Jusletter IT

Some legal knowledge representation aspects for the development of smart cities

  • Author: Fernando Galindo
  • Category: Articles
  • Region: Spain
  • Field of law: E-Government
  • Collection: Tagungsband IRIS 2014
  • Citation: Fernando Galindo, Some legal knowledge representation aspects for the development of smart cities, in: Jusletter IT 20 February 2014
The construction of computer programs for citizens who will live (in the future) in Smart Cities allows to propose some legal tools and theories that are necessary in such construction. The paper presents some reflections on these resources from the experience developed in the City 2.020 (Ciudad 2.020) project that builds the relevant services and programs to be used by citizens in that kind of city. This is a city where citizens and political representative want to reach the standards of quality of life, efficiency and sustainability, which should prevail in the cities of the 21st century attending to the rules established by approved policies and laws in all the world in that respect. It is possible to say that the project develops and puts into action a model of the sustainable intelligent city, which involves programming or applications that are part of the respective services learned from the behavior of its users: citizens. It is, therefore, essential that these programs have modules that extract from their use by citizens legal behavior models, integrated and reusable in new developments. The paper exposes the role that the theory of law must satisfy in the construction of these modules.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. What are Smart Cities?
  • 3. Services in development: examples
  • 4. The design of programs: the legal regulation.
  • 4.1. The design of the programs
  • 4.2. The legal regulation
  • 4.3. The protection of personal data
  • 4.4. The regulation on transparency and use of open data
  • 4.5. The guarantee of responsibility on the proposals of the services to the users
  • 4.6. The compliance with the administrative requirements in the case of provision of legal services
  • 5. Conclusion
  • 6. References

1.

Introduction ^

[1]
Internet enabled the emergence of e-commerce at the begin of the nineties. At the end of the 1990s, following the juridical adoption, at least, of security measures allowing to identify with sufficient assurance to the users/citizens and service providers/public administrations, began the implementation of the so-called electronic government. This is: the citizens access to public administrations using the Internet and, in general, the resources offered by ICT. The progressive generalization of the use of these resources and the continuous development of technologies is currently leading the development of so-called Smart City services.
[2]

This paper briefly expresses, firstly, what are these Smart Cities1. The paper presents also some of their services and shows that, as it was the case with the previous developments in relation to electronic trade and government, these services may not be implanted without the design of systems that are friendly with the rights of citizens/users, the rights of those who develop and provide them the rules of functioning of public services including those relating to applications of Open Data.

2.

What are Smart Cities? ^

[3]

As there are Smart phones there are also Smart cities. The first are terminals that provide users of telephone communications, internet access and services, accommodated to the needs, interests and the will of those users. Smart cities are the set of services, accessible by Smartphones, tablets or computers, that provide to citizens and authorities of some of the resources necessary to live in them2.

[4]

These cities have organizations that are designed to exploit jointly developed services and even to manage them in the form of federations of smart cities3.

[5]
The Services of intelligent cities are composed of those who are present in the daily life of people living in them. Thus facilitate life in homes and workplaces, movements by their own means and transport, the preservation of nature and the environment through sustainable management, and the provision of services of an administrative or cultural character needed for people in their daily life. The provision of these services involves private, public organizations and companies and not government organizations. They are responsible for them, according to public purposes, profit and preservation of society and nature, making more livable cities, avoiding abuses.
[6]

For the construction of the services it is using information provided by different sensors that capture it from the measurement of temperatures, energy consumption, environmental change, moving vehicles and transportation, the movement of people...

[7]
The «multiple» information is processed by the administrations or by the providers of services offered to citizens and businesses in a way accommodated to their wishes and needs. On other occasions are the services themselves, «learning» of the information they have about their users, features and wishes, provide them under the responsibility of their owners new proposals.

3.

Services in development: examples ^

[8]
What kind of services are developed? There are numerous examples that are already in operation or which will be in short time. We must think that every day there is more numerous information that is available in a standard format on the Internet either because the same users of the network publishing it: applies to communications made through social networks like «Twitter», either because, with regard to public information, the Governments are placing it in open mode accessible to all those who want to use. The last has been increased by the expansion of the acceptance of the principle of transparency of the activities of the public administrations and the subsequent publication of the information stored and dealt in their daily lives.
[9]

On the other hand there are programs running that allow recovery in quick and effective form information that is available on the Internet. If we look at the Google search engine, for example, increasingly it provides more thoughtful answers to those users on who it learns what are their habits, uses and tastes/feelings.4

[10]

