technologies). The urban infrastructure system attaches importance to the forecast and early warning system of natural disasters and connects to the personal telephone system to promptly inform the people. With this future in mind, they begin to apply technology to advance these visions. Figure 2 shows an intelligently oriented urban model to respond to climate change. In this model, urban centers focus on important contents: i) Reducing risks with available knowledge, ii) Raising public awareness, iii) Bringing technology to meet mobility dispersal, iv) Dissemination of information through technologies, v) Early warning by means of a network system, vi) Response, vii) Habitat restoration and resettlement; viii) Reconstruction and renewal from experiences…).

Experience in establishing Singapore's Smart Vision
Singapore is known as a country that has successfully applied science, technology and information and communication technology in many urban areas, from transportation, construction, water supply, electricity, agriculture, education, medicine. economic. As a result, this country is ranked the smartest city in the world. Singapore's development vision is oriented to 3 goals: Economic, environmental and social are implemented simultaneously in all areas of urban development with the aim of developing Singapore into an attractive, livable and sustainable city. steady. To realize these three goals, the Government identifies an important foundation as integrated urban planning and dynamic urban governance. The government absolutely does not compromise the economy for the environment or vice versa, and many initiatives have been launched to pursue this single goal. Singapore strives to build a smart city with information technology and utilities at the forefront, the value of life for people and the community is always accompanied. To realize this vision, long-term planning and infrastructure framework development are first identified as the foundation. The state oriented planning ideas, urban general planning while the private sector and the community are encouraged to participate in subsequent development projects. With this coordination approach (combining top-down and bottom-up planning approaches), the state can reduce the burden of planning costs and facilitate the operation of market rules when people and The private sector participates in the ideation and construction of the living space they desire. Transport framework infrastructure is implemented entirely by the government and with state budget while the private sector will provide the services and the people will pay. This requires the state to spend more on infrastructure construction, but the government has complete control over the quality and framework of the infrastructure. The provision of services belonging to the private sector promotes competition with each other to be able to provide better services at cheaper prices and thereby bring more benefits to the people.

In the housing sector, the goal is "everyone can own a home" and "don't build a house but build a home", Singapore's strategy is for everyone, rich or poor. Everyone can rest assured to own an apartment or house that is suitable for their finances, from which each citizen is completely assured to contribute to the national economy. This policy is also a strategic policy in accordance with the characteristics of Singapore's population as an open country and contributed to economic growth by the majority of foreign immigrants.

In terms of environmental goals, they oriented to greening the city, in which orientations were made in 3 clear stages: Phase 1 aimed at forming many green spaces in the city (gardens in the city); phase 2 develops green spaces that are linked together and create large green areas, occupying the main space in the city (city in the garden); Phase 3 establishes a friendly living environment with natural living forms in the available green spaces, so that urban life is closest to the natural ecosystem (the city is located in nature). With this effort, currently, although Singapore's population density is among the largest in the world, the tree cover density is among the highest in the world. Green space has created a good quality of life and a good sense of urban space for people.

Conclude
Although information and communication technology platforms can accelerate the development of smart cities, it is only one part of the smart city. In other words, smart city is a complex concept dealing with many aspects, in which information technology is only a content or a motivating tool to achieve the goal of making community life better. and more personal development. Smart vision will regulate and decide all action plans as well as a guide and destination for multi-disciplinary fields. Although each city certainly has its own smart vision, it can be said that the ultimate goal of urban development is towards sustainable development, without sacrificing economic and social development. and environment.

Dr. Dao Thi Nhu/ Urban Development Department – Ministry of Construction
(Posted on Architecture Magazine No. 01-2021)