Towards Smart Cities: Digital Content and Urban Governance in the City of Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The urban society of today has grown to be a more sophisticated society because of the various sub-systems that exist in the city. This has made the management of urban areas that uses traditional ways to become more daunting. It has been further complicated by the rapid urbanization that has also been experienced in many of the cities today. These problems can be tackled effectively by adopting the smart city concept of urban management where technology is integrated into the way cities do their businesses. The research aimed to examine how technology has been adopted in urban planning and management in the City of Masvingo and how these technologies, or lack of them, have been affecting the governance of the city. The research used a mixed-methods approach to inquiry, where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to gather data. A questionnaire survey was used as the quantitative tool of data collection and in-depth interviews and field observations were the qualitative methods used to collect qualitative data. The questionnaire was administered to collect information on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the city and how it was aiding the governance of the city. In-depth interviews were done with the leaders of planning organizations in the city and they provided information on the use of ICTs, and how they are helping in the planning and governance of the city. The research found out that, the city has not yet made any significant progress in the adoption of ICTs in urban planning. It is therefore, recommended that planners should be trained to use ICTs and the private sector should be involved in financing the development of infrastructure and networks for digital and e-planning in the city. On top of that, the government needs to play a leading role in promoting the digitization of the planning process.