All of the above realizes that it can be developed services that detect, depending on what is the temperature inside a house, for example, the time in which the heating or the cooling must be switched off automatically. It is in development, also, services establishing through the use of traffic lights and other signs free routes for the movement of services of urgency, or transport vehicles that make provision of goods. There are computer programs that indicate whether there are or not free parking spaces for cars and allow book them for a certain time. Other programs report the degree of existing or planned environmental pollution in a particular street or the parks of a city tour, and therefore indicate to a user that suffer a particular disease whether or not it is advisable for it to take the concrete way. There are services that provide information on the existence or not of bicycles at a certain station to store and collect them, as well as close to a concrete existing service: restaurants, food shops, shops, museums... Other services/programs offered cultural agendas tailored to the tastes of users. Other programs/services build travel routes or sightseeing tours in specific cities...5

[11]
These examples show that actually services or programs that help citizens are being built. The organizations in which these programs are used are called Smart Cities. Construction services or programs have the anonymized information captured, accumulated and treated according to the individual behavior of citizens, which are put at the service of the user who generated them or of other users who acquire them. We entered in the next section some considerations on the construction of these programs.

4.

The design of programs: the legal regulation. ^

[12]
How can are designed the programs of which the services of Smart Cities are served?
[13]
There are three fundamental elements for the design:
  1. The construction of programs and databases.
  2. The communication’s architecture between users, programs and databases.
  3. The attention to the requirements of the current regulations for the construction and use of the programs/services.
[14]
We expose here some of the characteristics of these elements, especially that of the legal regulation.

4.1.

The design of the programs ^

[15]
Sensors and open data provide information needed for the construction of applications or services. Citizens with their behaviors are sensors, as well as users of the services, providing personal information and exemplary behavior by making model use of the services.
[16]
Model means that the information generated by users to use the services is stored in anonymized form in order to be able to use it for a future request for services of a similar nature made by the same user or by others with characteristics, will and interest similar or identical to the of who generated the service/program.
[17]
The use of the media or communication channels is imperative in the case of the supply of services in the Smart Cities. This is because applications and services are designed according to the systems access occurs through the use of smart phones, tablets, or personal computers. It has to be taken into account that the users of these services are not legal persons or companies but citizens.
[18]
The companies are typically service providers.
[19]
Public administrations are providers of Open Data. They can also be receivers of the information generated by the use of intelligent services. With both activities can manage more effectively and democratically the public services which are responsible, in that they have to meet, more and more, to the demands and needs of the users of the same citizens, balanced spending public funds that manage. With this information, moreover, public administrations can make provisions for the organization of services during specific periods.
[20]
The characteristics of the data and communications that integrate intelligent services realize that this cannot be designed or put into operation without a strict compliance with the law. The rights at stake are numerous. We deal with it in the next paragraphs.

4.2.

The legal regulation ^

[21]

The paradox is that the legal regulation on Smart Cities takes part today of regulation that promotes the realization of research and development of them6, or agreements that may exist between the administrative organizations, this is municipalities that fundamentally are responsible of the design of programs and services for cities7. This constitutes an obstacle to the positivists theories of law: those that are limited to study the law by an exegesis of their rules. For these theories, and the dogmatic/science of law, if there are no laws, they cannot propose legal considerations. For other legal theories such as the communicative theory of law, that is dealing with the study of activities and their accommodation or not to the principles and values of a democratic society, there are no such difficulties.8

[22]

From the last perspective we can say that the juridical approach is necessary for the design of services or programs. This approach is required to propose the standards which must be addressed in the design and implementation of intelligent programs/services, given the character and function of its services and legal/value requirements that they have to meet, as we have pointed out previously. Other services/systems may not be used also due to the manifest illegality in which would incur those who used them9.

[23]
Then we refer to the basic requirements of:
  1. The protection of personal data.
  2. The regulation on transparency and open data.
  3. The guarantee of responsibility on the proposals of the services to the users.
  4. Compliance with the administrative requirements in the case of provision of legal services.

4.3.

The protection of personal data ^

[24]

The first requirement to satisfy with the intelligence services is the compliance with the legislation on protection of personal data. This is so because, as we have stated, the systems/services are established for the use of the personal data of its users. We must remember here that the technical security measures are part of the legislation on protection of personal data, at least this is the case in Spain.10

[25]
The first fact is the existence of a specific person’s consent for are considered personal data as an input / start of the application. Users have to express, sufficiently documented, the permission to the storage of personal data in the corresponding database.
[26]
The entity/company responsible for the service shall register the existence of this database and the purposes of the application, program or system, making use of personal data in the corresponding register of the authority for the protection of personal data.
[27]
The owner of the data will also know, that his personal data included movements or activities will be used anonymously as a model in the future by the application. It is recommended that the owner gives this consent expressly for purposes of determining clearly in the future possible responsibilities resulting from the use of the service or application. This should be done regardless the use of anonymised data is free for the service according to the rules on data protection.
[28]
The anonymisation must be effective, this is ensured that has been done by procedures which do not allow to reconstruct the identification of the person that has generated the anonymous data.
[29]
The collection, storage and use of information and data through sensors also have to be accepted by the owners, holders or users of the site, vehicle and image elements or features, that have been captured insofar as this information is easily identifiable with the owner person, or the owner or user of the specific thing.

4.4.

The regulation on transparency and use of open data ^

[30]
The operations of the Intelligent Services generate data that are used for the same user in the same service, or in anonymized form, for others interested in the service. Another important source of information consists in the use of public Open Data that are more visible in standard formats on the Internet, being placed at the disposal of citizens or companies by public administrations. The increasing offer of the public Open Data has relation with the growing use of the Electronic Government.
[31]

This is permitted and regulated in detail by the European directives and the State laws concerning access to information, reuse of public data and transparency.11

[32]
FN should be checked.
[33]
Intelligent services should attend such regulation, respecting the rules containing norms about guarantees of the intellectual and industrial property and the preservation of personal data protection. Furthermore: respecting all the rules regulating the information supplied by the corresponding State, regional and local administrations, States notes or legal notices relating to the use of such information.
[34]
The legal notices set on many occasions no-obligation of administrations in relation to the continuation of the publication of Open Data, circumstances which must be taken into account by the service providers to establish appropriate agreements with administrations in order to ensure the continuation of the publication of the same and the livelihoods of its services.

4.5.

The guarantee of responsibility on the proposals of the services to the users ^

[35]
Service providers have to take into consideration on liability issues that can arise when it is made an effective use of the services. For example in the case of a traffic accident: a collision, occurred when someone attends to the indications of the system relating to occupy a parking place reserved for the user but that is not free but busy... These possibilities must be referred to in a contract to perform between the service provider and the company that manages a parking, or the same provider and the user.
[36]

This aspect is still more relevant when it uses information that is originated from public administrations. There are frequent declarations, in those cases, on the exemption from liability in the use of the information that they provide. Thus it occurs, for example, with the Spanish Agency of Meteorology (AEMET). It is indicated in its legal notice: «AEMET declines any responsibility for damages which may be caused by the interpretation and use of the information put at the disposal of the citizens in this Web.»12

[37]

The above expresses that the smart service providers must make clear provisions on responsibilities for the use of its services and collect them in contracts with those who give the data and those who use its services.13

4.6.

The compliance with the administrative requirements in the case of provision of legal services ^

[38]
A different to the previous legal issues refers to the provision of administrative services for citizens. We mention in this case, for example, the proposal by the intelligent system of filling in an application to claim a right to the administration, for example, of schooling for a child in a concerted or public school. The system could well collect accurate administrative documentation referred to the child and the parents (such as: certificates of birth, statement of income, place of dwelling, workplace...) and then send it, together with the corresponding application to the administrative authority responsible for resolving conflicts in the case that there are more applicants than places of study.
[39]

In cases such as the expressed the importance of attention to the legal aspects is added to the previously-expressed cases once the issue is in fact expressed in detail in the rules and regulations with which has to adhere strictly to this content at the time of construction program for the purpose of clarifying responsibilities.14

[40]

On the other hand this type of service in which the Government services are electronically accessed, the regulation requires that the services comply with the rules and standards established by law, precisely the concerning to the electronic access to services of the public administrations by citizens.15

[41]
Regardless of what so far that there is another legal topic of interest: permanently it must meet to comply with the legislation by the programs that make proposals of services based on the mere reiteration of what has happened in previous cases/models.

5.

Conclusion ^

[42]
This paper has presented attending to concrete experiences, some of the reasons why Smart Cities services must be designed from the outset in accordance with current legislation in relation to matters such as protection of personal data, use of Open Data, delimitation of responsibility for the performance of services and their design according to operation in accordance with the legislation concerning the exercise of their functions.

6.

References ^

Casella, Nuria, Legal Ontology Engineering. Methodologies, Modelling Trends, and the Ontology of Professional Judicial Knowledge, Dordrecht, 297 p. (2011).

Ciudad 2020 website. http://www.innprontaciudad2020.es/index.php/en. Last accessed 30 December 2013 (2013).

Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh, Law after Modernity, Oxford, pp. 382–396 (2013).

Galindo, Fernando, The communicative concept of Law. In: Journal of legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Vol. 40, pp. 111–129 (1998).

Gibson,David V/ Kozmetsky, George/ Smilor, Raymond W. (eds.) The Technopolis Phenomenon: Smart Cities, Fast Systems, Global Networks, Boston, p. 4 (1992).

Lazaroiua, George Cristian/ Roscia, Maria Cristina, Definition methodology for the smart cities model. In: Energy, Vol. 47, pp. 326–332 (2012).

Lee, Jung Hoon/ Phaal, Robert/ Lee, Sang-Ho, An integrated service-device-technology roadmap for smart City development. In: Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Vol. 80, pp. 283–306 (2013).

Ossowski, Sascha, Agreement Technologies, Dordrecht, 645 p. (2013).

Paskaleva, Krassimira, Enabling the smart city: the progress of city e-governance in Europe. In International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development, Vol. 1, N. 4, pp.405–422 (2009).

 

Fernando Galindo
Professor, University of Zaragoza, Department of Penal Law, Philosophy of Law and History of Law

Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza ES,

cfa@unizar.es; http://lefis.unizar.es/


The paper is based, partially, on the activities developed in the projects:

Ciudad2020, INNPRONTA Project IPT-20111006, funded by the Spanish Centre for Industrial Technological Development, the University of Zaragoza participates in the project as advisor of the Atos Research @ Innovation (ATI) Division of the firm Atos, and Participation in the knowledge society through the activities of the e-Government Observatory. Political, economic and empirical aspects, Project HBP2011-0029, funded by the Spanish-Brazilian ministries of education interuniversity cooperation program.

 

  1. 1 In 1990 a definition on the topic was: «Technopole» is «a city of technology on wihch the activities pivote». Gibson (1992). The present paper is more coherent with European positions that broad the view on smart cities with network and partnership development, integrated e-services, e-participation and policy innovation: Paskaleva (2009).
  2. 2 These definitions like to made clear the text to the interested persons. The approaches to smart cities are not simple. It is possible to see several «roapmaps» to the making and definition of smart cities in Lee (2013). Another example is based in the limits to the explotation of Energy: Lazarioua (2012).
  3. 3 The most relevant reference in this paper is the INNPRONTA project CIUDAD 2020, that aims to achieve a significant advanced in the areas of energy efficiency, internet of the future, internet of the things, human behavior, environmental sustainability and mobility & transport in order to design the city of the future: sustainable, smart and efficient. See: Ciudad 2020 (2013). The section summarizes the general characteristics of the planned and in development activities of the project. The project will be finished in 2014, this is a preliminary summary.
  4. 4 See some news on the development of search algorithm of Google, for example in: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com.es/2013/09/fifteen-years-onand-were-just-getting.html#uds-search-results. Last accessed 30 December 2013.
  5. 5 See the content of these services in development in the Ciudad 2020 project in: http://www.innprontaciudad2020.es/index.php/en/documentacion-ficheros-relativos-al-proyecto/4-entregables. Last accessed 30 December 2013.
  6. 6 There is in Spain a technical Committee to develop industrial standards for smart cities. See: http://www.aenor.es/aenor/normas/ctn/fichactn.asp?codigonorm=AEN/CTN%20178#.UsFCRdLuKSo. Last accessed 30 December 2013. It is also in ISO the ISO/TC 268 Sustainable development in communities Committee http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_technical_committee?commid=656906. Last accessed 30 December 2013. Anyway there are not yet approved standards.
  7. 7 This is the case of «smartcity» the Spanish Network of Smart Cities. See the web page in: http://www.redciudadesinteligentes.es/. Last accessed 30 December 2013.
  8. 8 See in this respect Galindo (1998). Another position establishes the connexion between legal aspects and governance: Douglas-Scott (2013).
  9. 9 The juridical basic requirements in the project Ciudad 2020 are located in: http://www.innprontaciudad2020.es/index.php/en/documentacion-ficheros-relativos-al-proyecto/white-papers/28-proteccion-de-datos-personales. Last accessed 30 December 2013.
  10. 10 The Organic Law 15/1999, of December 13 on the protection of personal data was completed by Royal Decree 1720/2007, of December 21, approving the Regulations implementing Organic Law 15/1999, of December 13 on the protection of personal data, which also updates the contents of the Regulations on security measures for automated files containing personal data of June 11, 1999, making good use of the experience gained in this respect by means of maintaining the security measures by the Personal Data Protection Agency.
  11. 11 Spanish Law 37/2007, of November 16, on the reuse of public sector information, Royal Decree 1495/2011, of October 24, which develops Law 37/2007, of November 16, on the reuse of public sector information for the state public sector environment, Law 19/2013, of December 13 on Transparency, Access to public Information and Good Governance. European: on April 15, 2013, the Council of the European Union amended the Directive 2003/98/EC on the Reuse of Public Sector Information; on June 13, 2013 the European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution of 13 June 2013 on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/98/EC on re-use of public sector information (COM(2011)0877 – C7-0502/2011 – 2011/0430(COD)).
  12. 12 See: http://www.aemet.es/es/nota_legal. Last accessed 30 December 2013.
  13. 13 See the relevance of these kind of agreements in Ossowski (2013).
  14. 14 See for a very interesting state of the art: Casella (2011).
  15. 15 Spanish Law 11/2007 of 22 June for electronic access of citizens to public services.